As we wrap up a busy Term 1 we take the time to reflect on what we have achieved. I asked a couple of students this week about the work they have done this term … would you be surprised if some of them came back absolutely blank? It’s moments like these you could slap your hand to your forehead and wonder why you do it!

This comment also makes me wonder how many parents hear about the wonderful work going on in our classrooms. How many parents hear about the excursions that happened this term or the class work on Zones of Regulation, acceptable social skills, patterns of shape and colour the life cycle of plants and marine animals?

What about the students who have improved their handwriting so much this term that they’ve come and shared it with me? Those who have learnt to carry into the tens column or better yet borrow to complete more complex subtraction problems in Maths. We’ve done heaps of work this term and we’ve learnt so much. When your child can’t remember what they’ve learnt this term ask them to show you which of these pictures comes from their class and what they learnt about – there is something here from every class in our school.

Enjoy talking about learning with your children – after all, it’s what we’re all about!

Have a good holiday and most importantly, keep our children safe :)

In Kinder O’Neill, we have had a busy start to the year. We have all settled in to the routine of school and have been busy learning socialisation and independence skills. Through play we have also been learning about ourselves, our families, patterns, animals and Autumn. We even visited Bonorong Wildlife Sanctuary on an excursion to learn about Australian animals and explore our wider community. We are all excited to continue our learning after the holidays!

What has been the best part of Kinder so far?

“I love the babies.” - Lucy

“I love seeing Mrs O’Neill’s beautiful face and I do like the cake in the home corner.” - Joan

“The school photos.” - Benjamin

“The park.” – Brantley-Jay

“Playing with the monster truck tracks.” - Luke

“In the kitchen and also over on the trampoline and the playdough and the spikey blocks.” - Athena

“Home corner.” – Ethan H

“The park with the cycles and the sandpit.” - Amanat

“Bonorong. The kookaburras.” - Abhimanyu

“I like playing with the monster trucks.” - Felix

“Playing with my friends.” - Indiana

“Blocks” - Layland

“Play in the kitchen.” - Aabha

“The snakes at Bonorong.” - Summer

“Playing with the tigers.” - Sophia

“I loved Bonorong about the kangaroos.” - Aylah

“The playground.” - Milly

The Prep students were asked what their favourite thing to do, or learn about, at school was in Term One. The social side of school, such as making friends, problem solving, and playing cooperatively is so important at this age, and these Prep students love to play together. It was also great to hear that so many of them like the new literacy program, and they have definitely made great progress so far this year. We have had a wonderful start to the year!

John – Literacy, because I like learning new letters.

Oliver – Daily PE – we do lots of fun stuff.

Jesse – Doing flashcards because I like to learn.

Nolah – Friday Fun. There are fun things to do .

Kit – Word work (Playberry). I like learning to draw letters.

Elijah – Learning how to use magnet tiles.

Lina – Word work, when we learn new letters.

Noah – Just everything! Word work, Friday Fun, learning that insects have 6 legs…

Malaki – Playing outside and playing on the bikes.

Prishu – Word work, because we are learning so much.

Shanaya – I like playing in the home corner.

Lincoln – Playing outside

Matilda – Learning names of letters in Word Work.

Loki – Playing with my friends like Jackson, Elijah, and also Jesse.

Parisa – Drama with Mrs Toppin. We sing a song and draw insects and talk about our feelings.

This term 1/2 have asked “What is 100?”.

We have made models that showed 100 is ten lots of ten, related this to money and have discussed how 100 looks on a 100 square, on a number line and in larger collections.We focused on organising in hundreds, tens and ones and are just beginning to use this knowledge efficiently to add and subtract 1, 10 or 100 quickly.

We have also spent time exploring patterns – here are members of our team proving that even numbers contain pairs and odds have an odd one.

    

We have had lots of fun learning. Don’t forget to look at our rockpools and ocean animal reports in the display cabinet, near the front office, and we look forward to even more learning next term. Have a lovely rest over the holidays.

March is the spring season in China, while we are experiencing autumn here in Australia. The Chinese club learned how to write “spring” in Chinese calligraphy.

“Spring” is pronounced as “chun”. We also practiced making the most popular spring food, “chun juan” – spring rolls.

Here are some students’ reflections:

“Now, I know how to make spring rolls!” – Piper

“May I please take one extra home for my family? I want to share with them.” – Frankie and Ray

“It is so fun!” - Mackenzie

The best thing that happened this term was going on an excursion to the Woodbridge Marine Discovery Centre. We learnt more about life cycles and how to tell the difference between living and non-living things. We have been learning a lot in Playberry. Our writing and spelling is improving so much.

