Fully Fund Public Schools

 Hello from the Prep rooms, 

This week in Literacy we met Jack Jellyfish and Zoe Zebra and learned about the sound ‘j’ and ‘z.’  As we approach the end of our journey to meet all of Milo’s friends, we eagerly look forward to celebrating Milo’s Birthday with a surprise birthday party for him. We have sent out an invitation and an email with details about this exciting event.  

We are making fantastic progress with our writing and are working hard to independently record the sounds we hear. In Maths, we began exploring numbers greater than 10.  We practised using correct formation when recording numerals, made models of numbers using icy pole sticks, and used effective strategies when counting groups of objects. In our BQT, we learnt about the sun and how shadows are formed. Tracing around our partner’s shadow was a highlight of the week. As part of our Respectful Relationships program, we focused on exploring our personal strengths. Inspired by the story “The world needs who you were made to be,” we each identified our own personal strength and reflected on ways we demonstrate it in our lives.  

. 

Next week we will meet more of Milo’s friends and continue to practise blending sounds when reading. We will demonstrate our writing skills and knowledge when we complete our second Cold Write (unassisted writing sample) for the year. In Maths, we will explore making and continuing patterns and during BQT, we will explore our world by examining constellations. 

Enjoy your weekend, 

Nicole and Lauren 

Phew! We made it through a week where it seemed like everyone was sick, students and teachers alike. 

In our classes, the teachers adapted to split classes and high absences to continue to deliver high quality learning. In some cases, this meant going off topic a little and teaching notetaking with an episode of Behind The News. 

In Maths, we extended our focus on multiplication into the world of DIVISION! This week, students have developed an understanding of the short division algorithm, connecting it with concrete materials and even solved division problems with regrouping. In Literacy, our daily reviews have continued to include practise with parts of speech – verbs, nouns, adjectives and adverbs. We have put the brakes on our War Horse reading to allow students some time to begin publishing their animal journey stories. In BQT, we have identified different types of energy and explored light and just what a shadow really is. In RRRR, our lesson asked students to consider what is gender-based violence? 

On Wednesday, Hannah accompanied the four school captains as they accepted an invitation to visit Mt Alexander council chambers for a special planning and leadership workshop. On Friday, a select team competed in the division cross country. Well done to all those who competed.  

Next week we look forward to some more healthy bodies in classrooms (thanks to parents for keeping their sick kids home, we know how challenging this can be). In Literacy we will get back into reading War Horse and look at persuasive writing skills. In Maths we will extend our division understanding by learning about division with remainders and then move into some measurement and geometry with a timetable task. 

Have a restful weekend everyone. Get well soon if you’re feeling unwell. 

Mr Higgins, Sam K, Hannah, Jay, Liz and Giovanna. 

Council Chambers Student Leadership Workshop - School Captain reports:

Arlo:  

At 11:30, on the 15th of May Hannah Ryan and the school captains, Felicity, Quinn, and Arlo (minus Hazel, who was not there) walked down to the council chambers to meet with other schools and pitch an idea to the Mayor. We got to work with CSC students Bridget and Thea, who helped us brainstorm some problems in the school. After deciding on a worthy problem (that the CNPS oval is too overused) we wrote down how it would benefit the students and what the solution would be. We then arrived at the answer. For lunchtime or even a bit longer, the students who would like to play on the oval could go to CSC’s oval and play there. The CSC oval is not used as much as ours Bridget told us, and proposed we use theirs. 

After a 5 minute ‘icebreaker’ in which we were split into groups with the other schools and told each other facts, and an ‘energizer’ in which we all went outside and played keepy-uppy with about 30 balloons, and a great FREE lunch involving sausage rolls, party pies, mini pizzas, samosas and fruit, and a tour of the Mayor’s office, we headed back to CNPS to combat the problem at hand.  

Quinn: 

At the council chambers Arlo, Felicity and I learned the way the council tries to fix problems. We chose a problem in the school and brainstormed ways to fix it. Our problem for the school was that the oval does not have enough space for football players, soccer players, and people doing their own thing. After that, we had to pitch our ideas to the Mayor and got a tour of the Mayor’s office. We had a wonderful experience and now have two mentors to help us fix this problem.  

Felecity: 

On Wednesday, the CNPS school captains went to the council chambers to propose a new project for the school and our community to the mayor. We started with an ice breaker where we each got a number and went to the table with that number, we all said our names, pronouns and if we were a kitchen utensil, what we would be. We then separated back to our school groups and started planning our project. We also all had one or two mentors on our table, our group had Brigett and Thea.  

We came up with 5 different ideas including, a wellbeing room, sports stuff, more graphic novels, to fix the sign out the front of the school and… 

We decided on sports stuff. After that we brainstormed ideas using the prompts of the issue, how, who, what and positive outcomes. We then had a quick energizer by playing a game of keepy uppy in the courtyard. Once we came back in, we all met the mayor, and had a tour of his office, and the other counsellor’s office next door. Once all the schools had a tour, the mayor came to the front of the room to listen to our idea. We used a tool called elevator pitch, which is when we have one minute to propose our idea before the mayor hops off the “elevator.” 

Then there was a conclusion and we headed back to school. What a wonderful experience we had. 

Students across the school have been using time during Performing Arts class to learn and practice various circus skills. The Preps have been thinking about clowns and learning about various aspects of clowning, the grade 1/2s have been focusing on their skills using the circus equipment, the Grade 3/4s have been thinking about clowns and are working on a short clown play and the 5/6s are finalising a short movie trailer using iMovie.  

Students who are interested in participating in the Boite Schools Chorus will meet together for our first official rehearsal next Friday, 24th of May. We are looking forward to getting together to start to learn the songs!