Sorry Day

Sorry Day

This morning, the students in 3/4 Blue learnt about Sorry Day and National Reconciliation. The students had a fantastic discussion about the rights of the indigenous and the stolen generation. The students decorated a hand to acknowledge the responsibility they have as our future generations to ensure all Australians are treated equally and with respect. 

This links the curriculum area: Identify how understandings between culturally diverse groups can be encouraged and achieved (VCICCD008)

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How can we strengthen our relationship with God?

How can we strengthen our relationship with God?

This was the question the year 3/4 students explored during their prayer unit this semester.

They were invited to deepen their understanding of ‘what prayer is?’ and ‘what it looks like?’ through authentic dialogue and experiencing various types of prayer. Students came up with responses such as ‘prayer is communicating with God’, ‘prayer is tuning into God’, ‘prayer is loving God’ and/or ‘prayer is waiting on God’. Students learnt the skill of locating and reading scripture (Luke 11:1-5) from the Bible and made connections to how it relates to their own lives (The Lord’s Prayer).

As part of this unit of study, the year 3/4 students set up prayer spaces in their classrooms by designing and creating a class prayer cloth. Some classes even took them home to design with their family members as a way of praying and sharing their learning.

Check them out below!

 

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Immigration Museum

Immigration Museum

On Monday 15 May, the 5/6’s were lucky enough to go to the Immigration Museum in the city for an excursion as part of our Inquiry unit. In Inquiry we have been learning about different people who migrated to Australia and how they have influenced life as we know it today. The museum was very fun and interesting. We learnt about all different types of things including giving us a fake passport to fill out with questions about the museum.

There were very cool and detailed designs throughout the museum including the long room which was built to be the grandest building in Melbourne at the time. It definitely looked like the grandest building in Melbourne with the giant ceiling and massive pillars!

Our excursion to the Immigration Museum was a amazing experience and everyone had a lot of fun and learnt lots of very interesting facts.

On the way back to school our second bus was a little bit late – but we all arrived back safely.

Overall, it was a fantastic day and we are thankful to our 5/6 teachers for organising this day for us.

Here are some photos!!

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Persuasive writing in 5/6

Persuasive writing in 5/6

In year 5/6 we have been learning about writing different persuasive pieces. We learnt about persuasive techniques such as exaggeration (hyperbole), rhetorical questions, groups of three and alliteration. We organise our ideas into paragraphs and as we are getting used to using the different techniques we have learnt to compose our persuasive pieces in a smaller time frame. We also did a post assessment and wrote a full persuasive piece. 

Some of the different topics we wrote about included why foods that are high in sugar should be banned. We learnt a variety of different sentence starters such as ‘the fact is ……’, ‘it’s easy to see why’, ‘this will cause….’ , ‘the time has come to …..’, ‘you must know …….’ , ‘did you know …..’ , ‘can’t you see …… ‘ and much MUCH MORE!

Not long after we finished our topic of persuasive texts we learnt about author’s purpose. The three of the author’s purpose are persuade, inform and entertain.

Here are a couple of samples of our persuasive writing …..

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National Simultaneous Storytime

National Simultaneous Storytime

Wednesday 24th May is National Simultaneous Storytime (NSS)!  Our book this year is The Speedy Sloth by Rebecca Young and Health McKenzie. Watch the slide show to learn more about NSS and some interesting information about sloths!

 

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3/4 Lego Sessions

3/4 Lego Sessions

Late in term 1 and early term 2 the 3/4 classes have been participating in Lego Engineering sessions as part of our Digitech program.

The program helps to develop the students’ skills and knowledge in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) whilst building a variety of models. Some of the models that the 3/4 classes will build this semester include a ferris wheel, conveyor belt, blender, car lift and trailer. We even coded a high speed fan using our Chromebooks.

Here are the students in action from some of our recent Lego sessions …..

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St Patrick’s Day Excursion!

St Patrick’s Day Excursion!

