Junior School Update

Year Three

The Year Threes have had a wonderful start to the year. Our five new classmates have been warmly welcomed by the Holy Cross community spirit within our class. 

We have been learning about persuasive writing and students have presented some interesting arguments on topics including, whether school uniforms should be banned and whether books are better than movies. We have been learning all the tricks of the trade and how to be more persuasive in our arguments. Watch out parents, they may even try their debating skills on you!

In Mathematics, we have been exploring the concept of place value, using hands-on activities. We have been developing strategies for how to create the largest four-digit number by rolling a dice and deciding on what place value the digit should hold. We have also been getting really clever at reading numbers to the tens of thousands.

We are looking forward to further exploring our Big Ideas unit on “Spinning, spinning, spinning, but what if we stop?” to learn more about the concept of day and night. Watch this space for future blog updates! 

Miss Ravenscroft

Year Three Teacher

Pre-Kindergarten

Welcome to Pre-Kindergarten for 2016. We have had a wonderful start to the year, with the children busily getting to know each other, the staff and their new environment. The children are beginning to follow some of the routines of Pre-Kindergarten with the focus on helping them to peacefully transition from home to school in the morning and to feel safe and happy at school. 

For the next few weeks we will continue to learn more about each other, as the children participate in a range of activities based around, 'All About Me'. We will also explore the concept of family and would love for everyone to bring in a family photo that we can share as a class. 

Our fruit cutting and playdough rosters have already commenced and our parent helper roster will commence in Week 5. A reminder that the Junior School Parent Information session will be held on Wednesday, 24 February, followed by a Welcome BBQ. I look forward to a wonderful year ahead!

Mrs Fretwell

Pre-Kindergarten Teacher

Pre-Primary H: Let’s play, learn and grow together

This year, we are delighted to have a double stream of the Pre-Primary cohort. Both, Mrs Hayley Sheppard and I are delighted to collaborate together to provide learning opportunities for the students. 

It has been wonderful to witness the gorgeous little characters entering Pre-Primary H. Thank you for your promptness with drop-offs and pick-ups, the effort has been greatly appreciated. The students have started settling into their class routines and are also excited to embark on many learning experiences with the Pre-Primary C students.

Our Pre-Primary team motto is "We all belong" along with our focus words: 

      CONNECTION...   LOVE...  RESPONSIBILITY...  RESPECT...

This being the year of MERCY, we will be focusing on how we can bring more understanding of this word in our playing and learning opportunities. 

The students have been exploring letter recognition activities. Recently, the students pretended to be Detectives searching for the letters of the alphabet. They were able to wear novelty glasses and use lolly pop pens. The students were so engaged in their search and were confident when sharing their findings. Other tasks included matching lower case and upper case letters, identifying initial sounds when playing Snap and rainbow tracing letters on chalkboards.

The students have been involved in problem solving activities, such as making patterns, practising numeral formation, finding different ways of making the number 6 and creating unifix towers with the challenge of counting all of the blocks used.

Next Wednesday, 24 February, at 4:30pm and 5:00pm Mrs Sheppard and myself will outline the Pre-Primary programme at the Parent Information Sessions. We look forward to seeing all of you there.

I would also like to extend a thank you to the parents who have volunteered to assist with classroom activities or preparation of tasks. Your assistance is greatly appreciated.

Miss Pritchard

Pre-Primary H Teacher