Argus Community Report

Dear Families, 

We are officially over halfway into the year! We recently celebrated 100 days of school by having a pyjama day at school, what an achievement in this current climate! It has been a pleasure to have finally met all families during Parent Teacher Interviews at the beginning of this term. 

This term will be an exciting one with lots of new topics such as multiplication in maths, information reports, poetry and persuasive writing, and inquiring into water sustainability. 

Reading:

In reading teachers have been using texts to model fluency and focus on comprehension, genre and text features. So far this term we have read Flood by Jackie French and Bruce Whatley, Saltie Mumma by Sandra Kendall, Dry to Dry by Pamela Freeman, Welcome to Country by Joy Murphy and Two Mates by Melanie Prewett. Students respond to the texts in different ways and spend time reading independently daily. Reading a book several times helps with learning from different perspectives and helps absorb different elements over time. Students and teachers change what we focus on daily so we don’t get tired of reading the same text. This is also highly recommended for home readers. Students are bringing home readers home nightly. They should be able to read these confidently, with minimal errors, to practice their fluency and comprehension. 

Maths:

In Maths, students have been exploring multiplication and division. We have been practising making ‘groups of’ and sharing equally. We have used lots of manipulatives to show our understanding, such as unifix, counters and playdough. We have also tried different strategies to work out our problems. We have begun to use arrays, number-lines and repeated addition. We have also enjoyed looking at the connection between multiplication and division.

Inquiry: 

In Inquiry, students have been learning about water, where water comes from and the many different ways we use water everyday. We have completed a variety of hands-on activities such as testing what water looks like when split onto different surfaces (for example, concrete, dirt and grass), partaking in a school walkabout to locate different uses of water in our school and creating our own water life cycle using water and a plastic bag. 

We were also lucky enough to have an incursion with Patrick from Yarra Valley Water. Patrick and the Water Watcher Team (Washy, Wavy, Wade and Welly) taught us how we can use water responsibly and save water doing everyday tasks. We all had a really fun time!

Important notes to remember: 

• Community doors open at 8:40am
• Dismissal at 3:10pm
• Please have some food packed in your child’s lunchbox that will be suitable for fruit or vegetable snack in session 2 (for example, pieces of fruit or yoghurt).
• Ensure your child’s belongings are clearly labelled. This includes clothing, drink bottles, hats and lunchboxes (lids too) 
• Students are to come to school with a water bottle each day (labelled)

What you can do with your child at home

• Continue to read to, and with your child each night.  
• Encourage your child to develop more independence. (Help pack/unpack their school bag/lunch, or get their uniform ready)
• Encourage your child to take increased responsibility for their own belongings.
• Establishing a regular routine helps students to develop a positive approach to learning and will benefit them as they progress through their schooling.  
• Encourage your child to practise tying their own shoelaces.
• We continue to promote healthy eating at school. We allow students to have a piece of fruit and vegetable break at 10:15am. We try to discourage highly salty, sugary and processed foods. We talk about these foods as ‘occasional’ or ‘sometimes’ food that can be enjoyed on ‘special occasions’ rather than as part of a child’s daily diet. 
• If you need to speak to your child’s mentor teacher, please contact the office to pass on the message or organise this before or after school.

Kind Regard, 1/2 Argus teaching team

Alex, Emma, Rania and Emily