Learning & Teaching
YEAR 6 MATHS SESSION WITH COACH
As mentioned in previous newsletters, St John’s has been working with a Maths coach for the past couple of years. Genovieve Grouios meets regularly with staff to plan upcoming units and from time to time, visits classes to work with students. Last week Genovieve worked with students from Year 6 to complete activities connected with calculating the area and volume of irregular shapes. Students are pictured using Linear Abacus, to help them manipulate numbers and identify patterns which will ultimately help them discover some of the mathematical rules associated with calculating area and volume eg
- Area of Triangle = 1/2 base x height
- Area is measured in m2, cm2 etc
- Volume = length x width x height
- Volume is measured in m3, cm3 etc
GYMNASTICS PROGRAM
Currently students are participating in a Gymnastics program as part of their weekly PE classes. Students have been learning a range of skills that require balance, strength, flexibility, agility, coordination, and endurance. The school has a well stocked range of Gymnastics equipment and our school hall provided a perfect venue for the program. As you can see from the photos the kids have loved doing their rolls, flips and aerial acrobatics!
BOOK BASH ONLINE PROGRAM
Last week the Year 5s joined the State Library Victoria’s first annual Book Bash. The Library live streamed some of the country’s biggest authors into classrooms for a daily writing workshop! On Tuesday 13 June, students learnt how to create memorable characters and bring them to life through awesome illustrations with best-selling author/illustrator Matt Cosgrove who wrote Macca the Alpaca and Epic Fail Tales. They also met author/designer Eva Amores who worked on the Worst Week Ever series. On Wednesday 14 June, we met Australian writing legend Andy Griffiths, author of the Treehouse series. Finally on Thursday 15 June, the students explored poetry writing with Melbourne University’s Poet in Residence Maxine Beneba Clarke.