Prep Term Two Curriculum News 2023

This Term Newsletter will provide you with information about your child’s upcoming teaching and learning experiences in the new term. There is also plenty of additional information provided via Compass throughout the school year, so please make a point of touching base regularly.

General:
Hello Families. Welcome back to Term 2!
Students should be proud of the way they have conducted themselves during the return to school period. The teachers are so pleased to see how many routines have been remembered from Term 1, and the way all students continue to meet our school-wide high expectations.

This term we will continue to focus on helping your child build their independence and self-management skills. We encourage you to support your child in this area by giving them the opportunity to complete tasks independently, such as walking to and entering their classroom by themselves in the morning, carrying their own school bag and belongings, tying their shoelaces if wearing lace-up shoes, and taking on/off their jumper.

We look forward to sharing another exciting term of learning with your child, as well as continuing to work in partnership with you to support your child’s growth and development during their Prep year.

KEY DATES:
Wednesday 24^th May – CURRICULUM DAY (pupil free – no students at school)
Monday 29^th May – Wednesday 7^th June – School Nurse Visits
Monday 12^th June – King’s Birthday Public Holiday (pupil free – no students at school)
Thursday 15^th June – Bravehearts Incursion (consent and payment required - more information coming shortly)
Friday 23^rd June – LAST DAY of SCHOOL before holidays. Early finish time TBC

Morning Arrival and Communication:
With the start of the new term, we would like to reiterate some important points around morning arrivals and communication with teachers.

Learning time begins promptly at 9am. Students who arrive after this time can miss a significant part of their Literacy Block, where key skills and understandings are taught. The late arrival of students inhibits the beginning of a productive morning at school for the entire class. If teachers are put in a position to take the time to repeat instructions to students that have arrived late, the children that have arrived at school on time, lose valuable lesson time. Please help us to keep the lessons on track by ensuring your child is not late to school.

If students arrive at school after 9:00am they must go via the office to be signed in. Students can then independently walk to their classroom and enter it quickly and quietly, so they can begin learning as soon as possible. Parents/carers should not interrupt a grade during learning time for any reason.

Before school is a busy time for teachers as meetings, preparation, student supervision and yard duty can all occur. As such, it is not always an appropriate time to speak with your child’s teacher. We encourage and welcome you to email your child’s teacher with any questions you have or information you need to share. If required, an in-person time can be arranged to discuss matters further. Teachers will respond to parent emails either by reply email or phone call. If the matter is urgent or time sensitive, please contact the school office, who can pass along relevant information to your child/their teacher.

Your child’s learning is our priority. Ensuring all students are at school by 9:00am ready to start the day will support a positive transition to school each day and maximise learning time.

Literacy:
The Prep team has begun Term 2 with an exciting new phonological awareness program named ‘Heggerty’. This fun and fast-paced daily practise encourages students to hear, repeat and generate words that rhyme; isolate the initial and final sound in a spoken word; blend 2-3 syllables in a spoken word; segment a spoken word into syllables; and manipulate words by adding, deleting and substituting a syllable to make a new word.

Students continue to learn additional sounds and spellings during our Sounds Write sessions. The daily lessons require Prep students to segment and blend words and provide opportunities for students to share their learning with the class up the front on the large whiteboard. They will continue to apply this code knowledge when attempting to read decodable texts and write simple texts using known spellings.

This term, teachers will be reading a range of fiction and non-fiction texts to the class. The students will be exploring the purpose of the texts read, for example, ‘to give information’ or ‘to tell a story’, as well as the features, such as, titles, blurbs and contents pages. The teachers will ask questions and encourage discussions that promote the comprehension of the texts read.

During Writing sessions, Prep students will build a strong understanding of sentence structure, including the components of a sentence, writing on lines, spaces between words, and the use of capital letters and full stops. They will complete given sentences, by using known code when writing and will innovate texts by generating their own ideas. During daily handwriting practice, students will focus on writing on the lines, adopting correct posture and pencil grip, learning to produce simple handwriting movements, and following clear demonstrations of how to construct each letter.

Numeracy:
In Term 2, students will continue to build on and consolidate their number knowledge to 12. They will engage in a range of hands-on and open-ended activities to ensure they are developing confidence when using these numbers. Students will explore different ways to make these numbers using a range of different materials, continue to develop their counting fluency from 0 to 12 from any starting point, and identify the number one more or one less than given number.

