During this week we have been preparing a movie presentation for Holy Week.

Both classes have been working closely with 5/6 students to create an illustration which carefully and clearly highlights a significant part of the Jesus Entering Jerusalem story (Palm Sunday)  and the Cleansing of the Temple story (Holy Monday).

The children have done a wonderful job and put a great deal of effort into their illustrations.

Please scroll down to the bottom of this post to view 2EF and 5/6NB’s movie presentation.

Luke 19:28 – 48

Jesus’ Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem

²⁸ After he had said this, he went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem.

²⁹ When he had come near Bethphage and Bethany, at the place called the Mount of Olives, he sent two of the disciples, ³⁰ saying, “Go into the village ahead of you, and as you enter it you will find tied there a colt that has never been ridden. Untie it and bring it here. ³¹ If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you untying it?’ just say this, ‘The Lord needs it.’” ³² So those who were sent departed and found it as he had told them. ³³ As they were untying the colt, its owners asked them, “Why are you untying the colt?” ³⁴ They said, “The Lord needs it.” ³⁵ Then they brought it to Jesus; and after throwing their cloaks on the colt, they set Jesus on it. ³⁶ As he rode along, people kept spreading their cloaks on the road. ³⁷ As he was now approaching the path down from the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to praise God joyfully with a loud voice for all the deeds of power that they had seen, ³⁸ saying,

“Blessed is the king
    who comes in the name of the Lord!
Peace in heaven,
    and glory in the highest heaven!”

³⁹ Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, order your disciples to stop.” ⁴⁰ He answered, “I tell you, if these were silent, the stones would shout out.”

Jesus Weeps over Jerusalem

⁴¹ As he came near and saw the city, he wept over it, ⁴² saying, “If you, even you, had only recognized on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. ⁴³ Indeed, the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up ramparts around you and surround you, and hem you in on every side. ⁴⁴ They will crush you to the ground, you and your children within you, and they will not leave within you one stone upon another; because you did not recognize the time of your visitation from God.”^[b]

Jesus Cleanses the Temple

⁴⁵ Then he entered the temple and began to drive out those who were selling things there; ⁴⁶ and he said, “It is written,

‘My house shall be a house of prayer’;
    but you have made it a den of robbers.”

⁴⁷ Every day he was teaching in the temple. The chief priests, the scribes, and the leaders of the people kept looking for a way to kill him; ⁴⁸ but they did not find anything they could do, for all the people were spellbound by what they heard.

Every Friday, 2EF have been spending time writing books with 5/6NB. This has been a wonderful experience to be a part of. The year 5/6 students have been writing books since they were in Reception, which means they have a plethora of writing skills and knowledge to teach the Year Two students.

McKayla and Arielle have been working with Anh-Trinh.

They have been working on a book called, ‘The Magic Mission’.

Writing and illustrating has been equally shared between the students.

Have a look at their book…

Today we had a visit from year five student, Hayley, a former student of Mrs Feher.

The reason we had a visit is because she created a fantastic book about emotions, called ‘This Book is About Emotions). Hayley read her book to the group and answered the various questions they had to ask  about her book.

One student asked, ‘how did you draw the circles so neatly and the same on each page?’

Another student asked her about her  colouring techniques.

Others were interested to hear where Hayley’s inspiration and ideas came from.

After this we talked about different feelings, to give us some ideas for our own work.

Each child selected an emotion, wrote a sentence about the emotion and illustrated the emotion just like Hayley had done in her book. After this they drew their emotion on an egg and put their page inside.

This lesson was a big success and every student was full of excitement! The whole lesson was created with inspiration from Hayley’s book. Hayley was very proud, as was I, as her former teacher.

At the conclusion of the lesson, I explained to 2EF that just like Hayley, they too may be the inspiration for a lesson taught to younger students one day. One student was blown away by this idea and commented, ‘I don’t think that could ever be me,’ but what he doesn’t realise is the incredible growth Hayley has shown since she entered my class in 2021. The idea of this lesson taking place would not have seemed like a possibility for Hayley either.

At Holy Family we make this possible!

This week our Numeracy focus has been on addition.

I have spent some time working out where each child is at in their addition learning. This involved me sitting with individual children and working through some basic addition with them.

After this, I was able to clearly see which level each child was at with their addition learning. This is extremely beneficial to the children as it allows me to set the same task, at different levels of difficulty. It means we see no children bored because the work is too easy, and no children frustrated or confused because the work is too difficult.

During today’s lesson some children were adding two digit numbers using vertical addition while others were using concrete materials and illustrations to add one digit numbers. Have a look at the amazing work we achieved in today’s maths lesson.

