Prep

What a great first two weeks back.  It is lovely to see so many of our Preps return to school and get back into the swing of being a Learner at Our Lady of Lourdes.   

With the cooler mornings now upon us please ensure that all items of clothing are clearly labelled so if they are misplaced they can be returned to their rightful owner.   

Great progress has been made with students who consistently practise and reinforce the sight words learnt at school, at home.   Remember to try and spot words in library books, home readers and other texts.  Reading is about meaning and context.  The more students see these words in text, greater connections and understandings are made.   We are also concentrating on the reading strategy of Chunky Monkey.  Looking for smaller words and word families in larger words helps decode.   Don’t forget about the other strategies though, Lips the Fish, Stretchy Snake and Eagle Eyes. 

Each week we are borrowing readers from the library.  Please ensure these are read nightly.  By the end of the week, students should be reading these books independently and fluently. 

Revision is the key to success.  Please remember to revise previously taught/learnt sight words, letters, sounds and numbers.  This allows learning to move from short term memory to long term memory.  Remember the more we practise the better we get. 

In Maths we are concentrating on cementing our number knowledge to 10.  Next week we look at positional language.   Try and use the words of above, between, under, beside, behind etc in everyday conversations. 

The prep program beings at 8:30am daily.  This is an important part of our day, helping to establish routines and settle and prepare for the day.  Students that are consistently late miss out on these learning opportunities and it can make settling into morning routines harder.   

Parents please remember to socially distance at school during drop off and pick up.  Once again, thank-you for your support. 

Have a great week, 

Liz and Melita  

Year 1

Welcome to week 5 everybody! What a great week 4 we had together! It was wonderful to see our Grade cohort back, ready to continue their learning.  

In English: last week we finished our descriptive retell unit by writing a retell about a story called Too Many Pears which was written by Author Jackie French. This story is a funny story about a cow called Pamela who loves eating. Students did a wonderful job writing a descriptive retell about the story for assessment. For the rest of the term, we will be focusing on Poetry and learning about some of the elements of poetry like, alliteration, rhyme, rhythm.  Students will finish this unit by being poets and writing a rhyming couplet. 

In Maths: last week, we revised all work that was covered during COVID home learning – patterns, Australian coins and o’clock time. Students were given exit tickets and investigations for assessment. This week, we are exploring fractions – whole and half. 

Science and Geography continues with our focus on the environments around us. 

Have a great week! 

Jenny and Ange 

Year 2

Welcome to Week 5!  We are looking forward to seeing everyone back at school for the start of next week.  It has been a busy few weeks, navigating online learning, whether it was at home or at school.  For those who have been at school, we have all enjoyed the extra space in the playground, but have missed our lovely friends.  We have become very flexible as we have experienced different combinations of classes and teachers over the past few weeks, which has been a lot of fun.  For those who have been in isolation we hope you enjoyed your time at home and are looking forward to returning to school. We can’t wait to see you!  We would like to give a huge thanks to our families, for the support and encouragement that you have given us during this time.   

For the remainder of the term in Maths we will be focusing on time, fractions, money and continuing with our subtraction strategies.  In English we are brushing up on our grammar, as well as learning to structure a written recount.  By the end of this term we hope that every student will know how to correctly punctuate their writing, using full stops, question marks, commas and exclamation marks. 

In Religion we have been looking at the life of Jesus,  and wondering what his childhood would have been like.  In Hass we have started a mini project about a chosen country.  We are required to draw a map and research our country using Britannica online.   

Don’t forget that we have a free dress day in week 9. Wear your footy colours and bring in a gold coin on Thursday 18th June.   

Year 3

It’s Week 5 – almost halfway through Term 2 – what a term it’s been! We look forward to everyone in Year 3 returning to school next week. We have been busy navigating our on-line learning over the last 5 weeks – we thank everyone who has supported us during this time. Don’t forget we are now wearing our formal winter uniform. PE uniform is for Thursdays and Fridays. Library book return is on Mondays for Year 3. Please return all library books in Week 6 for cleaning and sanitising.  

In English, we have been looking at verbs and adverbs and how they are used in sentences. In Maths, we have explored volume and capacity, giving directions, telling the time on an analogue clock, recalling and revising our x2, x3, x5 and x10 number facts. Our mathematical thinking is developing so well – it’s been great to see everyone working out our Mash Up Maths problems, giving suggestions in What Doesn’t Belong? and the See Think Wonder pictures. In Religious Education, we have been writing different prayers and praying while listening to meditation music.  This term in Science, we have been learning about the connection of the Earth, Sun and Moon and why shadows occur and change through the day. In HASS, we are studying our local neighbourhood.    

Notes for the Preparation of the Sacrament of Reconciliation were emailed last week – please keep an eye out for these notes. If you missed getting this initial note, please see your child’s teacher or Mrs Moore.  

Date for your Diary – Week 9 -Thursday 18/6/2020 - Favourite Footy Colours Free Dress – gold coin donation for our Catholic Charities.   

Seen on a Church Bulletin Board: “Doing your best means never stop trying!” 

Year 4

This week marks the end of a very unusual time in our school journey. After a chaotic beginning teachers, parents and children settled into a manageable routine. Thanks to the untiring efforts of Mrs Lasserre who steered our ship, it became an easier journey for most. Many thanks to Mr Worthington for providing some of our resources and to Mr Birch for his active commenting on our Teams platform – encouraging everyone to do their best. At school, teachers will be given the opportunity to reflect on their practices and the online activities used in the last five weeks. Individual teachers and parents would be encouraged to take note of their own children’s commitment and effort during this time too. For some this was a time of increased independence and real growth. Please note that there is a Science Power Point that students can begin working on this week.  This presentation should be saved to the students’ One Drive and will need to be ready to present in Week 7 for most classes. 

We would also like to take the time to thank our Learning Support Team who have been doing an amazing job undertaking their groups on TEAMS video conferences.  I’m sure many parents and students are wondering about the Sacraments for this year – they have not been forgotten and Mrs Moore is unwavering in her endeavours to provide alternative arrangements.  As you can imagine, much is still unknown – including the restrictions of the numbers allowed in the church.  We will certainly let you know as soon as possible as to what will be happening. 

As always, we are amazed at the support given by our parent group. Once again, we wish to acknowledge your ongoing support and of course those wonderful gifts that were presented to the teachers last Friday.  

Next week everyone will be back to the normal madness of classroom life – in full winter uniform. (Sports uniform on Monday!) In five weeks, we plan to deliver almost a term’s work – based on the learning that has been taking place at home!  Thank you all once again for your efforts as the prime educators of your children. 

Year 5

Welcome to week 5. We are almost done with remote learning for this year (fingers crossed). Although it has been a new process, we have learnt a lot of new skills which will take us many places in the future. In Year 5 we are planning on keeping our skills in OneNote and Teams up to date and will continue to set work in both of these platforms.

We look forward to all students returning next week and restarting our teaching and learning. We will be reporting on Semester One with a modified reporting procedure with Semester Two returning to normal. All teachers have been very impressed with the amount of effort the students have been dedicating to their online learning, some of your information reports on chosen planets have been excellent.

Keep up the great work as we return on Monday. Enjoy your weekend!

Year 6

Week 5 has come around very quickly. Next Monday school returns to as normal as possible under the COVID -19 conditions; please ensure that all of your child’s school belongings and all copies of completed printed work that hasn’t been uploaded to OneDrive returns with them. Let’s finish the term strongly.