Week 8, Term 4

 Hello from the Prep Rooms! 

This week in Literacy we have continued writing in our dotted third books. We have used picture prompts to write sentences, making sure to include a capital letter, spaces between words and punctuation. In Maths, we have played various maths games to consolidate our understanding of pairs to 10, doubling, numbers over 20, ordering numbers, subtraction and counting patterns. It has been great this week to have all the preps working together in mixed groups for maths. On Monday we continued our STEAM challenge of coding our ‘code and go’ mice. Using special ‘mouse mats’ we used the direction cards to move our mouse to reach the cheese. It was impressive to see the mice making several turns on their tricky paths to get the cheese! To finish our Big Question ‘What Makes Things Move?’, we have each designed a push or pull toy. To end the week, we enjoyed our third swimming lesson. Thank you to parent helpers who supervised walking to and from the pool. 

Next week we will use our labelled designs and a range of materials to create our new toys. It will be awesome to see everyone’s designs come to life! In Literacy we will continue practising all the sounds we have learnt, writing in our dotted thirds books and writing a reflection on our swimming lessons. Just a reminder that this week we had our last session of library borrowing for the year. Please make sure that all library books are returned on Monday. 

Have a wonderful weekend! 

 
Lauren and Nicole 

I can’t quite believe we have started on the road to Christmas already – this year has flown! In the classroom this week we have been creating our advent calendars in maths. We have been looking at number patterns and missing numbers as well as piecing together different calendar types. In literacy we have been exploring the text , The Gruffalo, making puppets and plays as well as retelling the story and completing our reading assessments. 

We have been playing ‘puzzle’ and the controller colours game during our respectful relationships work and Wilson games respectively. During BQT we have been looking at renewable energy and have made a class solar oven as well as group anemometers! Next week we will be looking at shape transformations in maths and drawing upon our knowledge of grammar to unscramble sentences in literacy. In BQT we will be starting to design Santa sleighs for the Christmas exp which will happen on Dec 12th (save the dates to your calendars). All very exciting! 

Week 8 is the beginning of the end of the school year! This week has seen us embark on our annual gingerbread extravaganza which is always a lot of fun. Students have collaboratively completed concept designs, bird’s eye view drawings and have begun to bring their creations to life through 3D cardboard modelling.  

Grade 6 students have spent time working on their WIGU filming and learning the graduation dance while Grade 5s have just about finished their buddy bags. There was a lot of excitement when the buddy names were announced this week.  

We have finished reading Wonder and we’re looking forward to watching the movie as a nice way to finish our novel study. 

On Tuesday, we had some Year 7 students from Castlemaine Secondary College come and visit to share their experiences of what the transition from Grade 6 to Year 7 is like. We got lots of inside information on the canteen and other important aspects of being a high school student. 

There is plenty happening next week with a final buddy activity for Grade 6 students, Grade 5 students will meet their 2025 buddies for the first time, the Essendon football club is coming to visit, we’ll make our gingerbread pieces at school (you bake them at home), we’ll film the teacher chase and we’ll keep preparing for our end of year festivities!  

If you haven’t already, please return graduation notes or Grade 6 t-shirt order forms to school as soon as possible. 

Regards, 

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

Prep N

Olivia D - for the confidence and progress you have shown during addition and subtraction tasks in Maths.

Gillian C - for the care and effort you are putting in to improve your writing.

Prep E

Stella W– for the impressive way you ordered numbers when playing the Ladder Game.

Nina P– for the impressive way are reading so many words automatically. Keep up the good work!

Dot M– for your impressive focus and concentration when writing in your dotted thirds books! Well done.

1/2 S

Emellia M – for the care and effort you put into creating your advent calendar.

Marlow P – for the bravery and determination you are showing in your swimming lessons.

1/2 SB

Albertine C – for the love and skill you have put into your published narrative. It is a joy to read.

Alice O – for the effort you put into finishing your story, adding extra detail and exploring newly learned punctuation.

1/2 W

Delaney D – for always taking your learning to the next level. I love the passion you bring to your maths.

Pranavi K – for the beauty you bring to your bookwork. Beautiful presentation Pranavi.

3/4 CN

Ava M – for the passionate way you always strive to achieve your personal best.

Asther B – for your impressive contributions and problem solving when thinking about our Gingerbread designs.

3/4 H

Darsh K – for the thoughtful way you checked in with your teacher.

Azia D – for working independently and putting in so much effort in your Respectful Relationships task.

3/4 L

Phoebe A – for using your time wisely to complete your research task in Respectful Relationships.

Evie F – for the way you are pursuing your personal best in all learning areas.

3/4 PS

Arlo S – for your thoughtful contributions during Treasure Island discussions.

Piper T – for your passion and enthusiasm during learning activities, leading to outstanding results.

5/6 SL

Arthur V – for the thoughtful way you contributed to a discussion of themes in our class novel.

5/6 R

Charlie S – for your thoughtful contributions throughout our Wonder novel study.

Evelinka S – for bouncing back into Gingerbread planning after some initial challenges. Well done!

Bailey B – for the focus and effort you put into drafting and editing your letter to your future buddy! Well done.

5/6 HG

Baliey B – for the way you worked collaboratively during Gingerbread planning.

Maya F – for dreaming big!

5/6 J

Jack T  – for taking on feedback and being willing to compromise on your Gingerbread design.

Otto C – for taking on feedback and being willing to compromise on your Gingerbread design.

Dougie W – for the way you consistently work hard and show the strength to be sensible.

Performing Arts

Ru W – for the way you were fully focused on your singing. Well done!

Maya F – for always showing such gratitude and bringing positive energy to class.