Argus Community Report

Dear Families, 

Welcome to the new year 2022!

We would like to congratulate all of the Argus students on a wonderful start to Term 1.  Welcome to all of our new families and welcome back to all of our familiar faces. It has been so great to be able to see so many smiling faces in person. Students have settled into the community positively and are settling back into routines and expectations in their mentor groups. 

Reading: 

In Reading, the kids have been working hard to identify fiction and non -fiction texts. We have also been learning to identify what a ‘good fit’ book is and how the students can select books which are suitable for independent reading. 

The mentor groups in Argus have gone to the school Library to choose books to put into our community Library and learnt how to care for these books by organising them, sorting and returning them. In the coming weeks, students will be working with different groups to practice their reading in like ability groups with different mentor teachers.  

Writing: 

In writing, Argus has been learning about the writing process. We have looked at following the process of planning, drafting, revising, editing and publishing to create quality writing pieces that we will be proud to show our families. 

This term we will focus on writing recounts about different experiences we have had at school.

We have all had the opportunity to partake in fun experiences in our school yard, such as playing in the sandpit, playground or searching the yard for mini beasts! Now we will write about these experiences using our writing process. We can’t wait to show you our published pieces.

Maths: 

All of the Argus students have made a great start to maths this term. We have been exploring start-of-school topics such as ‘how to be a good mathematician’, how to play maths games fairly, how to read timetables and how to use maths resources such as dominoes, various forms of counting resources (bears, sticks, blocks) only to name a few. It was wonderful to see everybody have fun with maths!

We are continuing to practice our skip counting skills, in particular, with number patterns of 2s, 5s and 10s. Argus students have loved playing group class games such as BUZZ to continue to improve on their skip counting skills, along with other skills such as teamwork. 

Along with skip counting, we have also been practising how to locate the lowest number and the highest number in an array of numbers. We have completed an activity using dice and T-shirts to order the numbers from lowest to highest. Look at some of the amazing work from our community!

Social and Emotional Learning (SEL): 

The past few weeks students have been tuning back into the school wide positive behaviour matrix with a focus on caring for themselves. We have practised daily routines such as what to do at eating time. Students have learnt about the Zones of Regulation, i.e green zone, blue zone, yellow zone and red zone and what they can do to get back in the green zone. We have been working on our emotions and recognising what makes us feel happy, sad, angry and anxious. 

Argus Teaching Team:

Rania: 1/2I - Iguanas

Emma:1/2 J - June Bugs

Emily: 1/2K - King Crabs

Alex: 1/2L - Ladybirds (Learning Community Leader)

Important notes to remember: 

• Community doors open at 8:40am
• Dismissal at 3:10pm
• Please bring a hat to school each day in Term 1 and 4
• Please have some food packed in your child’s lunchbox that will be suitable for fruit or vegetable snack in session 2 (for example, pieces of fruit or yoghurt).
• Ensure your child’s belongings are clearly labelled. This includes clothing, drink bottles, hats and lunchboxes (lids too) 
• Students are to come to school with a water bottle each day (labelled)

What you can do with your child at home

• Continue to read to and with your child each night.  
• Encourage your child to develop more independence. (Help pack/unpack their school bag/lunch, or get their uniform ready)
• Encourage your child to take increased responsibility for their own belongings.
• Establishing a regular routine helps students to develop a positive approach to learning and will benefit them as they progress through their schooling.  
• Encourage your child to practise tying their own shoelaces.
• We continue to promote healthy eating at school. We allow students to have a piece of fruit and vegetable break at 10:15am. We try to discourage highly salty, sugary and processed foods. We talk about these foods as ‘occasional’ or ‘sometimes’ food that can be enjoyed on ‘special occasions’ rather than as part of a child’s daily diet. 
• If you need to speak to your child’s mentor teacher, please contact the office to pass on the message or organise this before or after school.

Kind Regard, 1/2 Argus teaching team

Alex, Emma, Rania and Emma