On the 17th of March, ten Year 6 students attended the St Patrick’s Day Mass at the St Patrick’s Cathedral with Mr Harvie. It was a good opportunity to meet up with lots of other catholic schools around Melbourne. We also had a chance to explore the huge cathedral after mass including all the different chapels throughout the  building. Many people choose a pray in one of the chapels for a particular cause such as the Holy Souls chapel. The statues of saints in the Cathedral were also very detailed and really helped to make the chapel so special.

We also had the special honour of getting to meet ArchBishop Peter Comensoli. We even got to take a photo with him which we put into the newsletter. Father Mark was one of the celebrants during the Mass which was also very cool.

After mass we got to enjoy a special concert where the high school students performed together with all the other students who attended mass.  It was a really nice experience watching all the high school students perform.

Here is the link to the the website about the event.

St Patrick’s Day Event

Overall, our St. Patrick’s Day celebration was an amazing experience and we are very thankful to Mr Harvie for organising this excursion and Kylie for assisting us!

Here are some links with our thoughts about the day…..

Chantal, Zoe and Saraya’s Thoughts

 

Sean and Tyler’s Thoughts

 

Here are some photos from the day …..

 

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Colourful Castles Grade 3 & 4

Colourful Castles Grade 3 & 4

The amazing Grade 3 and 4 artists have designed incredible castles. They explored colour combinations and used water colour paint to decorate these. They look super proud of themselves and I was very proud  of their efforts.
Enjoy

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Year 4 Mater Christi Taster Day

Year 4 Mater Christi Taster Day

Our time at Mater Christi was so much fun, all of the girls in year 4 had a blast! We played with mini robots, made slime and even explored the school and answered questions too. 

When we first arrived at Mater Christi we used these mini robots that you had to control with an Ipad. You could change its colour and make it go wherever you wanted. For morning tea they gave us popcorn and juice.The highlight of the day was visiting the really cool science lab where we made slime but before we could make the slime we had to wear a lab coat and safety goggles. After we made the slime, some year 7s gave us this marker and told us to write on the sink then put the slime on top and the writing from the marker vanished on to the slime. 

Towards the end of the day we played monopoly scavenger hunt ‘Mater Christi version’. We had to go around the school and answer lots of questions and the students were able to decide which classrooms to visit. . At the end of the visit we received a goodie bag. 

The year 4 girls had such a fun time we wished we could go there again. 

Asha, Vivienne and Aryana

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Year 4 St. Joseph’s College Taster Day

Year 4 St. Joseph’s College Taster Day

At St. Joseph’s we did lots of sport in the big hall, we also did science, STEM and music lessons. It is a really good school, every time we went into a room someone new would greet us! Jackson.

Last week we attended St. Joseph’s College, we did STEM and sport classes. In sport we played basketball games called Golden Child and Popcorn. In STEM we made rockets and tested them in a rocket contest, Harrison and I came in last place. We had a great time! Brodie.

When we attended St. Joseph’s College we attended the science class and learnt about elements and we also looked through a black light box to see how light is broken into different colours of the rainbow. Then we looked into different tubes which contained elements like sodium, neon and hydrogen gas. The teacher also showed us how he could shoot a laser into a mirror and then it bounced off onto the target. Owen.

 

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Year 4 Camp

Year 4 Camp

On the last week of term one our Year 4 students travelled to Yarra Junction for their camp at ADANAC.

It was a very exciting camp for everyone with great weather and lots of fun activities.

Everyone seemed to really enjoy themselves particularly as it was the first overnight camp for many of our students.

Here are a few pictures of our year 4 students in action at camp ….

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Maths – Data Unit

Maths – Data Unit

One of the Maths topics we have been learning about in the 5/6 Level has been about Data. We learned about how you can use a tally chart to help keep an accurate summary and how we can present this information in a variety of different graphs. Some of the different graphs we have learnt about so far include a bar graph, column graph, line graph and stem and leaf plot.

