From the Classroom

FOUNDATION – YEAR 2

Wow, it’s the final term for 2024!

After the two-week break, students in Foundation to Year 2 have returned with enthusiasm and energy for their final term of 2024.

In Foundation, students are learning to plant and care for their own class garden. Over the coming weeks, they will watch how the seeds and plants transform and grow into larger vegetables, which they hope to harvest and cook with later in the term.

In Year 1, students have started to develop their understanding of Aboriginal culture. They have enjoyed listening to Dreamtime stories and taking part in art activities.

In Year 2, students have been using iPads to research changes in technology by comparing older technologies with the ones they are familiar with today.

This year’s Children’s Book Week theme ‘Reading is Magic,’ inspired a whole school mural themed on the novel Possum Magic, by Mem Fox. Foundation students enjoyed inviting every student at Clyde Grammar to their classroom to contribute to our beautiful Grandma Poss mural and to create whimsical stars to bring colour and magic to our library space.
Foundation students have been busy planting their garden and searching for mini beasts. With the help of our buddies, we went on a mini beast hunt and discovered plenty of fascinating creatures.
1A had a fun time creating with spaghetti and marshmallows as part of a team-building activity. Students were given limited instructions on how to complete the construction task and worked together to accomplish their goal of making the tallest tower possible. They all did a wonderful job of listening to each other’s ideas and worked very well together.
We have been revising our addition skills and playing fun games, like dominoes. In this game students needed to select a domino, add up the dots using the big number first strategy, and work out who had the highest number. The winner ended up with the most dominoes.
The Year 2s have enjoyed creating a holiday passport and suitcase to match their holiday recount. They were excited to share all the fun adventures they had during the break.

This term, Year 2 students are exploring changes over time. We were all very excited to visit Melbourne Museum where we looked at dinosaurs, toys, transport and clothing from the past.

YEARS 3 – 4

We have returned to school and hit the ground running with so much happening in Years 3 and 4. The Year 3 children started the term with birdwatching as part of the Aussie Backyard Bird Count and their Integrated Studies unit, Living Things.

Students spent time outside looking at different local bird species near the school and counting them. They then used this information to create graphs in a spreadsheet.

However, the highlight of this term so far would have to be the annual Year 3 Sleepover.

This is part of the Clyde Grammar camping program and provides children with an experience of staying away from home. They enjoyed delicious pizza for dinner and danced the night away at a disco. There were lots of tired children and teachers on Friday afternoon.

In Year 4, the garden beds were installed over the holidays and created lots of excitement. The children had a special visit from Tony, the Activities Coordinator at Bunnings in Clyde, who brought lots of supplies for the children to use for planting and now we will watch the plants grow. We can’t wait to see what starts blooming in the garden.

Year 3 Sleepover

On Thursday, we enjoyed our annual Year 3 Sleepover. The school was buzzing with excitement and nerves as the children arrived ready for some fun activities and the epic disco. The Year 3 students busily set up their sleeping areas and rolled out their sleeping mats and sleeping bags. There was pizza and ice cream followed by lots of dancing and everyone had a fabulous time. 

“We got awesome airbrush tattoos at the disco.” Daanish 

“At the disco, we played limbo, and it was lots of fun. Alanah won — she got under the lowest one.” Denny 

“I had such a great time dancing a lot to try to win prizes at the disco, but I was exhausted by the end of it.”
Maya

“At the disco, some people won light-up wands and sticks. Some of us kept turning them on at bedtime.”
Nate

“Taskworks on Friday was lots of fun. As a team, we took apart and rebuilt robots, a go-kart and a train.”
Sidhak

“I had such a good time at the sleepover.”
Ryan

“The barbeque chicken pizza was delicious.” Jonathan

“The pizza was mouth-watering.” Roop 

“This was a five-star sleepover.”
Angad

The Year 4 students had the privilege of being visited by Tony from Bunnings recently. Bunnings donated bags of mixed compost and a variety of vegetables, herbs and fruits to plant in our new gardens, including silverbeet, iceberg lettuce, cucumber, zucchini, coriander and marigolds. Using gloves, the students mixed in the compost to provide nutrients and enrich the soil. They then planted the seedlings and watered our new vegetables and plants. We look forward to caring for the gardens in the coming weeks.
During Mathematics, students have been actively engaged in learning all about volume and capacity and they have been using hands-on materials to enhance their understanding. Equipped with scales, measuring cups and other tools, they have been enthusiastically measuring, comparing and estimating volumes and mass. The focus on practical activities has allowed the students to develop their estimation and conversion skills while deepening their understanding of these important concepts.