It’s hard to believe that we are almost at the end of the term!

In Literacy, we have been consolidating our letter name/sound knowledge and blending sounds to make meaning in our writing and our reading.

In Numeracy, we have continued our work on measurement, depicting sequence of events together with arranging lengths of paper from the shortest to the longest. We even worked collaboratively to measure each other’s height using the unifix cubes.

The photos are priceless!

In Science, we predicted how different objects would slide down the slippery dip based on object materials and characteristics.

In Religion, we explored ‘what is prayer?’ and the children filled out a prayer card on what they wanted to personally prayer for.

In HASS, we continued exploring Aboriginal people’s special events. We explored ‘what is the dreaming?’ and we watched ‘The Rainbow Serpent’.

In Health, the children explored what they believe ‘power’ is. We discussed the difference between fair/unfair and we used picture cards to explore ‘how power was used in a fair way’ versus ‘how power was used in an unfair way’.

In The Arts, we continued exploring story telling skills reflecting on real life experiences.

In Technology, we explored building and creating things, just like real designers and engineers. We listened to the book, ‘If I Built a House’ by Chris Van Dusen and we explored different kinds of things we would like to build or create. We brainstormed different materials we could use and the children built enclosures for small animals.

Hope you enjoy the photos!

It’s hard to believe that we’re in Week 8 already!

In literacy, we are reviewing all the previously learnt letter names and sounds and using these to form words and construct sentences. In bookmaking, our focus for the remainder of the term is ‘ways to add words’ to our books. The children are being brave spellers and having a go at writing words and sentences in their books.

In Numeracy, we have commenced our unit on measurement. We are exploring what we use to measure, using measurable words like longer/shorter, bigger/smaller, comparing heights, sequencing events and comparing duration of time.

In Science, we used different types of balls to investigate which one would bounce the highest bases on the different materials of the balls.

In Religion, we looked at the different components of different religions.

In Health, We explored the notion of fair versus unfair behaviours.

In Arts, we focuses on re-telling the story of ‘The three little pigs’ through dramatic play and in Technology, the children got to construct their own house from the story.

In HASS, Mohammad (Aima’s dad) came in to speak with us about his Country and culture. He is from Afghanistan and mum is from Pakistan. He showed us some amazing cultural dresses that Aima wore to a wedding and he taught us how they greet others ie. Salam (peace be upon you) and people would reply Walaikum Salam (same to you). We also leant that their family doesn’t sit around a table to share food; they each sit on comfortable cushions on the floor to cater for all the family. Thank you so much Mohammad for taking the time to speak with us about your beautiful culture.

We have been working on a few assessment tasks this week in preparation for the end of Semester reports.

In literacy, we have been consolidating our letter name/sound understanding together with learning our heart words. Furthermore, we have been sounding out letter sounds to make words and collaboratively constructing sentences by using the explicitly taught reading and spelling strategies that we have been learning. We have started a new bookmaking study this week ie. ‘ways to add words’ to our books.

In Numeracy, we concluded our learning around data. For the assessment, the children needed to tally up everyone’s vote relating to ‘What is your favourite colour?’ and place the votes on the graph. We then reflected on the most and the least favourite colour from the data collected.

In Health, we viewed ‘Some Secrets should never be kept’ and talked about each of us having a trust network of adults we can go to if someone is hurting us or touching us inappropriately.

In Science, we explored the notion that the form of movement depends on the material that the object is made from.

In Hass, the children planned a special event including, things you will need, what food you will eat, who will be invited, what activities are planned, where will your event be held and what costumes or clothes will be worn.

In Religion, the children are learning about various religions and the different symbols that each use.

In the Arts, the children continued to learn about the five parts of a retell. They choose to retell a part/scene from the story ‘The Three Little Pigs’.

In Technology, the children continued to build a house that they firstly designed on paper (inspired from the 3 little pigs).

Welcome to Week 6. Here is a recap of our weekly learning.

In Literacy this week we have been finishing off our Mo Willems Author Study in bookmaking. The children are starting to think like an Author and Illustrator and are starting to use crafting techniques evident in Mo’s books.

In Numeracy, we are exploring ‘Data’; looking at what data is, how we can collect data and ways we can display data in graphs and charts. The first part of our Data unit explored ways we can group objects in different groups based on similar characteristics and attributes.

