Welcome to Week 3! We started off the week with a special Liturgy dedicated to our amazing mothers in our lives.

In English, we explored the ‘ng’ and ‘ay’ sounds and the children identified, spelled and used words with ‘ng’ and ‘ay’ in their reading and writing. In Bookmaking, we continued our learning in information texts; exploring the differences between imaginative stories and informative texts. We also compared different types of real and imaginary images and discussed when we would use each type when creating different texts.

This week in Maths, we introduced a new topic: addition and subtraction. We explored what both operations mean, what they look like, and practiced drawing their symbols (e.g., plus (+) and minus (–)).

We also learned an important concept — that a number stays the same when you add or subtract 0 (zero).

In addition, we began using bar models to help us explore the concept of number bonds to ten (also known as friends of ten — pairs of numbers that add up to 10). The children had a go at identifying different combinations, using the bar model to visualize how two parts come together to make a whole.

In Arts, we explored and experimented with the visual art elements of shape, colour, line, space and texture. The students filled each circle with different types of lines, using a fine black texta to draw the lines. They also drew line patterns on leaf shapes.

In Religion, we viewed The Visitation (Luke 1:39-56) and then discussed who Mary visited and what happened when Mary spoke. The students then drew a picture of what happened in the story together with some words to describe the experience.

In Technologies, we revisited the design process and the students were asked to design their own mask. They drew their mask design and labelled and listed materials needed to create their mask. They will make their mask next week.

In HASS this week, we continued exploring the differences between the past and the present. We focused on how life was different in the past and how people completed everyday tasks without modern technology.

To bring this concept to life, we made our own butter in class — just like people did in the past! The children enjoyed tasting their homemade butter.

In Art, we explored lines. We experimented with a variety of lines – using broken, jagged, dashed, vertical and horizontal.

Welcome to Week 2!

Happy Mother’s Day to all of our mothers. We hope you enjoy a relaxing day!

Next Monday, 12^th May, our school community will be celebrating Mother’s Day with a liturgy to be held in House teams. Our Year 6 House and Mission Leaders will host each liturgy, which begins at 9am. The liturgy locations include:

• St Pope John-Paul II House (Red) – Hall 
• St Vincent De Paul House (Cream) – Curiosity 
• St Mary MacKillop House (Black) – Mass Centre

From 8:00am until 9:00am on the Monday morning, a coffee cart will be supplying complimentary coffee, tea and other hot drinks for staff and families. We would love to see as many mothers, grandmothers, big sisters, aunts and cousins as possible.

In Literacy, we looked at reading and spelling words with ‘th’ and ‘oo’ as in ‘moon’. The students practised finding the sounds in words, reading and writing words that make that sound. In Bookmaking, we continued our learning around information texts, specifically around the use of facts versus opinions. We watched a video on ‘whales’, discussed the facts that we learnt about and the students needed to think about three facts that they could include on their information report.

Congratulations to Jason for reading 50 nights!

In Numeracy, the children continued their learning on skip counting by 2s. They practiced their counting skills in various ways and also worked on grouping collections by 2s to count more efficiently.

Next week we will start a new topic in Mathematics!

In Religion, we explored the Annunciation of Mary. The children listened to a story and song about the special moment when the Angel announced to Mary that she would be expecting Baby Jesus. They were then invited to draw their interpretation of the story.

In Technology, the children used their designs from last week to create their Emoji masks. We discussed the importance of using our design plans to guide us through the creation process, while also recognising that making changes or additions is a valuable part of being a great designer. Take a look at how they turned out!

Mother’s Day Craft

Welcome to Term 2. We hope that you all had a relaxing and joyful holiday break.

In English, we are revising the ‘ch’, ‘v’, ‘x’ and ‘y’ sounds and using these letters to read and spell words. We also looked at the sound/w/; linking to letters ‘wh’ and /th/; linking to letter ‘th’.

Our writing genre this term will be on information texts. The children will explore different information texts, its structure and the differences between story books (narratives) and information books.

Our home learning this week will include a tricky word list, a reading passage for children to practise their decoding and fluency together with a writing frame. The children are asked to look at the picture and write as much as they can about it, using correct sentence structure and punctuation. If you child cannot spell a word, they are asked to sound it out and have a go.

Congratulations to Oliver for reading 25 nights!