Students will explore ‘number bonds’, by learning all the different ways a single number can be created: for example, knowing that 5 is made of 4 and 1; 2 and 3, 2 and 2 and 1, etc. This will support students when they begin learning how to complete simple addition problems later in the term, by adding two small groups together to make a whole collection.

In the area of Measurement and Geometry, students will explore the length of different objects and will compare objects to determine which is longer or shorter.

Inquiry:
Our Term 2 Inquiry focus is ‘Healthy Bodies’, where students will focus on the different ways they can stay healthy and safe and look after their bodies. We will explore ways we can be healthy through the food we eat, the amount of sleep we get, by practising good personal hygiene, and exercising regularly. We will then move into exploring how we can stay safe in our environment, by looking at ways we can be safe when outside, near water, on the roads and online. To support our learning in this area, students will engage in an incursion from Bravehearts. Consent and payment are required for students to attend this incursion. More information about the Bravehearts incursion will be available over the coming weeks.

In addition to this, we will continue to focus on Play Is The Way and the ‘Respectful Relationships’ social and emotional curriculum, by engaging in weekly lessons around different Life Raft topics, learning to make strong choices and build resilience through different games and activities, and use our Play Is The Way language in everyday conversations.

During Play Is The Way, students will focus on making ‘Strong Choices’ so they can ‘Be Their Own Boss’. They will also practise ‘Being Brave’ when trying new or challenging things, by always making sure they ‘Pursue Their Personal Best’.

During Respectful Relationships, students will explore the topic of ‘Positive Coping’, where they learn how to identify and manage different emotions.

Reminders:
Home Reading: Students bring home a decodable book each Monday and this needs to be returned each Friday. Students also bring home a weekly ‘sounds review’ sheet in their display book. These resources can be used each night to support your child in developing their reading skills.

Canteen and Food Sharing: We encourage Prep students to only bring a GOLD COIN to spend at the canteen for over-the-counter sales. Students are NOT permitted to buy food for other students, have other students purchase food for them, or share food of any kind.

Label Clothes and Belongings: Please ensure ALL items (jumpers, hats, lunch containers, water bottles, etc) are clearly labelled with your child’s name and grade. If these items are misplaced, they are easier to return if they are named. Any unnamed items will be taken to lost property.

Classroom Donations: We would appreciate any donations of tissues, hand sanitiser, and paper towel.

Each year level team has provided their families with a detailed newsletter such as this. If you are interested in reading about all the exciting things happening across the rest of the school, these can be accessed online at our school website from early next week.

Grade Two Curriculum Newsletter Term 2 2023

This Term Newsletter will provide you with information about your child’s upcoming teaching and learning experiences in the new term. There is also plenty of additional information provided via Compass throughout the school year, so please make a point of touching base regularly.

General

Welcome back everyone! We hope you all had a wonderful Easter and were able to spend some time with loved ones over the school holidays. With our children engaged in new and exciting learning throughout Term One, time has simply flown by! The Grade Two team has enjoyed getting to know your children over the past eleven weeks and watching them grow! With Term Two upon us, we are ready for another fantastic term of learning!

Literacy

Students have been relishing the opportunity to increase their knowledge of sounds and their corresponding spellings. This will be an ongoing focus for students in Term Two through our UFLI program. Students will be continuing to improve their fluency and expression when reading aloud, through regular practice. They will also continue to participate in class discussions about texts to gain a deeper understanding about the themes within the book. The focus texts have been chosen to support a deeper knowledge of our term topic of ‘Now & Then’. We have been retelling these stories and will begin to innovate on these, using their familiar structure to create a new story.

The home reading expectation for Grade Two students is for them to read at least 10 minutes per night for at least 4 nights a week. They are encouraged to bring back their readers and change them each week. We ask that students remember to bring their books in their reading satchels from home to school each day.

Maths

For Mathematics in Term Two, students will continue to develop their place value knowledge and use this to solve addition and subtraction problems, using a range of efficient mental and written strategies. Students will also explore the connection between addition and subtraction. They will tell time to the quarter-hour, using the language of 'past' and 'to', as well as use a calendar to identify the date and determine the number of days in each month.

