This term across the school we are exploring the concept of DESIGN

This term in Inquiry, our whole school focus is 'systems'. Systems are all around us. A system is a group of related things that work together as a whole. Systems can be man-made things like a car engine or natural things like a star system. Systems can also be concepts made by people to organize ideas. Without systems, things don’t work properly. We seek to nurture children who identify how systems can help us to solve problems and improve the world around us.

Year level Inquiry context of learning:

Prep: Our Community - The prep children are exploring the system of Communities. They are investigating how communities are organised and structured to keep us healthy, safe and happy. Throughout this term the children will be working with members of our community in various occupations and roles. This will include the emergency services of Fire, Police and Ambulance. They will develop their own awareness of the ways in which we need to work together to develop responsibility and safety for ourselves and others. See our Instagram reel below for some of the amazing questions that our children have developed!

Grade 1 / 2: Paddock to Plate: This term the year 1 /2 children exploring 'Paddock to Plate'. They are investigating the story of food and the various roles that people play in the growing, harvesting, production, transport, distribution and cooking of food. Throughout this Inquiry the children will also be cultivating their own vegetable garden to experience their own Paddock to Plate journey throughout the term. Bring on Spring and harvesting time! See the Instagram reel below to catch them preparing their garden beds!

Grade 3/4: This is Australia: This term our year 3/4 children are exploring the structures of Geography and how Australia is organised. This includes an investigation of the localities of suburbs, cities and towns, states and our country as a whole. They will develop their understanding by comparing and contrasting our nation to other countries. Throughout this the children will develop their own questions to investigate aspects of Geography and their local and global world.

Grade 5/6: Our future is bright! Finally, this term our year 5/6 team are learning about the way in which we use and rely on energy. They are exploring both non renewable and renewable energy sources in an effort to understand and develop ideas for conquering the energy crisis. Stay tuned to learn about how you can make small changes to make a big difference!

Yesterday the Cybersafety Project came to work with our year 3-6 children. Trent and Sam ran practical sessions to empower our children to manage their digital safety well being. We are thrilled to be working with them as a research partner to improve outcomes for children! Click the video below to watch more!

Last week our children had First Aid training with St Johns Victoria. They participated in training appropriate fir their age groups to help support them with the skills and knowledge the need to help themselves or others with people are hurt or sick. We hope they never need to use it, but know that having this training will empower them to be calm and capable during certain challenges. Thanks to St John’s! Click on the video below.

Last week the Prep children celebrated 100 days of school! Such a special milestone for these beautiful children who are now officially 100 days smarter! Big thanks to their dedicated teachers and all of the parents who got into the spirit!

In Grade One Inquiry, we have been learning about paddock to plate and where our food comes from and where our fruit and vegetables grow. We are fortunate enough to have a space to plant and nurture seedlings and watch them grow.

We started by cleaning out our garden beds and learned the importance of weeding out old plants by the roots and not patting down the soil to help the new seedlings grow. We were surprised by lots of grubs and grass and even some potatoes growing under the soil! These were a great treat for our chickens!

We then dug little holes and planted endives, spinach, lettuce and peas. We can not wait to see our garden grow!

BEFORE

after

In Maths, we have been learning about Place Value. The children made Place Value monsters using MAB. Children used tens and ones to create the features of their monster and calculated how much their monster was worth.

This term the year 2 children are exploring 'paddock to plate' in Inquiry. They have been recently working with our gardener Kim, to prepare the soil for their produce gardens and plant an array of in season vegetables, herbs and flowers. The children will be nurturing the garden throughout the term and cultivating a crop that they will harvest and use to create a meal to share with each other. This recreates the process that occurs in real life as farmers nurture their crops through the process from paddock to our plate!

In Grade 3 we have been learning about the features of a non-fiction text. We have looked at headings, subheadings, contents pages, indexes, glossaries. In this lesson, we looked at captions. We now understand that captions explain what is happening in the picture or illustration.

The Grade 3 students were given images and wrote captions to match, using clues from the image and their inferential knowledge to help them. They were also given captions, and drew pictures to match

This term the Year 4's headed off on their first whole year level excursion to see the Penola Catholic College’s production of High School Musical Jnr. Year 4's have been focusing on developing their Positive Behaviours for Learning (PBLs), and this experience offered students opportunities to demonstrate these behaviours beyond the classroom and schoolyard. Students showed the value of respect and responsibility as they boarded buses and entered the Penola grounds. They demonstrated safety and resilience as they waited patiently to be seated in the theatre.

We all thoroughly enjoyed the show and were fortunate to be offered a Q&A with the stars of the show, including one of the lead stars, who was an STM alumna! In addition, this experience gave our students the exciting chance to demonstrate their speaking and listening skills and to learn some dances from the musical.

