13TH SEPTEMBER - 17TH SEPTEMBER - week 10

FOUNDATION NEWS

Wow what a term we have had! A huge thankyou to everyone at home who have worked hard to give students the best home learning experience possible. It has been wonderful seeing everyone's smiling faces through our morning Webex chats!

This week students wrapped up their learning on synonyms and antonyms and have become wonderful authors of their own stories! We also focused on the soft <g>, where the <g> makes a /j/ sound as in 'orange' or 'giant'.

In numeracy we had some fun making and interpreting pictographs! Respectful relationships and inquiry saw us getting super creative! In RR we explored how making craft can have a positive impact on our wellbeing and made some wonderful Spring finger paintings. In inquiry students were encouraged to explore nature collecting leaves and sticks and then create some wonderful art work with it.

Again, we thank you all for your amazing support this term. It certainty would not have been possible with out you all at home! Looking forward to a fun final term of Foundation!

Enjoy the holidays and stay safe,

Andrew and Steph

GRADE 1/2 NEWS

Can you believe it's the last week of term?! It's been a long term, but you have all put in so much effort and it's so great to continue to see all of the smiling faces on our Meets each morning. Thank you again for your ongoing support, it is really appreciated.

Take a look at our collection of photos from the term!

Have a restful break and we hope to see you in person soon.

The 1/2 Team

Elise, Emma, Amy, Jen and Martha

GRADE 3/4 NEWS

Phew, we made it! This term certainly did not turn out the way anyone expected to. You have all shown great resilience and persistence during this time and we cannot thank you enough.

This week, we have been finishing the term off by finding out how much students have learnt in the Maths topics of Fractions and Decimals, Location and Transformation and Chance. We are very pleased to say that there has been some terrific results, with the motivation tool of trophy rewards (and the prospect of icy poles for the winning grade) proving very effective. As you can see from the near closing results, Ms Van's Grade look to have insurmountable lead but second place is still up for grabs!

As the week draws to a close we've played some old fashioned games such as lines and boxes (see below) and will soon play some newer ones such as Kahoot (check the classroom streams for more details). https://kahoot.it/

Finally on behalf of all the staff in 3/4, we'd like to wish you all a safe and happy holidays and here's to being back at school...we can't wait to get back!

Ronnie, Michelle and Stuart

GRADE 5/6 NEWS

What a term! Thank you to all the students, families and members of our community who has supported us over this term. Each and every child and family should be proud of their dedication and what they have achieved during another term of Remote Learning. You are all amazing!

This week in Literacy, the 5/6 students somewhat changed their focus, and tried their hand at conspiracy theories. This creative unit required students to use their analytical skills to scour the internet for conspiracy theories - they weren't hard to find! It was delightful to read the students creative ideas as they investigated and created their own conspiracy theories.

In Numeracy, students have been revising what they have learnt this term and preparing for next terms learning by completing pre tests on Essential Assessment. As students have been revising their learning, they have applied their learnt concepts to real world situation and investigated artists such as Peit Mondrian, and artist famous for his geometrical artworks.

We wish you all a happy and safe holiday!

Take care and stay safe,

The 5/6 Team

Natalii, Paul and Sandra

SPECIALIST NEWS - PE

Thank you to all students who have participated in the weekly live PE lessons. I have had a great time getting active each day and it has been great to see the students consistently engaged.

The topics that have been covered during the sessions are:

• Fitness

• Boxing

• Reaction Time

• Paralympics

• Bowling

• Throwing and Catching

During this last week each session finished with PE Trivia. Well done to all who gave it their best shot!

CE DANCE CLUB.

My name is Clare Cornell and I run "CE DANCE CLUB" here at Wattleview Primary School.

I am a self-motivated and creative professional dancer with over 45 of years experience in jazz, tap, ballet, hip hop, commercial jazz, contemporary, lyrical and Broadway styles. I am also an ex gymnast and have coached gymbaroo, gymnastics, cheerleading and acrobatics.

I have been teaching dance and choreographing school productions here, and in various primary schools around the Knox area for the last 15 years and I will be teaching at WVPS throughout 2021.

Dancing and performing are great ways to build fitness and confidence in children, and having lessons during school hours is convenient for parents, as you don’t have to drive to outside dance schools in the evenings or on weekends.

CE DANCE CLUB has performed at many events, including the school’s Open Nights, Performing Arts Nights, Grandparents Shows, School Productions, Christmas Shows and school assemblies. We have also represented the school at various local events.

* Classes are held on

- MONDAYS (JUNIORS ~ Preps) and

- TUESDAYS (SENIORS ~ grade 1 and above)

at LUNCHTIME (1:40-2:30pm) in the SCHOOL GYM.

* Price is $15 per 50 minute class, and a term fee is required on enrolment.

School uniform is worn during class, and bare feet - therefore no dance uniform or dancing shoes will be required.

A costume is provided to all members whenever we are performing and a $10 costume fee is required annually.

CE DANCE CLUB is for both girls AND boys!

If you would like your child to join up, please contact Clare for full enrolment details on - 0417031233

or via email on - cedanceclub@hotmail.com

Clare E Cornell. 💃

CE DANCE CLUB.

FOUNDATION NEWS

Week 9 in Foundation saw us learning about the soft <C> as in circle , cycle or celery. We also focused on reviewing all our tricky words learnt so far (complete list on the Remote Learning Website) and introduced the words 'any' and 'many'. This week students put all of their narrative learning together to write their own stories. We look forward to reading the creative stories from our budding authors!

In numeracy, we continued our work on 'time' by exploring half past time. Students have shown great knowledge and understanding of time and are now able to read o'clock and half past times accurately.

In Respectful relationships and Inquiry, we had a nature theme! Respectful relationships was all about getting outdoors to explore nature in a Scavenger hunt and feel how being active outside can benefit our wellbeing. In Inquiry we explored the life cycle of a bean plant. As Spring has begun we will be able to see lots of new plants and seedlings begin their life cycles in the world around us.

Again, we have had a wonderful time connecting with the students each morning on our Webex chats! We look forward to a fun and productive last week of term 3!

Thank you,

Andrew and Steph

GRADE 1/2 NEWS

It's hard to believe that it is already Week 9! Here is a recap about what the students have been learning this week.

We were focusing on two different sounds this week, the first was <oy> making the /oy/ sound - e.g. voyage and enjoy, and the second sound was <ear> making the /er/ sound, e.g. Earth and pearl. Students' Jolly Grammar topic for the week was understanding how to use speech marks effectively and how to use commas with speech marks. Students continued to write their information reports - they're looking fantastic so far!

Division has been the focus of our mathematics learning this week. Students have continued to practise sharing items into equal groups and developing their skills to solve division equations.

During the integrated/wellbeing time, we explored the National Geographic Kids website, there are so many interesting facts on there! The character, Wibbly, from last week's Respectful Relationships task returned, too. He needed some assistance finding 'calming down' and 'cheering up' strategies. These strategies are also great ones to use while we're in Lockdown - make sure you take a look.

Take care,

The 1/2 Team

Elise, Emma, Jen, Amy and Martha

GRADE 3/4 NEWS

Hope you are all keeping safe and well, whilst doing the best to support each other in this difficult time.

As we near the end of Term 3, students have been revising concepts learnt in Maths by playing board games (Mathopoly), watching video tutorials and earning much valued valued trophies in Essential Assessments (more on that to come).

In Jolly Grammar students have been learning how the graphemes ear can make the 'air' sound ear says air, 'a' can make 'o' sound (as in wand, swan and quality) wa sounds and how some suffixes can make a special 'schwa uh' sound such as distant, important and vacant.

In reading students have been revising possessive pronouns and the skill of visualising what you have just read.

In writing students have been learning how to improve the fluency of their writing by completing an activity in which they had to expand short sentences with additional adverbs and adjectives. Below is a terrific example, we thoroughly enjoyed reading:-

My Uncle sneezed.

"My hairy Uncle sneezed like an erupting volcano" Jazzlyn 3/4A

Latest on the My Numeracy Trophy Competition is 3/4C in the lead with a whopping 453 points, 3/4A are next with 276 points and lastly (but not too far away) on 264 points are 3/4B. Please remind your child to earn some points for their respective grade - it's been some friendly competition for many.

For our Respectful Relationships component this Friday, students will be asked some hypothetical questions about gender specific toys - we are looking forward to hearing their responses.

Finally last Friday, some students enjoyed the opportunity to participate in a live cooking lesson. Here are some of the amazing results.

Until Next Week, Happy Learning!

Michelle, Ronnie and Stuart

GRADE 5/6 NEWS

Who can believe it is Week 9 already! We are so proud of our 5/6 students and their dedicated attitude towards another week of Home Learning.

This week in Literacy, our students had a focus on non-fiction texts. As part of a reading task, students were asked to reading an informative passage from the Smithsonian Museum. Students had access to a huge range of reading materials, all at their own reading levels. Each student then summarised what they read. As a writing task, students were giving the opportunity to research their own topic for an informative writing piece which will be completed later this week.

In our Numeracy sessions, students are in their final week of their Location and Transformation unit. This weeks work revised the terms and actions of rotating, translating and reflecting before our focus shifted to enlarging and reducing shapes. Students have been linking their multiplication and division skills to work out the scale of the changes to shapes. Each day students have had a chance to show their creativity through the symmetry concepts in this unit. It was pleasing to see students taking the opportunity to have a mathematically creative outlet.

Take care and stay safe,

The 5/6 Team

Natalii, Paul and Sandra

SPECIALIST NEWS - Performing Arts

After the (inevitable) decision to postpone the School Production, students have been exploring some creative apps and sites to keep up their creativity skills.

1/2 - Students have been creating sound cities on the website 'Isle of Tune'. They make roads and put little cars on them, and as they drive past houses, trees and streetlamps each one makes a different sound. Students have sent me some very creative responses! (See below for some examples!)

3/4 - These guys have been exploring a site called 'Learning Music' from ableton.com. We have studied how beats, chords and melodies work together to create music and how the style can change by changing the speed, chords or the scale. Students have even completed some tricky challenges set by recreating songs using the website and guessing what they are. Well done to all who completed the challenge - the answers were 'Twinkle Twinkle Little Star' and 'Jingle Bells!'

5/6 - These amazing students have been creating videos and sharing them with their class on google meets! We have had a particular focus on sounds and voice, such as using drama and emotion in their voice to enhance the story, and including sound effects. Some students have really gone above and beyond in their spare time to create some amazing videos. Well done.

Let's hope we can be back soon so we can continue performing for our classmates!