In Science, we continued our work around ‘Movement of things’. The children engaged in a Summative task in deciding whether objects can roll, bounce or slide.

In HASS, our Summative task was around identifying how our family and friends celebrate past events that are important.

In Arts, the children designed their own house based around ‘The 3 little pigs’. In Technology, they will then create their house based on their initial design.

In Health, we explored the concept of bullying and ways we could deal with these incidences.

Just a reminder that next Monday is a public holiday and next Tuesday is a pupil free day. Week 7 will commence on Wednesday 12th June. Enjoy your long weekend!

This week we celebrated Reconciliation Week together with Mission Day. A big thank you to all families who donated play dough and bubbles for our stall. It was a bit hit; everything went. The school ended up raising $2,500 for three Charities namely; Catholic Charities, Fred’s Van & Catherine House.

Thank you to all who helped us celebrate our Assembly this week. The children thoroughly enjoyed making puppets, learning new songs and dances and practising for our big event. Here are some photos to showcase our Assembly.

We started the week with a beautiful liturgy focussing on all the amazing mothers and special females in our lives. Thank you to our inspirational mothers and grandmothers who attended the liturgy.

Just a reminder that our class, together with RCC and REB will be hosting an Assembly in Week 4 on Friday 24^th May at 9am in the Hall. All families are invited to attend. I’ve sent home readings for three children to practise at home in preparation for our Assembly: namely, Mikeyla, Celine, and Raymond. If you haven’t seen this piece of paper, please check your child’s bag.

An email also was sent out today to all families regarding the children interviewing a grandparent or older person whom they know. Please support your child with this interview and return the sheets to me no later than end of Week 7 (14^th June).

In literacy this week we focussed on the letter’s ‘J’ and ‘V’ in Word Study with a particular focus on the spelling rule for each ie. If you hear a /j/ at the start of a word, it can be written with ‘j’ or ‘g’. The letter ‘g’ will only sound like /j/ if it is followed by an e, I or y. All words that end in ‘v’ must be followed by e, like in cave, gave, hive, give, love, and have.

In Numeracy, we started to look at part-whole operations, specifically looking at Addition with materials within 5 and Subtraction with materials within 5.

In Religion, we explored the different Catholic Symbols that is of significance in our Catholic Faith ie. The cross, the fish and the candle.

In Science, we continued to explore movement of our bodies and discussing what specific parts of our body is moving when performing different movements ie. Walk, jump, wave, blind, breathe, skip etc.

In HASS, we discussed our own Family Trees. Thank you to families who returned these. The children shared their own family tree with a partner and then drew their family members in their learning journals.

In Health, we are continuing to explore relationships and the people who are special to us.

Term 2, Week 2

The children have settled in smoothly and are quite engaged in all areas of learning.

Next Monday we will be celebrating all our mothers & special women in our lives by having a Mother’s Day Liturgy. Please read the information below from our APRIM, Anthony Terminello.

Mother’s Day Liturgy

Next Monday, 13th May, our school community will be celebrating Mother’s Day with a liturgy to be held in House teams. Our Year 6 House and Sports Captains will host each liturgy, which begins at 9am. Please find the liturgy locations for your child/ren below:

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

From 8:15am until 9:15am on the Monday morning, a Fresh Bean Adelaide coffee van will be supplying coffees free of charge. We would love to see as many mothers, grandmothers, big sisters, aunts and cousins as possible, along with all your family, and it would be fantastic if you could stay to celebrate the Mother’s Day liturgy at 9am.

Wishing all mothers and significant people in our children’s lives a Happy Mother’s Day on Sunday, and we look forward to seeing you on Monday morning.

Kind regards,

Anthony Terminello APRIM

Just a reminder that we will be hosting an Assembly on Friday 24^th May at 9am in the Hall. All families are invited to attend. The children have been quite busy in preparation and are eager to showcase their performance.

The take home folders have been sent out this week. This includes letters learnt, blending words and high frequency words. If your child wants to write them out, that is perfectly fine. If not, please don’t push them. Just going through the content together will suffice. These folders will go home every day and its expected that they get returned every morning.

Please also continue to read with your child every night if possible. This may include sharing picture or information books or your child’s readers.

