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Term 3 Week 4

#magnifysandhurst

It’s been another busy fortnight in the junior area.

Foundation

The Preps have been learning about double letters and the /sh/ sound. They are learning some new tricky words such as have, look, his, with and there, all, tall, ball, call and little. In Prep, their new sounds are ‘qu’ /kw/ and the long e sound /ē/.

Gr 1

Grade Ones are enjoying the story, “Harry by the Sea,” where they have been introduced to some new vocabulary: annoyed, shriek and grateful. They are learning all about homophones and have been introduced to a new sound, the long /ī/ sound (as in cry).

Gr 2

Grade twos have completed a spelling progress assessment, and all children are making pleasing progress. They are learning the tricky words: though, can’t and don’t this week. In spelling, the grade twos are learning more about contractions and how to spell them correctly. Their grammar lessons are all about conjunctions. They have been joining two sentences together using the conjunctions: so, and, but and because. Lots of inferring has been happening in reading. There’s been lots of great discussion about Australia, the Southern Cross and the night sky, thanks to our story book, ‘Under the Southern Cross.’

Foundation

In Maths, Grade Prep children have been counting the total on a number track within 10, counting to identify the difference within 10 and have been working to consolidate their knowledge of addition and subtraction.

Gr 1 

Grade Ones have been focusing on skip counting by 2s, 5s and 10s.

Gr 2

Grade Two children have learnt about Mass and determining the object with greater/less mass. They have been measuring with balance scales and comparing different weights. They are about to learn more about capacity and how we measure the capacity of objects.

Gr 3 and 4

For Literacy, we continue to expand our vocabulary this term through our class novel 'The Iron Man'. We are discovering fascinating facts about the properties and characteristics of iron, including where and how it is mined, as well as its many uses. Students are then transforming this knowledge into informative reports on iron. 

Daily reviews help us to recall prior learning about open and closed syllables, simple and compound sentences, independent clauses and conjunctions. Word level reading and spelling has been centred around words that contain the suffixes -ful and -less eg hopeful and hopeless. 

For Mathematics, we have completed our unit on Data Representation and another on Angles. Students learned that angles are a measure of turn and right angles can be used as a reference to compare angles. We have learned about the different types of angles ranging from acute, right, obtuse, straight, reflex and revolution. We also learned how to measure angles using protractors.

Gr 5 and 6

In 5/6, we have continued to read our class novel - 'Thomas Appleby - Convict Boy' by Jackie French. This book tells the story of a young chimney sweep, convicted of stealing at age eight, and transported to Botany Bay with the First Fleet. Students are really enjoying this story, and learning about what life was like back in the 18th century. 

During writing time, we have started planning our information reports about 'Convict Settlement in Australia'. This week, we will be starting to write our introduction and body paragraphs. 

Our spelling lessons at the moment are focusing on base words, and how we can add prefixes and suffixes to base words to change the meaning. The base words we are focusing on over the next couple of weeks are spec/spect/spic & dic/dict. 

In Maths, we are into our second week of 'Fractions'. We have been focusing on comparing fractions, adding/subtracting fractions and equivalent fractions. Next week, we will move onto our 'Angles' topic. 

This term, all classes have begun to implement Classroom Mastery. With our knowledge of the Science of Learning, research shows that children learn best when we have calm, respectful learning spaces. We have been focussing on entering and exiting the classrooms in single file. When we enter the classroom, we wait behind our desks until the teacher uses a cue to attention routine. We have learnt the cue as “Five, Four, Three, Two and One”. The students respond with “one” in unison when they are looking at the teacher, with nothing in their hands. Research tells us that students learn best when they are attentive and focussed. In the coming week, we will have a visit from Classroom Mastery staff on Thursday 21st August, who will provide feedback to teachers.