IMPORTANT SCHOOL DATES

Important school dates to remember:

22/6 – Grade 1/2 Healesville Sanctuary excursion

23/6 – Prep Healesville Sanctuary excursion

23/6 – Grade 3/4 Healesville Sanctuary excursion

24/6 – Last day of term – 2.30pm finish

11/7 – First day of term 3

On Monday the 6^th, Josephine, Minnah, Annika, Jarrah, Griffin and Ryder participated in a program camp called MacRob Outreach Program in the City. The program includes schools from all around Victoria. All the students get Year 10 mentors from Melbourne High and MacRob Girls High School. Other than the camp, the mentees and mentors catch up via Google Meet every week to concur the weeks task. This year’s instructor, Rochelle (teacher at MacRob) gives us a challenge or activity to do with Science. At Camp, we went to the Museum for a scavenger hunt to find certain things such as the biggest mammal, what were possum skins used for, Plant eating dinosaur etc. The Museum was very fun and enjoyable. Another Activity we did was we went to Mac Robinsons Girl High School Campus. We learned about Experiments and got to try one ourselves. I must have to mention the food at our camp site was amazing, so that was an extra bonus. We got to go to the Portraiture Exhibition at the NGV which was very cool to see all the different artworks. As well as a movie, tallest tower building contest, loads of walking and exploring, the Camp was very fun. If you are in Grade 5 or 4 maybe you would like to try it next year.

A new opportunity to volunteer 

In term 3 our 5/6’s will be having two teams enter Tournament of the Mind.

We are asking for a volunteer to support the teams 1 hour a week at a negotiable time to practise and then come to the event on August 20 and 21^st at Deakin University.

Edwina Whiteside will oversee the event. Please contact Edwina if you are able to support us in this way.

edwina.whiteside@education.vic.gov.au

This week in the wonderful week of prep we have been on many learning adventures!

“Who are the giants?”

“Why didn’t the giants care about the animals?”

“Will the giants stay good forever?”

“Where do the animals go when the giants cut down the trees?”.

These are just some of the examples of the wonderful questions that emerged during reading our mentor text, ‘Greta and the Giants’. Reading sat nicely alongside writing this week as our picture prompt was a great visual of where our inquiry topic has led us to – protecting our world and advocating for sustainable changes.

In SMART spelling, we enjoyed our ‘Zip your favourite tee’ day as our sentence of the week was ‘We can do up our zip’. The children were super eager to reveal their favourite tee on our runway.

Positional language has been our focus in maths this week. We quickly became experts when we used language such as, next to, under, on top of, between, above.

With one more week to go, we feel that the term is wrapping up nicely. The preps are really taking on their role of modelling our school values. We see this when they reflect on their positive behaviours and link it back to the school values. We are so proud to witness them growing into such kind and proud little humans!

Friendly reminders:

Healesville Sanctuary Excursion next Thursday 23^rd June. Permission can be given via compass or returned form to class. Any helpers who have a current working with children’s check, please come and see us!

Love from,

Mrs C and Miss H 😊

This week in the 1/2’s.

It has been a cold week in temperature but the supportive and caring learning environment the ½’s created this week warmed our hearts with pride. The key to creating resilience within yourself is being able communicate how you are feeling. The teachers have noticed our students have been communicating very clearly about their needs and have been making fantastic choices within the classroom.

In Reading, we have commenced an author study that focuses on characters, settings, main ideas and lessons learned. We have chosen Aaron Blabey and Mem Fox, two very popular and respected children’s writers.

For writing, we have taken some inspiration from our authors and brain stormed some ideas for our own stories. The students have revisited the writing process creating ideas, drafting, revision, editing and publishing.

In Maths, we are looking locational language. Concepts such as right, left, front, back, over, under, behind, on top, next too, have been explored. The students have been challenged to developing a visual location in their mind to be able to explain the location of an object.

For Inquiry, we have been investigating physical science and the properties light and sound. The students were amazed to discover light moves in waves and sound is created through vibration.

Our Wellbeing focus is based on help seeking. The students have been identifying who they can ask when they need help to solve a problem and how they can help a friend.

Reminders:

-All library books need to returned please before the holidays so Mrs Miller can stocktake our library books.

-We are heading to Healesville Sanctuary next Thursday 23^rd June. Check Compass for the permission form please.

-Last day of school before the holidays is next Friday.

The penultimate week of term is always a busy one, and this time around is no exception with the learning in the 3/4 area continuing to roll on, despite the fast-approaching holidays.

This week has been all about the children’s information reports. Literacy sessions have seen students applying their text-processing and note-taking skills to great effect as they have pored a variety of mediums in pursuit of facts for their projects. Information has been extracted from books, documentaries, podcasts and websites as students have just begun writing their final pieces. The three topics of natural disasters, space and animals have certainly appealed to our students’ interests, with a student from the space group overheard proclaiming astonishing facts to their friend from another group.

“Did you know that the smallest black holes are the size of a single atom and weigh the same as a mountain?”

“Can you believe that polar bears actually have black skin?”

It’s safe to say that us teachers are learning our fair share throughout this unit…and we hope that you can too. We’re opening the doors to the classroom next Thursday 23^rd of June from 3pm – 4pm for our Information Report Expo. Please stop by and check out the amazing work of our inspiring 3/4 students.

Until then, have a warm weekend,

3/4 Team

In the 5/6 unit this week, the students have been pushing through barriers and adjusting to the cold conditions outside to produce some amazing learning in the classroom.

In Literacy and Inquiry, we have been busy drafting our Informative Texts on natural disasters. The students are focussing on identifying important information, applying personal voice, revising/editing and using the designed criteria for guidance. It has been wonderful to see the efforts and pride all the students are putting into this project.

In Numeracy, we have moved from Addition to Subtraction where we are exploring the vertical and renaming strategies with and without decimal places with estimations and reverse addition to check answers. The students have shown great determination to apply their new and old strategies in challenging tasks.

In other learning:

• Grade 5’s enjoyed some time with their Prep Buddies while the Grade 6’s worked on their leadership roles.
• The students explored iconic AUSLAN language and are building their conversation skills.
• Our class novel is gaining incredible interest and inquisitive conversations.

We cannot wait to see the Natural Disaster Diorama’s to go with their finished Informative Texts the next week to reflect the hard work and best efforts everyone has put in over the term.

Our second geotag is about to head to northern Australia! Toby and his family are heading on a trip through the Top End and a Western Australia. This geotag’s mission is to visit as many national parks as possible before returning to Badger Creek.

Bon Voyage, Toby! Have an incredible journey