Middle Community Learning Newsletter Term Three 2018

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1 Middle Community Learning Newsletter Term Three 2018 Creating a learning community, nurturing and integrating faith and life, in a spirit of openness. Welcome to Term Three! It is hard to believe that we are already past the halfway mark for Highlights this term, include: Friday 27th July - Grandparents Liturgy and morning tea (from am) Tuesday 31st July - Family Eucharist Night Thursday 6th August - Middle Community Healing Mass Sunday 12th August - Year 4 Eucharist Friday 31st August - Father s Day Breakfast Friday 21st September - Stella Maris Feast Day Mass (and last day of Term 3) A reminder that Friday 3rd August is a Student Free day. Welcome We would like to extend a welcome to Jennifer Aguilar who is a fourth year student from ACU. Jen is doing her final teaching placement with us in Middle Community this term. Middle Community are also fortunate to have gained an additional LSO, Akoul Diing. She is already a vital part of our team, supporting our students in their learning journey. New students to our Middles family are.: Kayla Horvat (MCN) Samarth Faldu (MCA) We welcome them and their families to Stella:

2 Pens In Middles Exciting news! As of the start of this term, students in Middle Community will be allowed to write in pen. Students are encouraged to bring a black or blue pen to use in class. (The school will have pens available for students to use.) Student Absences We remind all parents that a verbal absent notification is no longer accepted. Written Explanation needs to be submitted to Admin via the following methods: Parents/guardians are responsible for contacting the school on that day of an expected absence to inform them and to provide an explanation for their absence This must be done prior to 8:50am of the school day This may be done via the school s preferred method: SkoolBag App ( may be used if there are any issues) info@stellamaris.catholic.edu.au When submitting by SkoolBag: Go to Home on the SkoolBag App, click on eforms, choose Absentee Form, fill in details and submit. Diaries Just a quick reminder for students to bring their diaries to school each day. Diaries are often needed for passwords, notes or date reminders. It is important that they are in school bags each day. Once a week, teachers will sign them and check for daily reading. Please make sure that students write their home reading in the diary and parents sign it at the end of the week. Thank you for your ongoing partnership in this. Save the Date! 2018 Performing Arts focus - Stella Maris Film Festival Dates: Tuesday 23rd October, 6.30pm -8.30pm - Blue and Red House Colour Family Groups Wednesday 24th October, 6.30pm-8.30pm - Yellow and Green House Colour Family Groups Where: Williamstown Town Hall - Ferguson Street Williamstown Theme: Identity - Student will showcase learning using film, poetry, performance and dance. More information will be provided in the newsletter.

3 Filming excursion for the First Fleet Movie Where Is The Love? photographs Please Note: If you would like to volunteer, make a time to talk about your student s learning or to simply give some feedback; please don t hesitate to your student s teacher. Please note, any teacher may be contacted using their initial and last name followed e.g. c naraghi@stellamaris.catholic.edu.au

4 Religious Education This term students will develop an understanding of what it means to live a sacramental life as they explore the sacrament of Eucharist. During our first week, Year 4 students attended the Jewish Museum. They enjoyed learning about Jewish festivals, rituals and traditions as well as partaking of a Passover meal. We will use this learning to help make comparison and links to our Catholic traditions and rituals, Jesus and the Last Supper. Through our Term 3 unit of Look At What We ve Got, students will connect Religion to sustainability by looking at how we can sustain our spirit through the sacrament of Eucharist. Thinking how, in the moment of Eucharist, what is considered ordinary becomes extraordinary through the power of God. Students will also explain how their actions make change and will consider ways they can sustain themselves through prayer, meditation and relationships with self, others and God. Students will have the opportunity to identify and research someone in the Catholic tradition who has demonstrated a positive influence on God's creation. Links will be made using a variety of cultural and faith based creation stories and scripture. Our Eucharist Family Night being held at 7pm on Wednesday, 31st July at Stella Maris for the families of children participating in the Eucharist ceremony. Family Eucharist packs have already been sent home with your child last term. Please note, only children who are baptised, have NOT received their First Eucharist and are in Year 4 receiving their Eucharist would have received a pack. Eucharist will take place at 9am and 11.30am on Sunday 12th August. In the lead up to the Sacrament of Eucharist, students will continue to explore the questions: * What does living out the Eucharist look like? * How can I live out the Eucharist in my own life? *What connections can I make to the symbols and rituals of Eucharist? *What will the Eucharist mean to me in my life, moving forward?