Inquiry and Science

This term’s Inquiry unit is called ‘Then and Now’. In order to develop their knowledge and understanding of how ‘family life’ has changed over the years, students will be comparing the past to the present. They will explore how changing social norms, technology and exposure to other cultures has influenced their everyday lives. Students will be exploring the history of Lara and its surrounding areas, and reflecting on why these histories are important to our identity. Students will also be given the opportunity to explore their personal and family histories with a focus on family structures and how these may have changed, or remained the same over time.

Each year level team has provided their families with a detailed newsletter such as this. If you are interested in reading about all the exciting things happening across the rest of the school, these can be accessed online at our school website from early next week.

24th May 2023 Curriculum Day - no students on site

Term 2 Grade Three Curriculum News 2023

Dear Parents,

This Term Newsletter will provide you with information about your child’s upcoming teaching and learning experiences in the new term. There is also plenty of additional information provided via Compass throughout the school year, so please make a point of touching base regularly.

GENERAL
Can you believe it is Term Two already? We are ready and excited for all that Term Two brings. The Grade 3s have been working hard in Term One and are doing a fantastic job at developing their independence and resilience. We have appreciated the support parents & guardians have given students in order to encourage this with their children as well. Coming into the colder months, we greatly appreciate the donation of a few boxes of tissues to our classrooms if you are able to.

LITERACY
DID YOU KNOW that a child who reads for 67.3 minutes a day will read a total of 4,733,000 words a year? This puts them in the 98^th percentile rank! This includes any form of reading such as signs, books, notes etc. Whilst we do not expect Grade Three students to read for this amount of time, clearly the more they read, the better they will get!

During Term 1, students worked together and did a fantastic job of setting up their classroom libraries. Our Grade 3 teachers are highly impressed with the way our children are utilising their classroom libraries to ensure they are reading exciting texts that are ‘Just Right’ for them. This term, we will be developing the student’s comprehension strategies of predicting, activating prior knowledge, determining importance to summarise, making connections, critiquing, analysing, synthesising, questioning, visualising and inferring. We will continue to emphasise the importance of selecting ‘Just Right’ books to enable them to practise these strategies. Their Reading Journals will continue to serve as a tool to track their individual goals and daily reading.

What can you do to help?
When reading a new book, encourage your child to make predictions before, during and after reading.
Check their reading comprehension by asking them to visualise and describe the setting, characters or their actions.
Encourage your child to point out unknown words. Encourage them to read around the word, or use text clues to figure out its meaning.
Support your child to ask questions about the text and author.
Encourage them to summarise or retell what has occurred in the book.
Encourage your child to read a balance of fiction and non-fiction.
Discuss the characters. Ask who was their favourite? Why?
Ask them whether they enjoyed the book and to share reasons as to why or why not.

In Writing, the students will continue to explore the Writer’s Workshop. We will continue to emphasise the importance of using our Writer’s Notebooks to develop and stretch out our ideas. Students will also begin to explore the 6+1 Traits of Writing which includes organisation, voice, word choice, fluency, conventions, ideas and presentation. We will explore how authors use these to ensure their writing makes sense and interests their target audience. We encourage students to find authentic purposes for their writing and would appreciate parents supporting these endeavours at home as well.

NUMERACY
In Mathematics this term, the children will learn about a range of concepts, skills and strategies with a specific focus on Addition and Subtraction. They will also continue to focus on recalling basic number facts quickly and accurately (addition, subtraction, multiplication and division). It would be appreciated if you could help your child to learn these facts at home in addition to their homework. Families can also support at home by encouraging your child to play games involving counting and number facts. We will also have a focus on the 2s, 3s, 5s and 10s counting pattern both automatic recall and knowing the actual facts.

INQUIRY
During Term 2, students in Grade 3 will be working collaboratively on our topic, ‘The Arrival’. As part of this unit, students will:

• Identify and explain the causes and effects of European settlement and exploration

• Investigate stories of the First Fleet, including causes and reasons for the journey, who travelled to Australia, and their experiences and perspectives following arrival.

• The nature of contact between Aboriginal peoples, and the effects of these interactions

DEVICES
A reminder that Department of Education policy stipulates that phones, watches or other devices with communicative ability cannot be carried by students while on the school premises during school hours, without Principal approval. For further details please refer to the policy documents on Compass and the Lara Lake PS website.