-Ms Waugh

30TH AUGUST - 3RD SEPTEMBER - week 8

FOUNDATION NEWS

With another week of remote learning done, our Foundation students have been very busy learning and developing their skills!

Our Jolly Phonics focus was on the <ph> spelling making a /f/ sound, as in phone, elephant or dolphin. They have also continued to develop their handwriting, sentence structure and decoding skills. We were also introduced to synonyms (words that have the same meaning) and helped Detective Inferencing Iggy to find clues to help us understand what was happening in pictures.

In numeracy, students have become time keepers and begun to be able to read o'clock time on both an analogue and digital clock.

This week we continued our learning on 'Living and Non-Living' with learning about what plants need to grow. This knowledge will be very handy as we move into spring and we see more plants growing and sprouting around us.

We thank everyone at home for their continued efforts to support Foundation student learning. We have absolutely loved being able to share their learning through Webex every morning. Don't forget, we are on the Webex all day for anyone to pop in and ask questions or share about their home learning experiences.

Thank you,

Andrew & Steph

GRADE 5/6 NEWS

Week 8 of Remote Learning is done and dusted.

In Literacy, students had the opportunity to go on a virtual excursion to the Great Barrier Reef with the one and only Sir David Attenborough! The virtual excursion was linked to our writing tasks where students did some research about a part of the reef, and then wrote information reports on what they found out.

Grade 5/6 students continued their learning in Location and Transformation, but this week’s focus has been on the transformation side. Students have been demonstrating their knowledge of clockwise, anti clockwise, and quarter turns as well as the language around translation, reflection and rotation of a shape.

As always, thank you all for your continuing support!

Stay safe and take care,

The 5/6 Team

Paul, Sandra and Natalii

SPECIALIST NEWS - AUSLAN

Hello Wattleview Families.

The students of Wattleview P.S have made terrific progress in learning Auslan this year.

In Foundation and grades 1/2 we have been focusing on Greetings. Students have been practicing the signs for; hello, goodbye, please, thank you, sorry, How are you? My name is, happy, sad, I/me, you and Pleased to meet you. It would be great if you could ask your children to teach your family these signs.

In grades 3/4 and 5/6 students have been learning to sign Family members. We made up some funny mnemonics to remember the different signs. It would be great if you could ask your children to teach your family these signs.

Students keep up the great work you have been doing remotely and go back and look at previous weeks lessons as a way of revising and embedding signs.

See you later

Mrs Webb

23RD AUGUST - 27TH AUGUST - week 7

FOUNDATION NEWS

This weeks Remote Learning saw us all connect via Webex! Our morning 9:30am meetings have been full of students sharing their school work, toys and experiences, lots of fun games (Bingo, Simon says, corners etc) and completing learning activities together. We even had a 'Design Challenge' where students got creative with lego or playdough. It has been wonderful to see so many students login each morning!

In literacy this week students have continued to think about their Narrative writing, focusing on adding characters to their stories. We have also looked at the <er> sound and the different ways it may be spelt in words, for example skirt, purple and mixer.

In numeracy we have started to learn about time! Students begun their learning by pondering the question, what is time? and making a clock face!

Respectful Relationships and Inquiry helped us to celebrate Book Week by reading two shortlisted stories! We read the story 'Busy Beaks' to learn all about birds in Inquiry and 'Anenome is not my Enemy' for RR to focus on helping others. We wrote how we could help the people that we live with and then created a super cute Anenome and clownfish craft!

It has been a fun week in Foundation and we hope students are enjoying the activities from home too! We are super proud of all the work they are completing at home and can not thank families enough for your support!

Looking forward to another week of fun, don't forget to check into our morning 9:30am Webex to get a taste of the excitement!

Thanks

Andrew and Steph

GRADE 1/2 NEWS

Another week of remote learning done and dusted - it's been a busy one!

Students started to learn about informative writing and have begun to plan their very own information report. Over the next few weeks students will be crafting the factual reports on a topic they are passionate about and experts in. Our focus sound for the week has been <ow> as in owl, town and flower, we have also continued to explore adjectives.

We have continued to learn about multiplication, with a strong focus on arrays. It was great to see all of the different arrays you could make with objects you had at home - anything from strawberries, to paintbrushes, to socks!

Throughout our wellbeing and integrated sessions this week, students have been designing potions, making Aladdin's carpet and also creating a tower for Rapunzel. You have shown a lot of creativity!

Specialist Friday: Just a reminder, the specialist tasks are posted on a Friday for you to complete. This is also a great opportunity for you to catch up on any work that has been missed from the week. Your class teacher can still be contacted throughout the day if you have questions.

As always, thanks for you continual support, it is really appreciated.

Have a fantastic weekend and stay safe,

The 1/2 Team

GRADE 5/6 NEWS

With another week of Remote Learning under our belt, we are pleased to say that we can still share new experiences with our students. Last Thursday, our students were able to join a Google Meet with Olympic Champion, Brooke Stratton. Brooke answered many questions from our students and took the time to respond honestly and graciously. Thank you to everyone who attended, and a big thank you to Miss Jan Mustac for organising the event.

In Literacy this week, students have been investigating and nominating a new State Fossil Emblem for Victoria. Museums Victorian are now taking nominations, so hopefully one of our favourites gets picked! Students have also had a creative writing focus this week. Students were challenged to use randomly generated objects as inspiration for a creative writing piece.

After completing the Patterns and Algebra Post Test on Friday, the Grade 5/6 students have begun their new Numeracy unit on Location and Transformation. This weeks skills have been developing the understanding of mapping, scale and using grid references to pin point a specific location. Students have also been introduced to directional language such as the compass points: North, South, East and West. It has been great to see students enjoying the challenge of a visual and spacial mathematical unit!

Thank you all for your continuing support!

Stay safe and take care,

The 5/6 Team

Natalii, Paul and Sandra

SPECIALIST NEWS -

16th august - 20th august - week 6

FOUNDATION NEWS

This week saw Foundation students attend our first remote learning Webex! It has been wonderful to see the students at 9:30am each morning to share with their friends and play fun games! Please remember the Webex meeting is open until 3:30pm each day. This means at any point throughout the day, you are able to chat with either of us to answer questions or offer support.

Students have continued with their Jolly Phonics work focusing on the diagraph <ow> and the different sounds it can make. We have also begun thinking about creating a setting for narrative writing. In maths, students have played fun games to practice their subtraction skills and find a strategy that works best for them.

We understand this can be a challenging time balancing remote learning. Please know we are here to support you so please get in touch through email or our daily Webex meetings. You are all doing a wonderful job and we thank you for your ongoing support!

Don't forget to continue reading and practicing sounds with your child daily.

Thank you,

Andrew and Steph

GRADE 1/2 NEWS

As Lockdown 6 continues the 1/2 Staff would like to say a HUGE thank-you to our 1/2 families. We understand that this is a very uncertain and challenging time, however, your continual support and commitment to learning is really appreciated.

This week our students authors, have continued to use the Writing Process to create their very own fairy tales, we are very excited to see these published - your plans are looking great. We started to look at future tense and focused on the <ew> and <ear> sounds.

Students continued to work on their time skills, this week had a big focus on duration, as well as continually practising our time-telling. Remember, this is a really easy skill to work on at home!

Throughout remote learning, we have combined our integrated topic (fairy tales) with a wellbeing session, to give the students a bit of a brain break. This week, students have been working on different crafty activities, such as making finger puppets, designing princesses and monsters and creating characters from The Gingerbread Man. Check out the photos below!

NOTICES
Attendance: Although we are not physically at school, we still need to mark attendance. This is done in a few ways - submitting work (either via Google Classroom or email), a parent contacting their child's teacher to let them know that they are completing hard copy packs.
Google Meets: We are available from 9:00am - 3:30pm to assist you via Google Meet. If you have any questions that arise throughout the day about tasks, comment on a Classroom post or send an email and we can jump on a Google Meet to work through your question.

As always, do not hesitate to contact us if you have any questions. We are available through Compass and email. Thanks again for your ongoing support.

The 1/2 Team
Elise, Emma, Jen, Amy and Martha

GRADE 5/6 NEWS

As Lockdown continues, as teachers, we also continue to review how we can best support your child. One of the ways we can show support is having a Google Help Meet. This means that one classroom teacher will be available online all day for students to drop in to ask for help or for support. We will use the same link as the Morning Google Meet, to ensure all students across the level have the code and know where to find us. Therefore, from 9:30am until 3:30pm one of us will be available to all students. Of course, we will need to have breaks to eat, stretch and respond to our Google Classrooms; and in those times the camera and microphone will be turned off. Each morning we will remind students what that means, and that we will be able to be present again soon.

Out of all the Lockdowns this year, it is this week we feel the most proud of our 5/6 students. Work continues to be submitted on time and students are working hard. However, this week students faced the news of a two week extension to Lockdown, and were informed that the Production is postponed until 2022. Mrs Waugh spoke to the 5/6 students directly before announcing the news to families via Compass. Every single student was disappointed, but every single student showed resilience and pride in what they had achieved and what they had challenged themselves to do for the production so far. This year has not gone the way most have expected, but as a cohort and as a community we continue to show strength. And this week, it shone brightly from the 5/6s.

Most of all, we thank you for supporting your children. Your comfort, guidance and help is present in every piece of work submitted and shows in each child's face during our 9:30am Morning Google Meets.

Literacy: This week, students have had the opportunity to read and write from different points of views or perspective, as well as consider the audience for their writing pieces. Students were able to work with their personal reading books to create a new chapter. It was pleasing to see how creative some of the responses were! Also, we also asked students to consider what they would like to have at their classes stall at Wattleview's 50th Birthday Celebration. This integrated task had students carefully consider what would be a plausible and cost effective idea that would be fun for students (and some adults too). Some great ideas emerged and we are looking forward to seeing some of them come to life!

Numeracy: This week, students will finish their Patterns and Algebra unit. Students continued to find unknown values using their addition, subtraction, multiplication and division skills. Each student had the opportunity to complete tasks at their level on My Numeracy, as well as revise their knowledge and deeply understand new mathematical language. Some students who were feeling confident with their skills attempted the extension tasks this week, which expanded their knowledge on the order of operations or BODMAS. It is wonderful to see so many students rising to the challenge of extension tasks across our level!

Once again, thank you for your support and the hard work you put in with your children each day. Never hesitate to contact us via email or Compass if you have any questions or need to talk.

Take care and stay safe,

The 5/6 Team

Natalii, Paul and Sandra

SPECIALIST NEWS - PE

Wow what a month of PE! In and out of lockdown has made the last month an interesting one.

