Pre-School Team:
Over the course of Term 2 we have been focusing on developing children’s oral language skills and extending their vocabularies by introducing them to topic-related tier 2 and 3 words. We have been intentionally teaching this through socio-dramatic play especially in the home corner area which we have transformed from a cafe to an airport and to a doctor’s surgery. This has allowed children to use topic-related, tier 2 and 3 words such as barista, turbulence, destination, oxygen, stethoscope, otoscope, etc. It has also allowed children to participate in reciprocal shared conversations that demonstrated at least 5 rounds of conversational turn-taking and provided children with the opportunity to role play different professions and take on different client/patient perspectives. In weeks 5 and 6 we were busy exploring our family structures and cultural backgrounds. Many children displayed great interest in learning about the names of different countries on planet Earth and looking at the family photos that children have brought in. For the rest of the term we will be learning about the human body and healthy lifestyles. To commence this topic, we revisited our learning on hygiene and germs. The children have been informing us that in order to keep our bodies healthy and free from germs we must wash our hands frequently and well, exercise and eat healthy food to make our bodies strong enough to protect us from the germs that can make us sick. We have also begun naming some of the bones and vital organs in our bodies and discussing their functions.
Reception – Krystal Room 1 & Anita Room 2:
In Rooms 1 and 2 we have had a very busy term consolidating our new learning. In Literacy, we have now been exposed to all 115 SSP speech sounds and are at the point of revisiting the sounds students are finding difficult to retain and transfer to their reading and writing. Students are working within their code level, supporting them with phonemic awareness, sound identification, blending, decoding and fluency, while using the sounds that students are working on at that particular time. We engage in many whole class, group and individual activities which also support students in working at their level, as well as extending their phonics knowledge and reading skills where possible. In writing, our main focus has been to use our phonics knowledge to encode (spell) unknown word, as well as use High Frequency words. We are working on writing recounts and descriptive texts using the describing bubbles. In Maths, we have continued our learning on number and are learning about two-dimensional shapes. We have also gone back to revisit patterns as well as learning about ordinal numbers. We are excited about next term and all the new learning experiences we will have.
Year 2 – Mary Room 5 & Jess Room 6:
Time has flown in Rooms 5 and 6 this term! We cannot believe it is Week 8 already with one of the highlights of this term being running the very important Reconciliation Week Assembly in Week 6. It was so great to be able to put our presenting skills into practise and we are extremely proud of our efforts. In Literacy, we are currently working hard on exposition texts and are proving ourselves to be highly persuasive writers indeed. We have been able to develop strong arguments both for and against a range of topics and use persuasive language. We are looking forward to finishing off the term with work on procedural writing, a favourite ‘hands on’ text type. We have continued to work hard on learning and applying our spelling patterns, working on our comprehension skills as well as individual and group reading goals in guided reading sessions. In Maths in Room 6 we have been enthusiastic about learning 2D and 3D shapes and were able to identify shapes in our everyday lives. Room 5 have just wrapped up their unit of work on Time. We are continuing to develop strategies for solving addition problems such as the split strategy, vertical addition with and without regrouping and open number lines. Our next step will be to apply our strategies to solve worded problem solving activities and learning to use a checklist for solving such problems. In Health we have been lucky enough to participate in the Emmy and Friends Program once again, learning important protective behaviour concepts. We are extending and consolidating these concepts in extra in class Health lessons as well as completing the What’s The Buzz social skills program. This week saw the end of Miss M’s placement as a first year pre service teacher in Room 6 and she will be missed. We wish Makenzie all the best as she continues her studies. We are looking forward to a well-deserved break and coming back refreshed for new learning.
Year 2/3 - Jenna Room 9/ Year 3 - Sabrina Room 10 /Year 3/4 – Elliana Room 11:
The end of term is fast approaching and we have been working extremely hard within all subject areas! Our literacy focus for the past 6 weeks has been Information Reports, which branched across our literacy block, including modelled reading, writing and guided reading. To consolidate and add a real life element to our learning, we visited the Adelaide Zoo! This was a highlight of the term, as children were able to observe, note take and learn about a variety of animals, including Native Australian Animals. They have been busy using this new knowledge to construct informative texts. We think the student’s will be talking about this excursion and their experiences at the zoo for years to come! We have also started to explicitly teach and learn about a related reading strategy during modelled reading, to help support students in becoming balanced readers. This term we have focused on retell, which allows students to show their understanding of the text by retelling events or ideas in their own words, in order and with the right amount of detail. Within mathematics we have worked hard to grasp the concepts of money and measurement! Students have enjoyed learning strategies for calculating change and applying it to our Rooms 9, 10 and 11 Market stalls, where students designed, made and sold products to their class members. We were very impressed with their ability to accurately calculate change and run and real life stall. Within measurement, we have focused on length, mass and Capacity/Volume. The students have demonstrated the tools/language needed to support real world problems, during hands on activities. Within HASS, we boarded a plane and travelled to some of Australia’s neighbouring countries. We of course had to make a passport first and boy was that fun! First stop was New Zealand! We learnt about New Zealand’s relationship with Australia and explored the North and South island, learning about the famous cities, population, wild life and landmarks. We then discussed the Indigenous culture and history of the Maori people and learnt about their cultural traditions. The highlight was making our very own Poi Balls, which in Maori means ‘ball on string’. A lot of fun was had trying to dance with them.