HOMEWORK
Home reading is an expectation at Lara Lake Primary School. A friendly reminder that reading for at least 20 minutes, 4 nights a week is the recommendation for students in grade 3-6 as Homework. Students are able to borrow texts from the classroom library with the teacher to monitor/implement an in-class borrowing system, in addition to students borrowing books from the school library. Alternatively, students can read books they have at home or access their Epic or Sunshine Online account.
*Clothing: A reminder that students are to be in full school uniform every day. As the colder weather approaches, please ensure your child has enough clothing to keep them warm at school.
We look forward to continuing the connection between school and home in Term Two. Should you have any queries, please do not hesitate to contact your child’s teacher. Compass continues to be our main form of communication. Alternatively, you can contact the office directly for more urgent matters. We ask that if you need to speak with your child’s teacher, that you organise a phone call at a mutually appropriate time. The team will endeavour to reply to any queries as soon as possible.

The Grade Three Team

Each year level team has provided their families with a detailed newsletter such as this. If you are interested in reading about all the exciting things happening across the rest of the school, these can be accessed online at our school website from early next week.

24th May 2023 Curriculum Day - No students on site

Grade Four Term 2 Curriculum News 2023

This Term Newsletter will provide you with information about your children’s upcoming teaching and learning experiences in the new term. There is also plenty of additional information provided via Compass throughout the school year, so please make a point of touching base regularly.

General:
We continue to be so incredibly proud of how dedicated our Grade Four students are to their learning. Each day the students are coming in with an eagerness to learn and improve. We have hit the ground running in Term 2, settled into routines and can't wait for the upcoming learning opportunities.

Literacy:
This term we will be working on how to better understand what we read. We are striving for our students to not only read the text but to discuss, question, clarify and analyse. The students will have to justify their thoughts using evidence from the text or their prior knowledge and experiences. They will be constantly asked ‘Why do you think that? and What part of the text made you think that?’ Alongside regular Independent Reading, students will be partaking in teacher conferences and Guided Reading sessions to better target their areas of need.

The enthusiasm in our Grade Four students during Writing is at a high. Our authors are proud and excited about their writing so far! In Writing, teachers have been pleased to see the wonderful way in which students are thinking about their purpose and audience for writing. We have begun the term by looking at the ‘6 + 1 Trait Sentence Fluency’. The students will explore how carefully creating sentences, thinking about how our sentences start and varying sentence lengths can make our writing sound rhythmic and smooth. We look forward to seeing how our students improve as writers.

Mathematics:
We have begun this term in Mathematics by connecting our knowledge and strategies in multiplication to division. The students will continue to explore how to solve division problems using a range of strategies and then working towards choosing the most efficient strategy.
Throughout all Mathematics sessions students will be encouraged to prove their answers, steps or processes, and their thinking. This term, students will also be focusing on statistics and chance. We look forward to creating surveys, collecting and analysing data. We encourage you to show your children how you use maths in your everyday activities at home to, such as adding and subtracting amounts, walking or riding distances, measuring ingredients, timing how long it takes to do different activities and recognising number patterns in the environment for instance.

Inquiry:
This term Grade Four students will be exploring Inquiry throughout all subject areas. Our Inquiry focus is ‘Early Explorers’. Students will have the opportunity to research and discuss historical information based on ‘the journeys of a significant world navigator, explorer, or trader up to the late eighteenth century, including their contacts with and effects on other societies’ (Victorian Curriculum).

Reminders –
*Clothing: A reminder that students are to be in full school uniform every day. As the colder weather approaches, please ensure your child has enough clothing to keep them warm at school.

*Communication: If you have any concerns, please do not hesitate to email or make an appointment with us if there is anything you wish to discuss.

Each year level team has provided their families with a detailed newsletter such as this. If you are interested in reading about all the exciting things happening across the rest of the school these can be access online at our school website from early next week.

Wednesday 24th May 2023 Curriculum Day - No students on site

Grade 5 Term 2 Curriculum News 2023

This Term Newsletter will provide you with information about your child’s upcoming teaching and learning experiences in the new term. There is also plenty of additional information provided via Compass throughout the school year, so please make a point of touching base regularly.

GENERAL

Welcome back to Term 2! We hope you’ve had a wonderful and relaxing time over the school holidays and are feeling very refreshed and prepared for what is going to be a short but busy Term 2.