Junior School

Since my previous post, the junior school completed mock Olympic events at school and learnt some tennis skills, with some classes having been visited by a local tennis coach called Jake. During lockdown the students completed Yoga and participated in live PE sessions that focused on fitness whilst connecting with others.

The junior swimming program is fast approaching. With the current lockdown I am uncertain of what will happen with this program. I will inform you as we get closer to the start date.

Senior School

The senior students luckily finished learning about all four of the summer sports at school. Since my last post they learnt about tennis and volleyball. During lockdown the students completed Yoga and participated in live PE sessions that focused on fitness whilst connecting with others.

The Mixed AFL team and Girls Soccer team were lucky enough to compete at division level just days before lockdown began. Both teams gave it their all and had a terrific day representing the school. Thank you to the students and parents involved for being flexible and thank you to Courtney P for coaching the footy team!

FOUNDATION NEWS

As lockdowns continue to be a regular part of our program, we encourage you to keep doing the best that you can at home. We understand that this is a difficult time, potentially juggling family, work and personal time with remote learning. Just know that we are always here to support you in any way that we can. To try and lift the spirits, please enjoy a summary of what was a very joyous Day 100.

We were so lucky that our 100 Days of Foundation fell between lockdowns and that we were able to celebrate altogether on site. Students and teachers had a fantastic day celebrating with fun activities, food, music, games and don't forget the creative outfits! We made '100 days smarter' headbands, threaded 100 Fruit Loops with our buddies to make a necklace, ate a heap of delicious food, danced, played games and received a special 100 Days certificate, presented by Mrs Wilson and Mrs Wright.

Once again, thank you all for your contributions to the day. We hope it was a special and memorable day that your child will always remember.

Please enjoy some photos below.

GRADE 3/4 NEWS

Unfortunately, Lockdown continues to be a part of our lives but all the staff who work in 3/4 would like to thank you all for your continued efforts with making the best of bad situation. Your kindness, generosity, humour and resilience have remained noted.

This week we have had fun learning about probability for Maths and taking-a-chance along the way (no Abba puns please). In writing, the students enjoyed writing their own imaginative endings to classic fairytales and learning the various rules of applying speech marks.

For our Integrated Studies project, students have been piecing together moments in the history of the First Fleet to create their own creative timelines.

As always if you or child need to reach out for assistance, please contact your child's teacher and they will be happy to help.

Ronnie, Michelle and Stuart

GRADE 5/6 NEWS

As Lockdown 6 continues, we would like to say a massive thank you to our parent community. We can see how much time and effort you are dedicating to your children, and we can assure you that we can see the many positive effects it has on your child.

During this time if you or your child need to chat, discuss work or simply need advice - never hesitate to contact us. We are available via Compass, email and your child can contact us directly via Google Classroom and their own Google accounts.

This week in Literacy we have encouraged your children to continue read at home. They have been focusing on 'summarising' as a comprehension strategy. In writing, students have continued to delve into the complicated nature of 'script writing', using the Three Little Pigs as a base text.

In Numeracy, students have continued to develop their understanding of Patterns and Algebra. Students have focused on developing fluency as they found the 'unknown' in equations across the 4 Processes and have used their mathematical knowledge to understand what comes next in number patterns. Some students who have had the confidence to challenge themselves have applied their skills to fractions and decimal number patterns! Wow!!

As Lockdown continues next week we will continue to support your child any way we can, whether it be virtually or as onsite supervision. Again, never hesitate to contact us with any questions, or for avenues of support. We understand that this is a hard time for families, and we thank you for all of your efforts.

Stay safe and take care,

The 5/6 Team

Natalii, Paul and Sandra

SPECIALIST NEWS- Music

We have a very busy term ahead getting ready for our School Production at the start of next term. Never fear, there will be a performance rain, hail, lockdown or shine! I have recorded all the class dances so that students may practise at home, and those with speaking lines are memorising and rehearsing.

Most students will be require to wear ALL BLACK under their costume on the night. These can be leggings, tracksuit pants, long sleeve or short sleeve shirts. I have a few spares if you are having trouble finding black clothes.

Information regarding tickets will be released soon. Depending on the level of restrictions at the time, we may not be able to fill the hall to full capacity, but seeing as the hall is so large, we will still hopefully be able to cater to all audience members who would like to attend.

Thank you for your continued support!

Ms Waugh

2nd august - 6th august - week 4

FOUNDATION NEWS

A short and sweet one this week. We have continued the celebration of Day 100 by completing vocabulary and writing tasks, sharing our favourite parts of the day. Stay tuned next week for a big Day 100 post including work samples and photos from the day. Per our last newsletter, if you'd like some photos of your child from the day, please just get in touch and we can send them through individually.

If you are having trouble paying online for our upcoming Fairytales incursion, that is because the BSB number is wrong on the form. Jo is posting a new notice on Compass for you to access. If you're paying with cash, no need to worry.

Please remember to keep reading with your child at home. We have injected some new texts into our take home reader boxes and students are quite excited about the new decodable comics that have been added.

. . .

As always, if you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to get in touch with either one of us.

Have a great week!

Steph & Andrew

GRADE 3/4 NEWS

It's been great to have a regular week of school, though it seems like our "chill" PJ day vibes are lingering from last Friday...

NUMERACY

After tackling fractions last week, we changed directions and turned our attentions to Location and Transformation. Students refreshed their memories of flips, slides and turns and built up to using the more technical terms: reflections, translations and rotations. Tessellation intrigued our learners and lines of symmetry had them imagining a mirror!

LITERACY

Students started the week by revising verb tense (past, present, future) and correct punctuation use. Reading is a very important skill to have, but what was equally important was students coming to understand that EVERYONE was a reader. We discussed the book, "Miss Brooks loves books (but I don't)", and talked about finding the right book to help start their reading journey. What excited students the most this week was their work to design a program and backdrops for our production.

INQUIRY

This week we hunkered down with The First Fleet and identified key dates. Students dicussed reasons for the fleet to set sail and cringed at the conditions convicts had to endure on the long journey. Compass points were also introduced and students challenged to use them to give directions.

GRADE 5/6 NEWS

Last Friday we didn't just enjoy a relaxing PJ Day at school, 5/6A also said farewell to Miss Sarah Morris. Miss Morris had been completing her final placement before becoming a full fledged teacher. We wish her all the best on her future endeavours.

On Tuesday and Wednesday this week, the mixed football and girls soccer teams competed in District Division after a hugely successful Winter Sports campaign last term. Despite neither team progressing to the next stage of competition, both teams played extremely well and had a lot of fun competing against other schools in our wider area.

Learning in our classrooms this week has seen a focus on the reading comprehension strategy: Visualisation. Students have been encouraged to listen for details in personal and whole class texts and hone in on features that evoke vivid imagery. As part of our writing unit, students have begun to delve into the craft of script writing. Students have been dissecting familiar narratives and are beginning to understand common features of a script. In numeracy, we have finished our unit on fractions and have begun to focus on patterns and algebra. Students have been working with students of the same level to firstly revise, then develop their understandings of rules and patterns with numbers.

School Captain Report:

In 5/6 we have been doing our 90% Challenge Retention Test to see what we remember and which Workshop we should be in. Recently we have been watching some segments of the Olympics to help cheer on Australia. Also, this year we are having our production and a celebration for Wattleview's '50 Years' birthday next term.

By Brenton, Harper and Taylah Rose

Thank you for reading! Take care and stay safe.

The 5/6 Team

Natalii Parker, Paul Moons and Sandra Dovey

SPECIALIST NEWS -

26th july - 30th july - week 3

FOUNDATION NEWS

We hope you're happy to have your child back at school. We're certainly happy to see them back in the classrooms. We are really looking forward to Day 100 on Monday and know that the kids are really excited about it too! Please make sure that you have the Day 100 Party notice that was sent home. This tells you the food item that we'd like for you to bring along. Once again, we greatly appreciate your contributions. We'll be taking lots of photos throughout the day and these will be made available to you upon request.

For the rest of this week, there will be a strong focus on getting back into routine and building up the excitement for the big day on Monday.

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If you have any issues regarding Day 100 celebrations or the food contributions, please feel free to get in touch with us.

Thanking you again for your ongoing support,

Steph & Andrew

GRADE 3/4 NEWS

Thank you all for your support during our recent lockdown.

We are now in Term 3, Week 3 and sincerely hope there will not be any further interruptions to learning for the students.

I think the students were as happy as us to be back!

This week we have learnt about writing a play script, creating an advertising poster for our school concert and other grammar concepts such as contractions and synonyms.

We are starting to investigate fractions. Grade 3’s will focus on learning about halves, quarters, thirds and fifths in a variety of ways ie; shapes, groups and collections. Grade 4’s will focus on learning about making connections between fractions and decimals.

Excursion: We will keep you informed regarding the excursion plans.

GRADE 5/6 NEWS

We were very excited to welcome our students back from Home Learning yesterday! The Grade 5/6 students were fortunate enough to enjoy a day mostly filled with their Specialist classes. It was incredibly warming to see everyone's faces, hear about each experience and see the excitement in students as they saw their classmates again.

If your family still have a Chromebook or unsubmitted Home Learning materials, please return them to school as soon as possible.

We would like to thank everyone in the 5/6 community for their support and dedication over this Home Learning period. We know it can be a difficult time for families, but your hard work is valued and appreciated. Thank you.

Natalii, Paul and Sandra

The 5/6 Team

School Captain Report:

Literacy

This week in Literacy, the 5/6 students have been working on journalistic writing and forming questions about the books they are reading. They have been learning about the different types of questions to ask about their book, and the possible ways to answer these questions.

Numeracy

This week in Numeracy, the 5/6 students have been working on their fraction knowledge. They have been learning how to add and subtract fractions and also recognise the difference between mixed number and improper fractions. They have also been revising how to order fractions on a number line.

Other News

Welcome back 5/6s! Friday 30th July will be a PJ Day and the Curriculum Day will be moved to Friday 13th August.

SPECIALIST NEWS - VISUAL ART

The Grade 5/6 students created these fabulous pieces of work. Here are just 4 examples of the terrific symmetrical animals the students produced. There are many more pieces of this work on display just outside the Art room in the corridor.

FANTASTIC work Grade 5/6 students.

Mrs Oliver

19th july - 23rd july - week 2

FOUNDATION NEWS

Welcome back to remote learning. You continue to do a fantastic job with your children and we appreciate the ongoing support with your child's learning and development at home. Like previous lock downs, we have endeavoured to maintain some form of consistency with the learning being done at home. This allows students to focus more on the concept rather than the structure of each activity.

