Week 10, Term 2

 A big thank you to Tess Eagan for helping me plant the trees in the rain! - Nicole Turner

With one week left of the term, all student library books need to be returned by Friday, 4th July and there will be no borrowing over the school holidays.

Thank you for your co-operation.

Angela

Hello from the Preps!

Today we have reached 88 days of school! The students are getting excited each day as we mark off the day and get closer to 100 Days of School. This week in Literacy, we have been learning how to read and write four-letter CVCC words such as ‘jump’ and ‘camp’. We continue to focus on developing our fluency by reading words automatically.

For our Big Question, we have been exploring the 6 Seasons of the Dja Dja Warrung Calendar. Each day, we have been learning about the weather and drawing two (or more) different pictures onto our calendars to share things that happen. Students will be able to share these calendars with you in their Learning Journals when they come home next week. We continue to enjoy hearing about our class mascots weekend adventures and this week Catherine (Prep E) and Vallie (Prep N) confidently shared.

In Maths, our focus has been on length. We have compared the height of different objects and used paddle pop sticks/blocks to estimate then measure different things in our classroom. It was great to have Nicole Wagstaff come and run our Wellbeing lessons with a focus on learning about different emotions and strategies to help for example when we are feeling angry or sad. 

It’s hard to believe that there is only one more week of Term 2. Next week in Literacy, we will continue to keep reading and writing four-letter words. In Maths, we will focus on ordinal numbers. There will also be some fun activities to end our Term. 

We hope you all enjoy your weekend. 

Miss Else and Kayleen

Hello from the Golden Wattle building!

This week, we have explored the Gold Rush further as part of our Big Question, "What do we know about where we live?". We researched how the pioneers dug and panned for gold and learned that the world’s largest gold nugget at the time, known as the Welcome Nugget, was found in Ballarat in 1858 and was almost as large as a man!

We also learned how indigenous Australians made possum skin cloaks to keep warm. They even sold them to the Gold Rush pioneers. We learned that our First Nations people traditionally etched drawings, like a map, onto their possum skin cloaks with animal bones or teeth to show their life and stories. This is still done today but with a burning tool and the possum skin cloaks grow with each person throughout their life. We designed our own possum skin cloaks showing places that have meaning to us.

When writing, we have continued our focus on subordinating conjunctions (connecting words), this week focusing on starting our sentences with ‘even though’ and ‘although’. We wrote sentences responding to the stories, The Little House by Virginia Lee Burton and Belonging by Jeannie Baker. We drew Venn diagrams to compare living in the city to the country and to compare the similarities and differences between the two stories.

In Maths, we have been consolidating our understanding of number patterns and mental addition strategies. We did this through a range of games and activities including ‘Closest Wins’, finding missing numbers in ‘Patternpillars’, and playing ‘Subtraction Snap’.

Our Wellbeing focus this week was on ‘real-life problem solving’. We discussed lots of different scenarios and brainstormed how we might respond to these situations.

Next week is our last week of Term 2! We will finish up the term by revisiting the conjunctions ‘before’ and ‘after’ when writing, revising the ‘bridging-10’ strategy in Maths and looking at ‘Stress Management’ in Wellbeing.

We hope you have a great weekend,

Wendy, Laura, Claire, Sarah and Andrew

As part of our big question ‘What do we know about where we live? we have begun looking at students' wonderings that have come from learning about our First Nations people. Students have entered the ‘Going Further’ stage of their learning and in this stage, we explore the skills needed to be strong collaborators, researchers, and self-managers. Some examples of student wonderings include: 

• What tools and weapons did they use and how were they made?

• How did Indigenous people get better when they were sick?

• What food did Indigenous people eat?

• What types of pets did Indigenous people have?

• How did they get across the water?

• What are the similarities and differences between AFL and Marngrook?

Throughout our wellbeing program, Resilience, Rights and Respectful Relationships, students used games to talk about the skills needed for problem solving. Students developed a definition of what it means to have a problem and described actions and skills used in teamwork. During our class discussions students came up with a list of problems that children around their age may experience.

