Foundation

Starting Right - We are off to a terrific start in Foundation for the 2023 school year. Our Starting Right approach has enabled us to build positive student/teacher relationships with a strong emphasis on fostering a positive classroom culture. Students have been engaging in a range of activities that encompass Surfside’s whole school values and student voice has been an integral part in creating our classroom learning agreements. We have taken the time to explicitly teach classroom expectations to allow our students to be successful learners. This takes some time to develop in Foundation.

English: Students have begun to learn how to practise their phonemic and phonological awareness skills with Heggerty. We are introducing the sounds SATPIM and practising these sounds. The focus is mainly oral at the beginning of the year, moving towards reading and writing. Take home packs will be sent home from week 3 and we are hoping to secure more take home decodable books this year.

Maths: We have introduced making, copying and extending patterns. We are learning to count objects from 1 to 5 with 1 to 1 correspondence. We are also investigating length through comparing objects.

Year 1

Starting Right: We are off to a terrific start in Year One for the 2023 school year. Our Starting Right approach has enabled us to build positive student/teacher relationships with a strong emphasis on fostering a positive classroom culture. Students have been engaging in a range of activities that encompass Surfside’s whole school values and student voice has been an integral part in creating our classroom learning agreements. We have taken the time to explicitly teach classroom expectations to allow our students to be successful learners.

English: In the coming weeks Year One students will begin to establish daily reading routines for both the school and the home environment. Teachers are developing focus groups to explicitly teach the decoding of texts, comprehension skills and the expansion of vocabulary. Literacy learning goals will be co-constructed with students to target individual needs. As a part of our genre pedagogy, there will be a strong focus on retelling the main events of a narrative both verbally and through written form. Each day, students will continue to build on their phonemic and phonological awareness through the implementation of our Heggerty Literacy Program. This program focuses on the identification of rhyming words, syllabification and isolating initial, medial and final sounds.

Maths: Over the coming weeks, Year One students will focus on the Mathematical areas of Counting and Place Value. Students will be given hands-on tasks to recognise, make and order 2 digit numbers in a variety of ways. There will be a strong emphasis on subitising (knowing how many of something without having to count). Subitising is an essential component to developing number sense in the early years. An individual maths counting goal will be established based on 2022 end of year data and will be updated on an individual needs basis.

Year 2

Starting right: We have had a wonderful start to the year in Grade 2. Our starting right program has allowed us to investigate the school values of Honesty, Teamwork, Respect and Achievement and the many ways in which we can demonstrate these values at Surfside. We have looked closely at the Surfside matrix. Students in Grade 2 have also been exploring the Zones of Regulation and have been working hard on understanding how to take care of their zones. They have been working towards having a growth mindset and understanding that making mistakes can be AMAZING. We are very proud of the Grade 2 students and the way they have settled back into the routines and expectations of a school day.

English: Students in Grade 2 are beginning to develop reading routines in the classroom. They have been focusing on the expectations of partner/buddy reading, using their reading journal and utilising our class apps such as Epic and Nessy. Students in Grade 2 will be developing routines and responsibility in accessing both take home books and library books in the coming weeks. Targeted reading groups will also be developed where students will focus on reading comprehension, vocabulary, decoding and expression. Students have been completing writing activities that have allowed teachers and peers to get to know them. In the upcoming weeks, writing activities will be centred around the beauty of making mistakes and our amazing brains.

Maths: Grade 2 students have been developing maths norms in their classrooms. They have been exploring chance and the language of impossible, certain, likely and unlikely, as well as data collection to get to know their peers.

Year 3

Starting Right: Building Classroom Community - Students have been participating in activities designed to get to know classmates/teachers as well as establish consistent, predictable, routines for each learning environment. There has been a particular focus on the Welcome Circle each morning where three values are identified to guide our learning and relationships for the day. We have also been revising the school values, compiling agreements for iPad use and Token Time to ensure consistency across the cohort. Student Diaries have been introduced incorporating many ideas to support student learning and wellbeing. The Surfside Digital Learning Agreement has been shared with students and most iPads have been enrolled on the school system.

