Week 4, Term 4

 Hello from the Prep Rooms! 

This week in Literacy, we have been reading words with our new sounds ‘ee’ and ‘ea’ and ‘--y’. In Writing we have written and illustrated our second book. Everyone created a new story, and we wrote our beginning, middle and end, before creating a front and back cover. We continued to look at different ways to start our sentences and tried to include ‘wow’ words such as adjectives to add more detail and description. We are continuing to remember capital letters for the start of sentences, finger spaces and full stops. In Maths, our focus has been on subtraction. We were introduced to the subtraction symbol (-) and have been solving subtraction equations including missing numbers e.g. 7 - ? = 4. 

Our R.R.R.R focus this week has been on ‘Gender and Identity’. We looked at how there is no such thing as ‘things boys like’ and ‘things girls like’ as we all can like the same things regardless of our gender. On Thursday, we were excited to have special guests, 3/4L who came to share their stories they wrote for R.R.R.R. We enjoyed listening to their stories and having the opportunity to share our narratives we wrote last week. 

Next week, we will be learning one new code ‘igh’. We will continue working on writing stories by writing a Big Write about finding something. In Maths we will continue reviewing topics including shapes, measurement, graphs and probabilities. A highlight next week will be the Prep/1/2 Kickball on Friday. We are excited to play and possibly see other students we know from other schools. If you haven’t already, please return your note and payment as soon as possible. 

We hope everyone enjoys their four-day weekend! 

 
Lauren and Nicole

 We have a moment of calm this week after the excitement of the ‘sleepover that wasn’t quite a sleepover’ last week. We have included lots of happy pictures from last Thursday night. Thank you so much to all the parents who helped, and a BIG thank you to the children who demonstrated resilience and a positive mindset. 

In Maths this week we have been investigating measurement, particularly learning how to accurately measure length. We have been looking closely at rulers and measuring various objects. If you have rulers and measuring tapes at home, then you could get the kids measuring or even helping with some home tasks that need measuring!  

In Literacy we have been working hard on getting our narratives ready to publish. We have planned them, uplevelled them and edited them and next week we will make them look beautiful abd ready for the Learning Journals. It is wonderful to see the students so proud of their writing and it is rewarding for us as teachers to see how far they have all come this year. We all can’t wait for you to read them.  

For our Big Question of “Where does energy come from”, we have been exploring how to make things move and trying to identify the forces of “push” and “pull” in the everyday environment. Our experiments this week had a spooky slant as a lot of the kids had Halloween on their minds. Ask them some of the different ways we can make ghosts move!  

Next Friday we have our interschool kickball, and we really need some parents to help for the morning. Please remember to return the notes and let your child’s teacher know if you can help for the day.  

Congratulations to the Grade 6 students on a wonderful week on camp last week! After a lot of walking (almost 40kms over the three days), some late nights and a jam-packed schedule, we had a lot of very tired but happy Grade 6s on the train on the way home from Melbourne. A weekend of rest was required because Week 4 was upon us!  

Our novel study this week has seen us explore the story from a new perspective (Summer’s) and a vocabulary focus on the words inherit, spite, emphatically, confront, and illuminate.  

In maths, we began looking at some simple number patterns before increasing the complexity of patterns and rules. How many handshakes would occur if 5 people all shook hands with each other exactly once? What about 15 people? 100 people? Can you work out the rule?  

In Word Study, we have been examining the base ‘tend-tent-tense’ which means stretch or strain. We’ve focused on words like extend and attend, as well as distended, unintentionally (how many morphemes is that?) and contention. Our INTENT is to improve students’ understanding of morphology. It requires students’ ATTENTION and can sometimes be INTENSE. Of course, we need student ATTENDANCE to be as high as possible to achieve what we INTEND to achieve.  

In Science, we have been learning about processes that shape the Earth. We learnt about how engineers test buildings to withstand earthquakes, and had a go at testing our own structures on a shaker table! 

We wish you all a happy long weekend. 

Liz, Hannah, Giovanna, Sam, Jayan and Rhys 

Prep E

• Isla Pratt - for the impressive way you have been solving subtraction problems with missing numbers. 

• Asha McClure - for the impressive way you included "wow words" in your story about a caterpillar. 

Prep N

• Florence Tanner - for the effort and creativity you put into your narrative story.

• William Edwards - for the confidence and determination you showed when subtracting numbers. 

1/2S

• Hugo Smith - for the bravery you have shown when doing things that are hard.

• Mason Christopher - for the effort and creativity you put into your story writing.

• Sierra Egan - for the thoughtful way you took the time to edit and up level your story.

1/2SB

• Estelle Hobson - for the way you took on feedback to improve your writing.  The results were a delight to read.

• Elijah Greene - for the enthusiastic way you have approached our Big Question about energy.

1/2W

• Torben Envall - for your enthusiasm in our Maths lessons.  You are a joy to teach.

• Ru Wills - for your thoughtful and creative book writing. 

3/4CN

• Jack Bishop - for the way you have been persevering and challenging yourself in Maths.

• Maxle Pye - for the effort and enthusiasm you put into your Cold Write.

3/4H

• Darsh Kumar - for putting in lots of effort to understand reasons behind Maths concepts.

• Mick Campbell - for including a range of interesting vocabulary in your Cold Write.  

3/4PS

• Oscar Tanner - for your hard work and focus during Maths, leading to outstanding results.

• Nina Fitzgerald - for the incredible use of descriptive phrases in your writing.

5/6HG

• Lachlan Hewson - for your amazing camera-person skills 

• Orlando Favero-Williamson - for the way you read with accuracy, fluency and expression to the class.

• Poppi Walters - for making an effort and achieving success in spelling - Well done!

5/6J

• Sid Parsons - for the "colourful" way you used juxtaposition in your Cold Write.

• Tully Cox - for showing perseverance when it looked like your construction would collapse.

5/6R

• Sophia Miller - for the courage you have displayed in facing a challenging time with resilience and determination.

• Archie Carson - for the way you included your learning in Word Study, into your Cold Write!  

5/6SL

• Clementine Stephens - for the way you solved our class maths problem and were able to clearly explain your thinking.

Indonesian

• Dot McGuinness - for showing great listening skills during Indonesian. 

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. 

Swimming Lessons Grade P/1/2 

Friday 15th November will be the first of four weekly swimming lessons for our Grade P/1/2 students this term at the Castlemaine Indoor Pool. Swimming and water safety are an important component of our students’ physical development, health and well-being. The program is funded by the Department of Education. Please return notes as soon as possible indicating what skills your child is working towards and whether you can assist. Thank you for your support. 

Bike Education Grade 3/4/5/6 

Bike Education during P.E. classes will begin after Melbourne Cup Week for students in Grades 3/4 and 5/6. Digital and hard copy notes have been sent home detailing what to prepare and expect for the four sessions. Please return these notes as soon as possible. Parent/Carer help for our first session would be greatly appreciated as some students may need minor adjustments on their bikes prior to riding. Please let Carly know if you can assist with this. We also need assistance for the final session in December when we ride on the footpath and road surrounding our school and therefore need parents to act as checkpoint marshals around the course. 

Tuesday 12, 19, 28 November and 3 December 

9:00 3/4H 

10:00 3/4CN 

11:30 5/6SL 

12:30 5/6HG 

Thursday 14, 21, 30 November and 5 December 

9:00 3/4L 

10:00 3/4PS 

12:30 5/6J 

2:30 5/6R