As you know, we have continued our work on summarising and are getting better at being able to identify the most important parts in a text. We also introduced alternative /ai/ and /oi/ spellings such as <ay> and <oy>. Our work on recount writing continues and hopefully we will be back onsite soon so that we can complete our whole school writing assessment. Just like last week, students continued to develop their rhyme production and used word webs to display brainstormed words. We are always looking to improve or handwriting and sentence building. Please continue to practise these skills with your child as often as possible.

In Numeracy, we have continued our unit on 'addition', using tens friends, dominoes and drawings to help solve basic addition equations.

Our integrated unit on living and non-living things & fairytales has begun and we will be looking to identify different living and non-living things in a new fairytale each week. We have also planted our seeds in our Foundation Discovery Garden. See picture below for our progress so far (no shoots yet but most seeds have been planted).

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As always, we are here to support you in any way that we can. Particularly during this time of isolation and uncertainty. We understand that it can be hard at times but please enjoy learning with your child at home. Their enthusiasm grows from the enthusiasm of those around them.

Please contact us if you have any questions or concerns.

Steph & Andrew

GRADE 5/6 NEWS

We have almost completed the first week of Remote Learning 5.0 and we are very thankful to all the family support we are seeing across the 5/6 level and the entire school. We understand that this is not the easiest time for families, so if you have any concerns or queries please do not hesitate to contact us. We are more than happy to support you and your child the best way we can.

LITERACY

This week, students have had the opportunity to connect with a book of their choice and follow the 'Reading Routine', which enables students to connect, question and deeply understand their novels. As part of our weekly BTN episode, children have focused on one article and have answered some focus questions regarding the weekly broadcast. During our visual literacy session, students have watched a short fictional video and made predictions before, during and after the video at specific timed points. It was pleasing to see how well students connected with this task. Students quickly changed their opinions as they obtained more information about the child in the fictional video!

NUMERACY

Our focus on fractions has continued into our Remote Learning sessions. Last week students completed tasks to assure a 'baseline' understanding of fraction basics and the division of objects and groups. This week, students have been building on that knowledge and are increasing their awareness of fractions being part of a number. These activities have asked students to place these fractions on a number-line which visually represents common fractions between zero and one. Students have also been able to use My Numeracy to answer questions online at their learning point of need.

WELLBEING

This week Mrs Webb organised a clip for students to watch to support mindfulness and how to approach and cope with feelings, worries and change. We understand, that especially for children, this is a very uncertain time. Hopefully a little mindfulness and meditation helped your child self calm and feel positive this week.

Thank you again for your support.

Stay safe, take care and we will be seeing you all shortly.

Natalii, Paul and Sandra

The 5/6 Team

12th july - 16th july - week

FOUNDATION NEWS

Welcome back! It's great to see the kids back and excited to learn! We are also getting super excited for our 100 days of school celebration on Monday August 2nd!

Literacy:

We started our week back at school with writing a recount about our holidays. The students wrote one or two sentences about their favourite activity from the holidays and drew a matching picture. We have also learnt about the Magic e! 'Magic e' is part of a split vowel diagraph where the 'e' jumps back to make the vowels say their names. For example in the words lake, home, cute and kite. We have learnt the new tricky words any, many, more, before. Please make sure students continue to practice their sounds and tricky words at home.

Now that we are well and truly underway with our home reading program, we thought we would celebrate all of the hard work. Based on the reading logs (in the green bags) that you maintain at home, we will have a class display that highlights all of the many nights of reading done at home. Students will be able to track their 'nights read' and work towards new milestones. As we continue to place a heavy emphasis on reading, if you haven't already started logging 'nights read' at home, please start now so that we can publicly celebrate everyone's success in the classroom.

Numeracy:

In Numeracy, we have started to learn about addition. We used blocks to help us solve addition equations to 10 and to 20! We are also continuing our work on Data displays looking at pictographs-how to make them and how to interpret them.

Inquiry:

This term our inquiry topic is 'Living and Non-living things'. We are starting this topic off by planting our own plants! Students have worked in pairs across classes to plant a seedling. Over the term we will care for our plants and discover what they need to help them grow.

In respectful relationships we went on a pretend picnic! But we came across lots of problems that needed solving. Students worked together to find solutions to our problems. We discussed how problems are a part of everyday life and who in our lives can help us to solve our problems.

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This term we are beginning our long awaited and much requested Show and Share! Show and Share is a time for students to bring in an object they would like to share with the class. It encourages them to develop their speaking and listening skills. We have allocated each house color a day (Monday - Waratah, Tuesday - Bluegum, Wednesday - Fern and Thursday - Wattle). Students will be able to share on their house day beginning on Monday next week.

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As always you know where we are if you have any questions or concerns.

Thank you,

Andrew and Steph

GRADE 3/4 NEWS

Welcome back everyone! We hope you all had a restful break. Students are buzzing with excitement for our IMAX and Melbourne Museum excursion which will be happening next Wednesday, July 21st.

LITERACY

This week our writing focus has been Recounts - pieces of writing, such as a diary entry, that reflect on and describe what has happened in the past. Students have therefore been recounting what they had done over the holidays and there have been many interesting stories to tell! Here are just a couple:-

Cooper:

On my holidays, I saw poppy and dad. I played video games and Nintendo. I ate fish and chips with broccoli and peas, it was delicious! I played Nintendo with my dad, it was the best. Oh and my little brother put a chip us his nose!

Tobi:

Hi, today I’m going to talk about my holidays, let’s get started!

The first thing I did wasn’t THAT exciting but I went to my cousin’s house and we just played our Ipads for a bit.

In the next few days of my holidays, I was just practicing some basketball with my brother, Gus. But he kept stealing the ball off of me and it got annoying.

The next few days were the fun ones. I went to Zagames with Kyle, April, Ruby and lots of other people. We got our meals really quickly actually. Then we just kept playing.

After that, I went on a holiday! I went to my Uncle’s holiday house. We like to call it the ‘pink house’. It’s located up in Bonnie Doon. I went on the mower with my Aunty, while my cousin and brother were on the motorbike. We stayed there for a day and a half.

To be honest, we mostly just went to Bonnie Doon to break up the hours of driving and for the fun of it. The reason I’m saying to ‘break up the hours’ of the trip was because we were going to see my other cousin in Myrtleford, about 4 hours away from my house.

And finally, we went to Myrtleford. Once we got there my cousins were super excited. I mostly hung out with my cousin, Willow, though. I begged my mum to stay another night and she let me! Everyone else did too, then the next day we went for a 7km walk.

I would say it was a pretty good holiday.

Stone:

On the holidays I met up with Ben and Daniel at the Arboretum and we played cops and robbers for about 2 hours.

When I got back to my house I played Fortnight – 10 levels up. I TOTALLY DIDN”T BUY ANY LEVELS!!!!

Another day I went to the 1000 steps but they were shut. So then we were going to go do a trail but that was shut too. We went to another trail, when we got to that trail sadly we saw a dead dog. The trail was 2kms to get there and back. When we stopped there was a bull ant’s next everywhere but I got to eat a bunch of lollies. We were in the bull ants’ territory for about 20 minutes. Then we walked back home.

NUMERACY

Students eased into the week with lots of revision of previously learnt concepts such as time, seasons and the four processes. We also introduced a new format for our Maths homework and emphasised the importance of practice, adopting a growth mindset and discussed how memory works.

GRADE 5/6 NEWS

Welcome back to Term 3! We hope you all had a wonderful and safe holiday. We are well rested ready for a fantastic start to Semester 2.

As a final reminder, we require the new Camp Permission Form for the 5/6 Forest Lodge Camp to be returned as soon as possible. As this week draws to a close you might be contacted by your child's classroom teacher as an additional reminder to return the permission form as soon as possible. As Term 4 begins we are required to send a new Medical Form to families to ensure we have the most up-to-date information regarding your child's health and well being.

Sarah Morris has returned to complete the final weeks of her placement in Miss Sandra Dovey's room. She will be with 5/6A until the 30th July.

In Respectful Relationships this week, students will be identifying social problems that might occur in the real world and considering whether some problems can be solved independently or with help of others.

Have a lovely week,

The 5/6 Team

School Captain Report

Literacy

This week in Literacy the 5/6s have been working on making connections with what they are reading. They have been learning about text to self, text to text, and text to world connections to our class novels and personal reading books. We have been writing journal entries in our reading books in response to the main idea of these texts.

Numeracy

This week in Numeracy the 5/6s have been working on fractions. They have been learning about the value of fractions and how some match up and equal the same (equivalent fractions). The 5/6s have also started 3-6 Workshops again and it is pleasing to see everyone has learnt some new skills in maths.

Other News

This week we have district/division Cross Country on Thursday 15th July. Good luck to everyone who is participating. We have Senior Hoop Time tryouts today, Wednesday 14th July. We have all selected our Summer Sport teams that will be happening later this term.

SPECIALIST NEWS -

21ST june - 25th June- Week 10

FOUNDATION NEWS

Congratulations! The first semester of Foundation has come to an end. We are so proud of all of the effort that has gone in to the last two terms and it has been so fantastic to see our little Foundies learning and growing.

LITERACY

In literacy this week, we have graduated from text to self connections and have been making text to text connections in reading. We watched a story called 'The 3 little raptors and the Big Bad Rex', and made some links to another text with a familiar storyline. I wonder what it could have been? We continued to expand our vocabulary this week, brainstorming medical terms to add to our word walls and we have continued to ramp up our sentence work. The students are becoming increasingly confident at reading and writing different length sentences which they are very proud of. We will continue to reiterate a capital letter at the start, finger spacing between words and a full stop at the end of each sentence. Please continue to practise blending sounds (reading) and letter size and formation (writing) over the holiday break.

NUMERACY

This week has consisted of revising some of the maths concepts taught throughout the semester. We finalised our work for the term on surveys by conducting our own surveys and even graphing our data. Students refamiliarised themselves with 'tens friends' and we made some caterpillars to culminate our study of numbers and patterns. Term 3 will see us beginning formal addition and subtraction, as well as elaborating on more time concepts.

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Thank you all for the time you have made to book and attend a conference this week. As we continue the team effort that is your child's education, we appreciate the communication and information that you have shared with us. We will be sending home some work books and student portfolios this week for you to see what your child has been up to. Thank you to those parents that have helped in the classroom this term, whether it be in reading or with PMP. We will be in touch with you regarding parent helpers after the holidays.

