In Religion we visited the Church with Mr. Vandermaat to locate and learn about the special objects found in a Church. We named the crucifix, tabernacle, altar, lectern, statue of Mary, candles, baptismal font, red lamp and the pews we sit in. We had a lively discussion around the purpose of these and also learnt the name of our Parish Priest, Father Christian.

In Religion we've had a focus on 'Marian' prayers (prayers devoted to Mary). We looked closely at the words and phrases used in the 'Hail Mary' and have discussed that, as the mother of Jesus, Mary holds a special place in our Catholic faith. In English we have continued to improve our creative writing by including descriptive language and similes. We read a poem called 'Happily Haunted' and viewed an image of a haunted house on the Smartboard. We brainstormed ideas about how we could describe the haunted house using similes...

'The house is as dusty as a pile of cobwebs'...

'The house is as wobbly as a bowl of jelly'...

'The house is as creaky as an old, rusty door'...

In Maths this week we've been learning about the language of chance. We have discussed events that will happen, might happen, or are impossible. Last week we measured Area using informal units. We discussed why some informal units were more appropriate to use to measure Area than others. 

Year 1 had great fun in Science last week making lava lamps! We listed our equipment for the experiment and recorded our results with a labelled drawing. We were able to see that some materials change and some don't. 

We were super excited to participate in the Tabloid Sports that were organised for us to enjoy yesterday. Thank you to the teachers and older students involved in putting together such a fun event to celebrate the end of a challenging term! Happy holidays to all the Yr 1 children and their families. We can't wait to see you back at school in Term 3!

In Religion last week, we talked about the prayer the Rosary. We learnt that it is made up of four mysteries – The Joyful Mysteries, The Luminous Mysteries (or Mysteries of Light), The Glorious Mysteries and The Sorrowful Mysteries. Each one of these ‘Mysteries’ focuses on different events and times of Mary’s and Jesus’ life. When we pray the Rosary, we can use Rosary beads that help us keep count of the prayers we say. The main prayer of the Rosary is the Hail Mary. When we pray one of the Mysteries, we say five decades of the Hail Mary. That’s fifty Hail Marys in total. This week we have been talking about the prayers of the Mass. The Mass enables Catholics to come together to pray as a community.

In English, we have compared the book ‘The Tale of Despereaux’ and the movie of the same title. Although there were similarities between the two, there were also many differences. In reviewing the book, we have written summaries, questions relating to the book and a new adventure for one of the characters.

In Maths, our focus has been on fractions. Some of the tasks we have completed are colouring the parts of a whole to match the fraction, writing the fraction that matches the coloured area of the whole, finding equivalent fractions and identifying particular fractions of a group. One of the ways to help us identify equivalent fractions has been to use Cuisenaire rods. Using rods, we could see that five tenths is equivalent to half, and that one quarter is equivalent to two eighths, and two quarters is equivalent to four eighths. (There may be some parents who remember using Cuisenaire rods at school to help them learn about fractions and other Maths concepts.)

In History, we shared our Symbols in a Box. The symbols we collected were items that were very precious. They were kept to remind the owner of a significant event or time from the past. Some of the symbols were: baby clothes, photos, jewellery, trophies, books, newspaper clippings, soft toys, diaries, cards and medals.

In PDH this week, we created a poster to show the effects of smoking on the body, and discussed the effects of alcohol on the body.
In Science with Year 4, we looked at the viscosity of liquids. We put several liquids to the test and found that some have a high viscosity while others have a very low viscosity. Liquids with a high viscosity are quite thick and took many minutes to complete the racetrack that we were testing them on. In comparison, the liquids that we tested that had a low viscosity completed the racetrack quite quickly. Can you guess which liquid had the lowest viscosity? That’s right. Water!

Finally, we would like to wish all members of the O.L.V community a very happy, healthy and safe holiday.                                                                                                                                                                     

We cannot believe the term has come to the end and we are now half way through Year 4! While the term had many changes and challenges, we have learnt a lot and have become more independent and capable.

In Religion, we learnt about The Rosary last week and about the Prayers of the Mass this week. The unit on prayer has been very interesting and we especially enjoyed the Meditation component. We are all keen to practise meditation whenever we have the opportunity.

In English, we finished reading our novel, Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White. We all really enjoyed the story and it gave us a lot to appreciate about friendships. We gained a good understanding of language and vocabulary through our many, varied activities. We loved watching the movie today!

This week, we learnt about personification. We then looked at a number of sentences from our novel and we determined whether they were examples of similes, metaphors or personification. Mrs Carroll thinks we are very clever!

Our focus in Maths was Fractions and Decimals last week, and Angles this week. We enjoyed some fun games and challenging activities as we worked with decimals and percentages. We have shown a good understanding in partitioning decimals to two places, (e.g. 3.45 = 3 + 3/10 + 5/100). Some clever students were able to partition decimals to three decimal places.

In our Angles topic, we each made an angle tester using cardboard and a paper fastener. We demonstrated our knowledge of acute, obtuse and right angles by using our angle tester around the classroom to determine the type of angles we found. We then drew and labelled a variety of angles.

In History, we worked in groups to focus on the various effects white settlement had on the Indigenous population. Each group read about their topic, then made a poster showing the negative impacts suffered by the First Australians. The topics included: Conflict, Disease, Dispossession, Loss of Traditional Resources and Loss of Cultural Identity. It has been really interesting to learn about the settlement of our country and to discover some sad facts about it.

In Visual Arts we have completed our barn scene from Charlotte’s Web by E. B. White. We worked so well together and we are really excited about the final result. Everyone felt very proud as we put all the pieces together last week. We felt a great sense of achievement!

We wish everyone a happy and safe holiday, Stay well!

All of Year 4 are looking forward to a more settled Term 3 with much less interruption than Terms 1 & 2.