During Literacy lessons selected children who require support with their letter sounds, reading and writing have the opportunity to work with me (Mrs Feher) one on one for mini focus lessons.

Today, I worked with five individual students, we focused on a list of sight words, which are common words children will come across when reading and writing.

When children are beginning to read it is important that they develop a bank of commonly used words which they can recognise instantly, these words are best learnt through memorisation and repetition.

Any sight words which the students found challenging to read were withdrawn from the pile. We then worked with these words further, sounding them out and going through the letters and sounds within the word. To finish off, each student constructed and wrote a sentence using those words.

For the last few weeks we have been learning about place value. Some students found the task challenging at first, while others were ready to work with three and four digit numbers right away. No matter what level we were at we differentiated the learning appropriately. This means children were doing different task, at their level of readiness, but by the end of the lesson we had all achieved the same learning outcome.

Some were working on four digit place value activities while others worked on two or three digit place value activities. Some also worked in a small group with me on basic place value concepts.

Over the course of the three weeks, I saw great levels of growth from everyone!

The children really enjoyed one lesson where they had the opportunity to use thousands, hundreds, tens and units blocks to create animals and creatures, then once they where done, they calculated what number they had all together.

Yesterday 2EF had the opportunity to participate in an Auskick football clinic!

We all had so much fun.

If you are interested in registering your child please click on the link below. The program is not run through or at the school and there is a cost.

https://play.afl/auskick?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI5K7lwIbc9gIVyDMrCh2ZGA-GEAAYASAAEgI2f_D_BwE

At Holy Family we see the results of our wonderful teaching in our older Year 5/6 students in the school. We really do teach the children to grow into inspirational, independent, positive, leading, supporting, kind and empathic people and the Year 5/6 students are walking proof of that.

Last year, I (Mrs Feher) taught a group of wonderful Year Fours who now as Year Fives visit me and 2EF often to say ‘hi’. Recently, I began to ask them to extend their stays and apply their leadership skills to support, guide, model to and teach the Year Twos.

It has been amazing and wonderful seeing these relationships develop between the younger and older students.

Today Jacob and Joshua, two Year Five students from my class last year, read to 2EF before we continued the lesson with Independent Reading.

Throughout the last few weeks, Gurnoor, Matthew, Felix, Yianni and Myla who were also in my class last year have been supporting 2EF as well.

Additionally, we have had support from Year 6 girls, TCross, and Winnie.

We are very grateful to have these wonderful role models in our school, which the younger children look up to.

We are excited for what the rest of the year has in store for these blossoming relationships.

It is beautiful to think that one day all of the Year Twos in 2EF will be the older Year 5/6 students applying their leadership skills and supporting the younger students.

Yesterday, we celebrated Harmony Day! 2EF had a day full of activities which celebrated and highlighted the diversity within Australia and more directly within our school.

The morning began with a reading of Whoever You Are by Mem Fox, this book highlights the fact that no matter where we are from, where we are in the world, or what we look like, we all have the same hearts, smiles, laughs, and pain.

Many of the children wore orange which is a colour that signifies harmony, happiness,  and joy. Other children wore traditional cultural dress to show how proud they are of their culture. It was wonderful to see so many children and teachers were involved.

Once we had an understanding of Harmony Day we had a discussion about our different cultures. We discovered that in 2EF we have a range of different cultures to celebrate. We created digital presentations about our cultures.

After Recess we read the book, My Two Blankets  by Irena Kobald at the same time as every other class in the school. This book is a wonderful book about a little girl who moves away from her country  to live in a new country. She shares her feelings while she adjusts. She uses a blanket as a metaphor. She wrapped herself up in the blanket every night. This blanket was filled with all of her safe, familiar things from her home country. Over time she becomes more familiar with her new country, makes a friend and learns the language. She begins to create a new, safe blanket for her new home as she begins to feel happy and safe there.

We talked about what makes us feel safe and worked to create our own, paper blanket. Each child work hard to decorate one patch of our paper blanket, including all of the things that are familiar and safe to them as an individual.

Once have completed the blanket, we will attach them all together and display our safe blanket

To end our wonderful day we partnered up with some older year 5/6 buddies from 5/6 NB for a shared reading experience.

You know that feeling, where you have been working for hours and your brain becomes fuzzy, you just can’t focus any more? Children get that same feeling and absolutely no learning will come out of this situation.

That is when we call for a BRAIN BREAK! We reset our brain ready for new learning.

Here we are busting a move, doing a cardio workout.