3/4 News 

Welcome back:

It was great to see all the smiling faces back on Tuesday this week and we have beautifully fallen back into being in our learning space again. We hope you all had a great break and are ready for another fantastic term.

Kinder Visit Program

The most exciting news for this term so far is that we have commenced our kinder visit program. 

As mentioned in the Operoo message already sent out, the year 4's are going to have turns visiting the Nagle Kindergarten and spend time with both their Blue and Red group.

We look forward to sharing lots of news and developing many friendships over our time together.

Everyone will get a turn but we are only taking 6 Year 4's at a time as we don't want to overwhelm the kinder children. 

Today we enjoyed meeting Tess and Roberta and the children in Red Group. Claudia and Spencer enjoyed visiting their old kinder and sharing  their favourite memories, we met Spencer's sister Rosie too.

Literacy

Our current focus is Persuasive texts, Information reports and continuing to develop our grammar, punctuation and spelling skills. We are also working on blends in phonics to align with the MSL approach in the Junior school. Be warned, your children will become very good at asking for treats and favours as these persuasive skills develop.

Maths

We also hope the children are getting good at sharing and working out what fraction they need to share with siblings.

 Yes, our focus is fractions and decimals and children are working within their Catch Groups to hone their understanding and skills. We are linking this to work previously done with Multiplication and Division, so keep practicing those timetables.

Inquiry& Religion

You may have noticed the beautiful Banner for our page: this is why we asked you to collect the wrappers over Easter. As father Dean explained at Mass on Wednesday, Easter is a time of joy and celebration as Jesus rose from the Dead. The foil collage looks fabulous outside our classrooms. Please feel free to come and visit.

'Biomes, Ecosystems and The Animals that live in them' is our new unit. This Science topic links beautifully with our RE unit on Stewardship and how animals are used to teach us through parables and stories in the bible. We are also looking at our role in looking after this beautiful planet, Earth, and how we can help by doing small things. As they say...

From Little Things Big Things Grow

NAPLAN 

By the time you read the next newsletter NAPLAN will have been and gone.

Please remember that this is just a moment in time and does not define anybody.

A flyer has been included elsewhere in the newsletter but please feel free to come to us with any questions or concerns about your child participating in this testing.

It has also highlighted the need for having working headphones kept at school and bringing our iPads fully charged to school each day. 

In May (10th, 11th and 12th) we will ask for chargers to be left with iPads at school so that we can charge and have iPads ready to go for testing each day.

Catch Groups 

As you know we believe it is imperative to meet the students needs where they are at. We do regular pre-tests to inform us of what the students already know, then group them according to their needs. This allows us to provide an environment where they are with similar levels of understanding and needs, be it high or low. It provides a safe environment to explore and develop their knowledge, ‘catching’ them at the right place and time. These 'catch groups' are fluid and often vary; someone who is strong in one facet may not be as strong in another. We are very fortunate to have extra support to take one of our groups so that we can provide 4 levels of engagement whenever we can. We do this for literacy and numeracy and your child may talk of being in groups, please be reassured that your child's best interests are of primary importance. Occasionally timetabling and staffing throws a spanner in the works but we do our best to maintain consistency. We use ‘Catch Groups’ for Spelling and Maths across the level and in CAFE reading groups within the class.

Homework

Homework will go out next week. Please remember to see your child's teacher about any questions or issues.

Remember:

Diaries need to be signed once a week and the activity task must be completed before Friday each week.

1. We use a grid with 8 tasks
2. They have two weeks to complete (the dates are on the top of the sheet )
3. All tasks are related to what we do at school 
4. They are open ended tasks so that we meet everyone's needs 
5. Students are expected to do their best and extend themselves where possible
6. Parents can write a note in the homework book whenever life gets in the way (we understand and know what that is like)

  At this age, homework is about developing study habits and routines to set them up for future education. If it becomes a battle, please reach out to us and we will be happy to assist in anyway we can.

As always, we are happy to meet and discuss your child or any concerns, please contact us via email to set up an appointment if necessary or come find us on the oval when we dismiss the kids each afternoon. 

Until next time, on behalf of the 3/4 team.

Joanne Collins jcollins@shsandringham.catholic.edu.au

Jacque Murphy jmurphy@shsandringham.catholic.edu.au

Tiffany Levy tlevy@shsandringham.catholic.edu.au

Gemma Fahey gfahey@shsandringham.catholic.edu.au

Matilda Tench  mtench@shsandringham.catholic.edu.au