Class 4/5 finished last term with our play, Gilgamesh.  The Epic of Gilgamesh is one of the great works of literature, and one of the oldest.  It was first composed in ancient Mesopotamia during the second millennium BC.  It is a story of love and comradeship, arrogance and uncertainty, wisdom and folly, immortality and the inevitability of death.  The children of Class 4/5 performed brilliantly in both their matinee and evening performance and must be commended on how well they not only performed, but also worked together as one whole class to support each other and to enjoy the moment.  I was very proud of them all.

It has been wonderful to welcome back the students for Term 3.  We begin with the main lessons of fractions for Class 4 and decimal fractions for Class 5.  Kate also brings the Spirituality and Dreaming main lesson on a Monday.

For both classes this is our second main lesson on the numeracy topics and we began Week 1 with a review of previous works.  In Week 2 we will look closely at the mathematical process involved in the multiplication and division of either a fraction or a decimal with a whole number.  Many skills come back into play such as long division and long multiplication as we use our new ‘process steps’ to simplify the part number in order to get our answer.

Number stories and riddles will also make up part of our math journey this term.  Being able to devise a sum out of a number story and to then equate the answer is a skill in itself.  Whereas riddles allow us to think a little more laterally and perhaps mess with our logic!!

Here’s one for you…

'There is one in room, two in corner, zero in house and one in shelter.'  What is it???  Ask Robyn or a student in class 4/5.

We were also very pleased to receive our pen pal letters from our counterparts at the Silver Tree Steiner School in Perth.  We spent time reading them and hearing about their play.  We returned our letters with remarks from our play and what we did in the holidays and once posted we will excitedly wait for the replies.  We look forward to finally meeting our pen pals at the up and coming Greek Olympics in Week 9.

You may have noticed our training sessions for the Greek Olympics have begun in earnest… you may also have noticed some extra individual training occurring before school and at recess and lunch times and from what I hear, on weekends.  So wonderful is their enthusiasm!!!

With the arrival of new discuses and javelins, City State team members and verses all the way from Mount Olympia it is hard to switch the discussions back to our math main lessons.  Each child has been given a logbook to monitor their progress and in return we have a class set of dates in which to use in our numeracy practice sessions.

With the wet weather well and truly upon us it is lovely to nestle in and concentrate on our handwork tasks.  Class 4 is working on cross-stitch and Class 5 are reviewing knitting skills then embarking on their beanies using 5 needles.  Many thanks to Jewels, Margaret and Monique for your support each week.

The children really enjoy the varied musical opportunities that are part of our curriculum here at Golden Hill.  They include music notation, rhythm and harmony exercises, choir, recorder and ukulele.  As part of our strings program the children also get the opportunity to practice violin and guitar in ensemble groups with Mike our very talented strings teacher.  It is always lovely to receive an impromptu performance.

Warm wintry regards,

Robyn

xx