5 English Non-Fiction Texts In Term 3, our English focus will be non-fiction texts. This will include, Information Reports, Explanation Reports and Biographies. Students will be developing their research skills as well as compiling what they have discovered into short oral presentations. They will be considering the features of non-fiction texts. Big Writes will give them the opportunity to write their own texts. In Reading, students will be developing more advanced reading skills, such as critiquing and analysing texts. They will be encouraged to bring their own prior knowledge into their reading experience. In the last few weeks of term, students will be given a research project based on a key figure that they would like to find out more about. This could be a historical figure, sports star, actor, scientist, inventor, humanitarian, the list is limitless! Students will be taught the skills of presenting texts, organising facts into categories, coming up with a unique angle and then using a dramatic flair to present their work. Big Writes Big Write will now take place every fortnight. Students will be given a stimulus to bring home and enter into Big Talk about the given stimulus. Big Write will take place each Thursday of Green Week and we will be beginning our first Big Write in Week 4 this term. Please continue to support your child at home with daily reading and Big Talks, relating to our Big Writes. Daily reading should be recorded in your child s diary which should be at school on a daily basis. Thank you for your continuing support with Home Learning Tasks.

6 Maths At the beginning of Term 3, students will be learning about Location. When investigating maps, students will identify different features including legends, grids, compass points and coordinates. Students will locate and describe the positions of places and objects. They will use directional language to describe pathways from one place to another. In the Perimeter and Area unit, students will be measuring the perimeter and area of different shapes. They will investigate the use of informal units (for example: counters and tiles) or and formal units (i.e. using rulers to measure in metric units). In the Chance and Data unit, students will conduct chance experiments, identifying and describing possible outcomes and recognising variation in results. Students will be using appropriate language to describe possible everyday events and order their chances of occurring. In the Decimals and Fractions unit, students will explore different representations of fractions and investigate the relationship of fractions and decimals. Students will learn to recognise that the place value system can be extended to tenths and hundredths. Our final unit of the semester is 3D Objects. In this unit, students will make models of three-dimensional objects and describe, compare and classify them based on their properties. This term, we will be continuing Mfacts workshops to continue to develop students understanding and strategies of multiplication facts. We encourage students to access this online learning tool at home. Students can complete practice tests and watch strategy videos. The online program has assessment activities that will be conducted during school learning time. An expectation by the end of the year is that Year 3 students are able to recall multiplication facts of two, three, five and ten times tables. Year 4 students should be able to recall times tables up to 10 x 10. Mfacts is a program designed by Maths intervention teachers to support and develop each child at the point of need. It is a strategy based approach to learning multiplication that students are welcome to use at home. Our aim is that students fully understand the concept of multiplication, rather than just rote learning times tables. Please help your child to see that multiplication is groups of, such as 5 groups of 3 is 15. This can be shown as an array. Mathletics is a fantastic resource that students may continue to use at home, see diary for student log-in information.

7 Inquiry Term 3 brings an exciting new Inquiry Unit, Look At What We ve Got. This unit considers Sustainability and how we can help to ensure a cleaner tomorrow for our world. Though practical science and research, students will develop an appreciation of our natural environment and take responsibility to ensure that it is preserved. They will be inspired to think creatively and critically as they act like scientist and geographers to solve problems and explore possible solutions. Students will learn about fair tests and variables as they design and conduct simple experiments. They will consider the importance of habitats for animals and plants as they research a national park. Students will consider how animals have adapted to their environment and how we can help endangered animals to survive. The key understanding for this unit is: Our environment is impacted by the way we think and act. At home, your children may challenge you to Reduce, Reuse, Recycle or Refuse. Can you think of ways to support our learning at home?

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