Middle Learning Community

How this term has flown by! It's hard to believe that we are at the end of Week Six.

While the term feels like it is flying by, the students in the Middle Learning Community have wasted no time getting settled into their new school routines and undertaking learning experiences with maturity and enthusiasm.

In Writing, students have developed their understanding of narrative and persuasive writing. In recent weeks, students have familiarised themselves with the structure of narratives and strategies to enhance their storytelling abilities. Such methods include a sizzling start which aims to hook the reader's interest and incorporate adjectives to enhance the description of their writing.

To begin the year in Reading, students learnt about selecting a ‘Just Right Book.’ Students now understand that to select a ‘Just Right Book’ they must look at the illustrations, read the blurb and read 1-2 pages to ensure the book is suited to their interests and reading ability. Recently students have focused on summarising fiction and non fiction texts. To assist students to ensure they include the key features of a fiction text, they used the ‘somebody, wanted, but, so, then’ structure. To summarise non fiction texts students utilised the acronym ‘RUDER’ (see pictures for further explanation.)

In Numeracy, students have enjoyed various warm up activities intended to develop their skills for mental computation and automatic recall of number facts. Students have also investigated the properties of odd and even numbers, addition and subtraction processes and calculating change from money transactions.

In Inquiry, students have learnt about the similarities and differences between rules and laws, explored the roles within local governments and developed their understanding of the importance of volunteers within our community by writing thank you letters to our school Community Group.

In Religious Education, students have learnt about parables told by Jesus and the significance behind them. They have also developed their understanding of the importance of almsgiving during Lent by researching communities their Caritas donations assist.

In Blue Earth students have enjoyed rotating between teachers each week to learn a different skill through fun games and activities. Skills students have worked to improve include hitting and catching, tag games, dribbling and kicking and passing.

Reminders:

- NAPLAN begins next Wednesday for Year Three students. See below for the dates for each test.

Wednesday 15th of March- Writing

Friday 17th of March- Reading

Monday 20th of March- Language Conventions

Tuesday 21st of March- Numeracy

- A friendly reminder that it is the hope that all students in the Middle Learning Community are striving to read at home for approximately 20 minutes 4 nights a week and record this in their diary. They are also encouraged to practice their spelling words that are sent home each Monday. See pictures below for how to record nightly reading.