This term will see our Grade 5 students continuing some of the great work they started in Term 1 as well being introduced to new content across the curriculum. We have been incredibly proud of how committed our Grade 5 students are in their learning and are expecting this positivity to continue through Term 2. We are looking forward to sharing what’s in store for your child this term.

LITERACY

In Term 2, students will continue to focus on strengthening their use of comprehension strategies to interpret and understand texts. They will continue to set personal reading goals and be supported through independent conferencing and focus groups. Students will be guided to read and interpret a range of fiction and non fiction texts, describing the effects of ideas, text structures and language features on a particular audience.

This term in writing, students have an overall focus on the writing traits of ‘Sentence Fluency’ and ‘Word Choice’. Within this skill students are also focusing on extending and applying their use of figurative language through metaphors and similes. To broaden students' figurative language we will also be looking at adjectives, verbs and adverbs. This will be a great opportunity to create some exciting and descriptive writing pieces! Students will continue to participate in daily Writing Workshops, ensuring they are challenging themselves to write across the different genres. They will continue to celebrate their writing through classroom Author’s Chair and read alouds, as well as give and receive quality feedback. Reading and Writing content will also be explored through our Inquiry topic, Our Place in the World and students will explore and create their own travel guide and itinerary of an Asian country of their choice.

NUMERACY

In Mathematics, students will be continuing to build their understanding in solving a variety of multiplication and division problems. They will explore and use a range of efficient strategies to solve these problems. To assist with this, students will be given the opportunity to work on their Maths fluency (eg: times tables and related number facts) through games and other activities. They will then explore length, perimeter, area and volume, with a focus on choosing the appropriate unit of measurement, and use directional language with a specific scale (eg: 1 cm = 1 km). Students will learn efficient ways to solve measurement problems by engaging in open ended activities and through project based learning. In all Mathematics lessons, students are encouraged to use reasoning to explain their thinking to a peer or teacher.

INQUIRY

In Inquiry, students will research a country within the continent of Asia and explore the many unique aspects of the country that make it unique as well as the influence these Asian countries have had in shaping Australia as we know it today. Their research will go towards an exciting Asian Travel Expo where the Grade 5 students will showcase their research and classwork to students, parents and carers. Keep an eye out for an invitation!

Each year level team has provided their families with a detailed newsletter such as this. If you are interested in reading about all the exciting things happening across the rest of the school, these can be accessed online at our school website from early next week.

Wednesday 24th May 2023 Curriculum Day - no students on site

Grade Six Term 2 Curriculum News 2023

This Term Newsletter will provide you with information about your child’s upcoming teaching and learning experiences in the new term. There is also plenty of additional information provided via Compass throughout the school year, so please make a point of touching base regularly.

Welcome back to another exciting term! We hope everyone had a happy and safe Easter break with their families, friends and loved ones. The Grade 6 Teachers are proud of the way students settled in during Term 1 to make a great start to the year, in both a social and academic setting. This was further encouraged by a fantastic camp at Kangaroobie where students had an opportunity to push themselves out of their comfort zones, develop their resilience and organisation skills, and support their peers in a range of activities.
We would like to congratulate the student representatives that were elected as House and Arts Captains, Environmental Leaders and Student Representative Council members. It has also been brilliant to see most of our students wearing their brand new, Year 6 t-shirts and jumpers with excitement and pride!

LITERACY
In Reading, the students will continue to refine their ability to use a range of reading strategies independently. This term, we will continue to explore a range of texts to enhance students’ understanding, whilst maintaining a love for reading by making use of our classroom libraries. We will be working towards students further developing their ability to identify and articulate the skills they are using while they read, including inferring, analysing, critiquing and summarising. At home, you can continue to support your child by engaging in rich discussions around the texts they are reading. At the senior level, we place significant importance on the discussions about texts, and not just listening to your child read aloud.
In Writing, students will continue to develop their passion for writing as part of the Writer’s Workshop. Students will be encouraged to experiment with different text structures including memoirs, narrative and informative texts. They will utilise language features identified in their reading and experiment with them in their own writing. Should you wish to support your child at home, you may like to focus on supporting them to correctly select and use various forms of punctuation, particularly when editing their writing. We would also love to see students focusing on quality over quantity – short, sharp, well written pieces are a great start.

