YEAR 1

In Religion we’ve been learning about ways that we can grow closer to God during Lent: through almsgiving, prayer and fasting. We all thought of positive ways we can help and support others as we journey through Lent towards Easter. In English we shared the story ‘Tick tock tick tock, What’s up, Croc?’ by Kim Toft. It follows a day in the life of a saltwater crocodile. The story led us to investigate crocodiles in more detail and we wrote simple information reports highlighting the habitat, diet and physical features of saltwater crocodiles. Year 1 were encouraged to be creative in their descriptions.. ‘The crocodile’s claws are as sharp as broken glass’ (Sienna); ‘The crocodile has bumps on its skin and beady eyes’ (Pippa). In Maths last week we were learning about Fractions, in particular halves.  This week, we have been working on Time.  Year 1 have been learning about the calendar, that there are 12 months in a year, and have also been learning a little rhyme to remember how many days are in each month.  In Health we have been reading a few texts on ‘friendship’ including ‘Henry and Amy’ by Stephen Michael King and ‘Is that what Friends do?’ by Majorie Newman.  We have discussed important qualities that help build friendships. We’ve started some Easter painting already in Creative Arts, to help decorate our room before the holidays get here!

We have started our Lent and Easter unit in Religion. The children impressed me with the knowledge they already have on this topic.  Please ask them to share what they learn each day with you.

In Science last week the children had to create a mini machine and it was so good to watch the children work in pairs and solve problems they came across. Ask your child to explain this task to you.

During Health this term we have talked about feelings, being inclusive and talking about safe environments. We have had some really strong discussions during our Health lessons.

In English we have focused on speech marks- What they tell us as a reader and also learning how to write conversations within our writing.

Our focus last week in Mathematics was multiplication specifically drawing groups of, rows of and connecting repeated addition to multiplication.

 

Religion: we have been reading about the teachings of Jesus in relation to Lent. In Matthew’s gospel, Jesus teaches people to give to the needy, pray to our Father in Heaven, forgive others and that having riches has no value to God. In this way, the Church’s teachings about Lent is to give to the poor (almsgiving), to pray more and fast.

English: we continue to enjoy reading the book ‘The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane’ by Kate DiCamillo. Not only are we improving our comprehension skills, we are also enjoying listening to the ups and downs that Edward is experiencing.

Mathematics: we have been doing lots of work on multiplication and learning the multiplication tables. We have created arrays to show the connection between multiplication and division. We have also done some problem solving using the ‘find-a-pattern’ strategy.  

Science: in last week’s lesson, we discussed a lot about heat and the concept of conduction. We also learnt about wind power and the workings of a wind turbine.

Physical Education (Wednesdays with Year 4): we have had a lot of fun over the last two weeks designing obstacle courses that would demonstrate our skills in balance, hop, skip and gallop. Over the next four weeks, we will be learning and practicing athletic skills.

History: we have been listening to stories from the book ‘Playground’ by Nadia Wheatlley. Many of the short stories and extracts are by Australian Aborigines who describe the special connection they have with the land. ‘Home’ for them is not a house with a yard, it is much more. ‘Home’ is the country and everything in it. This got us thinking about the things that are important to us - in terms of community. Things like parks, shopping centres, family, friends, neighbours, school – all the things and places where we feel that we are a part of.

In Religion, we are studying Lent and Easter. We have looked at readings that relate to the themes of Lent and we have written our interpretations of the messages within them.

In English, we are now enjoying our new Reading groups. We have a range of activities that are helping us to understand the many types of reading materials we encounter. One group reads each day with Mrs Carroll.

In History this week, we learnt about food and of the special relationship the Aboriginal people have with the land. We brainstormed foods we thought our Indigenous people ate before the arrival of white man. We listed a lot of the foods before we viewed a film clip but were surprised to find out about witchetty grubs! Some of our class have eaten kangaroo and emu and shared their stories.

In Maths, we worked on some fun activities to study area. We used transparent hundreds squares to measure a variety of objects in our room in square centimetres. We also went on a hunt in our classroom to find objects that had a surface area of 200 cm² – it was tricky, but we worked together to find a few. We are working on fractions this week and had fun finding equivalent fractions represented in four different ways. Our problem solving focus this week has been Draw a Table. It is another important strategy in helping us to find answers to problems.

In Science, we tested our knowledge on transference of heat. We also looked at renewable energy sources and we are planning to make a windmill this week to see how wind generates energy.

In Music last week, we worked in two groups to create silent movies using background

music. We really enjoyed creating our movies and it was great to watch each other!

In Physical Education, we are working on athletic skills over the next four weeks.

This week we are doing skipping for our morning PE Rotations.

Measuring the area of our desks.

YEAR 5/6

This week’s newsletter items have been written by the members of our class.

CSW mass at the CSO:

The Catholic Schools Week theme for 2020 is “Drawing from the well of God’s life which empowers us to ‘Go further together’ nourished, sustained, refreshed, united in God’s love witnessing to Christ.”Deacon, Bailey, Sam, Olivia and Logan went to the Cathedral in Hamilton to participate in the Cartas Mass. The mass was interesting , the choir was amazing, and the pancakes afterwards were delicious. (Olivia and Logan)

Our AVEO visit -

On Thursday in Week 5, we went to AVEO retirement village in Shortland. We got a choice of beading, indoor bowling, table tennis or golf. It was amazing fun and we can’t wait to go again. (Maria and Bree)

In Religion, we have started our new unit on Lent and Easter and have begun learning how to fully explain the themes of each. (Ms McGann)

In English we have been reading a book called “Little Brother’ by Allan Baillie and writing a 10 word summary for every chapter. The story is set in Kampuchea (Cambodia) and the last chapter was about Vithy, our main character, hiding on a truck travelling to Siem Reap. (Bailey and Deacon)

In Maths we have been learning about patterns and algebra. We have even been looking to solve our problems using the ‘Find a Pattern’ strategy. (Julian and Elssie)

In Geography we have been learning about the 7 continents, Asia, Africa, Australia, Europe, Antarctica, North America and South America. We are also learning about latitude and longitude and all the Asian countries. (Ewan and Lachlan)

In Science we have been learning about kinetic and potential energy. We made roller coasters with foam tubes cut in half horizontally as examples of these types of energy. We all had a really great time making these and learning in this way. (Georgina and Xanthie)

In PDH we have been looking at our health, safety and wellbeing. For PE we have been learning soccer and skipping and for sport. (Jack, Ari and Sam)

In Art we have been learning about, sketching and painting the great wave of Hokusai. (Annalise and El)

In Music we have been learning new notes and practicing the notes we have already learnt and in groups made up our own rhyming song that we then performed in front of the class.  (Xavier, Archie and Levi)