From the classroom

News from 5/6 Unit

Hello from Waratah Beach Camp!

We are all having a great time together, participating in lots of activities and cheering each other on to be brave and face some of our fears. Below are some photos from our time away so far, make sure to have a look at all the fun we are having!  We will update parents on our arrival time through compass on Friday. 

Next week in Literacy, we will be focusing on our individual traits and strengths and how we are unique and different from each other. We will read texts that promote diversity and individuality and complete writing tasks on how we shine!

Next week in Numeracy we will be focusing on probability. Students will conduct chance experiments, list outcomes and represent these using fractions, decimals and percentages.

Next week, our Puberty unit will begin. The program will focus on interactive classroom activities and open discussions. A Compass newsfeed was sent last week (Puberty in Week 6), please take time to read through the information.

Kind regards,

Pippa and Sheena.

What’s Happening in 3/4 unit

Wow! Week 5 already and only 3 more weeks until Camp Jungai. 

In English we have been continuing to work on writing scripts for our puppet plays. Students are working collaboratively to write a puppet play and create a character (puppet) that they will then use to present their play. 

In Maths our focus has turned to money. Students will be working in Masterclasses where they will explore counting money, calculating change and how to determine savings offered in percentage off sales. Great skills with Christmas just around the corner.

Our puppet making is going full steam ahead with students making puppets with moveable parts for their puppet plays. Students are welcome to bring materials from home, if required, for their puppet.

Camp Jungai- Monday 28th- Wednesday 30th November.

All information has now been sent home- Timetable of events and a packing list.

Students will be required at school by 9a.m. with departure from school at 9.30a.m.

Please remember that all students will require a snack, lunch and drink bottle for the first day that they can carry in a small back pack.

As this is our second camp this year we are sure everybody will be super organised.

Let's hope the weather is fine for us.

Regards Lisa, Anna, Peter and Lee.

The Adventures of the 1/2

Dear Grade 1/2 families, 

We hope that you week is going well. 

1/2s have made great progress in Phonics and getting more proficient in segmenting and blending. After long /ie/ and /oa/ sound, we will be focusing on long /ay/ in Week 5 and Week 6. It would be great to look for long /ay/ with your child during their home reading, spotting /ay/ words with ay, ai, a or a-e spelling choices. With lots of interactive activities, 1/2s found phonics learning fun and we are proud of their progress. 

One of the good things about stories is that we learn lessons from them. A good story provokes our thinking. 1/2s are learning to make inferences on the reading text and understand the message behind it. We encourage them to make connections between the text and real life examples and use their prior knowledge and features of the text to make inferences. ‘What did you from The Ugly Duckling?’ ‘It is ok to be different.’ said one of the students. Isn’t that priceless? 

We have worked on detailed characters and setting, sizzling start and Week 5 we will be working on entertaining ending. The Ugly Duckling has a twist or surprising ending, which can be a good example of an entertaining ending. Persuasive text will be introduced in week 6 when we take a close look at the differences between fact and opinion. There will be a lots of interesting topics for 1/2s to voice and write about their opinions. 

‘Put your hand up if you have a clock in your house!’ Literally, everybody does. Time is actually a very engaging topic. Technology has made things easier and many of us use digital watches or clocks now. Would reading an analogue clock challenge 1/2s? We will start with hour, half hour and then move on to quarters. They will soon be able make schedules for the family with their new knowledge. 

Have you met ANTs (Automatic Negative Thoughts)? ANTs includes the following: making negative predictions without evidence, unrealistic demands, overgeneralizing, labelling, blaming, etc. This week’s wellbeing is all about positive thinking. We would like our students to be aware of negative thoughts and learn to turn ANTs into more positive thoughts, which is very important to their wellbeing. 

Heaps of learning happening every day. We hope that 1/2s are enjoying school. Should you have any question or concerns please reach out to us. 

Kind regards

Helen, Hua and Amelie