Week 5 Term 3

Keeping Safe: Children's Rights Poster

Good evening,

I hope you had a great weekend and enjoyed the glimpse of sunshine that we got yesterday! I was lucky enough to enjoy two perfect days in Perth amongst the sunshine. It has been a busy couple of weeks, as new learning is taking place!

Congratulations to Toby and Jack on receiving a Merit Certificate at Friday's Assembly. It is such a delight to see their hunger for learning grow, acting as great role models for the other students

LEARNING IN CLASS:

SCIENCE

We have been little Geologist recently, learning about an array of soil and rock types. It has been a delight to see the children become so involved in this topic, that they have chosen to bring in their treasures, creating  a mini museum within the class. Last week we began looking at the process of erosion. This week we will carryout an experiment that reinforces their learning and shows them the effect this process has on different types of rocks! I will be asking the students to help collect the rock samples we need for Thursday to complete the experiment. If you have any of the following items around the garden, it would great if they could bring them in for THURSDAY.

ITEMS NEEDED: metal tin with lid, small pieces of marble, coal, concrete/brick, quartz pebbles.

GEOGRAPHY
The students are loving to explore the globe in Geography, we have researched the topics of latitude and longitude identifying key lines such as the Prime Meridian, Equator, International Date Line, Tropic of Capricorn and Tropic of Cancer. The students have also learnt about the concepts of altitude and climate and how these are different within the continents of Asia, Africa, North America and South America. This learning will be used in the NEW Inquiry project the students will receive next week. The students will be researching an animal and it's habitat from one of the continents above, with intention to write an information report and construct a diorama with a model of the animal and it's habitat.

DESIGN & TECHNOLOGY UPDATE

Leading on from our very informative and inspiring incursion from Otis eyewear, we are now learning more about the design process by designing a new Otis logo and Sunglasses packaging.

The Year 4 student must decide on:

Who are you designing the product for.

What are materials that the sunglasses packaging will be made out of? Will the materials be recycled and environment-friendly?

Design sketches with measurements (length of sides, width and height)

Think about your ideas for what the new logo represents or means. The logo must be clear on the packaging.

I am looking forward to seeing some creative ideas and the students utilising their understanding of design from our incursion.

This will lead us really well into our next project which will require the students to design and create a very useful, day to day item and will incorporate some of the skills we have learnt this year during Design and Technology…..more will be revealed soon!!

MR T

RELIGION

We have been focusing on the Story of Pentecost and the gift of the Holy Spirit in the lead up to the Year 6's Confirmation this week. This story has helped the children understand some key teaching points about this sacrament. Please see some examples of the comic strips that we created to illustrate the Pentecost story.

MATHS

Last week we explored the link between fractions, decimals and percentages. This week they will be using their learning to help with the problem solving assignment involving money. Within the assignment, the students have to write a variety of shopping lists, add the totals, use the appropriate notes to pay and then find the change they will receive. Lastly they will have to use a catalogue to create a shopping list that makes a total closest to $30. The less change the better! So hopefully by the end of this week you will have excellent little helpers on food shop day!

LITERACY

Information Reports - We have just began writing our second Information Report on OTIS Eyewear to link in with our Design and Technology project. I can already see significant improvements being made in this piece of writing from the previous one.

Reader's Theatre - This has become a very exciting and popular Reading Group activity that the children are loving to do. They are really considering the techniques they need to employ to keep their audience engaged. This week we are recording each group's presentation, so they can view it and self-assess their performance, identifying what they did well and what they can improve on.

Speaking and Listening Speeches - We would like to congratulate the students who have presented thus far, the quality of each presentation has been excellent.

SPEAKING & LISTENING ROSTER

HOMEWORK:

I am very impressed to see the quality and completion of homework is more consistent this term. The children are working hard to achieve our class goal of 'Responsibilty', and this is one way they are showing it!

Spelling - LSCWC (each night) 
FOCUS: Kangaroos - Greek and Latin elements - cap, corp, pod/ped, dent/dont

            Possums - Soft C and G using 'ce', 'ss', 'ge' or 'age'

            Lorakeets - Adding 'ing' to VC and VCC words

Mental Maths - Think Mentals, Unit 24, Day 1-4

Reading - Reading Log 

READERS - Every child has now received a new reader for this week, unless they didn't return their previous one. Can you please ensure your child returns their reader on FRIDAY to allow us to swap them over in preparation for the following Monday.

It is important that students complete their reading log. This means writing in the date, title of the book and getting a signature from yourselves to say they have read.

NOTICES:

MISSION MARKET DAY

The OLC Feast Day is on this Wednesday 15th August. Just a reminder that our class is selling jelly cups and it would be greatly appreciated if your child could bring a small donation of jelly cups (toppings are optional and left to your creativity) on Wednesday morning.

The Mission Markets will be held between 11.30 and 12.45pm. We ask that all students bring a small amount of change in different denominations with a cloth or reusable bag to store their loot! We require a couple of volunteers to help with our stall during this time. If you are able to assist with this, can you please let either one of us know.

OLC FEAST DAY MASS
OLC Feast Day Mass is on this Wednesday 15th August. We will be hosting the mass here at school in our hall beginning at 9am. All parents are invited to attend if you are able.


OPERATION CHRISTMAS BOX
If you can please send these items and the $2.50 in by the 7th September that would be greatly appreciated. Thank you to those who have already done this. If you have any questions about the suitability of your chosen items or any concerns about participating, please let me know.


CONFIRMATION
Mrs Meyer sent an email yesterday asking for students to attend mass on Saturday night to help sing in the choir. These are a great way to build our school community and I would be personally grateful to anyone who is able to get there child there.

IMPORTANT DATES:

School Photos: 23rd and 24th August
Athletics Jumps: 28th August
Athletics Throws: 4th September
Athletics Carnival: 6th September
Book Week: 30th September

Have a great week everyone!

Mrs Ricciardone