CLASSROOM NEWS!
A Fortnight in the Prep/1 Room
For the past two weeks, we have been busy sinking our teeth into our Initialit program. This fortnight our Foundation group have learnt two new sounds 'c' - Cody Camel and 'd' - Danny Dingo. As each new friend is introduced, we are beginning to make and read words with our new letters. It has been wonderful to see how enthusiastic our Preppies have been to read with their families at home and show their loved ones everything they are learning at school.
Our Grade 1 students have been focusing on two and three digit numbers in Maths and how to partition these to show their value. They are getting very confident at writing two-digit numbers in words and representing these on a place value mat.
Today we have been busy writing letters to send over to our partner school, The Blue Kangaroo in Uganda. The students have drawn some beautiful pictures and written some lovely sentences about themselves. I have included some examples below.
News from the 2/3 Room
The 2/3s have had a wonderful couple of weeks really getting into the nitty-gritty of term 2.
In Literacy this past week, we've been learning about suffixes in spelling, using co-ordinating conjunctions correctly in syntax lessons, and making text-to-text and text-to-self connections in reading. In Writing, students have been excited to use new and exciting verbs, nouns and a 'sprinkling' of special adjectives to make their writing more descriptive and exciting to read. But this week, we will be taking a break from our imaginative stories to write letters to special penpals over in Africa!
In Maths, we have been finishing off our unit on multiplicative thinking (check out these great pics of some enormous arrays these students made!), and taking a quick dip into some measurement using 'informal units'. We've been learning to measure with alternative items such as paperclips, focusing on precise measurement techniques and estimation.
Finally, we would like to make a special welcome to our new pre-service teacher, Miss Kerr, who will be joining us for 4 weeks this term and another 4 in term 3. Miss Kerr is on a special rural placement after undertaking her other placements around the Bellarine Peninsula. She is very excited to try out a small, rural school like IPS!
4/5/6 with Miss Childs
Last week we said farewell to Miss Bri who has been a student teacher in our classroom for the past 5 weeks. We had a party on Friday to thank her for all of her hard work. We split into teams and competed in lots of fun 'Minute To Win It' games. Miss Bri was super competitive but in the very last game the 'Ougga Bougga' team swooped in and won the day by 1 point! We really enjoyed having Miss Bri in our classroom as a helper and as a teacher and we wish her all the best with the rest of her teaching journey.
We are loving our new book that we are reading in literacy this term, 'His Name Was Walter'. After each chapter we summarise what we read, answer some comprehension questions, write any predictions or wonderings we have and look up the meaning of any unknown words, for example, Spectre = A ghost.
In writing we have learnt about similes, metaphors and personification. We are also have a go at using these literary devices in our own writing. Here are some examples of our similes...
In maths we have been learning about decimals. We have been learning how to read, write and represent decimals up to two decimal places (tenths and hundredths). We have been connecting some simple decimals to their fraction and percentage. We have also learnt how to order decimals from smallest to largest.
Cooking with Mrs Wilson - Week 3
This week’s cooking had a Mother’s Day feel about it, as we extended our cooking to help cater for the Mother’s Day paint and sip.
Juniors
Creamy vegan vegetable soup - https://www.veggieinspired.com/creamy-vegetable-soup/#recipe
Pizza Swirls/Pinwheels - https://theveganlunchbox.co.uk/vegan-pizza-swirls-for-lunch-boxes/
Heart shaped cookies - https://www.noracooks.com/vegan-shortbread-cookies/#wprm-recipe-container-8025
Learning Objectives:
- Students continue to learn basic cooking skills (chopping, mixing, spreading, rolling, shaping).
- Students can identify and name common vegetables, herbs, and baking ingredients.
- Students can follow picture instructions to create food items.
- Students develop fine motor skills through food preparation.
- Students worked collaboratively and safely in a cooking environment.
Seniors
Creamy vegetable soup - https://feelgoodfoodie.net/recipe/creamy-vegetable-soup/
Pizza scrolls/pinwheels - https://kidgredients.com.au/hawaiian-pizza-scrolls/#recipe
Heart shaped cookies - https://www.noracooks.com/vegan-shortbread-cookies/#wprm-recipe-container-8025
Learning Objectives:
- Students continue to develop advanced cooking skills (chopping, sautéing, simmering, rolling, shaping, baking).
- Students can identify and understand the role of various ingredients in recipes.
- Students will follow multi-step procedural texts.
- Students applied mathematical skills to measure ingredients and calculate cooking times.
- Students worked collaboratively and safely in a cooking environment.
Students practiced effective communication and teamwork.
Literacy with Mrs. Clarke
Our literacy program is called Ochre. It covers all areas of literacy including spelling, grammar, reading and writing using a different text as the base of this learning. The students in my group work have been working REALLY hard in all areas to improve their understanding of the English language.
Last term we read Matilda by Roald Dahl- this was very popular!
Recently, we have had a great time learning about Banjo Paterson, as part of a study on Australian Poetry. We have studied The Ant Explorer and Mulga Bill's Bicycle.
Our next text is called Off We Go Around Australia. It's four books in one about traveling around Australia. I predict the kids will really enjoy it!
To find out more about Ochre try this link! https://ochre.org.au/about-ochre
