We have had a busy and engaging end to Term 1 and start to Term 2 in our Grade 2/3 classroom! Students have continued to demonstrate our school values through their positive attitudes, teamwork and willingness to challenge themselves in their learning. It has been wonderful to see students growing in confidence, independence and resilience across all learning areas.

In Literacy, students have been exploring our new mentor text, Matilda by Roald Dahl and have been highly engaged in responding to the novel through discussion, comprehension activities and vocabulary work. Our narrative writing focus has included learning about the structure of narratives, writing engaging character and setting introductions, action paragraphs and problem paragraphs. Students have been developing their understanding of grammar concepts including plural nouns, using ‘a’ and ‘an’, coordinating conjunctions and the four sentence types. It has been fantastic to see students becoming more confident authors and using richer vocabulary and figurative language in their writing.

In Maths, students were very excited to welcome our Pre-Service Teacher, Mr Scott, into the classroom. Mr Scott led many engaging lessons about angles, where students explored right, acute and obtuse angles through hands-on activities and real-world examples. Students particularly enjoyed using whiteboard markers on the tables to demonstrate their learning! We also explored quarter, half and three-quarter turns and connected these turns to angles. More recently, students have been learning about multiplication through the use of bar models, base 10 blocks and vertical algorithms to solve multiplication problems and worded problems.

In Inquiry, students learnt about ANZAC Day and created a wreath for our school ANZAC service. We also began our Australian History unit, investigating the journeys of explorers who travelled around the world and explored Australia’s coastline. Students learnt about Dutch explorers including Abel Tasman and Dirk Hartog and plotted their journeys on maps while discussing the reasons behind exploration. Students have also begun developing their understanding of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples’ deep and ongoing connection to Country, and how this connection predates European exploration by many thousands of years.

Towards the end of Term 1, we thank our Junior School Council for organising a fantastic Easter Hat Parade, Easter raffle and Easter Egg Hunt. Students loved participating in these fun community events. Congratulations also to our Grade 3–6 students who participated in Cross Country, with several students progressing through to the Polwarth and Colac Division competitions.

We have also enjoyed a fantastic start to Term 2 with a delicious Pizza Day lunch order and the beginning of our weekly swimming program. Students have approached swimming with enthusiasm, persistence and open minds, and it has quickly become one of our favourite days of the week!

Finally, we would like to thank Mr Scott for the time and effort he has put into working with our class this term. Students have loved learning with him, and we look forward to welcoming him back to the Birregurra Primary School community later in the year.

- Miss McLaren