The Grade 5/6s were extremely lucky to experience an incursion from the organisation called Courage to Care. Courage to Care is an organisation that works with many schools to improve Bystander culture into anUpstander culture in areas of prejudice, racism and discrimination. The students were guided to unpack their understanding of stereotypes, prejudice, racism and discrimination through in their own contexts but also through the eyes of Holocaust survivors testimony and experiences. The students were deeply moved by the stories that they heard. Please read some of their reflections below.

Today Courage to Care came in and the speaker Claude and Louis came in and , Claude explained Racism, Discrimination, Stereotyping and Prejudice and we talked about ways that they can hurt people and the ways that it could be stopped. Louis came in and told his story about his experience in World War 2 . I felt curious because Louis told his story and It made me so interested about it I just wanted to know more! I felt sad and upset because hearing what goes on in the world like bullying and racism and more it made me feel very upset for those people who experienced it.

Jaydon

I felt sad because it was a really bad time to live then and so many people were killed. I felt sad because I wished this never happened. I felt as if it was really unfair for the people who lived at that time. They just killed people because they were different. I also felt mad because they killed so many innocent people and if they were born now they would have lived a better life. Part of me felt happy that some people survived and they lived a better life where they could tell others about what happened and teach kids all these important things.

Eva

Today a few members of the “Courage to Care” program came to talk to the Grade 5s and 6s. In our classroom we had Claude and Louis who taught us about Upstanders and Bystanders. Louis even told us about how he survived the Holocost. We had multiple activities, such as identifying what type of bullying it is (Racism, prejudice, discrimination, Stereotypes). We also had the chance to disagree or agree with a few different statements.

Ava C

While Louis was talking about his experience with the Holocaust and how he escaped I was feeling very emotional because it was such a sad and devastating story to hear. One of the saddest parts I think was at the end where Australia’s police cars changed their sirens to the sound the Nazis used to use while capturing the jews so he got really scared but it was soon changed back!

Ava B

Today Sharryn & Harry came to the year 5 & 6s to talk about discrimination, racism, prejudice & stereotypes. Harry gave a very heartfelt story about his mother surviving the Holocaust. We also completed an activity. We had to look at photos and worked in groups to label whether it was racism, discrimination, stereotype & prejudice.

Lucy

I think the key message from this incursion is to be an Upstander and take a stand if you see something happening.

Samuel

I think that the message coming from this experience is that “a little bit of kindness goes a long way.”

Allegra

I felt a bunch of emotions but the main thing was sinking in very deeply. The main one was realising how bad it was for them. After hearing Harry's story it made me realise everything else in this world. How I need to help everyone like homeless people and need to donate things to those who need it like through the Salvos.

Isabella

During this incursion while Harry told his story I felt terrified and shocked because of the cruelty they showed to his mother and all the Jews. In Sharryn's explaining of stereotype, discrimination, racism and prejudce I got a clear understanding of these words.

Elektra

Maths

We have been busily working on our financial projects for this term. The students have become party planners and are planning an end of year celebration for the Year 6 students. They have been given a budget where they have to research and decide what is the most efficient and affordable way to plan their celebration. It has been interesting to see the wonderful ideas come through!

Literacy

This term, we are studying the novel Holes. The students have instantly fallen in love with the story and find it hard to put the book down. We have been completing comprehension activities, extended responses, vocabulary work and many more learning activities to show we have understood what has been read. We are looking forward to our special 'Holes' day where we will be viewing the movie.

Last term the students worked extremely hard creating their own narratives. We have created an online virtual library where you are able to access all of the children's work. We hope you enjoy these stories as much as we did!

Religion

Term 3 is very busy for us in Religion as we are getting ready to celebrate the sacrament of Confirmation. We have been eagerly learning all about the special sacrament and what makes it so special. We have been working through our confirmation booklets and learning all about Fruits and Gifts of the Holy Spirit and relating them to our own lives. We are excited to research and choose our Saint names!

Sport

Sadly, Interschool Sport has come to an end. Both the Soccer and Football made it to the next round of divisionals. We played our best and tried our hardest however, we did not make it to the next round. Football won 1/3 of their games. Soccer won 2/4 of their games. We are extremely proud of STM's efforts!!

Bottle Cap Project!

Check out the Grade 6's awesome art project below! They need your help!

As part of the Community Arts Club on Mondays, this week these children created beautiful sand homes for insects and small creatures that live in our nature play space!

Slapstick Comedy

Year 4s have learned about comedy and slapstick features to work towards planning and producing a silent film. They created their own slapstick characters and plot, using exaggeration and slapstick features such as comical trips & falls, improbable situations, and zany characteristics. Here is one example of a silent film production that was created through iMovie.

SAVE THE DATE FOR OUR ARTS FESTIVAL!

We hope you enjoyed reading about the amazing learning that has been happening in our classrooms this term!

Kate Korber

Learning & Teaching Leader