Have a safe and healthy break and we look forward to seeing you back in Term 3.

Steph & Andrew

GRADE 3/4 NEWS

Welcome to the very last 3/4 Newsletter for Term 2 - wow how time flies!

This week we have been busy making changes to our portfolios in preparation of our student parent teacher interviews, carrying out pre-topic testing on Essential Assessments and getting creative with making our own story books.

If you or your child would like to have a conversation or participate in any real life learning related to the Term 3 Maths topics; they are chance (as in probability), fractions and location and mapping.

Just to inform you all that permission letters have been sent out today for the re-arranged excursion to the Melbourne Museum and IMax theatre. Any child who has yet to pay is still eligible to do so.

Last week 3/4B (Terjesen) showcased some of their magnificent inquiry projects at assembly. So this week, we chose to include some photos of their (and other students across the grades) work.

Have a safe and happy holidays!

Ronnie Terjesen, Michelle Van and Stuart Hanmer

GRADE 5/6 NEWS

Amazingly it is the final week of school!

We can't believe how quickly this term has gone, despite a few hiccups it has been a largely successful term. Our Grade 5's participated in NAPLAN, our school camp was delayed, but we managed to finish the term with our first interschool sport competition: Winter Sports. The day was thoroughly enjoyed by all that participated, as evidenced by the dirty sports uniforms!

Student Led Conferences commenced this week. It was pleasing to see so many families, albeit online, eager to celebrate their child's learning. Your children spoke very articulately and reflected honestly on their work samples and progress in the classroom. We couldn't be prouder.

All this year, every student across the school has been participating in weekly Respectful Relationships sessions. At Grade 5/6 we have clarified what an emotion is, how to respond to our feelings and calming strategies we can use to regulate our emotions. Overall, we can see that students are enjoying these sessions and are certainly fine tuning their intrapersonal skills.

Finally, just a quick reminder for all Grade 6 families to please bring some 'baby photos' to Mrs Elaine Wilson at your earliest convenience. These will be used for the Graduation Slide Show at the end of the year.

Thank you for reading!

We wish you a happy and safe holiday.

Natalii Parker, Paul Moons and Sandra Dovey

School Captains Report

Literacy:

This week in Literacy the 5/6s have been working on their movie reports for the Movie Raya and the Last Dragon. Students had to write a detailed review and give their opinion on the movie.

Numeracy:

This week in Numeracy the 5/6s have completed their Five Wonders project where they got to create their burgers according to specific dietary requirements, make a menu and decide the prices for the burgers.

Other:

This week on Friday we have a 1990 dress up day. Friday is also the last day of term so remember to pick up your kids at 2:30.

SPECIALIST NEWS - PE

Foundation - Grade 2

Students began the month in lockdown where they completed their PE sessions online. The first focused on AFL skills with Nick Riewoldt as their coach followed by a fitness focused session with Spiderman! Each session began with a Just Dance themed warm up and stretching as a cool down. When students returned to school, they finished the AFL in Schools program by practicing their handballing and kicking skills.

Grade 3-6

Students began the month in lockdown where they completed their PE sessions online. The first focused on AFL skills with Patrick Dangerfield as their coach followed by a karate focused session for the grade 3/4's and a fitness with Joe session for the grade 5/6's! Each session began with a Just Dance themed warm up and stretching as a cool down. When students returned to school they participated in group games that focused on strategy, teamwork and communication skills.

14th june - 18th June- Week 9

FOUNDATION NEWS

Welcome back Foundation! It has been wonderful to see all your smiling happy faces back in our classroom! Thank you to all parents for your support during home learning. If you have not already, could you please return any completed work clearly named to your child's teacher.

Literacy

In literacy this week we have continued to learn about making text to self connections in reading. We read a story called 'The Best Day Ever!' by Michael Armstrong, then the students wrote and drew about their best day ever. Students are continuing to develop their writing abilities by sounding out each word and focusing on leaving finger spaces between words. Please make sure students are reviewing their sounds in their sound books as well as reading each night. Continuing to practice this skill will allow their reading and writing to become more automatic.

Numeracy

We have continued our learning on Australian money with students learning about prices of items and which coins they could use to pay for them. We have been able to play with money and discuss the different sizes and shapes of our coins and the colours of the notes. We have also continued to learn about surveys with the students brainstorming their own survey questions.

Next week we will be holding parent teacher interviews on Tuesday and Wednesday. Booking times are available on Compass to book with your child's teacher.

As always please contact us if you have any questions or concerns.

Andrew and Steph

GRADE 3/4 NEWS

It has been a busy time for the 3/4s this week. They are back at school again and have dived right into their assessments for this semester. They have also spent a lot of the week presenting their fabulous inquiry projects to their classes - you might have seen them carrying all sorts of materials to school!

We thank all the parents who put in extra time and effort to helping their child over remote learning and also for their inputs into the inquiry projects this term. Your excitement and support really inspired the students to give it their very best.

In terms of our postponed excursion - once the date is confirmed there will be a new form sent out with that information that will need to be returned. If you still have not paid for the excursion and would still like your child to attend, please organise payments at the office as soon as you can.

Thank you!

3/4 Team

GRADE 5/6 NEWS

We would like to thank all families for their support and dedication to the last two weeks of Home Learning. The students have returned to school eager to connect with their peers and finish the term off with a flourish!
We have received work from most families, however if your child is yet to return work to their classroom teacher, we ask you to give them a gentle reminder. Thank you.

As you may have heard, we have been successful in rescheduling 5/6 Camp!

May we welcome you to Forest Lodge Camp near Yarram, Victoria.

Located at 52 Forest Lodge Rd, Jack River VIC 3971, Australia; Forest Lodge Camp offers an amazing property and facilities. It invites children of all ages to enjoy a great country experience, be physically active, challenge themselves, experience personal growth, develop team building skills all whilst having great fun! Forest Lodge is family owned and run. The owners live on site and offer all groups a personalised, friendly camp experience.

Forest Lodge 5/6 Camp will run from Monday 8th to Friday 12th November.

Many members of the school community were looking for a camp who could accept a 2021 booking, but the accolades for booking deservedly go to Mrs Lidiya Kerrassitis for finding the camp; and Mrs Elaine Wilson and Mrs Tracy Wright for organising the booking. We are very lucky to have found a camp to replace CYC Adanac and feel very privileged to have this experience.

School Captains Report:

In the 5/6 level this week we started a project called “Five Wonders”. So far, we have created burgers for a stall in a theme park. We had to do a variety of burgers catering to different dietary requirements, like: vegan, vegetarian and lactose free burgers.

This week 5/6 Camp was successfully rescheduled for November the 8th to the 12th. Winter Sports Day Two is next week on Wednesday. Cross Country has also been rescheduled to July 15th.

7th june - 11th June- Week 8

FOUNDATION NEWS

Literacy

As we continued with home learning this week and are very quickly nearing the end of term, students have focused on reviewing concepts such as short vowels, sentence construction, decoding, comprehension, perfecting their handwriting of both upper and lower case letters and also, the /y/ making the /ee/ sound. This week, we continued to expand our vocabulary on the topic of 'animals and their features'. We also continued to practise blending sounds together. In this case, <o> & <g> to make an /og/ sound. Please continue to practise sounds and read with your child each night. It is ok if you have read through the same readers a few times. At this point, we want a strong focus on accuracy and improving fluency when reading.

Numeracy

In Numeracy, we have continued our unit on money, incorporating the use of Australian dollar notes this week. Students cut out their own currency and created a shop, learning the very basics of economics. The students onsite had a fabulous time earning 'money' and adding to their bank accounts so they could spend at the 'shops'. We continued our work with yes/no surveys, this time with a focus on the use of tally marks to collect data.

Inquiry

This week in Inquiry, we had a delicious time creating our own patterned fruit kebabs. We learnt about the 'right' foods to put in our bodies to give us energy and 'fuel' us each day. Respectful Relationships took a mindfulness approach this week with a focus on 'calm time'. It was all about exploring what helps to calm you, keeping you centered and happy.

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Like last week, we would like to thank you all for your ongoing support and flexibility during this time of change. Thank you to those who filled out our remote learning survey. It went a long way in helping us to provide another week of positive home learning experiences. As always, please reach out if you have any questions or concerns and fingers crossed we will be back in the classroom soon!

Thanks,

Steph & Andrew

GRADE 3/4 NEWS

Welcome back to what has been the second week of Distance Learning. It's been great to see the perseverance, creativity and humour which has been shown by you all as we've tackled new learning problems along the way!

Literacy

We've learnt about contractions, homophones and different forms of punctuation. Students enjoyed creating their own imaginative recounts and some have also enjoyed reading our shared novel 'Eager' at home with family or being to them by their teacher.

Numeracy

Essential testing has been conducted for many in the form of Google Meets and we've also consolidated our our understandings of number, shapes and graphical representation through activities inside and outside our immediate working space.

Inquiry

Some students have already chosen to present their projects and have received valuable feedback from their teachers. Please remember to read through the on-line Rubric to prepare yourself for your up-coming talk.

Finally, wee look forward to seeing you all on Friday and we thank you for all your amazing contributions and the co-operation of your supportive families.

Michelle Van, Ronnie Terjesen and Stuart Hanmer

GRADE 5/6 NEWS

After a 'Camp Themed' activity week which sadly needed to replace our 5/6 Camp, students have been adjusting to regular Home Learning requirements. We are pleased to see so many students participating in Google Meets and returning their work each day.

Literacy:

Students have been continuing their focus on 'Poetry' by devising Haiku's based on their surrounds and favourite things. As part of reading, students have been practicing their predicting skills and have been responding to unfamiliar texts using a series of before, during and after questions.

Numeracy:

Students have been revising the skills they have learnt this semester for Time, Shape and Data (Graphing). Students were able to apply and integrate these skills through mapping, location and transformation activities as well as some revision pages.

We are looking forward to a return to Onsite Learning this Friday. It will be wonderful to see everybody's faces and apply ourselves as we work towards the end of this Semester.

We would like to thank all families again for their support over this two week lockdown. It has been very appreciated.

Thank you,

The 5/6 Team

RESPECTFUL RELATIONSHIPS NEWS

Resilience, Rights and Respectful Relationships Program

In 2016 Respectful Relationships (RR) education became a core component of the Victorian curriculum. The program was born after the Royal Commission into the tragic death of Luke Batty in 2014. It was a recommendation from the Royal Commission that all schools use Respectful Relationships to support students to recognise and regulate emotions, develop empathy for others and establish and build a framework for positive relationships.

