Week 2, Term 3

Hello from the Prep rooms! 

This week on Wednesday we celebrated 100 Days of School! Students shared their 100th day projects with their classmates, made special crowns to wear, played maths game ‘Race to 100’, made biscuits and created a self-portrait of what they will look like when they are 100! What a great achievement! In Literacy we have continued practising reading and writing words with four sounds. Our focus has been on CCVC words for example frog, and the students are becoming more confident with such words. For the next couple of weeks, we are returning to our Big Question ‘How are we connected to living things?’, focusing on animals. We have been looking at different animals and categorising them into their body coverings including feathers and fur. In Maths, we developed simple strategies to add numbers together. We have been using materials to solve number stories including bees on flowers and fish in a bowl. For our STEAM Friday Challenge, we learnt about constellations and created our own constellation using glow in the dark stars. 

Next week in Literacy, we will focus on CCVCC words such as ‘stomp’ and ‘frost. We will be using the word ‘because’ when writing our sentences. In Maths, we will focus on developing simple strategies to subtract numbers by using materials to solve number stories. For BQT, we will continue learning about animals including how they communicate, their habitats and classifying animals into groups. During our Wellbeing sessions, we will participate in activities to learn about stress management. 

Hello from the Golden Wattle building!

This week, we have continued our exploration of animal adaptations as part of our Big Question, "How are we connected to other living things?". We have read lots of books about the special features of animals and how they help them survive, such as, Chameleon’s Colours and What if You Had Animal Eyes?. We imagined what eyes we would like to have and made sure to include an adverb to describe what we would do with them. We also looked at the different parts of information reports and had a go at writing our own about an animal of our choice.

In Maths, we’ve continued exploring shape and focused on the different attributes they have, such as the number of sides, vertices, whether they are regular or irregular shapes, or have parallel lines. We had fun making different pictures using tangram shapes, and compared the difference between 2D and 3D shapes.

In Wellbeing, we focused on how we help each other. We discussed different scenarios and how a good friend might respond to someone in need.

On Monday, 1/2CS were lucky to have Thais and Edna from Over the Moon dance studio come and visit. Thais and Edna took the class through some mindfulness activities, yoga and dancing. It was a lovely way to end a Monday afternoon!

Next week, we will start to look at how animals rely on each other to survive in the wild as part of our inquiry unit. In Literacy, we will explore the four different sentence types: statements, command, exclamations and questions. In Maths, we will start to look at multiplication and in Wellbeing we’ll continue to look at help seeking strategies.

Have a lovely weekend,

Wendy, Laura, Claire, Sarah and Andrew

As part of our big question "What lessons can we learn from stories?",  we have continued our novel study of ‘Yirra and her deadly dog, Demon’ written by Anita Heiss. Throughout the novel we have been exploring the themes of family dynamics, responsibility, belonging, choices, resilience and the challenges of pet ownership. In Literacy we have been using prompts from the text to complete sentences using the conjunctions but/so/because, revising subjects and predicates and converting fragments into sentences.

We continued Topic 6, Help Seeking, from the Resilience, Rights and Respectful Relationships program in our Wellbeing lessons this week. As a class we discussed How do we know whether a problem is ‘serious’ or not? and How do we know whether we should involve other people in helping us to solve it? Students worked in small groups and were given a copy of a list of problems. They were posed with the question, "How big is the problem?" and worked together to rate the seriousness of the problems by bundling the problems into categories of big, medium and small. We discussed the importance of taking help seeking actions when a problem is hurtful, unfair or could escalate.

Next week, students will be writing a factual recount about the history of the Aboriginal flag in Literacy, continue our work on multiplying two-digit numbers in Math’s and identify people they can turn to for help if needed as part of our wellbeing lessons.

A friendly reminder that Learning Journals need to be returned if you haven’t already done so.

We hope you have a great weekend,

Hannah, Giovanna, Mr Scott and Sally

Grade 5/6 Newsletter - Week 2, Term 3

It’s been a big and productive week in the Silver Banksia building!

