St Mary's Catholic School Boyup Brook

A big well done to all the students who received a merit award this week! Your enthusiasm, effort, and commitment to learning are truly commendable. We are so proud of your achievements—keep striving for excellence!

It is truly hard to believe that we have just finished week 4!

The term is flying past as we busily go about being creative, funny, messy and focussed.

In Religious Education we have been learning about the importance of friends and how Jesus had many friends.  Jesus was always kind and took care of others so lots of people wanted to be his friend.  Today we ate some bread and some finish after listening to the story of the loaves and the fishes.

In maths we have been learning about addition, ordinal numbers and the importance of one to one counting.  Both Kindy and Pre-Primary children have used the Maths U See integer blocks to support their learning.  The Kindy children are becoming very good at working out the ‘hidden’ numbers on a numberline too.

In literacy the Pre-primary children have been revising Phase 2 and early Phase 3 sounds and learning the first consonant blend ‘sh’.  This has allowed exploration of Mrs Wheeler’s favourite ‘sh’ book ‘Where is the Green Sheep’ and the discussion of opposites.  Both Kindy and Pre-Primary children also made their own sheep puppets which they used to act out text improvisations on the book. 

Our beloved bush never fails to deliver and on our last visit the children worked collaboratively to build a wonderful bridge across the big puddle.  Mrs Wheeler got cold toes making sure everyone could cross safely.

This week we have loved exploring the world of science more closely with a range of experiments and experiences like; walking water, purple celery, magic potions, skittle rainbows, rotocopters, mealworms, magnets and more!

We have also been very busy practising public speaking with a range of very exciting topics!

What a whirlwind of excitement we've had in Year 1 & 2 this week! Our young scientists dove headfirst into National Science Week with a variety of hands-on experiments and discoveries that sparked curiosity and wonder. To top it off, our talented students took centre stage at assembly, impressing everyone with their musical skills as they performed two songs using boom whackers—what a show! Back in the classroom, learning has been lively and interactive, with plenty of opportunities to explore, create, and collaborate. With Book Week just around the corner, we’re all buzzing with anticipation for even more fun and imagination!

We have had a great start to term 3, this week for science week there have been mini science experiments and investigations to explore in the classroom before school. Students were given a different task to explore each day. The students would make predictions and also needed to consider how the experiment could be changed to get a different outcome. Monday students investigated what happens to food colouring in milk when you use a cotton tip with dishwashing liquid and discovered that the colour separates using the dishwashing liquid as a repelling barrier. We investigated whether it made a difference if it was lactose free milk, and considered if the temperature of the milk would change the outcome. Tuesday students drew arrows and other pictures and then viewed those pictures through clear containers filled with water. Students realised if they held the paper at a certain distance the picture became blurry and even swapped directions. They explored whether changing the colour of the water would impact the results. Wednesday students made a paper boat, placed it in a tray of water and added a drop of dishwashing liquid to the back of the boat - which on occasion would propel the boat forward in the water. Students discovered that this would only work the first time and then the water would have a build up of dishwashing liquid which would impact the results. Students also discovered that their boat propelled further if it had shape and not just a flat piece of paper. Thursday students explored a range of items to determine which items would float and which items would sink, students were then challenged to try and make an item that floated sink, and a sinkable item float. Students realised they could use other objects to get items to then sink or float. 

In English students have been working incredibly hard collecting information on their chosen famous person for their information reports and public speaking topic. There has been an increased excitement between the students when they have learnt an interesting fact - like the jobs Pope Francis had before he was a Pope, what clothes the newest and youngest Saint was buried in, how many songs have been purchased or downloaded from various artists, or even how many make a wish request famous WWE wrestlers have completed. 

Math has seen students complete module 7 in stepping stones and this gave the year 4s a chance to develop and practice some different strategies to assist with solving multiplication and division problems and then how we could use this new knowledge and skill set to work out the area of rectangle. The year 3s have been working on measurement and converting mm into cm and cm into mm. Year 3 students have started to explore how multiplication can be used to assist with solving a division or sharing equation. 

Religion - We have been working through the Confirmation module which students understand is a Sacrament where you receive the gift of the Holly Spirit to help you live the way Jesus wants us to. Students have learnt that for our actions to be a sin it needs to go against the two main commandments of Loving God and Loving ourselves as we love our neighbour, the action needs be on purpose, and the person who completes the action needs to know it goes against the commandments. Students also learnt thought he story of the lost coin how when we do sin and then we find our way back to God all the angels rejoice that we have return to our close relationship with God. 

We have many things that we are looking forward in year 3/4 including our public speaking, and our speeches will be coming home to practice shortly. We can't wait for you to see the work we have done. 

Mrs Melanie Elks