Year 4/5 – Belinda Room 7 & Brooke Room 8:
As this term draws to a close we are proud of the effort students have made with their learning. Students have completed the unit of persuasive texts and have commenced our final unit of the term, procedure text. Students have shown progress with their understanding of simple and compound sentence structures. It is pleasing to see that students are transferring what they are learning in word study about orthography, morphology and phonology to spell unknown words. Our last unit of the term in maths is division and students have responded well to the tasks so far. They will be solving worded problems using all the content taught this semester, so they have an opportunity to apply their learning from previous weeks. Students have been thoroughly engaged in our STEM activities this term. Room 7 have been programming robots, coding and creating clay animations. Room 8 have been designing a litter collector that can be used in the oceans to reduce plastic pollution.
Year 5/6/7 – Andrew Room 12, Georgina Room 13 & Cathy Room 14:
The students have continued to work hard in all areas of their learning.
In reading, we are continuing small group Guided Reading sessions and Literacy Circles for some groups. We are focussed on informative genres. During small group Guided Reading we are looking at the structure that is vital for the construction of these texts.
In writing, we are focusing on informative genres. Students are completing an Information Report on an animal from China and a related poster to help present their hard work. To finish the term, students have been given a contract aligned with our Science and HASS work that requires multiple written texts around Ancient China.
In Mathematics, we will are currently working on transformations and coordinates. They have been required to transform 2D shapes using reflections, translations and rotations. For this activity Students got to use Beebots (robots) and input codes to reach a final destination. We were fortunate to go to the University of South Australia and participate in 3D printing and Coding which supported this unit of work along with Technology. Both year 6 and 7 students have begun a maths Investigation.
In HASS, our focus has been Ancient China and Australia as a Nation. We have looked at a range of features that made up their history. This has included religion, the role of women, war, native animals and Indigenous Australia culture. We are continuing to look into these in greater depth.
Junior Primary / Primary Art – Sue Graham:
Our students should feel proud of the fine work they have produced in the Arts.
Our choirs are working beautifully as teams, not only learning the repertoire but developing excellent performing skills.
Our Senior choir will perform at the Entertainment Centre next term on Tuesday the 7th of September whilst our Junior choir will perform in assemblies.
In Visual Arts our students are working on artwork to reflect the theme NAIDOC week 2021, “ Heal Country”.
Kitchen garden this term has been primarily about moving and preparing garden beds for winter crops. We had a large delivery of garden soil and our students worked in teams to distribute it evenly amongst the garden beds.
It has been a term of wonderful cooperation amongst our students.
Primary Science – James Yates/ JP Science – Thuy Nguyen:
Junior Primary students have recently completed their work focusing on movement. Throughout the unit students were able to identify different voluntary and involuntary movements people do and were also able to explain how different body parts move when doing a variety of movements.
Middle Primary students have been learning about forces. We first started investigating push and pull forces and have since moved into learning about how friction, gravity and air resistance also affect how objects move.
Upper Primary students have been continuing on with their work around energy. Students have been able identifying different machines that can transform one energy into another. We are starting to research renewable and non-renewable energy.
Junior Primary / Primary Language- Thi Hien Danh:
This term, students across all year levels are continuing to refine their knowledge and understanding with numbers and colours. Students in year 1-7 are working on constructing simple sentences with given vocabulary. Students in year 4-7 are being exposed to conjunctions, so they can start using them in their written work. Oral language is being focused every lesson through varies activities such as the colour game, corners game and memory game.
PE – James Yates
JP students have recently finished their throwing and catching unit of work, in which they have been playing a variety of games/challenges that have a throwing/catching focus. Students have used a variety of different equipment during this unit which they have really enjoyed.
Primary Students completed a Volleyball unit of work, in which the skill development across all classes was fantastic to see. We have now started a Soccer unit of work, which will see the students develop skills in passing, shooting, dribbling, tackling, ball control, teamwork and gameplay.
