WEEK 2

1st May - 12th May 2023

PRINCIPAL REPORT

It has a little cold and wet this week, but it hasn't dampened the spirit of Wattle View Primary Students, Staff and Community!  It has been great to see so much happening in every area of our school, both inside and outside our classrooms (as you will read below).

Just thought I would share a proud Principal moment of the week with you all. Visiting classrooms this week, I was impressed to hear directly from our students about 'what' they are learning, 'why' they are learning it, how they know they are succeeding and most importantly, where they would go, or what they would do, to find out if they were unsure. A special mention to our Year 3/4 students, whose book work was absolutely outstanding! It clearly shows that our students are taking enormous pride in their work and have a positive attitude toward their learning. I couldn't be prouder!

A quick reminder that our School Photos are on May 18, envelopes will come home today or tomorrow and need to be returned on Photo Day. 

State School Spectacular

On Monday I had the privilege of watching our talented State School Spectacular students rehearse for this upcoming event. I was exhausted just watching them remember the choreography and dance, dance, dance! What a fabulous initiative this is. Thanks to Sam Lockhart, our talented Performing Arts teacher, for coordinating this wonderful opportunity (her moves were pretty spectacular also!)

Fairhills High School Senior Cup

Yesterday a selection of our Grade 5 and 6 students, supported by Michelle Letts, participated in the Fairhills High School Senior Cup in Basketball.  The Fairhills High School Cup is a great opportunity for our school to play a fun competition against other local primary schools and demonstrate our sporting prowess in a healthy and enjoyable way. Congratulations to our girl team, who walked away with the Bronze Medal and our boys team who brought home the prestigiouos Fairhills School Cup!

The Attitudes to School Survey

The Attitudes to School Survey is an annual student survey offered by the Department of Education and Training to assist schools in gaining an understanding of students' perceptions and experience of school. It is administered to all students in Primary School from Year 4 - 6 and gathers data in relation to, for example, student engagement, health and wellbeing and Learning. Our students will have the opportunity to complete this survey this Monday, led by Fiona Froelich, Michelle Letts and myself. 

2024 Prep enrolments are now open 

The Department of Education and Training has released a new state-wide Prep enrolment timeline and this timeline advises families when and how to enrol their child into Prep at a Victorian government primary school. The new timeline will apply for children starting Prep in 2024. Enrolments are now open.

What you need to do: 

● Submit an enrolment form (if in our School Zone) or Application to enrol (if you are out of our School Zone), for Prep by Friday 28 July 2023 (the 2024 Enrolment form can be downloaded from our website, picked up from our office, or give us a call and we will email you one).

● You will be notified of the outcome of your application ASAP after 28 July.

● If you are out of our School Zone and have a place offered to you at our school, you should contact the office to accept the offer and request an enrolment form, by Friday 25 August 2023. 

Have a great week everyone!

Tracy Wright

FOUNDATION NEWS

Welcome to Term 2! It's already been a fantastic fortnight, here's a bit about what we have been learning: 

LITERACY
This term we are moving on to learning digraphs - where two sounds make one sound, for example /ai/. Students are exploring how to create a recount, we're also beginning to look at finger spacing between our words when we write. We have been learning about different strategies that we can use when we read to improve our comprehension, these are activating and using prior knowledge to make connections, predicting, and asking and answering questions. 

NUMERACY
It has been a big few weeks in numeracy - but so fun! Students have been exploring measurement, in particular height and weight. They have been taking part in lots of hands on activity to help them understand the mathematical vocabulary, such as compare, estimate, heavier, lighter, taller and shorter.
In number, we have been investigating place value. Students have been creating two digit numbers and identifying how many tens and how many ones are in those numbers. We have also been looking at the difference between -ty and -teen numbers (19 vs 90), we figured out it is very important to make sure we are clear about what numbers we are trying to say! 

INQUIRY
In our geography unit this term, students are beginning by investigating how places have changed over time. So far we have looked at Indigenous connections to places and also what we think Ferntree Gully might have been like many, many years ago. 

REMINDERS:

• Foundation Showcase: It's the Foundies time to shine this Friday at assembly, they will be singing their little hearts out. Assembly begins at 2:50pm, all Foundation families are welcome. 

• Community Learning Walk: We will be out and about next Thursday (11/5), to see areas around Ferntree Gully and think about how they might have looked in the past. All areas we will visit are covered by the 'Walking Permission Form' signed at the start of the year. 

• Homework Books: Should be coming to school every Monday - this is when the homework is stuck in for the coming week. Sound books should come to school every day. 

