Ulysses Community Report

Term 2, 2022

Dear Ulysses Families, 

It has been another wonderful term for learning within the Ulysses Community. Our students have been busily working on their reading, writing, numeracy, inquiry and S.E.L. skills throughout the term. The students have produced some fantastic work to demonstrate their understanding of these topics and should be proud of their efforts.

Our Learning

Reading

Within Reading, we have been learning about the purpose, structure, and features of different text types. This has helped us to understand the author’s purpose for writing the text, as well as identify important information included in each text type. For example, we have explored Narrative text and how they are written to entertain the reader. Narrative texts are fictional stories such as: fairy tales, short stories, etc. Students learnt that the structure of a Narrative text needs to have a sequence of events and follow a chronological order to ensure it maintains meaning. We have also been learning about explanation texts, these are texts that describe to us how something is done and how it works. Students explored a range of explanation texts and discovered the title needs to be written as a question, the opening statement, key steps involved and using a glossary to clarify any difficult terminology. Students were also able to discuss the difference between diagrams and illustrations. The Ulysses community has continued to work on reading ‘just right’ books from the community library, whilst building our reading stamina. 

Writing

Over the past term, the students in Ulysses have been writing two different genres, which are Narratives and Explanation texts. We have learned about the different structures and features of these texts in order to be able to write our own texts. For our narratives, we developed our characters and identified their inside and outside traits. We then developed the setting for our stories, and then we started writing. Together we explored how to write a sizzling start and add adjectives to make our stories more interesting. Students also followed the structure of a narrative by writing the title, orientation, complication and resolution. We were extremely proud of the stories that we created. After completing our narratives, students began developing explanation texts. Together we have explored how paper is made from trees, and the students have learned how to explain this process through their explanation writing. We are still working on these texts, however we can’t wait to show you them when they are finished.  

Maths

In Term 2, the Ulysses community worked on Addition and Subtraction. Students learnt a range of different strategies to solve addition and subtraction problems, E.g. counting on and backwards from the bigger number, near doubles, number lines, unifix blocks, counters etc. Students had the opportunity to select a strategy that worked for them and share their thinking with a range of class members. Students worked on solving subtraction stories and showing their working on number lines. They learnt about fact families. They also learnt about chance and probability. What’s the chance of an event happening? Using terminology like impossible, certain, likely and unlikely.

SEL 

In Social and Emotional Literacy (SEL), students have been exploring different ways to care for themselves, others, their school and their learning as these are our school values. They have also been developing strategies to build friendships such as: sharing, complimenting each other and showing acts of kindness. Students have made significant improvements and we look forward to developing these skills further next term. They have also been developing key skills and exploring fundamental concepts based around caring, having a fixed or growth mindset, the importance of the power of yet, and the benefits of feedback to learning. Students explored friendships, emotions, positive coping strategies, and problem-solving skills. 

Inquiry

In term 2 the Ulysses community was learning about Chemical Sciences. Students had the opportunity to learn about solids, liquids and gases, as well as how these change their states. They had collaborative experiences where they worked in groups to sort solids, liquids and gases in their respective categories. They were able to explain what would happen to solids, liquids and gases when they are exposed to heat. Students also had the opportunity to go over the scientific method by observing an experiment of how jelly is made and what was the consistency when we changed the water amounts. 

Students were also able to learn about different solids and how these have been used and modified in mechanical processes to create a product that is used in everyday life, for example, how is paper made from trees? They had to use ipads and learn research skills to locate relevant information on the internet. Here are some samples of their work:

Important Notes to Remember

• Please continue to label all of your child’s belongings.
• Bring clearly labelled water bottles to school every day.
• Please be aware that any toys or money given to children to bring to school is solely the child's responsibility
• Any pokemon cards that are brought to school and traded is the responsibility of the child 
• Please ensure your children are attending school as  ‘It is not ok to be away’.
• Please ensure your children arrive on time, as school begins promptly at 8.50am. 
  When they arrive late, they are missing out on valuable learning.

We wish you a safe and happy mid year break and look forward to seeing you in Term 3. 

Ulysses Teachers,

Nicole, Gurmeet, Natalia and Stacey.