Dear families,

Thank you to the families who were able to join us as an SMCM Community on Friday afternoon to celebrate the special women in our lives. It is wonderful to see the interaction between families, students and teachers during these ‘Covid Normal’ times.

We wish our mothers, near and far, a very Happy Mother’s Day.
We are thinking of those who celebrate the memory of their mothers today.
We hope that God continues to watch over the special women in our lives today, and in the future.

Dear families,

Over the past two weeks we have been fortunate to commemorate ANZAC Day and share our family stories with others in our homegroups.

We are continuing to practise the skill of Comprehension.

An expert reader uses a variety of texts.

There are three stages to practise the strategy of summarising.

Retelling

1. Main idea
2. Fact 1
3. Fact 2
4. Fact 3
5. Wondering
   

Paraphrasing
How can I use synonyms to re-write what I have read?

Summarising
Using the main idea and keywords to write a short, concise passage in your own words.

Thank you to everyone for taking the time to share your family story and show respect towards our Australian tradition, ANZAC Day.

What resources can you use to find a synonym?
How you will continue to practise the strategy of summarising?

To kick start our Inquiry topic for Term 2 ‘Ourselves, Our Community, Our Culture‘ we would like the students in Year 4 to explore their own family story. Each student has received the below note asking students to design/create something to share their family story with the Year 4s. We can’t wait to share and learn about eachothers families and stories.

Our Family Story task is due by Friday, Week 2.

Home Learning will resume from Monday, Week 2. More information will be provided about Home Learning in Week 2.

Thanks,
Gabby, Louise, Madeline and Olivia

Welcome back to Term Two at SMCM! We are so excited to welcome you back tomorrow into our homegroups and can’t wait to hear all about your Easter breaks.

We hope everyone had a safe and restful break and is ready to come back to a term full of learning and fun!

Please see below our Weekly Reminders for Term Two including our new Sports days for the term.

Here are some helpful tips ready for school tomorrow:
– Ensure your uniform is clearly labelled with your first name and surname
– Bring your gumboots in ready for the upcoming wet weather make sure they are clearly labelled
– Art smocks, headphones, and sunscreen should also be clearly labelled with your name and placed into your tubs
– Don’t forget to bring in your labelled lunch and brain food in a small container
– You must remember to wear your labelled SMCM school hat during outside break times until May the 1st

What was your favourite part of the holidays?
What are you most looking forward to about coming back to school?

We can’t wait to see you tomorrow bright and early!
Gabby, Louise, Madeline and Olivia

Dear Families,

As a focus for both Religious Education and Inquiry, our Year 4 students have been unpacking the stories from Caritas Australia. These wonderful people in our global community have shown us how we can ‘be more’ by through our actions rather than the materialistic things we possess.

By demonstrating the learner disposition of ‘creativity’, students will be designing and creating a product they believe the Caritas communities need.

We are asking all students to bring cardboard, recycled items, shoe boxes or old material to be brought to school on Monday. We know our students thrive in creative projects and cannot wait to see their final product.

Please be vigilant with any materials that may affect allergies (for example: eggs or nuts).

**A reminder that all students will be required to wear FULL school uniform
for photos on Monday 29 March**

Enjoy your weekend!

Year 4 Teachers

Dear Families,

Last Friday, we had the privilege of Father Nathan joining us to explain the Beatitudes. We learnt that the Beatitudes teach us about how lucky we are and that Jesus wants us to BE MORE not get more.

This week during Literacy we unpacked the Scripture of how Jesus was accused of ‘blasphemy’ by the Jews. We learnt that many people did not believe that Jesus was the Son of God, even though there were many witnesses to Jesus’ miracles.

Today, together with Father Anh, the Year 4 students celebrated their year level Mass for 2021. We recognised the importance of being together in our faith community. We also spread the message of ‘Be More’ and continue to demonstrate this through our Lenten actions.

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How have you shown what it looks like to BE MORE during Lent?
Do you agree with how Jesus was treated by the Jews? Why/Why not?

Looking forward to our final week of Term 1 together,

Madeline, Olivia, Louise and Gabby

Enjoy exploring a website where you can make music. Have fun!

This week we started our amazing new SMART Spelling programme. We have explored the ‘ai’ digraph in words like ‘snail’, ‘complain’ or ‘remain’. To help us practice the spelling of our words we have completed many different activities including using the SMART Spelling grid and stickers to break the words into sounds, and putting the words into meaningful sentences. We are very excited to continue this program and build our spelling knowledge.

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What is a digraph?
What was your favourite way to practice your spelling words?

This week we explored cause and effect through conducting an experiment using skittles. We followed the Scientific method to help us record our hypothesis, observations and reflect upon why the colours spread. We noticed that the food colouring and sugar coating on the skittles spread rapidly and dissolved from the heat.

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• Would the experiment have changed if we used cold water? Why?
  What other foods would have the same effect?
• What would you do differently next time?