Classroom News
Teesdale Primary School
Foundation News
Literacy
This week, students have been learning new digraph sounds such as /ck/ and /qu/. A digraph is one phoneme made up of two letters—for example, /ck/ as in “duck.”
We’ve also been exploring different sentence types, learning how to write both questions and statements with growing confidence.
Numeracy
Our focus in Maths has been on subitising, which is the ability to instantly recognise how many items are in a small group without counting. Students are learning to describe numbers in terms of their parts, especially numbers from 1 to 6. For example, 6 can be seen as 3 and 3, 4 and 2, or 5 and 1.
Skill in Focus – Phoneme Fist
Have you heard your child talking about a “phoneme fist”? It’s a fun and effective strategy to help with spelling. Students say a word three times, then raise a finger for each phoneme (sound) they hear—helping them segment words into parts before writing. It’s a great way to keep them focused and make smart spelling choices.
Looking Ahead – Exploring Our World
In Content Knowledge, we’re continuing our journey around the globe! Each week we’re learning about a different continent. So far, we’ve visited Australia and Antarctica, and this week we’re heading to North America. If you have any travel stories, photos, or experiences to share—especially involving famous landmarks—we’d love to include them in our discussions. Personal connections make the learning so much more meaningful for our students!
Middle School News
Literacy
Content Knowledge: students have continued to work through the novel study unit, Storm Boy. As we read, we have been syllable chopping challenging words and note-taking using symbols. This week, we have dived deeper into finding figurative language the author has used.
Simile: beaks shone like pink pearl shell (p.24), like dry reeds crackling (p.25), follows him around like a dog (p. 54), the waves came in like rolling railway embankments (p. 55). Personification - chuckle of the ripples (p. 30)
Metaphor - you’re a grand old gentleman (p. 50), fished the prize out of the water (p. 52)
Text Construction: students have worked to break down paragraphs about the Coorong, to create their own SPO (Single Paragraph Outline).
Maths, students have continued to work on fractions, and ordering these on a number line. We have worked really hard on understanding halves, quarters and thirds, then placing them along number lines.
Looking Ahead:
Students will finish off Storm Boy and begin to find out more about the Coorong, in preparation for some Information Reports. In Maths, we will begin length and area.
Reminders:
- Students in Middle School are expected to complete 20 minutes of reading each night. This is recorded in the student diary for teachers to check each day. Well done to all students who are completing their daily reading and earning class tokens and dojo points!
- iPads should be brought to school fully charged to 100%, ready for a busy day of learning.
Senior School News
Literacy
In the Senior School, we have been delving into Rivet Boy by Barbara Henderson. This novel was chosen by our students through students’ choice and a voting process. As we read, we have been refining our note-taking skills to identify key events and facts within the text. These notes have then been used by students to create chapter summaries that highlight the main developments in the story. In our Text Construction lessons, students have been working on persuasive writing, focusing on important language techniques such as modality, rhetorical questions, emotive language, hyperboles, and how to use evidence effectively to support arguments.
Numeracy
In numeracy, we have been deepening our understandings of fractions. Students have been exploring equivalent fractions, improper fractions, and mixed numeral fractions. We've been learning how to use multiplication and division to simplify and solve problems involving. Students have also begun to plot both improper and mixed numeral fractions on parallel number lines to show fractions of equivalence.