5/6BCH was lucky enough to receive a call from France! It was great to see Asha and hear about her life in France so far.

We’re delighted to have Bron back at CNPS, leading our P4P program. Bron introduced students to the program guidelines and outlined what we’ll be covering over the next five weeks. Families are encouraged to talk with their children about this week’s session and review the guidelines together. Our key guidelines include: 

• Respect 

• Inclusiveness 

• “Someone I know” – no naming others 

• No such thing as a silly question 

• Right to pass – sharing is always optional 

• All feelings are valid 

• 5/6 exclusive – not to share with younger students 

• Have fun!

We have started our eSmart sessions, focusing on how to stay safe online and what signs to look out for. These lessons are vital to help students navigate the digital world responsibly.

This week, we have been exploring data analysis, including interpreting dot plots and line graphs, identifying types of variables, and finding the mode. Next week, students will continue developing their knowledge and skills working with different data representations.

Our novel study continued as we followed Ruby’s group to Tulu. Students discussed the challenges faced during their journey, participation in a sports carnival, and the importance of honouring cultural obligations through attending a funeral. After returning home, the story touched on family tension around a destroyed Land Rover, highlighting themes of tradition, family, and resilience.

This week, we wrapped up our focus on words from the Latin root ‘cur-/curse-’—reading, spelling, and explaining morphemes in these words. Next week, we’ll turn our attention to ‘voke-/voc-’ and its meanings.

This week in BQT, we continued our exploration of Inside Out 2. Students wrote their own thoughtful movie reviews, sharing opinions and reflections on the film. Writing an introduction and a synopsis of the movie using an SPO (Structured Paragraph Outline). Our goal is to give readers a clear overview of what the movie is about—sharing key details to spark interest, while keeping the main surprises a secret (no spoilers!).

In Resilience, Rights and Respectful Relationships (RRRR), students learned about stress management: its causes, effects, and strategies to reduce stress. Some classes practised self-calming strategies and reflected on their impact on mood.

Wishing everyone a restful weekend—we look forward to another exciting week ahead!

Hannah, Jay, Bec, Ben, Nicci, and Mr Higgins

Prep E

Mila R - for the kind and thoughtful way you helped a peer who got hurt during our class game.
Catherine F - for your impressive concentration and focus when sorting your animals into groups to show animal coverings.

Prep N

Bonnie W - for always trying your best and for taking great care with the presentation of your work.
Edie H - for the persistence and positive attitude you show to improve your reading.

1/2 CS

Nash E - for the enthusiasm you are showing towards your learning.
Gillian C - for the way you compromised and supported your teammates during our STEAM challenges.

1/2 L

Ike S - for the creative skill you showed when drawing yourself as a chameleon.
Mia N - for your progress with your reading fluency. 

1/2 WA

Robbie B - for the thought and care you put into your animal adaptation.
Louis R - you were a maths superstar this week.

3/4 H

Clancy K - for ensuring our room is kept tidy and safe to around in.
Nancy S - for asking for clarification in maths lessons. 

3/4 L

Winton H - for your determination and hard work in solving different forms of multiplication algorithms.

3/4 PS

Chet C - for your passion and care in helping others build their understanding of multiplication.
Emily B - for showing courage in leading mathematical conversations by confidently sharing your thinking. 

3/4 S

Anita F - for the confident way you have been sharing your thinking in Literacy.
Estelle H - for the thoughtful way you look after your friends and the kind and inclusive way you play with them.

5/6 BH

Hugo A - for having the strength to be your own boss in the classroom.
Clementine N - for the mature and thoughtful way you guided our classroom discussion on emotions and friendships during BQT.

5/6 BN

Pavin K - for the high level complex sentences you thought of about Us Mob, Walawurru.
Darsh K - for the thoughtful way you engage in our learning of Us Mob, Walawurru.

5/6 H

Sofia D - for confidently using evidence from the text to support your opinion of a character
Josh M - for independently writing and correctly punctuating a complex sentence.

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