Dear Parents / Guardians

We will begin our news in week 6 (Monday 2nd of March) and students are able to bring something in to show and share with the class. It would be helpful if you practice your child’s news at home. 

Show and Share / News roster

In English we have been learning about syllables, rhyming, initial sounds, oral blending and onset and rime. The phonograms that we have been covering are: s, a, t, i, p, n, c, k, e, h, r,m. The stories we have read are: Grandpa and Thomas and Granny Grommet and Me.

In Mathematics we are learning how to write numbers: 0 - 20, counting forwards to 100 and backwards starting at 20. We are linking quantity to numeral 0-10 to begin with then beyond.

In Science: That’s my hat!

Students observe the properties of materials of everyday objects. They explore the effect of changing the type of materials used on the observable properties of an object, such as changing the materials used for the brim of a hat to make the hat more or less sun safe. 

The Year One students have been working hard to understand what the 4Rs looks like during transitions.  I have noticed a big improvement this week as the students transition into the classroom, between rotations and getting ready for specialist lessons.  Our class attendance for this fortnight is 95%.

We have had a busy week in Literacy.  We have learned many new digraphs and have enjoyed finding these digraphs in word sorts, stories and even Ms B’s instructions.  We practised our tricky words and learned about fiction and non fiction texts. We began analysing the language features of Informative texts.  Next week we will begin creating our own informative texts when we write about our animal facts.

In Maths we have been improving our number sense by sequencing numbers from smallest to largest, estimating amounts using mathematical language of more than or less than, and justifying why our answers are reasonable.  The students played a variety of games including friends of ten. Working in pairs, the students had 10 cubes and were tasked with hiding a number of cubes under the plate. Their partner needed to use their friends of ten facts to calculate the number of hidden cubes.  Next week we will be learning to skip count in 2s, 5s and 10s. Students will investigate the number before and the number after and will progress to solving simple addition and subtraction problems.

Home Learning:

• Reading to others
• Tricky words
• Spelling words

Year 2 have been very busy over the past two weeks learning lots of interesting things in science, history and religion. We have done experiments testing the effects of gravity on water and further enhanced our understanding of a push and pull in science. In history, we have spent lots of time discussing the timelines of changes to technology within our homes, communication devices and transportation. The students have learnt about the stories of St Francis and St Clare in religion.

Maths rotations have been in full swing this week. There are so many ways to teach or revise a concept. In the Year 2 class you will notice that each maths session begins with a number talk. Number talks provide students with the opportunity to develop their ‘number sense’, this allows them to show the flexibility in their thinking around numbers and share their understanding with the rest of the class. Our maths rotations then consist of iPad, hands on, workbook and teacher led activities. This week Year 2 have been learning to partition numbers with a focus on ones, tens and hundreds.

It is important for your children to attend school every day. If your child is unwell, please notify the office of their absence. We have had a few students away sick this past week and as such we have been focusing on the good hygiene practices of washing our hands and keeping school equipment such as pencils and rulers as well as our hands out of our mouths.

A reminder that homework is due each Thursday to allow time for marking before it is sent home again each Friday. Home readers and library books will be changed each Friday.

Almost halfway through the term already and students are settled into routines of our classroom. We have been practising and revising what it means to be respectful in different areas of the school like the library and eating areas. We have also been looking at our transitions and how we can move quickly and quietly from one place to the next.

In grade three we have been using our 4R’s to helps us get the most out of literacy and math rotations. We are learning that when we are in the classroom its our learning time and by being ready to learn as quickly as possible, we can have more time to complete activities like literacy planet on the Ipad or dice games in maths.

We have continued exploring place value in maths and are now looking at 5 digit numbers. We have been practising and consolidating how to read, write and order these numbers. We have also been looking at the properties of the number like if it is odd or even and quick ways of counting forwards by ones, tens, hundreds and thousands.

In geography we are learning about different kinds of maps and why we have maps. We have looked at maps from Australia and are learning about legends or keys that tell us more information about a map.

Thank you for bringing the homework back this week. Homework will be brought to school on Thursday and sent home Friday with new books and a maths activity. If there is any concerns about the homework or anything happening at school, please contact me. Homework should not be onerous or stressful but just a consolidation of what is being taught at school.

In our class, we have 10 students who have been at school everyday for the past fortnight, with most other students only missing a day or two with sickness. Thank you for the continued support of bringing your child to school every day and on time.

The app Seesaw is up and running in our classroom and we want all our parents involved so you can see what magical learning we get up to every day. We use the app alongside other activities to help us explore and explain our thoughts. The apps allows the teacher to give feedback and for students to understand their mistakes and how to improve their work. Please check your emails for further information.