NUMERACY
In Numeracy this term, there will be a focus on problem solving strategies and real-life problems involving the four operations (+-x÷), measurement and time. This will include using a wide variety of strategies which will be discussed and applied in differentiated groups and whole class activities. Students will have the opportunity to learn through project-based tasks and open-ended questions, which will cater for and extend the diverse range of learners in the classroom.
At this level we expect that most students know their times tables (1-12) and can recall these quickly.
We ask that families assist learning at home by encouraging children to play games involving counting, money, time and number facts. Please ensure your child has access to Essential Assessment on a regular basis as this supports the learning in our classroom.

INQUIRY
Throughout Term 2, as part of our Inquiry Unit - ‘Australia- Government, Law and Democracy,’ students will continue to explore what it means to be an Australian Citizen and how laws are made. At the completion of this unit, students will then investigate how energy from a variety of sources can be used to generate electricity.

The iPads will continue to be used daily, therefore it is imperative that these are at school, fully functional and charged every day.

Each year level team has provided their families with a detailed newsletter such as this. If you are interested in reading about all the exciting things happening across the rest of the school, these can be accessed online at our school website from early next week.

We are proud of the students’ attitudes and successes from Term 1 and look forward to the students continuing to push themselves whilst maintaining high behavioural expectations in Term 2.

Kind Regards,
The Grade 6 Team

24th May 2023 Curriculum Day - no students on site

Specialist Term 2 Curriculum News 2023

Music
The junior music program at Lara Lake is based on the Kodaly teaching philosophy.
There are many cognitive, social and emotional benefits to an early music education. Beyond that, young children are more prone to developing absolute pitch (singing in tune) than other children and you’ll quickly see your children develop confidence around their newfound musical skills. We are also using an online program called “Prodigies” where they'll learn to read music and sing with colours, numbers, letters, and solfege (doh re me fa soh la ti doh) using familiar and fun songs. They'll discover how to keep a steady beat, play a variety of rhythms and how to play their first instruments. Finally, they'll learn to sing with confidence, they'll practice the ever-important skill of listening and they'll even do beginner composition and improvisation activities to help express themselves.
As students progress through the school, they branch out and apply their skills to more complex activities such as singing, playing keyboard, guitar, percussion and ukulele. We use technology in an interactive way, using programs like “GarageBand” and Incredibox” where students create, record, and arrange music whilst learning the building blocks of songs: Beat, rhythm, chords, melody and the use of a range of “virtual instruments”.
Students will participate in both small and larger groups to play and compose music, using philosophies of the “Musical Futures” teaching and learning method. This allows students to use their prior knowledge to pursue an area of music they are interested in, in a practical way.
We aim for students to have a wide range of musical experiences and to have a “musical tool belt” of skills and a love of music by the time they move on from here.
We are lucky to have a number of enthusiastic and skilled Music teachers at Lara Lake: Rob Turner, Randall Hill, Sally Venn and Megan Mckenzie.

Physical Education
Term 2 is certainly jam packed full of numerous sporting events and skill-based lessons and activities for our Lara Lake students.
We ask that your child dresses appropriately (runners, shorts/track suit and t-shirt) on the day they have their Physical Education class. If you are unsure of when your child’s PE lesson is, please contact your child’s PE teacher.

P.E Program
The PE curriculum for all grade areas will continue to focus on participation, catering to each individual’s ability while having fun in their weekly PE lesson.
In the Prep area, the students will participate in skill-based stations, such as throwing, catching, skipping, kicking and in the second half of the term they will have the opportunity to participate in the school’s Perceptual Motor Program (PMP). PMP is a movement-based program which helps younger students improve their eye/hand and eye/foot coordination, fitness, balance, locomotion and eye-tracking skills.
The Grade 1 and Grade 2 students will continue to develop their sporting skills in catching, throwing and kicking while displaying positive sportsmanship and enthusiasm.
The Grade 3 to Grade 6 students will continue to further develop their sporting skills so they are able to confidently participate in target sports during their weekly lesson. Target games involve propelling an object with the aim to place it on, in or near a target to obtain the best possible score. Sports that use target game objectives include archery, bocce, croquet, golf and ten pin bowling.
The Grade 2 to Grade 6 students will also participate in the Beep Test. The Beep Test requires participants to run back and forth between two points positioned 20 metres apart. The participants must maintain a running speed determined by a pre-set audio tone, that sounds like a “beep”, throughout the duration of the test. The required running speed or pace increases as the test progresses. The Beep Test is used to measure an individual’s aerobic power.
The Grade 6 students are looking forward to putting their sporting skills into practise when they participate in the Winter Lightening Premiership Competition against other schools at Geelong Grammar School, on Tuesday May 30^th.
If you are able to assist on this day, please contact your classroom teacher or Mrs Dowling.
A number of extra skill-based sporting clinics will be organised throughout Term 2 for various year levels at no cost.
If you have any questions or queries please don’t hesitate to contact me.
We are looking forward to working with your child in Term 2.
Please don’t hesitate, to contact any of the PE teachers if you have any concerns or questions with regard to your child and the Physical Education Program.

