Learning Centre News... 

Learning Centre One

The last couple of weeks have been an eventful one with the preps celebrating their 100 days of school! How is it that the preps have been at school for 100 days! The preps all came in eager to celebrate this milestone of being at school and came dressed up as elderly people.. It was great seeing them all engaged and excited to participate in all the activities and have a bouncing good time! 

Throughout Phonics the students have been exploring the digraph sounds for UR, OR, OW and OI and have engaged in a renege of sound based activities to continue their development and knowledge of the sound they have learned. In Literacy, the students have begun drafting their writing about their chosen animal and have been exploring non fiction texts about a range of animals, and looked at a range of information while reading. They have started to write and develop clues about their animal, before re reading and checking their writing preparing their work to be published. Students got to choose between 3 different ways to publish being a flip book, poster or google slide. 

In Maths students have been learning about how they can name numbers, write their numerals and explore there quantities using hands-on materials from 0 - 10. They also looked at worded problems and equations. They then began investigating 3D shapes and looked at them by making a range of them using playdoh, sorting 2D and 3D shapes and explored their properties.  

The students in Religion have been looking into how they can show love to others and how they can share God’s love, as he does by loving one another as he has loved us. They shared their understanding of what love is and isn’t and worked out ways that they might show love to someone they care about. The students then looked into Jesus’ disciples and retold the stories of the disciples through Godly Play and created puppets as a way to tell the story being explored.

Some friendly reminders:

• Readers - Please ensure that book bags are bought in on a Monday and they will be returned on a Tuesday with a new book.
• Students require their iPads for learning. Please ensure that they’re charged and brought to school each day.
• 21st - 25th August - Book week
• 30th August - Father’s Day Breakfast 8am 
• 31st August - Father’s Day Stall
• 1st September - Feast Day Mass 10am
• 15th September - Learning Expo - 9am
• Zoo excursion 14th September, 2023 - We are calling for helpers for our excursion to the Zoo - Please email Amanda arebello@olscwyn.catholic.edu.au if you’re able to assist us this day!

Prep Team - Amanda, Donna, Imogen, Kiah, Mary, Sam & Tina. 

Learning Centre Two

SENIOR HOOPTIME

On Monday this week, some of our senior students went to Eagle Stadium with Chelsea, Gillian and Cheryl to play basketball against other schools. It was a hugely successful day with the 3 OLSC teams winning the majority of their games over the day. We are very proud of these 5/6 students who displayed excellent sportsmanship and responsibility.

DISTRICT ATHLETICS

On Wednesday, just over 30 of our 5/6 students participated in a variety of events at the District Athletics. It was a warm sunny day as they headed by bus to the athletics track in Hoppers Crossing.  Spirits remained high throughout the day as the OLSC team performed brilliantly in all events. We came second over the whole day - CONGRATULATIONS to our District Athletics Team!!

LITERACY

As we mentioned last week, the students have been working hard on designing their own print ads as a part of the persuasive reading and writing unit we are doing. Here are some more examples of their fine work.

Some friendly reminders...

• Assembly 9 am - 11th August
• Confirmation at St Andrew's Church - 11th August at 5 pm
• Book Week and Book Fair - 21st to 25th August
• Father's Day breakfast - Wednesday 30th August, 8 am
• Fathers Day Stall - Thursday 31st August
• Feast Day - Friday 1st September
• 5/6 Camp to Mt Evelyn - Wednesday 6th to Friday 8th September
• Whole school Learning Expo - Friday 15th September, 9 am

Year 5/6 Team: Alexandra, Ann, Anna, Chelsea, Cheryl, Danielle, Gillian, Isaac, Kristina, Lisa, Salena, & Scott.

Learning Centre Three

What an exciting two weeks the Year 1 and 2’s have had! From our excursion with the Werribee River Association where we had a walk around the Manor Lakes Wetlands, an incursion about Bullying and then our excursion to the Melbourne Zoo! 

In Literacy, we have looked at various ‘Heads and Tails’ books and using facts we know about animals we have created our very own books. We also explored facts about animals and their habitats, diet and appearance and then created an information report about our chosen animal. 

In Maths, we have completed our exploration of 2D shapes, where we explored the number of sides and corners each shape has. We then began our unit on measurement where students have been introduced to estimating and using informal units of measure such as their hands, cubes and counters to measure different items around the classroom.

In Inquiry, we watched some documentaries about animals who live in the ocean, bushland and jungle. We had an insight as to what we could see at the Melbourne Zoo and drew ourselves as ‘Wild Explorers’. The children had the most amazing time being ‘Wild Explorers’ at our Melbourne Zoo excursion.

In Religion, we are learning to understand how we can look after God’s Creations and why it’s important to do so. We visited the Manor Lakes Wetlands where we explored the various wildlife that lived there and students learned how the wetland came about! Did you know that the rock in the Wetlands came about from a volcano about 5 million years ago? Students created a gift tag that showed parts of our school community as a gift from God. 

In Wellbeing, we had Leila Meki come in and talk to the children about ‘Bullying’ and what it means. 

A few important things to remember:

• Whole school assembly, Friday 11th August, 9am
• Year 1 & 2 Faith Evening, Wednesday 16th August
• Book Week, 21-25th August (Parade Friday)
• Father's Day breakfast, Wednesday 30th August, 8am
• Fathers Day Stall, Thursday 31st August
• Feast Day, Friday 1st September
• Learning Expo, Friday 15th September, 9am

Year 1/2 Team - Alison, Bianca, Janeen, Jannine, Jess, Jordan, Marilyn, Shalome, Tasmin,  Sue and Sarena.

Learning Centre Four

Literacy

After reading Looking after country with fire by Victor Steffensen and exploring the significance of fire for Aboriginal Australians, including how they use fire to manage country, students in Year 3/4 created 'bookies' to share the information they learnt from the text and their own research. Our bookies included a 'Table of Contents' to help the reader know what information was included in the bookie. Some of the information in the bookies explored Aboriginal burning practises, the fire triangle and the effects of fire. 

Maths

We have been exploring length and area. We have explored the informal units of measurement, such fingers, feet, pencils or paper clips, as well as the different formal units for measuring length, such as metres, centimetres and kilometres.  We have spent time thinking about appropriate units for measuring length.  A key skill in maths is estimating - we have been practising through some physical challenges. We went outside and threw bean bags, then estimated how far we threw it before measuring the distance with measuring tape. We also had a go at the standing jump, estimating how far we thought we would be able to jump, then measuring how far we did jump! It was lots of fun!

Zoo Excursion

Just a reminder that our excursion to the Werribee Zoo is on Tuesday. Students need to be at school by 8:45am so that they can get ready for the bus and so we can depart on time at 9.15am. We will be unable to wait for students that are running late. 

Students DO NOT need their school bags or any other backpacks/bags. They should bring their school hat and sunscreen, as we all their snack/lunch and drink bottle in a labelled plastic bag. Students should come in full school uniform. 

Some friendly reminders…

•  8th August - Werribee Open Range Zoo excursion.  
• 18th August - LC3 & LC4 Mass in the Sports Centre at 2pm
• 20th August - Book Week dress up day
• 1st September - Feast Day Mass in Sports Centre at 10am
• 15th September - Learning Expo 9am& last day of term

Year 3/4 Team: Adam, Ben, Beth, Elizabeth, Emma, Gabby, Hayley, Helen, Isaac, John, Milla and Zach.