The Resilience, Rights and Respectful Relationships teaching and learning materials have been developed to support schools to deliver the curriculum and are mandated to be taught in all Victorian government schools by 2021.

At Wattleview Primary School we all want our children to have an education that gives them the best start to a happy, healthy and prosperous life. This approach leads to positive change in students’ academic outcomes, their wellbeing, classroom behaviour, and relationships between teachers and students. We know that changes in attitudes and behaviours can be achieved when positive attitudes, behaviours and gender equality are lived across the school community. Together, we can lead the way in creating genuine and lasting change so every child has the opportunity to achieve their full potential.

The classroom program will focus on 8 key areas:

• Emotional Literacy: This helps students develop the ability to be aware of, understand and use vocabulary about the emotional states of themselves and others with competence.

• Personal Strengths: Students develop a vocabulary to help them recognise and understand various strengths and positive qualities in themselves and others. They identify the strengths they admire in others and those they need to draw on to engage with the challenges and opportunities that life presents.

• Positive Coping: Students develop language around coping, critically reflect on their coping strategies and extend their repertoire of positive coping strategies.

• Problem-solving: Students learn a range of problem-solving techniques that can be applied when confronting personal, social and ethical dilemmas. They engage in applied learning tasks in which they apply their problem-solving skills to be realistic.

• Stress management: This teaches students to learn a range of problem-solving skills through applied learning tasks, so that they are able to cope with challenges as they arise.

• Help-seeking: Help seeking is a coping strategy that involves seeking technical, instrumental, social or emotional support from other people.

• Gender and identity: These are age-appropriate learning activities that assist students to understand and critique the influence of gender norms on attitudes and behaviours (see clip linked below for an example of a discussion prompt).

• Positive gender relationships: This teaches students to build positive gender relationships and the importance of acceptance of difference and diversity.

Respectful Relationships takes a whole-school approach, recognising that schools are a place of learning, a workplace and a key part of local communities. It embeds a culture of respect and equality across our entire school community, from our classrooms to staffrooms, sporting fields, fetes and social events.

Our students will be participating in RR lessons on a weekly or fortnightly basis within their classrooms or across their level.

31st may - 4th June- Week 7

FOUNDATION NEWS

Literacy

As we moved to home learning this week, students have focused on reviewing concepts such as short vowels, sentence construction, decoding and perfecting their handwriting of both upper and lower case words. We have also introduced the /y/ making the /ee/ sound as in 'happy' or 'sunny'. We have loved seeing how engaged and excited the kids are about their readers and being able to read stories. Please continue to read with your child each night.

Numeracy

In Numeracy, we have started our unit on money! Students have become coin detectives and understood the value of Australian coins. We will continue building student understanding of money over the next few weeks and the use of it in the real world. We have also continued our work with yes/no surveys with an interactive video with both Miss Nicholds and Mr Reardon. Hopefully the students have been trialing their survey skills on families at home; asking lots of yes and no questions and recording their answers.

Inquiry

This week in Inquiry, we had some fun exploring the concept of reusing and recycling. Students had the opportunity to get creative and make animals from recycled items at home. We look forward to seeing the students' creations!

We would like to thank you all for your incredible support and flexibility during this time of change. Please remember, we are here to support you. Reach out if you have any questions or concerns and fingers crossed we will be back in the classroom soon!

Thanks,

Andrew and Steph

GRADE 3/4 NEWS

In this week of home learning, students have been reinforcing their learning of concepts from previous weeks and applying them to their domestic surroundings.

In Mathematics they have enjoyed playing a dice multiplication 'connect four' game, graphing their 'one minute fitness challenge' data and 'going on a shape hunt' (there could be a song in that?).

In literacy students have been reading and researching how to present a talk, writing 'lockdown' diary entries as a pet and having fun with sizzling starts.

Students have also utilised their time at home to work on their Inquiry projects with an array of models, posters and dioramas taking shape. We've had great fun viewing these wonderful works in progress!

Finally, for some, this period of learning has again created its own unique challenges, so if you need any further assistance, please don't hesitate to reach out for help.

Ronnie Terjesen, Michelle Van and Stuart Hanmer

SPECIALIST NEWS -

VISUAL ARTS

CONGRATULATIONS to all of the Grade 3 and 4 students for creating these MAGNIFICENT rainbows. Mrs Davis worked with the students to complete this FABULOUS work and now some of them are on display just outside the Art room. RAINBOWS MAKE EVERYBODY SMILE!!!

Mrs Oliver

24th - 28th may- Week 6

FOUNDATION NEWS

Literacy

Students have thoroughly enjoyed starting their readers and enjoyed reading with parents and families at home. Thank you to all of you for supporting their reading. In literacy this week, we have focused on decoding words by sounding out the word and blending them together. Students have also learnt how to use questions (who, what, where, when, why and how) as a reading strategy to help us understand more about a story.

Numeracy

This week in Numeracy we have started learning about yes/no surveys. Students surveyed their classmates asking 'Do you like the beach?' and recoding their responses using sticky dots. It was great to see students actively collecting data and using their questioning skills. We have also had a focus on writing numbers beyond 10.

Inquiry

As we continue learning about 'Right and Wrong', we have now turned our focus to right and wrong within the environment. This week we made posters to encouraged others to look after the environment Next week, we are going to be making recycled animals, so if you have any recycling at home that you'd like to bring to school for us to use, please do so anytime this week.

On Tuesday and Wednesday this week, we have been out of the classroom completing the 2021 Australian Early Development Census. Students have been on their best behavior while they have had new teachers.

As always, feel free to get in contact if you need us.

Thanks,

Andrew and Steph

GRADE 3/4 NEWS

Literacy

Students have enjoyed learning how figurative language, in the form of similes, further engages readers by playing a game of Simile Scoot. They have also learnt how inserting adjectives can help readers to create a visual image of what you are writing about. The sound/grapheme focuses in Jolly Grammar have been s for /z/ as in busy and u for the long /oo/ as in crucial.

Numeracy

Students have been continuing to describe, continue and create number patterns, compare 2D shapes formed by combining regular existing ones and interpret different data displays.

Inquiry

The students enjoyed a visit from Stacey Cooper (a 3/4 parent and Local Wildlife Rescuer). She discussed the direct and indirect ways humans have impacted on animal habitats. She also explained how this role is directly linked to her volunteer work as a CFA fire fighter. Some students have already been busy producing items for their inquiry presentations.

If you need any additional assistance with helping your child with their inquiry please see their teacher.

Special News

Finally, a special recognition to Avik and Shiv who reached the State Finals of the Victorian Spelling Bee Competition - we are very proud of your achievements!

GRADE 5/6 NEWS

We would like to send out a big thank you to all the families who have been so supportive in completing and returning all the forms required for 5/6 Camp. We are pleased to say all forms are returned and we are excited for some calm weather conditions for all our fun activities! Students will be bring home a final reminder notice on Thursday afternoon, to ensure any items, reminders and important information is available to families before the weekend.

Thanks, and have a wonderful weekend!

The 5/6 Team

School Captain Report

By the School Captains

Literacy:

This week in Literacy we have been learning about 'Poetry'. Here are some examples of poems: Haiku, Ode, Limerick and Diamante. All of us have completed the whole school writing task and have finalised other pieces. The task was persuasive writing about what the best superpower is. We had to convince the reader to tell us why your superpower was the best one out of all of them.

Mathematics:

In Maths this week we started to do our post tests for Essential Assessment. As usual we had more people move up to 100’s Club in the 3-6 Workshops. Now each week we are getting closer to 10 people in the 100's Club!

Other News:

The 5/6 ‘s are going to Camp next week. The exact date is on the 31st of May and we come back on the 4th of June. We will go to CYC Camp Adanac which is in Yarra Junction. The Grade 6’s also got their Jumpers and Polo shirts that they re-ordered.

SPECIALIST NEWS - PE

Foundation - Grade 2

The junior students will be starting a four week program run by AFL in Schools. Students will be introduced to skills required to play the sport such as handballing, kicking and marking. These will be practiced through drills and game based activities. Students will also work on their team work and communication skills.

Grade 3-6

On Friday 21st May a group of girls from Grade's 3-6 represented Wattleview at the Knox Division AFL Carnival Day event. The team played six games in total and made it through to the quarter finals. In the end they came 8th out of the 16 teams that competed. Thank you to all of the parents who came to watch and support throughout the day and a special mention to Jodie who assisted the team and Miss Mustac. Congratulations and well done!

Also, this Friday 28th May, 60 selected students from Grade's 3-6 will be representing Wattleview at the Knox District Cross Country event. The 9/10 year old students will run the 2km track and the 11 and 12/13 year old group will be running 3km. Good luck to all of the students involved!

17th - 21st may- Week 5

LITERACY

National Simultaneous Story Time

At 11am on Wednesday, we had over 100 Wattleview students join over 1 million other Australian students in the National Simultaneous Story Time. We were lucky enough to have a book called 'Give Me Some Space' by Philip Bunting read to us by a real life astronaut, Dr. Shannon Walker from the International Space Station. We had a great turnout from the students who seemed to really enjoy the story and each child who attended will be receiving a certificate for participating in the event.

We also have two competitions running that are linked to the book. The first, a colouring competition – one for ages 2-6 and another for ages 7-13 – The winner of this will receive a hard copy version of the book read today by Astronaut Shannon Walker.

The other, an art competition – students may have picked a ‘make your own moon lamp’, ‘design your own rocket’ or ‘construct your own astronaut’ activity. The winner of this competition will have developed the most creative version of the activity they have picked and will also win a hard copy of ‘Give Me Some Space’.

If your child has decided to participate in one of these competitions, they will be completing this at school or at home, if they choose to. The cut-off date for returned entries is Friday 28th May. Please have entries returned to your child's class teacher or directly to Mr Reardon.

. . .

Below is the video that the students watched for Simultaneous Story Time. If you'd like to watch it with your children and engage them in the topic at home, please feel free to.

FOUNDATION NEWS

Literacy

As we have covered all 42 of our basic Jolly sounds, this week was spent revising and as you would know, we started taking readers home. In addition to helping your child with their readers, please continue to practise the sounds at home each night, as it greatly increases the students automatic recognition of the letters and sounds. Most of the students know their sounds and actions confidently. They may need support with blending the sounds together. This will be a continued focus at school and if your child needs support at home, please try and model blending for them. As stated in the Compass post earlier this week, if you are finding that the readers are too hard for your child, please get in contact with us. The goal is to improve accuracy and fluency at this stage so if your child reads through their books a number of times each week, that is perfectly fine!

