Week 3, Term 4

 THANK YOU, Hannah Ryan, for running the Downball Tournament at the Fete!  

Thank you also to Hannah and Liz for preparing the Grade 5 students for their School Captain speeches today.  All the best to our nominees.

Hello from the Prep Rooms after a busy, fun week! 

After enjoying the CNPS school fete on the weekend, a highlight of this week was the much-anticipated Prep/Grade One Dinner and Games Night on Thursday. We played outside games and had playground fun before we ate a delicious pizza dinner and had some fruit. We kindly thank all our parent helpers who helped make the evening a success.  

This week in Literacy we have been reading words with our new sounds ‘ay’ and ‘ai’ and learning which one to use when spelling. We know that we use ‘ay’ at the end of a word and ‘ai’ in the middle of a word. In Writing we have written and illustrated our OWN BOOK. Everyone created a new story, and we wrote our beginning, middle and end, before creating a front and back cover for our STEAM Challenge. We have been looking at different ways to start our sentences and trying to include ‘wow’ words such as adjectives to add more detail and description to our stories. Ask your child to share their story when it comes home. In Maths, our focus has been doubling and halving. We have been learning doubling songs, playing games to practise and we even created a ‘double monster’. Our R.R.R.R focus this week has been on ‘Gender and Identity’, recognising that sometimes we like the same things as our friends and sometimes they will like different things and that’s okay. 

Next week we will be learning two new codes that make the same sound ‘ea’ and ‘ee’ and when to use them. We will be writing another story, which we will illustrate and turn into a second book. In Maths our focus will be on extending our subtraction knowledge and skills to solve equations including those with missing numbers. Then on Friday we will have a new STEAM challenge involving our school’s coding mice. 

We wish you all a wonderful weekend! 

 
Lauren and Nicole. 

Hello from the 1/2 unit, 

Sadly the sleepover part of our camp was cancelled due to illnesses, but we still were able to enjoy all the other plans!  Thanks to all who helped. 

On Wednesday, Bron and Helen from Delkaya Health, visited us to run their ‘Making Friends with Worry’ sessions.  This program has been running for several years across Mt. Alexander Shire and CNPS students have benefited from them in the past.  Topics covered in the half hour sessions included, where worry comes from in the body, the physical symptoms of worry and strategies to help.  We discussed what happens inside our brain when we feel worried and identified the physical symptoms our bodies might exhibit when we feel worried. Then we practised different calming strategies that we can use. A particular favourite was the ‘Buzzing Bees’ breathing – you might like to ask your child to demonstrate! 

This week in Literacy we have been busily writing our very own narratives.  There have been lots of interesting and entertaining stories about dragons, puppies, minions, chickens, friends and ponies (to name a few) that all face a problem that need to be solved. In Maths students have been exploring mass by comparing the weight of different objects and determining which is heavier and lighter. Students enjoyed using various scales and we had some great discussions about the importance of being accurate when measuring. 

We began tuning in to our new big question, ‘Where does energy come from?’ by looking at the definition of the words ‘force’ and ‘energy’, we brainstormed the many ways that we can move a stick and began investigating how our toys move.  As part of our Wellbeing program, we discussed the ways that we can create a gender friendly classroom in our Resilience, Rights and Respectful Relationships lesson. 

Next week we will learn how to edit and uplevel our narratives in literacy, explore measuring length and area in Maths and will delve further in to learning about where energy comes from in our BQT and STEAM lessons. 

Have a lovely weekend, 

Sally, Wendy, Sarah and Bec 

Week 3 has been a different week with Grade 6s on camp on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. We began the week with the continuation of our novel study Wonder exploring different perspectives, as we are now hearing the story from the point of view of Auggie’s sister, Via. Sometimes siblings can see things very differently! 

In Science we are continuing our exploration of processes that have shaped the Earth, this time looking at earthquakes, and how building design can keep people safe. Groups constructed a structure to attempt to withstand the shaker table that was used to simulate earthquakes, with some surprising results! You will have received an email earlier this week about resources needed for our Science experiments; please send in any materials you have if you are able to help. 

The Grade 6s have had an amazing week exploring Melbourne. Highlights have included the Immigration Museum, swimming at MSAC, eating out, and of course, late nights! There will be lots of stories for Grade 6s to share with their families when they get home. Big thanks to Jay for all the work he put into organising camp.

