A Happy Return …..

The students of 5/6AH arrived back at school this term with a renewed enthusiasm to learn and grow, after a busy Term 1. They obviously all enjoyed their holiday break which refreshed them in mind and spirit. It was back to school work very quickly and I am proud of their dedication and approach. Recently we also welcomed a new student to our room and hope she is enjoying our class.

Anzac Day

5/6AH proudly presented the Anzac Day liturgy in the first week of term. We learned about ‘cairns’ which are the stone monuments speckled throughout our country to honour all service men and women. As a tribute to the bravery, velour and courageousness of these heroes, we created our own cairn and wreaths which were used as symbols during the prayer service.

Mathematics

Similarly to other subjects, we have adopted an approach in mathematics where students can work independently (challenging themselves and strengthening their understanding) by opening each lesson’s slideshow via the Google Classroom on their devices. Following the initial teacher instruction and demonstration, students can have the information on their own screen and progress to the next task as they conquer the skills and understandings required. It is wonderful to hear their enjoyment with this approach to learning maths. We have just completed our division and multiplication unit which covered indices, BIDMAS, vertical multiplication, division, powers of 10 and a variety of other concepts.

Writing

Being able to ‘show’ a setting or event without ‘telling’ is a challenging task that all students have tried to master in the past 3 weeks. Our writing lessons focussed on using a variety of figurative language techniques, noun groups, adjectives and visual elements to bring their writing to life. While this will be an ever evolving process (even through secondary school), the students have done a wonderful job of drafting, editing and publishing their first piece.

Reading

Paired reading has continued in the senior school and is proving to build confidence and fluency in all students. After the success of exploring the story of Anne Frank, we have begun our new novel for this term - The Explorer. In the coming weeks we will use various comprehension, analysis and evaluative strategies to examine this book with the goal of building our knowledge and understanding of text.

Busy Times in Semester 1

With learning how to play ‘jacks’, Cross Country running, Interschool Sport, senior school jobs, Religion, Inquiry and Wellbeing lessons, our days are full. We are thriving in our specialist subjects and are looking forward to spending time at The Ranch camp. Thank you to all family members who are supporting us in our learning journey as we strive to be our best selves!