Xenica Community Report

Term 2 2021Term 2,  2021

Our Learning

We would like to thank everyone for their continual support to our community. Xenica students did an amazing job during remote learning, we are super proud of the work ethic and stamina of our Xenica students.  We look forward to seeing you next term and working super hard! 

Reading

In Reading, we have continued to work on developing some of the key reading skills including; fluency, comprehension, parts of speech, and vocabulary. We have listened to and read stories, as well as participated in shared reading experiences in order to develop these important skills. Through reading books such as The Rainbow Fish, Giraffes Can’t Dance, The Gruffalo's Child and other books, we have worked on answering comprehension questions using evidence straight from the text. 

We have also been learning to identify WOW words and then use strategies to find out the meaning of each word. This has helped us to build our understanding of the words within texts as well as build our vocabulary to transfer into our writing pieces. Additionally, we have been working on identifying nouns, verbs and adjectives, so that we can understand how they work together to create interesting and meaningful texts.  

Writing

In Xenica, our writing focus has been to create narratives. We have followed the writing process to plan, draft, edit and publish our narratives. We used a graphic organiser to plan out our writing, deciding what characters to include, where our narrative would take place and what problem would occur in our story. After writing our first draft, we checked for capital letters, punctuation, spelling and if our sentences made sense. During our remote learning, Xenica looked at the layout of a narrative, breaking it down into beginning, middle and end. We have also created characters with inside and outside traits and used adjectives to create descriptive settings. In handwriting students have continued practicing their anti-clockwise letters and using their dotted thirds correctly.

Maths

In Maths Term 1, Xenica we have been learning about measurement. During our remote learning sessions we measured and compared the lengths, masses and capacities of pairs of objects using uniform informal units. We used cups and bowls to measure capacity. We also used our fingers as informal units to measure lengths of sea animals using paint. 

Inquiry

In Inquiry, students explored the topic of forces and motion. Forces and Motion are integral parts of our daily lives. Objects move in predictable ways, as described by the universally accepted principles of force and motion. Students have come to understand how they can use forces to produce motions that allow them to be safe and to enjoy themselves.

The guiding questions students explored were ’How can I use movement responsibly?’ and ‘How does our environment affect our movement?’. Students have taken part in experiments such as bowling, dominoes, rockets and parachutes. Students identified the importance of force and using force appropriately in order to carry out an experiment appropriately. 

We have tested and made changes to our environment in order to change the outcome of experiments such as rolling a ball on a rough surface and changing it to a smoother surface. Students planned their parachute and identified what it will look like and what materials they will use. Students then reflected on the performance of the parachute and looked at ways to improve for example using lighter material or flying it on a more windy day. 

Xenica has had so much FUN!!!! We have been active participants in both incursions and it has been an interesting and super exciting experience.

Social and Emotional Learning 

In Social and Emotional Learning, students have explored the concept of positive coping.  Students were presented with different situations  to discuss where they could feel worried, nervous and sometimes scared. As a community, we have discussed with the students how to cope with these situations and feelings. Students have been building their  resilience and persistence to face new challenges in their day. Students identified and described their personal interests, skills and achievements and reflected on how these contribute to their school life. Students also showed an awareness of their feelings and how to identify their peers' feelings. 

Important Notes to Remember

• Homework is taken home on Fridays (SPELLING-must only complete one row of spelling words a day)
• Homework is due on Wednesday-please ensure your child completes the homework
• Please label ALL belongings
• Students are encouraged to bring their iPads to school each day
• Bring hats and water bottles to school clearly labelled
• Please ensure your students are attending school ‘It’s not ok to be away’.