JLC

As part of our school trialling the ‘Big Idea’ Mindset Maths Program, the children in JLC learnt about Tangrams. A Tangram is a Chinese geometrical puzzle cut into seven pieces (five triangles of different sizes, a square and a parallelogram) which can be arranged to make various shapes. The children have shown their ability to problem solve, use their logical thinking skills and be creative all at the same time. They learnt these mathematical skills without anxiety that some children associate with mathematics and they are had fun sharing their skills with others in the classroom.  It was great to see the children prepared not to give up and willing to try new strategies if something didn’t work. 

In Religious Education, the children in the Junior Learning Community learnt about the Creation of the World. The creation story from the Book of Genesis describes how God created heaven and earth, plants, animals and humans.  It illuminates God's extraordinary love for all of us.  We read a chapter called ‘In the Beginning’ and we discussed the ‘Wonderings’ which required the children to think about the greatness of God and whether God would be happy with the way we look after the world today.  After watching a video about the creation, the children completed a sequencing activity retelling the events of the creation in the order in which they occurred.

One of the best ways to inspire children to write, is to allow them to draw on personal experiences. The JLC students wrote about their school holidays and presented them in a colourful snapshot 'craftivity'.

In Inquiry, students learnt about creativity. They designed and created models of food and shared them with their classmates.

In Maths we have been learning about data; how data is collected and how we can represent the data we found. The children have learnt how to use tally marks as they count or receive information. The children were able to use pictographs and column graphs to answer questions on ‘favourite foods’ and ‘pets owned by children’. They really enjoyed gathering their own information by surveying the children in their classroom on topics such as ‘favourite ice-cream flavours’ and ‘how are they feeling today?’

The children then set out to show their responses in a Pictograph or a Column Graph. They did a great job surveying and presenting their data. 

During Term 4, the Junior Learning Community had two pre-service teachers with us in the classroom: Miss Forster and Mr Yang.  

On Remembrance Day, Miss Foster taught the children that Remembrance Day gives us all the chance to remember those who fought and lost their lives during the wars. The minute of silence observed on Remembrance Day makes sure that we never forget the past, and that those who died will always be remembered.  We watched a video explaining this very important day and we made poppies to honour those who died in the wars. Thank you Miss Foster for organising this fun activity.

In Writing, we have been doing Poetry.  Mr Yang, our Pre-Service teacher, taught the children all about Acrostic poems. Through a short video the children were able to see what an Acrostic poem looks like. The children learnt that an Acrostic poem has a topic idea running down the left side of their page (one letter on each line) and each letter of the topic word spells out a word or sentence related to the topic word. The children were given ‘FATHER’ as their topic word and later could choose a person in the classroom to write an acrostic poem about. The children wrote excellent poems which were fun to read.

During Term 4, the children in the Junior Learning Community went to the Werribee Open Range Zoo as part of their Camp Experience.  The experience began as soon as the children boarded the bus, there was real excitement in the air. When we arrived at the zoo, we were met by a zoo ranger who accompanied us to the Safari bus where we saw lots of different animals in their natural habitats. After the safari we attended a workshop where we could observe wallabies and make some cool discoveries about them on our own. Some of the highlights for many of the students included seeing huge hippopotamuses, the giraffes, the gorilla and the cheetahs. Later back at school we had afternoon tea and did a fun art activity where Miss Wills taught us how to free draw a hippopotamus. We had a yummy sausage sizzle for dinner and then snuggled up in our sleeping bag and watched ‘The secret life of pets’. The children are looking forward to their first real camp experience in the near future.  

In Maths, the children learnt about Symmetry. The children have discovered that something is symmetrical when it is the same on both sides. A shape has symmetry if a central dividing line (a mirror line) can be drawn on it, to show that both sides of the shape are exactly the same. The children had a great time looking at various images and trying to be the first at saying whether the image had a line of symmetry and where it was. 

They watched a short video and went on to complete an activity requiring them to draw the line of symmetry on various spring time critters. They coloured them in and cut them out.  They were very proud of their artistic ability. 

Towards the end of Term,  JLC we have been getting into the Christmas theme in various areas of the curriculum. In Writing, the children have expressed their thoughts and ideas using their feelings and emotions to write about their Christmas Elf. The children wrote about themselves and why they would make a great elf in their Elf Application. They also wrote about our class elf and described a very naughty thing he had done.  We really enjoyed reading about all the naughty and sneaky things our class elf had done.  

Also, the children have been reading about Christmas and The Nativity Story. The Nativity Story, also known as the Christmas Story or the Nativity of Jesus, is a story that tells us about the birth of Jesus Christ and the real meaning of Christmas. The children watched a video about the birth of Jesus and completed various activities. The children created their own Nativity Scene making sure to include the stable, the star and angel, Mary and Joseph, the manger and baby Jesus, the shepherds with their sheep and the three wise men with their gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. 

Merry Christmas to all!

Kind regards

Signora Gina Michieli & Miss Carly Wills

JLC Classroom Teachers