Last term in Numeracy, the students learnt how to skip count by 5s and 10s. This term we are exploring how to skip count by 2’s. The students explored when and why they would use skip counting, what a pair is, things that come in pairs and engaged in a variety of activities to practice their skip counting.

In Technology, the students were introduced to the design process by creating their own emoji mask. They draw their emoji mask design and labelled it with a list of materials needed to create it. Their masks will be created next week.

In HASS, we revisited the words past, present and future. We also asked the students if they know where their parents, grandparents, or other elderly family members were born and raised. We discussed how their experiences growing up might be very different to ours. The students developed two questions to ask their grandparent/parent about life growing up. They have stuck this sheet in their home learning books (or placed in their bag if they didn’t have their library bags) to complete at home. Please assist your child with this.

In Health, we discussed ‘what a relationship’ is and the many connections we have with other people. Furthermore, we looked at ‘what a family is’ and how the concept of family is so diverse. We watched a video, ‘My family, your family, our families’ and as a class brainstormed different types of relationships that were viewed in the story. The students then created a mind map specifically about themselves; identifying people in their lives who they have a relationship with.

In science, We started a new topic looking at the needs of living things. This week we discussed the 5 needs of plants being- light, air, nutrients, space and water. The children wrote the needs in each petal and then constructed their flower.

Have a wonderful weekend!

We are looking forward to another week full of learning, beginning Monday.

Welcome to Week 11! What a wonderful and busy week we have had to finish off our term.

In Literacy, we introduced /v/ (Vera Vulture), linking to letter ‘v’; /ks/ (Flexible Max), linking to letter ‘x’; and new sound /y/ (Yawning Yak), linking to letter ‘y’. We then consolidated our understanding through text reading and writing.

The children edited and finished off their narrative storybooks.

In Maths, the students consolidated their understanding of skip counting by 5’s. They continued to count, read and write the multiples of 5 and ensured each number ended in the correct pattern of 5 then 0. Next Term, we will begin our Maths learning around counting by 2’s.

SPORTS DAY!

Thankyou for a wonderful start to the year! We wish all the children and families a safe and Happy Easter!

Kind Regards,

Emily

Welcome to Week 10. What a fun-filled week we have had.

This week the children thoroughly enjoyed participating in Market Day held by the Year 5’s and 6’s.

In English, we revisited the sounds /z/ linking to letters ‘z’ and ‘zz’, /ch/, linking to letter ‘ch’ and revision of ‘sh’, ‘qu’, ‘ee’, ‘z’ and ‘zz’. The children have been practising their blending and segmenting of sounds for reading and writing. We have also introduced new tricky words this weeks; no, as, so, ball, call, this, then.

In Numeracy,

In Religion, we discussed the liturgical seasons which reflect the life of Jesus. We watched the story of Palm Sunday, Holy Thursday and Good Friday. The children drew and wrote sentences about the different days together with linking the stories to their own life.

In Science, we have been continuing to look at weather. This week the students began creating their own ‘Weather Report Booklet’. They were asked to describe the weather, draw it as a symbol, as a sentence and color in the clothes that would be best depending on the weather outside.

Congratulations to Chimobi and Jason for reading 25 nights!

Welcome to Week 9!

In Literacy, we looked at the /kw/ sound linking to ‘qu’ and the /e/ sound linking to ‘ee’. We practised blending and segmenting sounds to form words with these sounds and used our knowledge to read passages of text to consolidate our learning.

In Small Group Learning, we are engaging in a shared reading task using our knowledge of our focus sounds /kw/ (qu) and /e/ (ee).

In Bookmaking, we looked at what a ‘blurb’ is and attempted to add one to our own storybook. There are a lot of Authors and Illustrators in the making!

In Numeracy, the children practised counting in larger collections of 10 and practised the concept of skip counting by 10 from a different number, eg. 3, 13, 23 etc.

In Technology, we shared some of our favourite cultural foods that we eat at home. The children drew a picture of their favourite cultural food and drew the Country’s flag next to it.

In Health, we listened to the story ‘Hattie and the Fox’ and discussed the early warning signs that Hattie would have felt ie. her body messages, her feelings and the clues around her. The children drew a picture of Hattie and wrote words about how she was feeling and what she was scared of.

In Science, we discussed the wind, how it moves and its effects on objects. The children made their own pinwheels to observe the changes in the wind.

