Teaching and Learning

Nihongo News

こんにちは,

Konnichiwa

Did you know that the Japanese numbers are written in an alphabet called Kanji? The numbers in Japanese look identical to the numbers in Chinese, however they have different sounds. The R/1 students have been learning their numbers in Japanese. They have been using pictures to help them remember the sound and meaning for each character. Do you know how to say them in Japanese?

さようなら、

Sayonara

せんせい

Sensei

DEBATING NEWS

Last Thursday, five teams from WBPS competed in their last debate of the term at Grange Primary School. Four year 6/7 teams and one year 5 team. The year 5 topic was “That Australian students should clean their classrooms like Japanese children” and the year 6/7 topic was “That we should give homework the heave-ho”.

The WBPS year 6/7 Blue team was the only team that won their debate. Unfortunately the other three year 6/7 debate teams and the year 5 debate team weren’t successful this time. Congratulations to Seb Hartas, Lily Thomas and Terra Cruise for all being awarded best speaker this round.

This debate was Crazy Hair Round, which the majority of the West Beach Primary School debaters participated in. There was definitely a lot of creativity with some of the hair styles and were obvious winners of the competition.

The next debate will be held in week 3 of term 3 with the final debate scheduled for later next term. We are really thankful for all of the parent and teacher support we are lucky enough to have at each preparation session. Without the assistance that we are given, we would not be presenting the high quality standard which we have produced so far.

We are looking forward to continuing our fun and success next term.

NAIDOC WEEK Presentation

Students from Rooms 8, 10, 11 and 14 enjoyed an engaging and informative presentation given by Lorraine Haseldine as part of our NAIDOC (National Aboriginal and Islander Day Observance Committee) Week celebrations at West Beach Primary School. Lorraine shared her wealth of knowledge regarding Aboriginal history, culture and traditions. Thank you very much to Lorraine for giving her time to help our student's develop a deeper understanding of this wonderful culture.

Supporting Your Child with Mathematics Learning

ROUNDING

Rounding is the forerunner of and one of the most widely used estimation strategies. When shopping for instance we round to the nearest 'Friendly Number' or dollar amount depending on the situation.

We have no more 1 or 2 cent coins in Australia anymore so we are quite use to rounding $1.78 to $1.80. Often though we round up to the nearest dollar. $19.98 sounds so much less than $20 for some reason and shops are well aware of this. generally, we round to the nearest significant amount as in the Rounding Rules below;

Rounding Rules:

$1.23 rounded up to $1.25

$2.32 rounded down to $2.30

$12.50 rounded up to $13.00

with fractions or decimals we round up or down to the next whole number.

Knowing when to round up or down causes some confusion for students who have come to think that with maths there is only one answer and that it needs to be correct. They may be unwilling to make an estimate and prefer to work out an exact answer. We sometimes see students rub out their estimate when they have in fact worked out the correct answer as if there is some thing wrong with making a 'close guess' first.

With your child...

As you dash around the supermarket, ask your child to keep a running total of what you are spending, but always round to the nearest dollar first. You and your child may be surprised at just how close the estimate is to the actual amount that you are charged at the check-out.

Wakakirri Materials Needed

Students, teachers and volunteers are busily preparing for Wakakirri and are in the process of making costumes. If anyone has any of the following items to donate we would really appreciate it.

White Sheets

Brown velvet

Dark velour / felt (could be old curtains)

Red or blue velvet  for a cape

Gold belts

Please send any donations to the front office. 

Thank you for your support.

Tina Nesbit

Rm 14 in 'The Shark Tank'

Students from room 14 have recently been involved in an enterprise education unit based on developing a product for sale similar to the concept of 'The Shark Tank' television show.

'We got into groups, put our heads together and created a product that would be useful in the real world. We became entrepreneurs.' - Anna D.

'Shark tank was a great opportunity to create our innovative inventions in a team, and then  design and present a business plan for it.' - James O & Seb H.

Footsteps Dance Program

Over four weeks the students of West Beach Primary School participated in a Footsteps program. Our instructor was Holly.

The school was separated into 3 groups: R-2, 2-5 and then the 6/7’s. This made it easier to see Holly and learn all the dance moves.

We learnt four fantastic dances! The first dance was a rock song called We Will Rock You, the second was to a disco song, the third was to Justin Timberlake’s Can’t Stop the Feeling and the last dance was made up by the students of West Beach Primary. There was lots of dabbing included!

Our instructor Holly, was wonderful and very clever. Everyone had a good time and loved it! We can’t wait to do it again. When I hit the dance floor, I will bust out the new moves I learnt!

By Kai Elliot-Keyte from Room 7

Kelly Sports Award

Congratulations to Austin Botha who was awarded the  West Beach Primary  Kelly Sports Star of the Term by the Kelly Sports coach for Term 2.

The reasons for Austin's nomination were:

• always attends the Kelly Sports sessions with a great attitude
• always gives 100% effort in the session activities and games