Mathematics In Action @ HNS
As a school, we have been focusing on strengthening the structure of our Mathematics teaching blocks and refining our assessment practices. It has been wonderful to see and hear about the engaging and meaningful learning experiences taking place across all classrooms. Here’s a snapshot of some of the fun!
Kinder Maths
In Mathematics this week, Kindergarten have been learning about volume, with a focus on describing and comparing the capacity of different containers. Through hands-on exploration, students developed their understanding of the terms empty, half full, and full. Out in the sandpit, they measured and compared the volume of different cups and bowls using a small cup as an informal measuring tool. The children had a wonderful time exploring, comparing, and sharing their discoveries with their peers!
Year 1 Data time
This fortnight in Maths, Year 1 have been busy exploring the world of data. They’ve enjoyed becoming little data detectives, gathering information about cars, favourite sports, and even Smartie colours! Using tally marks to record their findings, they then transformed this data into colourful column and picture graphs. It’s been fantastic to see their enthusiasm grow as they discovered how to represent information in different ways. What a great start to understanding statistics!
Year 2 – Fractions and Time
This term, Year 2 have been exploring fractions, including halves, quarters and eighths. Students have practised using these fractions with collections of objects, such as counters, and shapes like circles, before transferring their understanding into visual representations through drawings. Some students have even begun solving one- and two-step word problems involving fractions, using the CUBE strategy to help them break down the questions.
Our learning about fractions has now connected to our new focus on measuring time. Just like a shape can be divided into halves and quarters, students are learning that a clock face can also be divided into equal parts. This has helped them understand concepts such as half past and quarter to. Through this learning, it became clear that while many students could work out the steps needed to solve a two-step problem, explaining their thinking and clearly showing their working out was more challenging. As a result, setting personal learning goals around explaining mathematical reasoning has become a key focus in Year 2.
Year 3 – Learning through Minecraft Education
Year 3 have been learning about Area in Maths, so we decided to use Minecraft for Education to do this. Each student went to their own designated build plate, and using square carpet tiles made rectangular carpets. We were then able to calculate the area of our rectangular carpets using the formula Area = length x width. Each student then displayed this information on a sign, which even included the units of measurement.
Year 4 – Maths Learning
Year 4 have been designing sports stadiums in Maths. Utilising skills such as multiplying, addition, area, and problem-solving involving money; students have to design a stadium for a specific sport, calculate how many seats can fit in the stadium then designate ticket prices for seating areas and calculate how much money they would make if the stadium was fully sold out. Students have had fun designing for a range of activities; from Olympic pools to soccer to NRL to concert arenas with a stage and VIP area!
This engaging project combined measurement, multiplication, problem-solving, and financial literacy, while encouraging creativity and critical thinking. Year 4 have also been working hard to achieve their individual maths goals. The pictures were from a lesson where small groups completed mini lesson on multi-step problem solving using multiple operations, and rounding to the nearest thousand and tens of thousands.
2T's Power Up Day
Today (Wednesday), 2T celebrated our much-anticipated Power Up Day, and what a success it was! Throughout the term, students have been earning Power Up tokens for showing their learning strengths, positive behaviour, resilience.
This morning, students carefully counted their tokens, decided how to spend them, and redeemed reward vouchers. Some vouchers, such as creating a custom bookmark or superhero mask, were used today, while others saved theirs for next term. To celebrate our ‘super strengths’, students enjoyed custom superhero colouring sheets and, in the afternoon, worked on creating personal regulation strategies to support their learning and wellbeing next term.
It was a fantastic day of recognising effort, celebrating growth, and setting ourselves up for continued success!
News from Our Year 6 Students
Year 6 Update - Max Stephenson, Harry Naughton, Liam MacArthur, and Levi Miller
"In Term 3, we have been learning about -
English: We are writing free verse poems, like in the book "Worse Things" by Sally Murphy. We have also been learning about particular word choices in text and the purpose of using these in poems.
Science: We have been learning about states of matter.
Maths: We have been learning about area of shapes, decimal numbers and order of operations.
Art: We have been doing these amazing skateboards - they look great! See pictures below.
Sport: We have been learning how to play netball. We have been practising our coaching to further our drills and skills in Netball.
Geography: We are learning about Asian countries and have created Minecraft Education worlds based on our chosen countries."
Colour Run - Reuben Cassar & Jack Dexter
On Friday Afternoon, Holy name participated in the colour run. The teachers went first! They got sprayed by the fire department, who were spraying us with a hose of water whilst we were crawling under the net. Lots of families gathered to squeeze the colours at us. The tyres were next, they had to put one foot in each tyre, with parents squeezing colours all over them. Next, they ran through this mini dance area for one minute where they were playing dance songs! A huge puddle of water was next, which everyone slid through on their knees and bellies. After that, they ran under a parachute which we had to run out of before it closed on them.
Miss Meers said that she enjoyed the cool water and getting splashed by it, "It was refreshing.”
“If I could pick my inflatable, it would've been the unicorn because it was cute” Mrs Tull said.
“The teachers in the costumes because it brought everyone in joy. I liked the parachute part of the obstacle” some students said.
Overall, it was a great day!
Year 6 Cake Stall - Miss Flannery
On Tuesday 23rd September, Year 6 sold cakes and other sweet treats to raise money for their Graduation. In small groups, students created a food truck with Amy Arrow - which were so creative, colourful and well-designed. We decided to link these to our cake stall and each student was tasked with bringing in a sweet treat based on their food truck theme. There were so many creative ideas and yummy options!
Students raised a total of $1086 on the day and was a huge success!
Thank you to parents and Year 6 who were so creative in their fundraising efforts.
I hope all of our families have a happy and safe break. We will see you all in Term 4 for another great term of learning!
Happy learning,
Mrs Suzie Monks
Primary Coordinator