KEY DATES:

• Wednesday 24th May Curriculum Day - no students on site

• Tuesday May 30th Grade 6 Winter Lightning Premiership

• Wednesday June 21^st Grade Prep Football Clinic

Mrs Cathy Dowling
PE Co-ordinator.

STEM
This term our focus for STEM at Lara Lake Primary School will shift from construction to coding. This means that students will be exposed to different forms of coding across different technologies. The aim is to immerse students into coding and computer science across different platforms to foster skills of creativity, collaboration and independent thinking. The following two paragraphs will explain in more detail what years Prep to 2 and years 3-6 will learn in STEM this term.

Prep – 2
Prep students are continuing to work their way through the design process. This term they will be planning, then constructing a cardboard building of their choice, using Makedo equipment. Prep students will be continually evaluating their building as they work on it and making improvements where necessary. At the end of construction students will be given the opportunity to share their buildings with their peers to receive positive feedback.

Grade 1 and 2 students will be coding with Spheros. Using coding blocks, they will be able to code their Sphero to draw basic shapes and travel through simple mazes set up by students. Students will be coding and creating their own game or animation using the Scratch coding platform.

Grades 3 – 6
This term our middle and senior students will learn to code with three different languages- draw, block and text code. They will learn the different coding languages on various platforms such as Scratch, Sphero Edu and Code.org. By engaging in coding across different platforms, students will be able to find a language that suits their needs and interests.

Students will be given the opportunity to use block code to control the movement of a Sphero (a spherical shaped robot) through mazes that they can construct (using paper, cardboard etc.) Students will be challenged to create their own game or animation by writing the code through the Scratch coding platform. Our students will also be given the opportunity to engage in coding projects online that have been created by kids for kids.
To conclude the term, students will be given time to critically analyse their own coding games or animations before they share them with their peers.

We can't wait to get stuck into another term of STEM education at LLPS. Be sure to check Compass for any STEM related posts. At this stage we are not in need of any more cardboard, but this may change.

Mr. Ben Joustra

ART
In Art this term, classes are extremely busy with collaging and painting. Soon there will be many new art pieces on display from our wonderful artistic students. Please make some time to take a walk down our gallery and the main corridor with your child. Take a look, there will be many creative pieces of artwork on display in our school, of which I am proud of them all.
Parents, please it is imperative your child has an art smock at school please (everyone from 1 to grade 6)—many students do not have one and since we are working with paint, it is unlikely they will stay clean, so make sure a named Art smock gets to your child’s teacher.
This term, Grade Prep students are learning painting techniques like mixing secondary colours from primary colours, fabric painting and changing the way we can use paper by tearing, curling, folding and fringing.
Grade 1 and 2 students are focusing on paper techniques such as concertina, fringing, folding, curling and tearing along with using different joining techniques. There will be many pieces of artwork this term all finishing off with creating a collage bird house and a collage hamburger. I look forward to seeing some fantastic work on display.
Grades 3 and 4 are focusing on water colour techniques by using different textural effects in paint. They will also be learning print making skills of etching and monotone printing and learning about an artistic style called ‘Steampunk’ which they will create a collage using mechanical pieces in a rustic tone.
Grade 5 and 6 students will be creating Asian art more specifically using Chinese brush strokes to create a bamboo painting and print making using radial patterns on a brightly coloured background. Both grades will explore Australian artists. Just wait for how these look – they will be amazing.

Please do not hesitate to come and see your child’s teacher if you have any questions, we are very happy to help.

Ms. Susan Torriero