Dear Parents, Carers and Community Members,
We are now well into Week 8 of Term 2; the term is flying by! Like every fortnight, this one has been incredibly busy and full of great learning and achievements.
We can finally take a big breath now that assessment weeks are all finished. Students showed such persistence with their tests and have demonstrated some beautiful learning. This week we have begun a new ‘Sounds-Write’ unit, focusing on two letters that make one sound in a CVCC word (consonant-vowel-consonant, consonant) like ‘yell’. In Reading, we are continuing to learn about Aboriginal dreaming stories and identify different understandings about indigenous cultures.
In Writing, we are expanding sentences and working on our knowledge of using punctuation at the end of a sentence. In Maths, we are consolidating our understanding about adding digits together and counting all for an answer. Winter has set in – there are some beanies being left in the classroom without names on them – please ensure they are named as these get taken off and left, quite easily.
Brrr! Winter has wrapped us in its chilly embrace! Please ensure your child brings a cozy jumper or jacket each day so they can enjoy outdoor playtimes comfortably. Staying warm helps us stay active and ready to learn! 🙂
Despite the cooler weather, our classroom is buzzing with activity. We've been diving into a series of assessments, showcasing the incredible progress our students have made!
In our literary adventures, we've been exploring the delightful works of Aaron Blabey, especially the humorous "Pig the Pug" series. Andy Griffiths' imaginative "Treehouse" books have also captured our imaginations, sparking creativity and laughter. Julia Donaldson's wonderful stories continue to be a favorite, providing excellent examples as we refine our sentence-writing skills.
Mathematics has been equally exciting! We're mastering our "ty" and "teen" numbers, building fluency and confidence in our number facts. It's wonderful to see the students' enthusiasm as they tackle new challenges and celebrate their successes.
Thank you all for your ongoing support in making this a fantastic learning journey for our Grade One superstars!
Students over the past fortnight have been taking a deep dive into all things Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler. Students in Grade 2 have watched, read, discussed and participated in a range of activities related to this Australian author's picture story book's. The Gruffalo, Tiddler, Snail and the Whale, Zog and Superworm have been among some of the favourites.
Students during Reading, are able to highlight the similarities in the stories, noting the clever rhyming and patterns in the text. Each story has something to learn from the main characters, like the mouse is natural prey and the Fox, Owl, Snake and Gruffalo would be predators in the wild, that's why the mouse has to trick them!
In addition to this, students have had the opportunity to write about Superworm. Superworm is a character that has superpowers. It was interesting to see what superpowers each student would choose for themselves and why. Thomas would like to have 'super strength' so that he could defeat all the criminals!
This week in the 3/4 room we have been learning about the use of transitions to ‘change direction’ in our writing. They are used to introduce contrasting thoughts and are important signals to use in compare-and-contrast. Here are some examples of our work:
Even though it was dark, the soldiers just kept fighting. – Dawn
The enemy looked strong. However, the enemy was as weak as an ant. – Mia
Fighting can protect people. On the other hand, some people might get wounded and some people could become a casualty. – Evalyn
What a wonderful fortnight we have had in Grade 5/6. We have now completed our assessment and it has been wonderful to see the growth in all our students. As a thank you for all their hard work during assessment time our Grade 5/6 students spent Friday afternoon making gecko keyrings out of beads.
Moving towards the end of the term we will continue to learn about WW2 and the Pacific Front. Next week we will begin to look at the bombing of Darwin. Don’t forget to keep reading at home!
On Wednesday, we hosted Pyjama Day to raise vital funds for the Fiona Elsey Cancer Research Institute.
We joined forces with Phoenix P-12 Community College, plus multiple other schools across Ballarat in support of this important cause.
Happy Birthday to the students who have celebrated their birthday in the last week or will celebrate their birthday in the coming days.