The Premiers' Reading Challenge has kicked off and we already have a few Foundation students who have logged some books! Your child's individual username and password have been glued into their diaries. Log in and record all of the books you are reading together. Their readers will not count but any personal or library books that have/will be read can be logged. It's a great way to get students excited about reading and get a certificate at the end! Follow the below link to register:

https://www.education.vic.gov.au/about/events/prc/Pages/default.aspx

Numeracy

In numeracy, we have continued to explore Patterns. We have been identifying and creating patterns, even using our bodies to continue patterns. This week marks the culmination of our mini unit on giving and following directions. Students should now be familiar with language such as; next to, beside, in front, behind, on top, above, under, left and right.

Inquiry

As we continue learning about 'Right and Wrong', we have now turned our focus to right and wrong within the environment. This week, we played games and watched a presentation on the TV which showed us ways to help keep our world clean. Next week, we are going to be making recycled animals, so if you have any recycling at home that you'd like to bring to school for us to use, please do so anytime this week.

As always, please do not hesitate to chat to us about any questions, issues or concerns.

Thanks,

Steph & Andrew

GRADE 3/4 NEWS

LITERACY

In Literacy this week, students have been learning the difference between concrete and abstract nouns. They will also be brainstorming ideas of how they can help the environment, so as to assist them in producing a persuasive poster of their own.

NUMERACY

Students continued to access hands-on activities this week to help widen their knowledge of mathematical concepts. Some have been solving pre-algebraic shape puzzles and creating 3D objects using blu-tack and straws. We have also been learning how interpreting and presenting data can help us to solve maths problems.

INQUIRY

Most students have now begun researching their chosen topic and have access to the school Chromebooks and library books for suitable content. If you need assistance in helping your child accessing their Google Education account, to do any additional work, please see your child's teacher - we are happy to help! They will also be receiving a welcomed visit of a parent who is a Wildlife Rescue Worker; who will be discussing our effect on the habitat of local fauna (more details to follow next week).

FOUNDATION NEWS

Literacy

At the end of this week we have learnt all 42 sounds! This week we focused on /ue/, /er/ and /ar/. Now that all of the sounds have been explicitly taught, we will work on revising these sounds and in Term 3, learn different spellings for the sounds. Please continue to practise the sounds at home each night, as it greatly increases the students automatic recognition of the letters and sounds.

The Premiers' reading challenge has started! Your child's individual username and password have been glued into their diaries. Log in and record all of the books you are reading together. It's a great way to get students excited about reading and get a certificate at the end! Follow the below link to register:

https://www.education.vic.gov.au/about/events/prc/Pages/default.aspx

On the topic of reading, next week we are starting take home readers! On Monday, students will bring home 5 books, these are for them to read across the course of the week and be recorded in their home reading logs. As students read, encourage them to sound out words and identify the tricky words. Many of the books that will be brought home are paper books, so please look after them and return them each week.

Numeracy

In numeracy, we have started to explore Patterns. Students have discovered patterns in the world around them and begun to create their own patterns using blocks, peggy boards and counting teddies. Students also enjoyed painting their own Pattern Snakes.

Inquiry

As we continue learning about 'Right and Wrong', we had an exciting incursion from Responsible Pet Education. Leonne and her beautiful dog 'Prancer' taught us how to approach dogs we haven't met and what to do if we meet an angry or scared dog. Students thoroughly enjoyed the songs and getting to pat Prancer! See photos below.

. . .

Our PMP program has been amazing and the kids are having the best time improving their gross motor skills. If you are available to help on a Monday morning or Tuesday afternoon we are still looking for more parent volunteers. Please get in touch if you are willing to have some fun with us and thanks to those who have already put their name down!

As always, please do not hesitate to chat to us about any questions, issues or concerns.

Thanks,

Andrew and Steph

FOUNDATION NEWS

Literacy

In Foundation this week, we learnt 4 new sounds and continued practising letter formation with the students, adding unvoiced /th/, /qu/, /ou/ and /oi/ to their repertoire. In addition to phonemic awareness, we practise all of the learnt sounds every day to ensure students not only know the sounds, but the songs and actions too. Please make sure you are practising these at home, as it really shows how fluent the students are when they're at school. In reading, we have continued to 'decode and draw', with some students even decoding sentences and drawing an accurate picture!

This week, students will complete their second whole school writing task for the semester, this time with a persuasive focus. Students will be explaining to their teachers what the best super power is, using pictures and basic words where possible to try and sway our opinion.

Numeracy

We are continuing to learn to subitise this week and students are becoming very confident when demonstrating this skill. Ask your child if they know what subitising is and if they can find some examples around the house. In addition to our dice games, we have started using dominos to subitise and we even created our own dominos. Students will also start to develop directional language this week and pre-assessment will take place for mathematical vocabulary including: forwards, backwards, left, right, above, below, in front of, behind and next to.

Inquiry

As we continue to develop our understanding of 'Right and Wrong' and learn more about our personal strengths, our PMP and Respectful Relationships programs have tied in perfectly for practical application. Students even had an incursion this week, where they learnt about responsible pet ownership, elaborating on the link between right and wrong at home and in the community. See next week's newsletter for some 'paw-some' photos.

. . .

As you would have seen on Compass, there are a number of things happening in the Wattleview community at the moment. We have two student teachers working in Foundation at the moment; Brianna Murphy and Sarah Hurd. You may have heard your child mention their name at home. We are also still looking for more parent helpers after releasing our online booking system last week. If this is something you might be interested in, please use the booking system to lock in a time that is suitable for you. Information has been released regarding the Victorian Premiers' Reading Challenge. Although our Take Home Reading Program has not begun just yet, you have been reading books with your child all year. Those books can be logged online and count towards the total books read for the year. It is a great way to immerse your child in reading and publicly acknowledge all of their hard work. Usernames and passwords will be glued into the front of your child's diary in their green bag.

As always, if you have any questions, you know where to find us.

Thank you!

Andrew and Steph

GRADE 3/4 NEWS

LITERACY

In Grade 3/4 this week, we continued our exploration of different types of nouns and discussed why proper nouns needed capital letters. Students also learnt how to make inferences by identifying clues in the text and combining it with their prior knowledge to draw conclusions. As part of our Inquiry topic, the level also read through the Kids News article, "What is at the centre of the Earth?", and answered some questions to practise their reading comprehension skills. Learning of persuasive writing skills ventured into final stages where students were required to edit and revise their work, with students also demonstrating what they have learnt so far through the complete of the Whole School Writing Task.

NUMERACY

Maths Workshops resumed this week and students were reminded of the importance of practice. Maths, like any other skill, needs to be learnt and fluency is developed through repetitiously completing problems and sums. Students were tasked with completing the patterns when given a number and rule, identifying shapes such as those found on flags, and broke down what it meant to collect, represent and interpret data.

INQUIRY

Students have been loving our exploration of Earth and the different events that may cause its surface to change. Our focus this week has been on volcanoes and the different layers of Earth. We encourage you to ask the students what they have learnt and share in their enthusiasm - especially when they begin their own investigations and start their projects!

As always, if you have any questions, do not hesitate to get into contact.

Thank you,

3/4 Team

SPECIALIST NEWS

THE MAGIC HAT!!!

During Term 1 the Grade 1&2 students made “Magic Hats!!” Our inspiration came from the fabulous picture story book by the amazing author Mem Fox!!

The students chose from two designs of hats to cut out and paste onto card. They then coloured in and decorated their hat using a wide variety of materials such as pom poms, feathers, sequins, beads and small wooden flowers and animals!

The students absolutely LOVED the story book and they could recite the main verse of the story. This activity took us three sessions and the students wanted the story read to them over and over again at the beginning of each session!!

We made a display of our GORGEOUS hats and you can see from the photos how very, very proud of their “Magic Hats” the students are!! The display looks FANTASTIC….if I do say so myself……as each hat is so colourful and individually decorated!!

Amanda Oliver

26/04 - Week 2

FOUNDATION NEWS

Literacy

In Foundation we are continuing to learn our sounds and letter formation with the students adding /x/, /ch/, /sh/ and /th/ to their repertoire. Each day we run through all of the learnt sounds to ensure students are practising and remembering these sounds. Please make sure you are practising these at home too. In reading, we have began to 'decode and draw' - students needed to read a short word such as 'cat' or 'hat' and draw a picture to match the word.

In writing, we are beginning to look at the structure of persuasive writing with the question 'Should students have to wear school uniform?'. Students are encouraged to express their opinions and justify their reasons.

Numeracy

Over the next few weeks, we are focusing on learning to subitise (this means to look and know straight away how many objects there are without counting each one). This is a skill which will become automatic for the students and greatly benefit them as they build their numeracy skills. We have played lots of games using dice to quickly say the number rolled. It has been wonderful to see the students so enthusiastic and enjoying their maths learning!

Inquiry

As we continue our learning on 'Right and Wrong', we have started to discuss consequences (both positive and negative) and how we can make the best choices. This ties in well with our Respectful Relationships lessons on our personal strengths.

. . .

At the start of the year we received a grant to purchase new PMP equipment, our new equipment has now arrived! On Tuesday the students were very excited to explore this new equipment and try their new skills (See below photos).

As you would have seen on Compass, we are looking for parent helpers for both reading and PMP. If you would like to come in to assist in the classrooms please get in touch or add your names to the booking system posted on Compass. The students would love to have you!

Thank you!

Andrew and Steph

GRADE 3/4 NEWS

Welcome to the Week 2 Edition of 3/4 News! The students have now settled well into their learning and thoroughly enjoyed last week's Twilight Sports Day (House Athletics). Last Friday was also something of a 'Family Day' when Mrs Terjesen's sister (Debbie) covered for Miss Van who was on a training day. I think you'll agree the similarities are striking! :)

LITERACY

In Literacy, we have covered the the trigraph <air> as in hair, the trigraph <tch> as in watch and the schwa <or for er> sound. Click here for a fun explanation https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9YghG6klUk. We also identified the different types of common nouns and learnt what it means to consider our audience and think about our word choices in writing.

NUMERACY

In Numeracy, we have been enjoying solving Algebra picture puzzles, naming 3D shapes and graphing data. We have also learnt how to plot a simple timeline after researching Earthquakes for our 'Earth's Surfaces' Inquiry.

Enjoy the rest of your week, until next time!