Working in a group to work on number lines in maths (photos)

This week for Assembly Year 4 talked about Lent. This begins on Ash Wednesday, which is on 26^th of February this year. It is the day after Shrove Tuesday, also known as Pancake Day, when lots of people will eat pancakes. The reason for this tradition is that making pancake batter was an opportunity to use up luxury food items such as eggs and butter, which would be denied to them during the 40-day fast of Lent.

Many people use these 40 days, which lead up to Easter Day, as an opportunity to give up or abstaining from foods, or other things, for spiritual reasons is called or take up something that will bring them closer to God; they may give the time or money spent doing that to charitable purposes or to other organizations. Some people choose to do something special during Lent rather than giving something up. For example, they may aim to perform a special act of kindness every day during Lent or spend time praying each day.

The students performed a play about a boy who had to wait for something. Eventually, he learned that he just had to be patient - and eventually the waiting was over.

Dear God,
Thank you for the festival of Lent, which reminds us that there is always hope.
Help us to treat people well, to share what we have, to love people and never to give up on them. May we live lives that reflect peace and joy.
Amen.

Reminders

Auslan is on Monday 

Library Day is Wednesday – please ensure Library bag is packed on that day

Physical Education is Thursday – please wear Sports Uniform on that day

Health is on Friday

Our email addresses are mturner@cns.catholic.edu.au and sulanas@cns.catholic.edu.au

we will endeavour to return your email within 24 hours.

Kind regards,

Ms U and Ms T.

The past two weeks have flown by in Year 5. In Religion we have been exploring what the Holy Spirit is, what words we use to make connections to the Holy Spirit and what images or image is best used to represent it. The students have put their artistic creativity to the test and have created a visual representation of the Holy Spirit. I have been blown away to the detail and their chosen images. We will continue our understanding of the Holy Spirit and its representation by exploring the symbolism within the church. 

Our biggest challenge in our Math lessons is understanding the mathematical language. We often know how to work out the question once we know what it is telling us to do. There has been lots of opportunities to expand our vocabulary and use this is its correct context. All of us are getting better at reading, sorting, rounding and creating numbers with digits up to 6 numerals. Our addition algorithms are improving and by the end of next week we are going to be able to solve a variety of word problems as well. 

Our understanding of the structure of a narrative is solid and we are now looking at how we can improve our writing by using a wide range of word groups. Identifying personification within a text has proven tricky but with more practice next week we will have a much better understanding of why it is used and how we can use it more effectively in our writing. Reading groups is a wonderful time in Year 5 and it is so nice to have seen improved confidence and ability to read more complex texts. Each of the reading groups are getting into the ‘exciting’ parts of their books and there has been some great discussions about the words used by the author, why they have been used and what they mean. Our ability to understand what we read has been a focus with explicit lessons in comprehension. The students are gaging a deeper understanding of how to read text to make meaning and value. 

Thank you to those students who have remembered their homework this week. As we get into the habit of returning it every Thursday we also need to remember our Library Books as well. Well done also to our families on great attendance. We have had 11 out of our 13 students attend school everyday this past fortnight. This is fantastic! 

An encouraging few weeks of hard work has everyone settled into Yr 6 routines, knowing what learning tools are needed to have in advance for each session so we are ready to learn asap!

We had a valuable session on Tuesday, talking about TRUST and RESPECT in relation to each other, our friendships and with different teachers. The students journaled their thoughts and were quite mature during circle time to share any ideas. Great teambuilding activity!

In ENGLISH our focus is on improving sentence and paragraph structure; to include more complex phrasing, descriptive language and use of conjunctions. Our “Word of the Day” is extending each students use of vocabulary and consolidating their understanding of synonyms, antonyms, as well as exploring the meaning of words.  We have been using an online thesaurus to assist with this. Each week we are building our research skills to enhance writing Informative texts, I have certainly seen each student improve their setting out and depth of information being researched.

In MATHS learning we have reviewed the importance of estimating and rounding large numbers to help use mental strategies to work out different problems. This week we have investigated Length and most students can confidently convert the units of mm, cm, m, km into different quantities.   In RELIGION we are continuing to discuss and research modern day prophets and inspirational people who have a strong message in our world today.  The next step is connecting these messages to how we live our lives out at St Josephs and how they connect to the message of Jesus. Many students have offered very insightful suggestions about this.  Some people being researched are Pope Francis, Mother Teresa, Steve Irwin, Kobe Bryant.

Our learning about Federation in Australia has been interesting and informative.  We have made a timeline of these historical events and learnt many key words to help us understand this important time. We have looked at the visual maps of when each state of Australia was introduced and the major changes in Australia in these early years.  Do you know who the first Australian Prime Minister was???

So lots going on…lots of positive discussions and sharing of ideas.  The students are continuing to enjoy icebreaker games to give us a break from curriculum learning, these games encourage others to be brave, be accepting and to learn more about each other while having fun!