English: Students have established routines and expectations for reading and writing sessions. Class libraries have been compiled, students have agreed on what reading looks like and sounds like in the classroom. They have practised fluent reading with partners highlighting additional skills such as active listening, on task learning and teamwork. An Ideas Book has been established and with NAPLAN fast approaching, students are learning tips to assist with answering test questions.

Maths: Dispositions for maths have been explored this term, plus revision of Growth Mindset and the Learning Pit as they relate to the learning of mathematics. Mental Maths goals have been revised/confirmed and games introduced to assist with mastery of these goals. Emphasis has been placed on ‘Having a go’, persisting when the level of challenge increases and highlighting how school values can support learning in this subject.

Year 4

Starting Right: We have had such a fabulous start to the year. All classes have been participating in activities to get to know each other and build classroom communities as part of our school wide Starting Right program. These activities include setting classroom routines and expectations in conjunction with the students through classroom agreements, iPad agreements and pulling apart different components of the school values of; Respect, Teamwork, Honesty, Achievement.

English: Students have been engaged in reading and writing activities that aim to assess their learning, establish sound work habits and promote discussion about their strengths, goals and interests.

Maths: Our school value of Teamwork has been encouraged through group maths tasks. These tasks have also focused on learning about the Maths Dispositions; identifying which of these may be their strengths and which may be an opportunity to develop throughout the year.

Extra information (e.g. excursions, incursions, investigations etc.) Students began working in the Surfside Kitchen and Garden developing their knowledge of harvesting, following recipes and cooking and cleaning processes. 3/4 Sport is a great addition to our week. Students are able to try a variety of sports and develop the associated skills. Kindness Club has begun this year encouraging grade 4 students to ‘join the club’ and become leaders for the group. So far we have had Terry help us begin our “Be The ‘I’ In Kind” display which will be finished over the coming weeks. We are also planning to enter the Great Australian Scarecrow Competition with a Kindness Scarecrow. We are busy preparing for Year 4 Camp. Small groups are meeting with Gill for those that have some anxiety around camp so that they can discuss all the happenings of camp, what is concerning them and strategies they can use when they are feeling worried/anxious.

Year 5

Starting Right: We have had a great start to 2023 in Grade 5! All students are participating in Starting Right programs to establish classroom culture, learning expectations and iPad expectations. Students are focusing on reviewing Surfside’s school values and exploring the zones of regulation. They have been engaging in a variety of activities that require them to work together and get to know their classmates.

English: Grade 5 students have begun building up their independent reading stamina. Grade 5 students have focused on creating a reading log and also summaries after reading. We are also building ideas in our Writer’s notebook to use as a creative outlet when doing future writing. We are beginning assessments to gain some data FOR learning and will use this to create small group support and prepare for NAPLAN.

Maths: In Maths, students are focusing on both multiplication and division facts. We have started introducing games to encourage students to practise these facts in an exciting way. We are completing assessment and using previous NAPLAN data to create small groups support and instructions. We are also building towards Mental Maths Goals and a variety of ways to work on these.

Year 6

Starting Right: It has been a positive and calm start to the year in the SLC. We have been exploring various facets of social and emotional learning and working on building relationships and getting to know each other. We have revisited and unpacked the school values of Honesty, Respect, Achievement and Teamwork, undertaking a range of tasks. We have discussed what it means to have a Growth Mindset and the impact of both positive and negative self-talk on our learning. We are creating Ready-To-Learn Plans that provide strategies to ensure we are ready to learn in the classroom. We have set up and discussed classroom expectations including the use of Ipads and our new school diaries. English: In Year 6 we have been focusing on building our reading stamina and enjoying reading class novels together. We have explore why we read and the different strategies great readers use. We are moving on to exploring the way authors use language to help us visualise and understand the text and how different connects assist our comprehension. In Writing we have begun using our Writer’s Notebooks by exploring the things that we are most interested in and how they can be used to generate ideas for writing. We are learning how to link our ideas to a purpose. We are undertaking a range of assessments to help us identify areas of need for small group work moving forward.

Maths: We have been focusing on the Maths Dispositions as well as practising Mental Maths goals. The focus has been on building our confidence in the Maths classroom and working together to achieve goals by playing games and sharing our thinking. We are beginning to explore Place Value before moving onto Addition and Subtraction.

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