One of our data surveys was based around collecting data about birthdays where we got to survey other students in the 5/6 level. We all tallied the data then presented this information into one of the graphs we learnt about. We finally posted these surveys on Seesaw for our families to see.

Overall, everyone enjoyed participating in our Data unit and learning about some of the different types of graphs

Here are a couple of photos of our work from our Data unit.

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Government in 5/6

Government in 5/6

In our 5/6 level we have been learning about the different types and levels of Government for our Inquiry unit. Some of the different topics we have learnt about include the different levels of Government (Local, State and Federal) and the different houses of Federal Government which are The House Of Representatives (Green House) and the Senate (Red House). We also learnt about how laws are made and that there is an incredible 4500 rooms in Parliament House.

To demonstrate our learning of this topic the 5/6 students created a presentation showcasing what we had learnt. Some students completed a poster and other completed a slide show.

Here is some of the work from 5/6 Red.

Enjoy!

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Year 4 Camp Adanac

Year 4 Camp Adanac

Greetings from the Year 4’s:

The students have settled into their cabins and completed the site & safety tour. Everyone is currently enjoying some free time now, but are very excited to begin their rotations shortly! 

-Mr Kumar

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Buddy Breakfast 2023

Buddy Breakfast 2023

Last Thursday (March 30th), our Year 6’s and Preps came to school early along with their families for Buddy Breakfast.  This event is a special opportunity for everyone to get to know each other and enjoy some yummy food together. One of the most special parts of our Buddy Breakfast is when the year 6 students present their Prep buddy with a special ‘Buddy Bear’. The purple buddy bear is an initiative from the Alannah & Madeline Foundation that helps to let every student know how special they are in our HT / St. Mary’s community. Many year 6 students still have their purple ‘Buddy Bear’ which is a symbol of how special the prep / year 6 buddy relationship is.

Overall, everyone really enjoyed our buddy breakfast and are thankful for the opportunity to gather together.

Here are some of the photos from the day ……

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Prep – Yr4 Swimming

Prep – Yr4 Swimming

Each Friday this term there has been lots of excitement amongst our Prep to Year 4 students as they have been have been participating in swimming lessons at Swim World in Glen Waverley. Each week the students dress with their swimming costumes underneath their school clothes. At their allocated time each class gets ready by putting on their swimming caps and goggles and then they go on the bus to Swim World.

During swimming lessons the students have been learning a variety of skills including floating, water safety techniques and practising the different swimming strokes.

Last Friday, the students brought along some old clothes to wear in the pool to practise what a person should do if they were to fall into the water. The students seem to really enjoy this adventure!

Overall, the students are having a great time at their swimming lessons and are looking forward to the last fun lesson this Friday.

Here are a few photos of the students in action …..

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NAPLAN 2023

NAPLAN 2023

Recently the students in Year 3 and 5 have just completed NAPLAN which stands for National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy. NAPLAN is a combination of four tests including reading, writing, language conventions to mathematics. This year NAPLAN was completed online ou our school Chromebooks.

Even though some students got a bit nervous about completing these tests they were encouraged to do their best and most people did that.

Overall, we are thankful for the support that so many teachers and LSO’s provided and a big thanks  goes to Mr. Kumar for his organisation of NAPLAN for all of our students.

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Harmony week in 3/4 Yellow – Everyone Belongs!

Harmony week in 3/4 Yellow – Everyone Belongs!

As part of Harmony week celebrations this week, Daniel Mobtadi from 3/4 Yellow shared part of his Iranian culture with his classmates during morning prayer. He shared his family traditions around celebrating Nowruz (Persian New Year) which was on the 21st of March. Daniel created an informative slideshow about Nowruz and prepared a Sofreh Haft-Sin, which means ‘The cloth of seven dishes’. He explained the significance of each of the 7 symbols and why they are used to celebrate the beginning of the Iranian new year. Daniel finished by giving everyone a red apple that symbolizes beauty and health.

Daniel showed great courage as he shared insights about his culture which was well received by the class. What a great way to embrace diversity and show respect towards others at HT!

#loveoneanother

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