One of the standout moments was our spontaneous excursion to witness the lifting of the historic vessel Cartela. Although we narrowly missed seeing the cranes actually pull the vessel out of the water, we were lucky enough to meet Corrie, one of the divers involved in the operation. Corrie kindly gave us a behind-the-scenes rundown of the process, explaining the incredible planning, teamwork, and diving expertise involved. The students were full of thoughtful questions and left with a new appreciation for Tasmania’s maritime history and the impressive engineering required for such an undertaking.

In Mathematics, we’ve been diving into the world of integers, using real-world contexts such as temperature, elevation, and altitude to help us understand the concept of numbers above and below zero. Students began by describing values as above zero or below zero before learning how the subtraction symbol is used to represent negative numbers. A class favourite has been exploring the interactive website neal.fun—especially the Deep Sea page (neal.fun/deep-sea)—which helped visualise different elevations and depths in a fun, meaningful way. This even inspired many students to use their library time to research fascinating deep-sea creatures!

We’ve also been working hard on solving worded problems, focusing on all four operations: addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. We’re using mathematical modelling to unpack and solve real-world problems, and students have been developing strategies to choose the most efficient method for each situation. To support this, we’ve been using Newman’s Analysis—a helpful step-by-step process that guides students to read and understand a problem, identify key information, plan their approach, solve it, and check their work. Much like how we break down texts in literacy, this strategy helps students show their thinking clearly and builds their confidence in tackling challenging tasks.

In Geography, our unit has taken an exciting new direction as we begin exploring our connections with Asia. Students have been busy drafting letters to send over with Mr Milne, Miss Bec, and Ella, who are heading to Indonesia during the holidays to visit Vivi and Sifa. This real-world connection has sparked genuine interest and engagement as we learn about life in another part of the world. Our Global Connections Wall is also growing fast! If you haven’t already, we’d love to include your family’s story. You can find the interview questions on 5/6 Seeaw—we can’t wait to learn more about the rich cultural stories that make up our class community.