Next week students will continue to explore their wonderings related to our big question "What do we know about where we live?", acknowledge NAIDOC week in our literacy lessons, continue investigating Shape in Maths and identify different actions someone could take to solve a problem in our wellbeing lessons. Students are also looking forward to an excursion to the Phee Broadway Theatre with Nicci on Thursday to attend a performance workshop by Perth based group SALAMA. Thanks to those parents who have already returned permission forms and their payment. 

Enjoy the weekend, 

Sally, Louise, Mr Scott and Hannah 

Welcome to Silver Banksia,  

In Literacy, we are finishing off our historical recounts. These will be published next week, just in time for our learning journals. Students have worked hard to include detailed events and strong historical understanding of Australia’s history in their writing. Please take the time to read them when the journals come home next week. Some of them are quite lengthy, so perhaps make a cup of tea before hand!

In Maths, we have been focusing on statistics and probability. A highlight has been learning a game called Maths Hoops, which uses real life NBA statistics and combines number skills, data analysis, probability, and hopefully a bit of fun. We are learning this game in preparation for an interschool maths day next term.

In Wellbeing, our focus has been on problem solving. We have explored strategies for working through tricky situations in a calm and thoughtful way, both in and out of the classroom.

In Civics and Citizenship, we’ve been learning how rules and laws are made in Australia, which has been a review of our incursion last week. To go further, students designed rules for their own imaginary countries, thinking carefully about the reasons behind each law and the consequences that would follow.

Many of our students participated in the Division sports day at Wesley Hill on Monday. We were very proud of the fair play and skills demonstrated by our students. A special congratulations the girls soccer team, who won the division event and will be off to Swan Hill next term to compete at the Regional event.

Next week is the final week of Term 2! Reports will be out and Learning Journals will come home for your child to share their work with you.

Just a reminder for parents in Grade 3/4 that notes and payment ($7.50) need to be returned for our Salama Reunion Island excursion to The Phee Broadway Theatre next Thursday.

There is an evening performance at the Phee on Thursday 3rd of July at 7:30 for any families in other grades who are keen to go. I believe tickets are $30.

Prep E

Gloria A - for the positive way you have a go at everything at school.
Susanna C - for the creativity and detail you have put into your drawings on your Dja Dja Wurrung Seasons calendar.

Prep N

Oliver G - for your persistence and fantastic sounding out when reading.

1/2 CS

Minka D - for the thoughtful way you supported your team during our STEAM challenge.
Florence T - for the thought you put into your possum skin cloak design.

1/2 L

Stella W - for your enthusiastic participation when discussing Jeannie Baker's book "Belonging".
Ari R - for the thoughtful designs and careful stitching on your possum skin cloak.

1/2 WA

Eloise C - for the beauty and care you put into your writing about 'The Little House'.
Nala L - for the clear and confident way you explained your maths thinking to the class.

3/4 L

Winton H - for the way you were able to summarise information and put it in your own words.

3/4 S

Theo D - for the enthusiastic way that you approached our shape investigations in Maths.
Erica N - for being a wonderful member of our class.

5/6 BC

Clementine N - for all the hard work you've put into your historic recount.
Asha J - for the way you have engaged with our class this year with determination, creativity and humour.

5/6 BN

Harriet N - for always putting in your best effort at school.
Agnes J - for explaining your thinking clearly in your recount of Australia.

5/6 H

Atticus H - for appreciating a maths game as both fun and hard.
Quinten M - for being a humble and gracious winner.

5/6 J

Luella N - for the leadership you displayed while guiding the soccer team to victory.
Alba R - for the calm way you have navigated a tricky week.

Indonesian

Caitlyn Y - for extending your writing independently and accurately when completing your story about the days of the week.

Performing Arts

Rufus E - for your creativity in including different notations while composing your song.

Stilt Licenses

Level 1: Nellie D, Mathilde T

Level 2: Jasmine R

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