As always, if there is anything that you need, let us know!

GRADE 1/2 NEWS

Welcome back to all our 1/2 families! Term 2 is shaping up to be a short and very busy term.
It has been pleasing to see that the 1/2 students have settled back into our classroom routines very quickly, with most students eager and enthusiastic for learning.

LITERACY
This term we have begun exploring non-fiction texts in Writing, specifically looking at Information Reports. The students have been learning about the features and purpose of Information Reports and this week are beginning to create their own, on a topic of their choosing. We are looking forward to reading AND learning lots of new things about a range of topics.

In Reading we have been focusing on some of the Reading Comprehension Strategies. Last week we re-visited the strategy of Predicting and introduced Activating Prior Knowledge. The 1/2 students are quite confident in explaining these two strategies and have been relishing in the opportunity to use their own knowledge to make connections to new texts.
This week will see the 1/2 students investigate the strategy of Asking and Answering Questions to better their understanding of a text.

MATHS
In Maths, our focus is Addition. We have been learning about the many strategies students can use to solve addition problems, such as using maths equipment (counters, blocks etc.), counting on, number lines, Tens Frames and partitioning. The students are enjoying the opportunities to engage in hands-on learning, with many able to explain their learning and the strategy used to solve an addition problem.

Alongside Addition, our Maths focus is also on Data Representation and Interpretation. The 1/2 students have been collecting data from their peers using yes/no questions and representing this data using tally marks. Much fun has been had in the classroom, asking peers 'Do you like dogs better than cats?' or 'Is strawberry the best ice-cream flavour?' The focus now moves to interpreting picture graphs and using our data to create our own.

INQUIRY
Our Inquiry focus this term is Places and our Connections to them. We have begun by looking at our local community and its features (man-made and constructed). In the coming weeks, the 1/2 students will identify places in the community that they feel connected to and are special to them. Students will also be exploring the local neighbourhood in Week 4 with a visit to the Mountain Gate shopping precinct. There they will be looking at the types of shops and services on offer and collecting data to link in with our Maths focus.

REMINDERS:
* Green bags with reading books and logs should come to school each and every day.
* Permission forms for the Mountain Gate excursion (Tuesday 16th May) went home last week are due back no later than Monday 15th May. If you have mislaid your notice, please see your child's classroom teacher for a spare copy.
* As of this week, school hats are no longer compulsory, however, if your child would like to continue wearing them then they may do so.
* The Victorian Premier's Reading Challenge has begun! Log in details were distributed to the students last week and have been stuck into the inside cover of their reading log books. We encourage you to log and record any books read by or to your child.
* School photos are coming up soon - Thursday 18th May. Stay tuned for more information regarding packages and pricing.

GRADE 3/4 NEWS

Welcome to term 2! We have had a wonderful start to the term with the students showing excellent focus and enthusiasm for their work. We welcomed back the term with our Monday morning 'Walk & Talk', allowing students to catch up with their friends after the holidays, whilst also getting some fresh air and exercise. 

In literacy over the last few weeks we have focusing on spelling our 200 high frequency words. These are words that are used a lot in their writing and often have irregular spellings, you will see many of these words come home as spelling words over the next few weeks. 

Students are currently exploring explanation texts and how these can be used and written to help explain a process. In reading we have learnt about the comprehension strategies Predicting, Asking and Answering Questions and how applying our prior knowledge can help us become better readers. This week we introduced Writers Workshops- this is a special hour on a Monday where students work with a different 3/4 teacher on how we can improve our writing. This week was all about Paragraphs! 

This terms inquiry unit is 'The World Around Us'. We will be focusing on geography, beginning with Australia. Students have learnt the states and capital cities of Australia and some famous land marks. They have been very enthusiastic in exploring the Atlas and are looking forward to learning more about our world! 

Please remember homework is sent home on a Monday and is to be returned completed every Friday. Students still have the chance to earn their 5 dojo points every week! Reading should be recorded in their diaries. 

If you have any questions or concerns please feel free to contact your child's teacher.

SPECIALIST NEWS

This week Art and Digital Technologies classes combined to help students create a Mothers Day gift for Mothers Day. In Visual Arts students applied their knowledge of mixing colours to complete a love heart using acrylic paint with fine and thick brushstrokes. These were then completed by using silver pens and scratch paper to add finer details. In Digital Technologies, students from Grades 1-6 created short messages in Google Docs. Students used their formatting and layout skills to accomplish this, printing their work and combining it with the art work they created in Visual Arts.