What's Happening in the Junior School

Prep
What’s Happening in Prep in Weeks 7 and 8
In literacy we have been practising how to write a non-fiction sentence. We have learnt how to use nouns and verbs and have even started using the conjunction ‘because’ to expand our sentences. This has tied in perfectly with our Knowledge Unit on Australian animals and we are now ready to become authors of our very own non-fiction book. Who knows? The next award-winning author might be in our Prep rooms! Join us for our Book Show, where we're excited to share these stories with you - Thursday 18th September 9:10am-9:40am.
Over the next two weeks, we will be learning about:
Wellbeing
- Identifying when I need help and who can help me
Having a growth mindset when faced with new and challenging tasks
Literacy
- Writing a sentence to inform
- Using the conjunctions ‘because’ and ‘but’
- Identifying superhero e, u_e (mute)
- Reviewing superhero e, a_e (safe), i_e (pine), o_e (rope), e_e (eve), u_e (mute)
- Identifying superhero e with gentle cindy rule (c and g making their “soft” sounds /s/ and /j/)
Maths
- Predicting and checking mass
- Identifying the attribute of capacity
- Directly compare capacity
- Comparing capacity by pouring the same amount
- Predicting and checking capacity
Reviewing addition and subtraction
Knowledge Unit
Big Question: How do living things grow and change?
Throughout Term 3, students will be exploring the following lines of inquiry:
- What do living things need to survive?
- What are some features of animals and plants?
- How do living things grow and change through their lives?
- Which animals are native to Australia?
Homework
Students take home three decodable readers in their reading pouch each week as well as their green Decoding Detective book and Sound Pack. Please continue to read these with your child, the Preps love showing you how they can recognise and recall all learnt letters and sounds. Reading pouches are returned on Mondays to be changed over and checked by their teacher.
Reminders
- Friday 5th September - Father's Day Stall/ Open Afternoon
- Wednesday 10th September – The Arts Day
- Thursday 18th September - Prep Book Show 9:10am
- Friday 19th September - Footy Day
Year 1
What’s Happening in Year 1 in Weeks 7 and 8
The Year 1's are conducting another experiment in Science this Thursday 4/9 and are on the look out for small empty plastic bottles, roughly 500-600ml size (see picture for reference). If you have any at home that you are happy to donate, can you please send them to school either on Wednesday or Thursday. We're hoping for around 5 or 6 bottles per class! For any further information, please see your child's classroom teacher. Thank you.
Over the next two weeks, we will be learning about:
Wellbeing
In wellbeing, students will be participating in workshops run by the Year 5 students. Students will learn about how to be an upstander, how to be environmentally friendly and how to use the coding app ScratchJnr.
Literacy
Students will be working on:
- Phonics:
- Learn how to read and spell or /or/, ore /or/ and reviewing concepts of ar/ar/and or/ore/
- Reading Fluency: Reading with accuracy and at an appropriate rate
- Handwriting: Correctly forming the letter S and U, both uppercase and lowercase
- Exploring the sentence structure used in the picture story book The Boy Who Tried to Shrink His Name by Sandhya Parappukkaran and Michelle Pereira and writing our own sentences
- Creating and describing characters using adjectives
Writing stories using a range of vocabulary
Maths
Students will be working on Addition and Subtraction in Week 7 and Place Value in Week 8. As part of these units of work students will be:
Addition and Subtraction
- Partitioning two-digit numbers into tens and ones and writing addition equations
- Partitioning two-digit numbers in different ways and writing addition equations
- Subtracting within 20 on a number line by counting back
- Subtracting within 20 on a number line by counting on
Solving addition and subtraction problems within 20
Place Value
- Using partitioning to solve problems
- Identifying 'one more' and ‘one less’ than a two-digit number
- Applying 'one more' and 'one less' to solve problems
- Applying place value knowledge to solve problems
- Identifying and representing two- and three-digit numbers with base-10 blocks
- Identifying the value of each digit in three-digit numbers
Comparing and ordering three-digit numbers with materials
Board games with dice, and a focus on adding totals and counting on is a fun way at home to support addition and subtraction concepts covered in the classroom.
