This term, the Year 1/2 students have been busy learning in both Mathematics and English.
In Mathematics, we have been exploring multiplication and division, learning to see multiplication as repeated addition and representing it with arrays. Students have practiced writing and drawing times tables equations for twos, fives, and tens, and have worked on equally sharing and grouping objects in division, using skip counting to divide by 2, 5, and 10. Students have also discovered how fact families connect related multiplication and division equations.
In English, we have been learning about narrative writing. Students have explored the structures and language features of narratives, and practiced creating, re-reading, and editing stories with attention to punctuation, spelling, and text structure. They’ve added their own twist to familiar tales like "Three Billy Goats Gruff," by experimenting with characters, settings, and plots, and telling stories from different points of view. Recently, students have focused on writing engaging introductions using the 5Ws and sizzling starts. Now, students are planning their own narratives using scaffolds to develop structure, characters, and settings. We can’t wait to create a class library filled with our imaginative stories!
The Year Three and Four class are very proud of our achievements! We have cooked many of our meals for camp this term including morning and afternoon teas, lunches and camps. So many of our ingredients were from our own school garden!
Thank you Jo, for your great teaching and direction during our "Food Tech" studies!
This term, the year 5 class has focused on a range of different topics and activities. In Art, they created collage self portraits where students had to draw a self portrait and use different materials and glue to create their collage over the top. In English & Drama, they have been exploring Readers' Theatre where students chose groups and had to perform a play of their choice using the strategies and tips explored during our English lessons. Questions about the script, characters and performance were answered before and after each performance. For the second half of this term they are creating and performing their own mini plays in small groups where they need to organise everything from the characters to the dialogue, props and costumes. In Maths with Miss McGrath, they are learning about fractions. We have seen a great improvement in both confidence and understanding in Maths this term which is amazing!
The Year 6/7 students have enjoyed working through their Daily Review Mathematics Routine. A Daily Review is a teaching strategy that involves regularly revisiting previously taught material to reinforce learning and improve retention. The Year 6/7's are presented with questions to review key concepts and skills that they have covered in class. The short, fast-paced reviews allow students opportunities to actively recall information from memory rather than passively reviewing notes or materials. Through fast paced active retrieval, their memory traces are reinforced, and their ability to recall information is enhanced.
All classes at St Columba's Memorial School have been integrating the Mathematics Daily Reviews, building up the questions included to target areas students may need to revisit based on our collected data. The Year 6/7's have shown great leadership in the integration of this resource, acting as role models for students to learn from.
The senior spelling group, “Round Table Writers”, have presented their work to the Middle and Upper Primary students. Their task was to select a fairy tale character, and write about this person, using 5 different descriptive writing techniques. These presenters rehearsed their presentations, being very mindful of PROSODY, i.e. varying their volume, stressing key words, pausing for dramatic effect. Each person had a co-presenter whose job was to highlight just one writing technique, before the writer’s presentation, questioning that students understood what this technique is about, e.g. metaphor, and asking the audience to be alert to this technique. At the conclusion of the writer’s reading, the co-presenter would then ask if anyone from the audience was able to detect this feature.
The audience were very attentive and enjoyed being a Literacy Detective. I believe the presenters and co-presenters found great value in making their writing and oral presentations interesting and of value to their fellow students.
Regards,
Mandy Thompson
What a fantastic Book Week parade we had this week!
Thankyou to all the children for dressing up in their favourite book characters, to all the parents, grandparents and carers that made this possible. Also thanks to Gabi for organising the music for the day.
Book Fair
Our Book Fair is up and running for the next few weeks and open before and after school. Come and browse the great selection that has been delivered to our school.
Thanks, Julie
The Senior School Choir had their assessment at Mary MacKillop School at Walaroo. It was a great day to polish our performance and fine tune the choreography!
We are off to Loreto College on the 29th of August for our first major rehearsal!
Congratulations to Gabriela Taheny who travelled to Adelaide for the final auditions of soloists for the Catholic Schools Music Festival! Well done and we wish you luck! The school is very proud of your achievement!
We have had plenty of learning and growth across both the Green Space and Food Tech programs in the first part of term three. The winter rain has allowed us a small break from regular watering, it's wonderful for well-being and mental health to cast your eyes across the green growth in the school garden. The reception class planted a green pea tower about two months ago, and the yields have been plentiful - green pea snacks for all garden visitors. The garlic crops that we plant every year steadily expand, this season saw the most bulbs ever planted. Did you know that the original garlic that we've planted in the school garden came from one of the St Columbas parishioners, it has been with our school for many, many years! We are looking forward to being able to offer some of the of garlic with the school community later in the year as it comes to maturity. Our beloved mandarin tree has provided recess snacks for a good couple of months now for the entire school! At the very start of autumn, the junior primary classes created a thriving potato patch. Based on the garden care skills learned in previous years, we layered mulch, compost and dirt on top of the growing potato plants throughout the autumn and winter seasons, resulting in the largest growth and healthiest potato patch we've ever seen in the school garden.
The garden continues to be used for experiential learning and applied living skills, and as a place to bolster well-being and emotional regulation for everyone within SCMS.
The Food Tech program consistently uses fresh produce across from the garden, embedding real-life 'ground to plate' ideas and concepts for students. We grow and collect fresh vegetables and fruits, then process, prepare and create wholesome dishes in the Food Tech kitchen. Recently the 3/4 class prepared all of their own recess snacks, plus one lunch dish for their camp! The Food Tech program also offers specialised 1:1 opportunities for students to explore and learn in a supported space.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Social