Year 6 Camp

This week I've been off on camp with our Year 6 students at CaveHill Creek, Raglan. Over 4 days of sunshine, rain, heat and cold, the students have pushed themselves to climb the Giant's Ladder, challenged themselves as they hit the water in the canoes, and expressed their creativity in bush art. Along with other activities, the students' real growth is always in navigating being away from their family, trying new foods, managing their belongings and just learning to work with others for such an extended period. The students did so well in all aspect, and I need to thank Issi, Miss Mynott, Sarah, Mr Worlley, Geoff and Shivani for giving up their time to make camp work. Also thank you to Miss Abbott for all of her organisation before camp to get us here! Thank you also to Mrs Roberts for standing in my place this week back at school. 

Playground

The playground is getting very close to being operational. Last week the new rubberised path was installed, using the colour scheme selected via a vote from our junior students. 

At the most recent assembly, we randomly selected a Prep, Year 1 and Year 2 student to be the first to go down out three new slides! Looking forward to that!

NAPLAN

The NAPLAN season began this Wednesday with our Year 3 and 5 students beginning their Writing test. For the Year 3s it was smooth sailing, however a state wide drop out meant that the Year 5s could not begin their online session. These things happen and we were fortunate that the Year 5 teachers and NAPLAN lead Miss Abbott were able to pivot quickly and postpone the session. Our Year 5s completed their writing on Thursday morning, before they moved onto the Reading section. Next week the two year levels will complete the Language Conventions and Numeracy tests on separate days. Apart from the Year 3 Writing test, all sessions are conducted online using iPads. Students who have a missed a session are able to make it up within a two week period. 

Thank you Soula!

Last Friday we farewelled our long time crossing guard on Welfare Parade Soula. For many years she ensured the safety of our students as they made their way to school. It was great we could honour her at assembly, before she spoke to the school community. We thank you Soula!

Traffic

The the way we move around our school, especially involving vehicles, is of vital importance to all of us. Several times a year we will send reminders about driving safely around the school. Drop offs and pick ups are the most congested times, with many people feeling stressed about time and becoming frustrated about congestion. We must remember the most important thing is everyone's - students and adults, safety. Ensure you obey the crossing guards when driving, and when walking, use them. Don't try to cross between parked or waiting cars. Model road sense to your children and others. Stay safe everyone!

The Preps continue to enjoy many firsts as part of their school journey! This week we welcomed Sergeant Heather Obuch and Sergeant Ryan Gilmore who came to speak to us about their role in the community. This incursion forms part of a rich learning experience where the preps are learning how they fit into the community and the people that are part of it.  

Sergeant Obuch is a parent of the Ashburton Primary School community with two children who attend our school. Sergeant Gilmore and Obuch talked about their important role in the community, how to identify a police officer and even allowed us some photo opportunities with their police car, sirens and all! A very exciting experience for everyone involved.

In continuing with firsts, the Preps experienced their first assembly on Friday last week. We were so pleased with their beautiful sitting and attentive listening. 

You may have heard your Prep come home singing the Soundwaves song or practising their sounds. We have now learned how to identify the initial, medial and final sounds in words, so now comes the exciting part of blending the sounds we hear together. 

In Mathematics, we continue learning how to subitise numbers (recognise small quantities without counting) through games and hands-on activities. We continue to count different collections, making sure we touch and count each item once. We are learning that the last number we say tells us how many there are, and that counting again helps us check our answer. 

Finally, we are so proud of the Preps who have been at school for only 24 days now. We are amazed at how they are settling in, learning and taking to school experiences with confidence. Well done Preppies and families!

Over the past two weeks, our Year  2 students have been busy learning across all areas of the curriculum. In Reading, we have been focusing on making predictions by using clues from the text and illustrations to help us understand what might happen next. In Writing, we enjoyed making pancakes together and then wrote a detailed recount about the experience, carefully ordering events and adding important details. We have now moved on to Narrative Writing, where students are learning about story structure, including characters, setting and problems, and are beginning to create their own imaginative stories. In Maths, we are practising addition and subtraction using a number line as a strategy, learning how to jump forwards and backwards to solve problems and explain our thinking. We are also learning about the Wurundjeri seasons, exploring which months belong to each season and how they differ throughout the year. In Connected Learning, we are focusing on understanding and managing our emotions by developing positive strategies to recognise and respond to our feelings.

• Reading: We have been practising making predictions by using clues from the text and images to help us think about what might happen next.
• Writing: We enjoyed making pancakes together and wrote a detailed recount about the experience, ordering events clearly and adding important details. We have now moved on to Narrative Writing and are learning about characters, setting and problems as they begin creating their own imaginative stories.
• Maths: We are working on addition and subtraction using a number line as a strategy, practising how to jump forwards and backwards to solve problems and explain our thinking. We are also learning about the Wurundjeri seasons, exploring which months belong to each season and how they differ throughout the year.
• Connected Learning: We are focusing on recognising and managing our emotions, and developing positive strategies to respond to our feelings.