3/4 Team

SPECIALIST NEWS - PE

House Athletics

On Wednesday 21st April the whole school participated in the House Athletics event. It was great to see all students dressed up in their house colours and cheering so loudly! The F-2 rotated through 5 events: egg & spoon race, baton relay races, sack race, bean bag toss and tunnel ball. The grade 3-6 students competed in tunnel ball, crossball, long run, 100m sprint and baton relays. Thank you to all of the community who came to support and watch the students. Thank you to all of the parents who helped out and participated in the parent vs teacher event. Thank you to the PFA for running the delicious BBQ. Thank you to the House Captains and all the staff for your support. Well done to Wattle for winning!!!!

District Athletics

On Tuesday 27th April 52 students went to the Knox Athletics Track to compete against 7 other schools in the Scoresby district. Students competed in variety of events with some taking home ribbons. Congratulations to Evie M, Taylah-Rose B, Jake M, Zaydah N, Boris E, Kiana G, Brenton R, Ella C, Jamie C and Spencer D for making it through to Division in October. Thank you to all of the staff and community who came to watch the students compete. Well done Wattleview!

19/04 - Week 1

FOUNDATION NEWS

Literacy

Students have settled back into routine really well this week! It has been great to see how many students practiced their sounds and tricky words over the holidays.

This week we have learnt 4 new sounds /v/, /00/ (as in look), /oo/ (as in moon) and /y/ and introduced 'there', 'here' and 'said' to our tricky word list. In reading we are continuing our visualizing strategy and in writing we are beginning to share our opinions to form the basis of their persuasive writing.

This term we have a strong focus on building student vocabulary, each week there will be a different topic for students to brainstorm words and discover new language. This weeks topic was shape. Students shared lots of different shape names and features and even learnt new ones!

Numeracy

In numeracy this week we are revising our counting of 0-20 forwards, backwards and writing our numerals. We are beginning our unit on measurement focusing on length.

Inquiry

This term we are starting a new Inquiry topic 'Right and Wrong'. We have started this topic by discussing why we should do the right thing and what the consequences of our decisions are. Students brainstormed what was right and wrong behaviors when we are at school.

Thank you for all your support during the Color Run at the end of term 1! This kids and teachers had an absolute ball! Check out the lovely photo below.

Thank you!

Andrew & Steph

GRADE 3/4 NEWS

It has been great to see all the students well and rested after the holidays. They have gotten right back into the swing of things.

LITERACY

This week in literacy, students have focused on two different reading strategies: cause and effect, and summarising. Students also revised and explored different types of nouns and adjectives which are used to describe them. For the next few weeks, the students will be taught skills to create a persuasive piece of writing, so beware of more cohesive arguments to get a new pet in the future!

NUMERACY

Students have been completing their pre-tests this week for this term's topics: Patterns and Algebra, Shape, and Data Representation and Interpretation. Maths Workshops have resumed and some students have already moved up which is very exciting. We encourage all students to use their weekly homework sheets to challenge themselves and practice the skills they've learnt to continue improving.

INQUIRY

Earth Sciences is the topic for this term and students are already extremely keen to dive into the content. We started off this week with creating a Climate Graph for Melbourne and also completing a KWL Chart to find out what students already know about the topic, what they want to know, and then what they learnt after watching a video about slow and fast changes to the Earth's surface. They loved the song at the end!

Just a reminder that Homework is due by Friday every week and that students are required to be reading every night to practice their skills and increase their fluency.

Thank you for all your support so far and we hope to have another great term with you all!

1/04 - week 10

FOUNDATION NEWS

Literacy

This week we have learnt the sounds /or/, /z/, /w/ and /ng/, making a total of 27 sounds for the term! There are 42 sounds in the English language, which means we are over half way! Students have been doing an excellent job of consolidating their blue tricky words and are on the way to learning 4 of the yellow words (you, your, come and some).

Over the holidays please practice reading and writing the sounds learnt with your child, this will assist in a seamless transition back to school next term.

Numeracy

We have continued to build on our knowledge of numbers 0-20, counting forward, backwards and from any starting point. Please try to practice writing numbers at home (especially numbers 2, 3, 5 and 7 as these are commonly written backwards). Over the break this can be made fun by writing them in sand, dirt or forming numbers with sticks and leaves found in the backyard.

We have continued to learn the days of the week and are moving to the months of the year. Students are enjoying discussing the days of the week each morning (What day is it today? What day was it yesterday? and what day will it be tomorrow?).

Inquiry

In discussing what makes us individual we have discussed different celebrations that our families celebrate. Students have been working hard on their fine and gross motor skills, we even had a go at a sack race in preparation for next terms athletics day!

. . .

Last week at assembly, Mr Reardon's class had the opportunity to showcase what they have been learning. They demonstrated their sounds (with a great card trick from Mr Reardon!) and sung the days of the week! We are unable to post the video due to publishing permissions but if you'd like access to the clip, please email Mr Reardon directly.

We hope you all have a wonderful and restful break! Please continue to read daily with your child (it does wonders for their vocabulary, focus and understanding of language) and practice sounds. We are incredibly proud of all the work the students have done in their first term!

Please do not hesitate to email us if you have any questions. See you in term 2!

Andrew and Steph

GRADE 3/4 NEWS

Numeracy

We have been continuing to look at the various terms that are associated with the two processes of addition and subtraction. We have also demonstrated all of our learnt knowledge in place value, units of measurement and chance from conducting Essential Assessments post tests.

Literacy

This week we have learnt the soft sound of <c> as in circus and circle. We have also been learning the 'schwa' sound that 'u' can make as in focus and support. In Reading we have been learning the three ways in which we can make connections with what we have read (text to self, text to text and text to world). These connections can aid our comprehension (understanding) of what we have read.

In Writing, students have been extremely proud of their newly constructed short stories. We hope you enjoy some examples below:-

Luke 3/4B

Sizzling Start I was looking out the porthole when… I saw an ICEBERG, a huge block of ice. It was massive and it was right in front of the ship!

Building Tension 1 I raced to the cockpit but there was no one there. I pressed the emergency button. Alarms started to go off and warnings were being announced.

Building Tension 2 Then I heard running. It was the Captain, he said he could steer the ship.

Building Tension 3 He started to turn it but the ship wasn’t turning. Soon it started to turn a bit but it wasn’t fast enough. “Turn it up, faster, faster, faster!” I yelled. The engines were now up to full speed and “BANG!” The engines had blown up and the ship started sinking, all hope was lost.

Effective Ending “What are we going to do?” I said. “I don’t know,” said the Captain. “Get into the life boats!” “But they are under water,” I answered. “Go to the iceberg then,” ordered the Captain. “Are you crazy?” I yelled “It’s our only option,” said the Captain. “Ok,” I said worriedly. After that everyone was on the iceberg, but now there were more problems – they didn’t have anything. No food, water or shelter. Would they survive?

Oscar 3/4B

Sizzling Start I was looking out the porthole when… I saw an island! I told dad, dad was the reason why I was on this ship. He said “Oh it’s only an island in the middle of the mist.”

Building Tension 1 Dad said that we’d better get a closer look. When we got closer I realised it was a ship disguised as an island, they stuck barrels up as the trunks of trees and painted the ship green like grass. Surely this was illegal!

Building Tension 2 I rushed to get dad’s old Kodak camera but when I came back the ship had disappeared. Oh no, out in the sea there was bubbles frothing up from underneath!

Building Tension 3 Oh shivers! Dad’s camera had no film left in it. Then the fog slowly started to cover up the island ship. BAM! A big explosion happened in the sea. I knew the ship, disguised as an island, was done for!

Effective ending Our ship crashed into the debris of the blown up ship. It caused major damage to the hull. Things were different now, as I knew we were sinking! We had two choices. The choices were; stay on the ship or a suicide jump out of the window. I quickly jumped out of the top deck window of the ship with dad. We sat on a barrel and watched our ship sink. At least there was hope. We found two pieces of wood and tied them together, now we had a paddle. The mist was think and grey. Two days later we appeared out of the thick mist. Dad yelled “Ahoy maties!” We saw an island. On the banks of the island we saw British flags. Exhausted, we were able to catch a taxi from shore to home. I’m glad we’re home again.

Brady 3/4B

Sizzling Start I was looking out the porthole when… I saw a monster. The ugly monster was coming towards me, but when it saw me, it sank.

Building Tension 1 I was shocked at what I had just seen. “Gosh,” I muttered.

Building Tension 2 When I eventually got home something was odd. My mum and dad were not home. This was unusual.

Building Tension 3 I was about to watch You Tube when I saw the news… my parents had been eaten by the ugly monster. I began to cry.

Effective ending I was crying so much that I didn’t see mum and dad come into the room. They said, “Why are you crying?” I said, “It was on the news that you were eaten!” I was very glad it wasn’t true.

Inquiry

This week students have been presenting their assignment on Digital Technologies. They were asked to research a type of digital technology and present its history and how their choice has changed the way we communicate.

Other

Congratulations to the Spelling Bee Champions in 3/4 that are Oliver Samuels 3/4A, Shiv Purohit 3/4B and Caleb Haines 3/4C.

Finally, on behalf of all the staff in 3/4 we wish you and your families a very Happy Easter break.

Michelle, Ronnie, Debbie M, Debbie D, Jannine and Stuart

SPECIALIST NEWS

Sports Monthly Wrap Up - March

Foundation - Grade 2

These students have been practising different events that they will be doing at House Athletics. These events include: tunnel ball, egg & spoon race, bean bag toss, baton relays, soccer goal kicking, hurdles and sack races. Due to last minute changes, some of these events won’t be performed at House Athletics next term. For each event, students have been practising in their house teams so they can become familiar with their teammates. Well done to all students and have a fantastic holiday!

Grade 3-6

The Grade 3-6 students have been introduced to and have practised different athletics events which include: 1500m, 100m sprint, baton relays, hurdles and high jump. Their results were recorded and have been used to select the athletics team which will compete against other schools in Term 2. Students have also practised two team events that they will be competing in at House Athletics. These are tunnel ball and crossball. Well done to all students and have a fantastic holiday!

Reminders/Major Events

Well done to all students in Bluegum House who won the house points this term. They were awarded with a free dress day.

Regional Swimming

On Friday 12th March Oscar M, Taylah-Rose B and Taylah W competed at the regional swimming carnival. Oscar came 5th in freestyle and 10th in backstroke, Taylah-Rose came 10th in backstroke and Taylah came 13th in backstroke. Well done for all of your hard work!

Also remember when you make purchases at either Rebel Sport or Decathlon Knox, please mention our school name as we receive credit for sports equipment.