Hi all,

Just a reminder that this Thursday is a whole school casual day. We ask that students who wear casual clothes bring a donation of either a bag of chocolates or lollies. These donations will be used to support the schools Market Day. Students are still more than welcome to wear their school uniform on this day.

Thankyou,

Emily and Irene

Welcome to Week 8.

In Literacy, we reviewed ‘w’ and ‘ck’ from last week and introduced double consonants ‘ll’, ‘ss’ and ‘ff’ and the digraph ‘sh’. We practised reading and spelling words and engaged in writing and text reading tasks.

 In Storybook lessons, we listened to Edwina the Emu, visualised the story in our minds, learnt new vocabulary words like announced, required, and perfect, and practiced summarising the story in our own words.

In Bookmaking, we worked on the climax of our story writing; showing how our character/s fix the problem. We are also exploring how stories have a happy ending, and how the character lives have changed at the end of the story.

In Numeracy, the students completed an assessment to show us all the things they have learnt about place value. We then began a new topic all about skip counting. We have been learning how to skip count by 10s to 120 and beyond. Have a look at the various activities we completed to support our new learning. You may also like to practice this song at home…

In Religion, we watched a video of a family who is less fortunate than us. We discussed the differences between that family and our family life and prompted discussion around being grateful. The children reflected on things in their life that they are grateful for and illustrated and wrote about this in their learning journals.

In Technology, we continued to explore how plants and animals are grown for food. This week, we looked at traditional foods that Indigenous people source and eat. The children identified the different foods, drew them and labelled them by name.

In Health, we discussed a range of possible safe/unsafe places at home and in the community eg. at home, while shopping, at school and whilst playing.

In Science we explored how shadows are made by the sun.

Harmony Day

Whole school dance party, bracelet making, cultural dress and a special orange lunch!

Welcome to Week 7!

In Literacy this week we have been reviewing previously learnt letter names, sounds and tricky words. We focussed particularly on the sounds ‘w’ and ‘ck’; reading , spelling words and writing. The children are also working in small groups to consolidate whole group time learning concepts ie. making words with letter tiles, reading text passages and writing sentences.

Here are some children independently reading their borrowed library books during morning reading time. Thank you to parents who are listening to their child read every night and filling in the children’s yellow reading diary.

In Numeracy, we have been further exploring how two-digit numbers can be broken down into tens and ones. The students have been deepening their understanding of what it means when a number has 2 tens and 3 ones, and they have practiced writing these numbers in expanded form, for example, 20 + 3 = 23.

In Technology, we viewed some of the food options available in our School Canteen. We identified ‘sometimes’ foods and ‘everyday’ foods that can be bought. Students also thought about other foods that they would like to see in the canteen that aren’t in there already.

In Health, we explored various feelings and emotions. The children practiced describing different emotions based on physical appearance and body language, and then sorted images into four common emotional categories.

In Health, we looked at ways to self-regulate our bodies when feeling angry and we created our own safety plan including; triggers and warning signs, people who children can ask for help, safe places to go to when feeling overwhelmed and different strategies to assist self-regulating our bodies to get back to our happy place.

In HASS, we explored the concept of families. We discussed how all families look different and listened to a story about an Aboriginal boy called ‘Tom Tom”. Tom Tom’s family had similarities and differences to many of our families which we enjoyed exploring. Have a look at who lives in our homes.

Harmony Day- Week 8 (Next Week)

Harmony Day celebrations will be held in Week 8 of this term. Harmony Day is a day to celebrate Australia’s diversity. It is a week of cultural respect for everyone who calls Australia home. The ongoing theme of Harmony Day is “everyone belongs”.

By participating in Harmony Day activities, we can learn and understand how all Australians equally belong to this nation and enrich it. At Holy Family children will be involved in activities leading up to and on Harmony Day. These include the opportunity for children to be involved in lunch time activities such as making Harmony Day craft and dances.

On Friday 21 March students are encouraged to wear traditional cultural clothing, orange or school uniform. Students will also be able to order a special Harmony Day lunch of 6 chicken nuggets or 6 plant based nuggets, orange donut and an orange juice through the canteen. The meal deal is $9.  Children can also order a donut for $4. The normal canteen menu for lunch orders will NOT be available on Harmony Day however the canteen will still be open at Recess. You can place orders at the canteen (eftpos available or cash), via QKR! App or in the front office.