Knowledge Unit
Students will be looking at the three states of matter – solid, liquid and gas. We will be conducting two experiments; making jelly and balloon blow up! We are super excited to see our understandings of matter in action during our experiments.
Library
Students will be attending the library on Thursday each week as a cohort. Please ensure that students have their blue library satchel in their bag to keep their borrowed book protected when transporting to and from school. This will help keep these books separate from their ‘Classroom Library’ picture story book that they take home on a Monday.
Take Home Readers
Each week, your child will take three decodables home. We strongly encourage students to reread these texts multiple times across the week as this is an important way novice readers develop automaticity and reading fluency. In addition, students are bringing home one quality text from their classroom library each week. As novice readers, they will not necessarily be able to read these books independently. However, they will benefit a great deal from hearing these texts read out loud by an expert (you!).
Mathletics
Your child has their Mathletics code pasted into their Reading Diaries. Activities have been set by the classroom teachers and students can work through assigned task at their own pace. Completing these tasks is optional. We have been really excited to see students completing Mathletics tasks at home. These help to consolidate their understandings from the classroom.
Reminders
- BayCISS Food Drive - Running Now Until Friday 5th September - Donations Welcome!
- Friday 5th September is the Parents & Friends ‘Father's and Special Person's Day Stall’. Your child will visit the stall with their class. If your child would like to purchase a gift for dad, or a special person in their life, they can do so via Qkr! (Payments must be made by 10am the day prior, Thursday 4th September) or they can bring $10 cash on the day (Friday 5th September).
On the afternoon of Friday 5th September, we warmly invite dads, or another special person in your child's life, to join us during our Open Afternoon for a Father's and Special Person's Day activity (2:45pm start).
Fruit and veggie break snack: Please ensure that students are bringing their fruit and veggie snack in a container separate to their lunch box. This supports students in transitioning during fruit and veggie break time in the classroom.
- Students are to bring in their reading pouch every Monday to swap their take home readers and classroom library book. It is really important students are completing their 20 minutes of nightly reading to support their reading progress. New readers are only sent home until the previous week’s books have been returned.
- Students have multiple opportunities across the week to spend time with students in other classes, these include Wellbeing, FMS, Library and eating recess and lunch together.
Year 2
What’s Happening in Year 2 in Weeks 7 and 8
We had a fantastic time on our excursion last week! We explored different activities that use push and pull forces such as airplane shooters, ball launchers, tunnel runs and mega sized construction. Each class engaged in a forces workshop where we conducted experiments and even made our hair stand up with static electricity! Please enjoy some pictures below!
Over the next fortnight, the Year 2 students will be learning:
Wellbeing
We are learning to:
- describe the cooperative behaviour that helped the team to succeed in the activity
identify how the cooperative behaviour can help with solving problems
Phonics
We are learning to:
Use low frequency spellings:
- -ar, -or
- Air, are, ear
- Alternate a – ei, ey, eigh, aigh, ea
Literacy
We are learning to:
- identify the structure of a non-fiction text and show how each part of a non-fiction text helps build the main idea
- compare the features of a non-fiction text to a fiction text
- write supporting details and a concluding sentence to complete an informative paragraph
- begin sentences with fronted adverbial phrases.
Maths
We are learning to:
- identify and create patterns by rotating two-dimensional shapes
- identify two-dimensional shapes in our environment and use their properties to explain their use
- identify two-dimensional faces on three-dimensional objects
- identify and describe three-dimensional objects..
Knowledge Unit
This term, the Year 2 students will be learning about Design and Technologies. We will be exploring the big question:
How can we use push and pull forces to design and improve something that moves?
This week we will be commencing the ‘creating’ phase of the design process and begin creating our own arcade games.
Homework
- Please continue to read the take home reading books each week, aiming for 15 – 20 minutes each evening. Changing readers will continue to occur on a Friday. Please enjoy sharing a new Classroom Library text each Friday. This book is for enjoyment and can be read by parents/carers.
Optional: Mathletics logins have been placed in the front cover of reading diaries. Students may work through these tasks at their own pace, if desired.
Reminders:
- Father's and Special Person's Day Stall & Open Afternoon – Friday 5th September 2:45pm