From the Classroom

FOUNDATION – YEAR 2

Learning in Many Different Ways

Wow, what a busy term it has been for Foundation to Year 2! All our students have diligently learned and revised new concepts ready for end-of-term testing. The teachers at Clyde Grammar are immensely proud of the hard work and dedication shown by our students this term.

Enjoying sunny winter days, our Foundation students have embraced outdoor revision sessions for maths. Working with their peers, they have mastered directional language, ordinal numbers and played some interesting number recognition games. Learning outdoors has definitely refreshed their minds and given their interest in learning a boost.

In Year 1, students completed their unit on Australian Environments with an exciting incursion. They all enjoyed the ‘Australian Reptile’ experience and encountered  a crocodile, kookaburra and various snakes.

In Year 2, students drew inspiration from the Indigenous stories of designer, Ros Moriarty, to create artwork depicting Aboriginal landscapes and symbols. Using pastels and watercolours, they recreated scenes such as a bush track, the journey of turtles, and a bird’s-eye view of the Australian landscape.

There is no doubt that the students deserve the upcoming break and we would like to wish all of them and their families a safe and enjoyable holiday.

Students in Foundation A have been applying their knowledge of initial sounds to write CVC words and construct sentences. This task has been challenging and the students have shown great determination as they start their writing journey.
In Foundation B, we have been diving into ordinal numbers. This week, we organised our own mini-Olympics during our maths lesson. It was a fantastic way to grasp ordinal numbers while embracing good sportsmanship.
The students of 1A became measurement detectives during the week. Armed with a clipboard, pen, paper and unifix blocks, they were assigned the task of measuring different items in the classroom.
In 1B, we learnt a new game! Using their addition and subtraction skills, students needed to roll two dice, add the numbers together, write the answer of the equation on their game card, then subtract that number from 12. Well done to 1B for rising to the challenge so well! 
Year 2 students have been making posters about their different geographic scales. This includes places they have been that are personal, local, regional and national to them. They have been collecting photos of each place and writing a short blurb to describe their picture. They enjoyed sharing these with the class during an oral presentation. 
Over the past few weeks, Year 2 students have engaged in new hands-on maths activities relating to three-digit subtraction, identifying the highest and lowest three-digit numbers, and using rulers and measuring tapes to work out how long, tall or wide items are around our classroom.

YEARS 3 – 4

Footballers, Landmarks, Art and Culture

As the semester draws to a close, students in Years 3 and 4 have been putting in a lot of effort. The Year 3 students were lucky enough to host players from Melbourne Football Club — Christian Salem, Charlie Spargo, Harrison Petty and Jacob van Rooyen. The children asked questions and learnt about what it takes to become an AFL player. Year 3 has also been honing research techniques by writing information reports about Melbourne landmarks and their historical evolution.

As part of their Year 4 sustainability project, students have placed plastic buckets in each classroom to gather compost leftovers for the school’s worm farm, which they are responsible for. The worm farm is quite full and thriving.

Year 4 has also been hard at work crafting persuasive essays, sending persuasive letters to Mrs Evans and designing holiday pamphlets. Upcoming activities, such as Pyjama Day, the Hoop Time basketball competition and the school holidays, have everyone extremely enthusiastic.

As part of National Reconciliation Week, Year 3A students used Aboriginal symbols to create designs on leaves and to produce their own Dreaming story to match the symbols.
How much does a grey lead pencil weigh? What is the mass of a pack of playing cards? How much water can we fit in a glass? These are just a few of the questions the students of 3B answered using balance scales and measuring cylinders.
Year 4 students visited Willum Warrain Aboriginal Association and Warringine Park in Hastings for their second excursion of the year. They explored the wetlands boardwalk and birdlife before travelling to Willum Warrain. Here, students were introduced to Uncle Peter and the other welcoming staff members who took the students on an educational discovery of Indigenous culture. They witnessed a smoking ceremony, storytelling dances and a bush tucker trail, and explored artifacts such as possum skin cloaks, coolamons, woomeras and spears.
 
To commemorate National Reconciliation Week, Year 4 students also immersed themselves in Indigenous art. Through literature and storytelling, the students were exposed to different Indigenous Art techniques, paid respect to the traditional styles of Aboriginal artwork and understood that the art pieces represent a sense of belonging to Country.

The dot painting style is from Central Australia and it conceals sacred stories while the x-ray style art depicts local animals and stories. The crosshatch lines create abstract patterns to infuse the animals with a sense of spirituality. All the art techniques demonstrate the First Nations People’s connection and understanding to country and its inhabitants.