The Grade 5s have been busy as well, preparing and presenting 2025 School Captain speeches. It has taken a lot of work to identify what makes a good School Captain, and how to persuade an audience! Well done, Grade 5s, a great example of COURAGE. T-shirt designs are also well underway for the 2025 Grade 6 t-shirts, and we have gotten in some good softball practice, too! 

The 5/6 Team, 

Liz, Hannah, Jay, Rhys, Sam and Giovanna. 

Prep E

• Matteo T- for being brave and always asking for help when you need it.

• Finny L- for the impressive way you are now reading so many words automatically.

Prep N

• Isaac S- for working hard to improve your reading of words by heart 

• Scout VH - for the enthusiastic way you included interesting words in your narrative story.

1/2S

• Annabelle C- for the kind and respectful way you support your friends to bounce back in challenging situations.

• Eloise C - for your positive and insightful contributions when discussing gender friendly classrooms in R.R.R.R.

1/2SB

• Ben E- for the effort and creativity you put into your story writing.

• Olivia S- for taking on feedback and cleverly adding in descriptive words to your writing.

1/2W

• Rosie W- for the passion and beauty you show in your written work.

• Monty G- for the courage you show when attempting new maths concepts.

3/4CN

• Jack T- for the enthusiastic way you have been sharing your ideas during class discussions.

• Thomas C- for the courage you showed by persevering and trying your best in our subtraction test.

3/4H

• Chet C- for using your initiative and doing jobs before being asked.

• Hunter E- for being super helpful and a positive role model in the classroom.

3/4L

• Darcy B- for being organised and prepared in Maths.

• Finn T- for starting your story in an interesting way.

3/4PS

• Henry S- for sharing your well-crafted sentences using personifications.

• Arlen J- for your enthusiasm and resilience during a challenging maths task.

5/6HG

• Josh M- for the thoughtful way you made sure that others got a fair turn at batting in softball.

5/6R

• Lily G- for the bravery you've shown by sharing your text response during group discussions.

• Harvey W- for the thoughtful way you help others in our classroom.

5/6SL

• Chris PS- for the courage you have shown when taking on feedback about your school captain speech.

Indonesian

• Carys R- for your passion for learning and always taking an interest in putting it into practice.

Performing Arts

• Nash E- for the courageous way you performed your shape dance sequence to the class.

Firstly, how good did the students sound on the marimbas at the fete? And I’m wondering if you caught the choir perform their songs? For such a small group in a breezy outdoor area, they sounded great! And a special mention to the Rock Band (Aidan, Frederick and Tom D) who got out there and performed a couple of songs too. What a courageous bunch we have here.  

This week the Prep – Grade 2s have been continuing to learn about the elements of dance. The Preps were linking words to movements and the 1/2s, thinking about line and shapes. 

The grade 3/4/5s have had fun outside with the circus equipment, putting together a short routine and thinking about the structure of their performances.  

Nicci 

We are well into a range of projects for Term 4. Grade’s 5/6 have been wrapping their heads around perspective drawing. They have practiced One-Point and Two-Point and are now ready to choose a project to display these new skills. I will have images to share in time.  

Preps learnt about the Eltham Copper Butterflies amazing life cycle this week and cleverly cut out a symmetrical butterfly for this artwork. Grade’s 1/2 have also been learning about symmetry, they have drawn a detailed symmetrical pattern or design and will be working on making a paper stain glass window over the next few weeks. Grade 3/4 learnt about the Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama at the end of last term, I have included some images of their colourful mushrooms. They also enjoyed a lesson in how to make a Japanese No-Tan using black and white paper and are now learning all about drawing and painting an eye.  

District Kickball Grade P/1/2 Friday 8th November 

On Friday 8th November, all our students in Grades Prep, One and Two will be participating in the District Sports Kickball Event.  Kickball is an inclusive game played on a diamond base set up with teams alternating between kicking and fielding. We begin at 9:45am and conclude at 12:30pm.  We will be transported by bus to Harcourt Recreation Reserve. There is an emphasis on participation and teamwork. Parent/carers are needed to assist with team supervision. Please return the permission note before Friday 1st November, so parent helpers can be allocated before Cup Week.