For HASS in Week 8 on Thursday 20 June (1.30 pm), I’m invited any families who would like to come in to speak to the children about their culture and any cultural events that you celebrate. You may wish to bring in any cultural artefacts to showcase also. Please let me know as soon as possible if you would like to come in. It doesn’t need to be very long, but the children would benefit from this type of sharing. If the time doesn’t suit, we could possibly arrange another time.

In Literacy we are continuing our Author Study on Mo Willems, specifically looking at drawing the pigeon that is illustrated in some of Mo’s books together with writing a sentence about the pigeon.

In Numeracy, we are continuing our patterning work looking at AB, AAB and AABB pattern types.

In Religion, we looked at the Pentecost and how the disciples could not see the Holy Spirit but they did see tongues of fire rest above their heads. The children enjoyed creating their own tongues of fire headband.

In HASS, we explored ways that we are connected to different groups of people and communities.

In Arts, the children made props to re-tell the story of ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar’.

In Science, we looked at how our bodies can move in a variety of ways. We explored our body movements through a GoNoodle dance and Dinosaur Stomp dance. The children were asked to think about what movements they did in the dances, discuss it with a partner and share their findings with the group. They then used different actioned cue cards showing a variety of different movements. They each physically copied each movement with a partner whilst the other tried to name the movement.

Wishing all our mothers a very happy Mother’s Day for Sunday. I do hope you all get spoilt with love, affection and time spent together as a family.

It was great to welcome the children back after their holiday break. They were excited to share some holiday stories and eager to resume to normal school routines.

In Literacy, we are continuing to learn the letter names and sounds of letters, review ones learnt from last term, blend and segment letters to make words, learn new high frequency words (heart words), construct sentences based on what they did in the holiday, participate in reader’s workshop and commence our Author Study for Bookmaking using Mo Willems books.

In Numeracy, we reviewed Number and Shape from last term and introduced patterning. The children are learning what a pattern is, the concept of ‘unit of repeat’ and are attempting to identify and create their own patterns.

In Science, we are focussing on how different objects move. The children were engaged in rotational learning experiences where they each shared a basket of different objects ie. small soft ball, tennis ball, buttons, pom-pom craft balls, ruler, workbook, building blocks, toy car, slinky hand etc. and tested how they each moved safely.

In Health, we explored differences between a need and a want. We based this on owning a pet and the children drew their pet together with what that pet needs to survive ie. water, food and shelter.

In Religion, we are learning about what a Church is and why it is important (Church helps us to spread love and the Gospel across the whole world).

In HASS, we are learning about and discussing people who are important to us.

AN EMAIL WAS SENT OUT TO FAMILIES REGARDING ‘FAMILY’ INFORMATION TOGETHER WITH A FAMILY TREE TO COMPLETE AND RETURN BY WEEK 2. THIS WILL BE USED IN WEEK 3. 

PLEASE BRING THESE IN ASAP.

In Technology, the children used the I-pads to experiment with drawing in the app ‘Sketch School’ and familiarise themselves with saving and editing their work.

In Media Arts, the children will retell a familiar text (The Very Hungry Caterpillar) using props. They have started to cut out characters and scenes from the story and stick them onto pop sticks to use as puppets.

JUST A FEW REMINDERS

• Please ensure your child has fruit to eat during brain food.
• Please ensure all library bags are brought into school every day.
• Please take the time for your child to read their readers and/or picture books every night.
• We are hosting an Assembly in Week 4, Friday 24th May 2024. Families are invited to attend.
• Please bring in the family tree/information for HASS as emailed to you by the end of Week 2.
• As from Week 2, the children will take home a ‘Try at home’ book which will contain letters, blending words and heart words for the children to review at home. I’ve ordered some clear plastic cases for this book to sit in however, I’m waiting for them to arrive from the stationers. Please ensure this is returned to school everyday. 
• Tomorrow all reception teachers will be engaged in a PD with Lisa Burman (Literacy Couch). A TRT will take the class.
• There is also a PD scheduled for next Monday, 6th May 2024. This is a pupil free day for the children.

What a very eventful Sport’s Day! The children have been practising their events during their sport’s lesson and showcased their talents today for Sport’s Day. I’m so proud of everyone having a go, waiting patiently for their turn and listening attentively to instructions and directions.

Tomorrow is the last day of Term 1. Looking forward to seeing everyone refreshed and relaxed ready to commence Term 2 on Monday 29th April 2024.