The Learning Zone

The Learning Zone - Mrs Holland, Leader of Pedagogy/Assistant Principal

St Joseph's School - a Faith Filled Community Where Learning Matters

Big Write

Every Thursday all students from Year 1 to Year 6 participate in a ‘Big Write’.  This is an uninterrupted writing session where students are able to put into practice all the conventions they have been learning about in class.  

One simple strategy the students have learnt is how to ‘uplevel’ a sentence.  Here, students improve their written work by using higher level Vocabulary, Connectives, Openers and/or Punctuation (VCOP).  An example of how a simple sentence can be uplevelled follows:

Basic sentence: The cat went along the wall.

Uplevelling the vocabulary: The fluffy, ginger cat quietly prowled along the unstable wall.

Adding a connective to create a complex sentence: The fluffy, ginger cat quietly prowled along the unstable wall while the unsuspecting bird pecked for worms in the garden below.

Beginning a sentence with an interesting opener: Licking his lips, the fluffy, ginger cat quietly prowled along the unstable wall while the unsuspecting bird pecked for worms in the garden below.

Adding punctuation for effect: Licking his lips, the fluffy, ginger cat (who had missed his

breakfast) quietly prowled along the unstable wall while the unsuspecting bird pecked for worms in the garden below.

The trick for students is to add interest and variety to their writing, while also learning to balance longer, detailed sentences with shorter, simpler ones!

At this stage the writing focus for Kindergarten is to learn all about letters, sounds, words and sentences, as well as becoming familiar with the VCOP elements.  They are experimenting with writing and putting in the ground work to participate in their first Big Write in Term 3.

Home Talk

As part of the preparation for the weekly Big Write sessions, students are  given a Home Talk activity to complete at home each Wednesday afternoon.  This will be a slip of paper encouraging children to discuss the weekly writing topic at home with as many people as possible.  Please take time to have a conversation with your child/ren and discuss your thoughts with them. 

The idea of the Big Write is "if the children can't say it, they can't write it".  Home Talk encourages the development of language and listening skills and gives students vocabulary and content that they can use in their writing at school the next day.   Students do not need to write anything down at home - just talk about ideas related to the writing topic.

To help your child get the most out of the Home Talk activity please:

1. Encourage as many family members as possible to be involved in Talk Homework, possibly around the meal table!

2. Switch off the TV and devices!   Try to ensure this is dedicated talking and listening time.

3. Talk about any 'VCOP' that could be used to make the writing more interesting:

V = Vocabulary - ‘wow’ words

C = Connectives - words that joins ideas together

O = Openers - amazing ways to start a sentence (words that end in ‘ly’ and ‘ing’ are power openers!)

P = Punctuation - can be used to make writing more effective.

4. When giving your opinion, use the word ‘because’ to give reasons and explain your thoughts.

5. Relate the writing topic to something you remember from when you were a child and use this to generate conversation with your child. 

See the following video clip below showing a simple example of the Home Talk conversation being completed while driving to and from school. 

Crunch & Learn

‘Crunch & Learn’ is a time at the beginning of the school day where students eat an extra serve of fruit or vegetables to support good health and to help learning. 

Students simply bring a piece of fruit or serve of vegetables into the classroom to eat during the morning session, while continuing with their regular routine. 

Please send your child to school each day with an extra piece of fruit or serve of vegetables to eat in the classroom.  Something that can be easily taken into the room and eaten without causing too much mess is ideal, for example:

• An apple, banana, carrot, celery sticks.
• A small container of sugar snap peas, cherry tomatoes, grapes, strawberries, cucumber or capsicum sticks, broccoli bits or chopped melon.
• Fresh is best but fruit in juice or water is okay sometimes.
• Dried fruit like sultanas or apricots are allowed but should be limited as the dried fruit clings to teeth and is a concentrated source of sugar, increasing the risk of tooth decay.

Please don’t send fruit or vegetable products (e.g. fruit straps, popcorn, fruit or vegetable breads), fruit canned in syrup or jelly or with artificial sweeteners, flavoured or marinated  vegetables. 

If your child is ordering fresh fruit from the canteen on Thursday or Friday this will arrive at 11am and be eaten during the first break (recess). This is after the Crunch & Learn time which occurs at the beginning of the school day so, even if ordering from the canteen, children will still need to bring something from home for Crunch & Learn.  

Thank you for your supporting Crunch & Learn at St Joseph’s.

Home Reading

Please see a copy of the Home Reading Information Sheet for parents and carers attached below.

Have a wonderful week,

Maree Holland