It has been a great couple of weeks in Year 4. Students are beginning to consistently follow classroom routines and expectations. 

We have… 

• Started learning about additive thinking and mental strategies we can use to solve problems. 
• Been discussing emotions and how we can manage our emotions. 
• Been exploring measurement concepts including mass and capacity.
• Continued planning, drafting and writing our narratives. 
• Been responding to literal and evaluative questions as well as making inferences and predictions. 

The Year 4 girls enjoyed an engaging session at the AFL clinic whilst the boys participated in basketball activities in the gym. 

We are already over halfway through Term 1! Time flies! 

Year 6 students have settled well into the year and have been busy across a range of learning areas as they look ahead to the exciting lead-up to camp.

In Writing, students have been drafting discussion texts, exploring topics such as whether schools should have a four-day week and whether students should be able to choose where they sit in the classroom. In Mathematics, they have been building their understanding of factors, multiples and angles.

Students have enjoyed interschool sports, competing against other schools in our district each Thursday morning. Some students have also proudly represented the school at the Division Swimming Carnival.

The ACTS leadership teams have begun meeting and have started planning their work for the year ahead.

The Year 1 students have been learning about the various ways to make numbers using their parts and wholes. They have looked at two parts and three parts to make numbers, e.g. 5 and 3 makes 8 and 2 and 3 and 3 also makes 8. This has been part of a unit of Additive Thinking, whereby the students learn the meaning of the = symbol, how to quickly subitise numbers and explore early strategies for addition. For  Craft last week, the students made octopuses that had tentacles which showed the part/part/whole for a number of their choice. 

Other learning experiences this past fortnight in 

Year One have been:

• Reviewing the vowel sounds for e/ea as in egg and bread and learning about the double consonant rule after a short vowel sound in words like middle and pebble during our daily Phonics sessions. 
• using clues from the front cover and our background knowledge to predict what a book will be about during Reading sessions. 
• exploring characters and how to write interesting descriptions of characters as the beginning of a unit on Narrative writing. 
• starting their EXPO project, which showcases all their learning from their Connected unit on Identity this term. 

Over the past two weeks, students have participated in a range of amazing activities. The year 3 girls were lucky enough to be able to meet and participate in a skills session with players from the Ashy Redbacks. The girls all had fun and built their confidence. In assembly, Jirra and Zara made a speech sharing language and facts about the month of March. In the same assembly, our year 3 Junior School Council reps, Freya D and Jaksh V (3A) and Josh S and Chloe B (3B) all received their badges from Mr Hone.  

In reading, students continued building their reading comprehension by focusing on predictions and questioning. They practised asking literal, inferential and beginning evaluative questions to deepen their understanding of texts. Students also explored how authors vary sentence structure and paragraphing to improve fluency and engagement when reading.

In writing, students continued developing their narrative pieces, learning how to build tension, improve sentence fluency and organise paragraphs for clarity and flow. They also began exploring procedural writing, focusing on identifying the purpose, audience and structure of procedures. Students applied this learning by beginning to draft instructions for their “Our Emotions” board game activity.

In spelling and word work, students have been practising graphemes, suffixes and plural forms, while also reviewing irregular past tense verbs and alphabetical order.

In mathematics, our focus has been on place value and large numbers, including representing and ordering numbers beyond 10,000. Students have also been learning to read and record time to the minute on analogue and digital clocks, and exploring space and location by describing landmarks and creating simple models of familiar environments.

Students also completed their first week of NAPLAN assessments. We are incredibly proud of the way they approached the assessments with focus, resilience and a positive attitude. They have worked hard and should feel proud of their efforts.

The Year 5 students recently had the exciting opportunity to take part in a footy clinic with the Ashy RedBacks, where past students worked with small groups to teach and practise some fantastic football skills. It was wonderful to see the students so engaged and having fun while learning from familiar faces.

During Interschool Sport, students have been participating in rotations to develop their skills in Cricket and Teeball. These sessions have been led by some of our Year 5 students, who have taken on leadership roles by planning and running lessons for their peers. It has been great to see students showing responsibility, confidence, and teamwork in these roles.

The Year 5s have also begun their RAT (Rich Assessment Task) for Connected, with a focus on Identity. Students have started by creating mind maps to explore their ideas and are now working towards designing their own self-portraits. We are looking forward to sharing their amazing work at the Expo at the end of Term 1.