In term 1, Grade 4/5 Grech have been very focused and persistent with our learning.

We have begun Playberry. In Playberry we have learned rules for spelling, and sounding out when reading. In particular, we have liked improving our handwriting and getting better at reading the card drills really quickly.

Our writing focus this term has been procedural texts. We know that a good procedural text has a title, goal, a list of what you need, very detailed steps with lots of verbs, and helpful tips. Its also great to include pictures so our readers can get a better understanding of what they are doing. We are also organising our work into paragraphs.

In maths, we have been learning about measurement. We have been measuring mass, capacity and length. We are using the correct units to measure these things and have been improving on how we use tools like measuring cups, rulers and scales. We are now working on adding and subtracting with large numbers. We are getting great at using strategies like number lines, partitioning and the algorithm method to solve problems.

Our science unit has been all about how living things fit into food chains. We have explored the roles of decomposers, producers and consumers within food webs. We have created some awesome posters to represent how these get their energy. Our HASS focus has been on life before, during and after the First Fleet. Our most resent task has been to create a diary entry from the perspective of a convict travelling on the First Fleet. We have used all the knowledge we have learnt to make this as accurate as possible.

We look forward to all the new topics we will be learning about it term two.  

My class has learnt to be more resilient and tolerant – I am really proud of them! Mrs Clifford

Learning how to play spit has helped me increase my automaticity.

I’ve learnt piano has helped me out in music class.

I have learnt how to make a volcano.

Learnt how to make friends.

I learned about volcanoes, and maths with vertical addition with addition and subtraction.

How to write stories, with using paragraphs and punctuation.

I learnt how to carry in maths vertical addition sums with three digits.

Learnt how to do carrying in three-digit subtraction.

I have learnt from a friend about a new country – China.

Got new skills in soccer.

Getting better at subjects like maths.

I learnt a new dice game, the lowest activity helped my mental addition.

We have learnt some new recipes – and we love trying new food!

Newsletter - 5/6B Contribution

Written by Ruby Kelleher, Carlee Porthouse and Dallas Dickinson

Inquiry – by Ruby Kelleher

This term for Inquiry we have been learning about volcanoes and magma and eruptions and how volcanoes work. We did an egg drop where we built a container filled with soft materials. We put an egg in it and dropped it from a high spot. We had to make the egg survive. We had to build the box before we put the egg in it and some people had to change their designs because we werent told that we had to put more eggs inside. After, we had to answer questions and write down why we think our egg cracked if it did, or why it didn’t. My favourite thing that we did this year was the egg drop challenge before Easter because it was fun and we got chocolate.

Literacy – by Carlee Porthouse

In literacy we have been doing a program called Playberry that helps us with our handwriting and spelling. We have also been making up animals and making a narrative with them. We also wrote procedural texts about how to make fairy bread and then we got to make fairy bread. We had to make sure we included every step with detail. My favourite thing that we did this term was dropping the chocolate egg of the balcony before Easter because it was fun and after we got chocolate.

Maths – by Dallas Dickinson

In maths we have been practicing different strategies for plus, minus, division and multiplication. We started working on measurement at the start of the year. We did an activity where we guessed 10m and measured it with a trundle wheel to see if we were correct. We also did times and divide by 10 and 100 with decimals that will help us with measurement conversions next term. My favourite thing that we did this term was the egg drop challenge because it was fun building and trying to protect the egg.

Chess has continued as an extra-curricular activity at Springfield this year and Black Square Chess continue to come in on a Friday between recess and lunch for teaching and practice. This might be one of the reasons why our Springfield Gardens students did so very well at the Chess Tournament at Glenorchy Primary School on Monday!

Mr Grinham took a team of eight students who played extremely well. We came second over all in all schools there and Logan came second as an individual player.

Well done and congratulations to all who attended.

Throughout the term staff have been enjoying dressing to a theme once a week. We believe we have gone mostly undetected by the students until today when Rachel visited Ms Poke and the 3/4's! We will continue this into the new term, see if you can guess what each week's theme is. Can you work out what this week's theme was? 

 

SAVE THE DATE!

SCHOOL PHOTOS

TUESDAY 28 MAY 2024

MORE INFORMATION TO FOLLOW NEXT TERM.

PLEASE ENSURE YOUR CHILD'S VALIDATION FORMS HAVE BEEN RETURNED TO THE OFFICE TO ENSURE THEIR INCLUSION IN PHOTO DAY.

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