English

Step by Step: This is not just a New Kids on the Block song. It is a mantra for Procedural Text writing. Students have been learning the importance of being precise (using imperatives) and ensuring each step is included in texts like 'How to…' instructions, recipes and rules on playing games. Through this process, we have not only learnt about this type of writing, including our editing skills to ensure everything our audience needs has been included but learned many new skills from each other.

In Reader's Workshop, one strategy we have been working on is comparing. To do this, we explored the books Fire and Flood by Jackie French and Bruce Whatley. Noticing the similarities and differences between books written by the same author (and the illustrator) led to some unexpected discoveries. We also compared books on a similar theme by different authors. We can strongly recommend Liarbird by Phillip & Laura Bunting and Leonard the Lyrebird by Jodie McLeod. They are stories about exceptional and fascinating native Australian birds. We discovered many other treasures along the way, such as alliteration and homophones. Now, we turn our attention to inferring as we use text clues and prior knowledge to identify what is happening when the author has not told us directly.

Mathematics

In Math, strand, we have been learning about Time. We have been exploring how to represent time digitally, studying what ‘quarter-to’ and ‘quarter past’ looks like on an analogue clock. We have also revisited the concepts of o’clock and half-past through interactive games and activities.  

Let’s ADD to our knowledge using addition! We have been using a range of addition and subtraction strategies to answer number problems. Whether it be the jump strategy or the split strategy, we can find the answer to 2, 3 and 4-digit equations. Our place-value knowledge has allowed us to explore more complicated questions and has helped us transition from addition and subtraction to our new unit of multiplication and division. Students have been using arrays, groups of, and repeated addition, to answer multiplication problems. 

Digital Technology

Computers are everywhere. Literally. We use all sorts of computers every day and rely on them not just to write emails and play our favourite games, but also to heat our learning spaces, keep track of the time, rewarm our food and help us borrow books. Computers consist of hardware (the stuff we can hold) and software (the programs that make them usable). We have been not only learning to use programs like Google Docs well; learning how to format and add pictures to our documents, but learning how to code. We are using cute little robots called Bee Bots to help us learn the early steps of coding, work together to problem solve and enhance other areas of our learning, such as maths and spelling, through these fun little machines.

Science

Living or Non-Living? During our science unit, we have been identifying the difference between living and non-living things. We have identified that living things need water, light, air and nutrients to survive. To figure this out we have been growing beans and ‘grass heads’ in our classrooms. We have used different controls to see what will happen if a plant is missing one of these essentials. We have also looked at the lifecycle of animals and humans and how we change as we grow from babies to toddlers, to children, to adults until we are elderly. We sourced baby photos and attempted to guess whom it was by looking at their characteristics. Can you guess who is in the baby picture below?

Drama

Lights. Camera. Action! Voice and character - are the areas we have been working on in Drama lessons, through interactive games, individual exploration and watching short clips of how the professionals do it. One of our favourite games is Working Machines, where each person adds a movement to the one that has come before to create a working machine. Another is Banana Custard, where four actors perform the same short play. Sounds boring? It is not. Each time, the director gives each actor a different way to perform their role, from speaking with an accent to having hiccuoughs or being super forgetful. It is just as much fun to perform as to be in the audience. We are looking forward to putting all these skills together as we prepare some Reader's Theatre scripts to perform for our friends.