Middle Report (3/4)

Learning through PLAY!!

Play is an important part of every day at Wollert Primary (for students and teachers!). Most recently, we had a whole school communal day where the day was dedicated to exploring different types of play, e.g. sensory, nature, physical, role-play, imaginative etc. Our project-based learning (PBL) work has also focused on Play this term. Students have experienced 'play' across four areas: up-cycling, construction, digital, and old and new toys. This has brought us lots of joy.

Recycling

The Gumnut Community was excited to have our first incursion to Wollert Primary School. Thanks to The City of Whittlesea, the Middle Learning Community students had the opportunity to immerse themselves in learning about Waste Education. ‘Recycling Rules’ was the program that taught our students that they have an important role in looking after our planet by learning about the impacts of landfill and the importance of recycling the correct materials in our recycling bins at home. 

Literacy

In Reading, we have been ‘Curious’ and investigated different strategies to help us become greater readers. We are building our reading toolboxes to help us build our comprehension skills. This month we have worked on predicting, visualising, making connections and asking questions.

In Writing, we are exploring narratives and learning traits of effective writers. One of the traits is word choice; we learnt how words convey and create meaning and help readers visualise. Students are learning to use various descriptive words to make their stories captive and engaging to the readers. 

Numeracy

During maths sessions, we have been investigating division. Students have investigated two ways of dividing - 'shared between' (sharing into equal groups) and 'how many' (working out how many equal groups there are). We have used counters, blocks, icy pole sticks and drawings to represent our learning and made connections between division and multiplication. Recently we have investigated open-ended problems. These are exciting because there are lots of different answers! For example, if the answer was 12, what might the question be? How many answers can you find (hint: you could go on forever!)

We have also learnt about chance, the likelihood of an event occurring. Some events are impossible (e.g. that tomorrow I will be 80 years old). Some events are unlikely, 50-50 chance or likely. Other events are certain (if I toss a 2-sided coin, it will be either a head or a tail). We had lots of fun learning about these and played some fun games that can also be played at home with families.

G.E.M. IN THE GUMNUT COMMUNITY

As a learning community, we have been exploring ‘Growing Our Minds’…

The Grow Your Mind podcast aims to provide engaging, evidence-based, positive mental health strategies for children, schools and families. It is supported by the 'Be You' foundation and Beyond Blue.

During our GEM sessions, we have been investigating how this podcast and the information within can help us grow our compassion, gratitude, mindfulness, brain awareness, courage and resilience. The podcast introduced us to the four animals in our brains!

The Wise Owl (representing the prefrontal cortex) is the problem solver, allowing us to be flexible friends, and tries to make good decisions on our behalf.

The Guard Dog (representing the amygdala) is there to keep us safe at all costs and is prone to be very bossy and overreacting. At times it barks so loud that none of the other animal helpers can hear themselves think.

The Elephant (representing the hippocampus) tries to help us remember. As the name suggests, the elephant is fantastic at remembering things, especially when your guard dog is quiet and calm.

The last animal is the Sifting Sooty (representing the reticular activating system). No distractions can pull your focus when your Sifting Sooty is turned on and active. Sifting Sooty blocks all the noise and keeps you focused and on task.

None for August