Class Updates and Reminders

Prep

Dates to Remember:

Monday 10th May- Captain Trash Visit

Monday 24th May- Growing Nutrition Workshop

Reminders:

Home Reading Folders

A reminder that students should bring their home reading folders to school every Monday and Thursday for book changes. We are fortunate to have the support of some parent volunteers who assist us with this process on these particular days. 

Students are expected to read to/with an adult at least four times a week and get their diary signed. Diaries are also checked on Mondays and Thursdays to monitor and celebrate home reading.

High Frequency Words 

Please continue to practise high frequency words with your child. These are the words taught so far:

Phonics

Prep students have now finished Phase 2 of the Letters and Sounds Program. We are currently measuring their progress before moving on to Phase 3. You can help by continuing to practise the Phase 2 letters and sounds with your child as listed below:

Please see the pictures below for some inspiration on how to keep practise fun and engaging:

Weekend Recounts

As students are gaining more confidence with the writing process, we will now start writing about our weekend during Monday’s Writing lessons. You can support your child by talking about their weekend on the way to school each Monday. You may use the following questions/statements to trigger a conversation:

-Tell me one thing you did this weekend.

-On Saturday, we went to the ________, who/what did we see?

-On Sunday, we went to the _________, what was your favourite part?

-Remember when we watched that movie on Saturday, what was it about?

-What was the best thing about this weekend?

Discussing ideas before writing supports students to narrow their focus, allowing them to concentrate on the writing process itself. 

Grade 1

Dates to Remember:

Monday 10th May - Water and the Environment Incursion (see Compass for more details)

Tuesday 25th May - CERES Towards Zero Waste Incursion (more details on Compass)

Reminders:

Home Reading: We would love to see students bringing their book bag and reading diary to school daily! Students can take a new book home each day or keep the same book for longer if they need more time to finish it. The important thing is that children are reading aloud to an adult for at least 10-15 minutes four times a week. Please ensure your child has their diary and book bag at school on Monday.

Mathseeds: Please ensure your child is doing one lesson of Mathseeds each week. The teachers check this is completed and will be sending reminders to families if it is not. Thank you so much for your support with this so far this year!

Grade 2

Dates to Remember:

Tuesday 4th May- Mothers Day Gift Making

Monday 10th May- Rookeeper Invisit

Reminders:

Please ensure you send in a clean, used 250ml (approximately) bottle with your child's name on the bottom by Monday the 3rd of May. They will need this for the incursion on Tuesday.

Teachers are continuing to monitor your child's homework and are checking their diaries each week. Please support your child by reminding them to do at least 4 nights of reading and 1 lesson of Mathseeds and recording this in their school diary.   

Grade 3/4

Dates to Remember:

Week 4: NAPLAN (11-13/05), Mandarin Day (14/05)

Week 5: CERES Zero Waste Incursion

Week 6: Wildlife Xposure Incursion

Reminders:

Homework

We appreciate your support in ensuring students are completing 4 nights of Spelling practise, 2 Mathletics activities and 20-30 minutes of Reading each night

Grade 5 and 6

Dates to Remember:

Friday 21st May: Healthy Habits In-visit 

Wednesday 26th May: CERES Caring for Climate and Change Excursion

Week 4 (11th -13th May): NAPLAN

Reminders:

NAPLAN

Grade 5 students have been working extremely hard in the lead up to NAPLAN. To support them to be as successful as possible, please make sure your children:

• Get at least 9 hours sleep every night
• Have a healthy breakfast every morning

The NAPLAN tests are being taken on the following days in Week 4

Tuesday - Language Conventions and Writing

Wednesday - Reading

Thursday - Numeracy 

Home learning:

Mathletics - 200 points every week. Due every Friday.

Reading - at least 20 minutes every night. Please help your child by signing their diary and encouraging them to bring it in, alongside their reading book, daily. 

Spelling - writing out chosen spelling words every night, from Monday - Thursday.

Grade 6-7 Transition:

Secondary School Transition Information Packs have now been given to all Grade 6 students. Please contact Miss Jo if your child has not received one. 

What you need to do:

1. Read the Department’s Placement Policy including the priority order of placement at: www2.education.vic.gov.au/pal/enrolment/guidance/placement-policy
2. Locate your designated neighbourhood school or preferred secondary schools using www.findmyschool.vic.gov.au
3. Complete the Application for Year 7 Placement 2022 form and return to Miss Jo by Friday 14 May 2021.

Parent Volunteers

Now that the world has started to open up again, we would love to encourage parent volunteers to come in to support in our classrooms. Please speak to your child's class teacher if you would like to volunteer. In the past, parents have helped by: 

• Reading to students
• Carrying out admin tasks
• Assisting small groups in lessons
• Practising spelling and reading of High Frequency Words
• Carrying out assessments with students

Your knowledge and expertise is invaluable to us and we would love to connect with our families more by working alongside you in our classrooms. 

We also require parent volunteers to help on school excursions, some of which are coming up next month.  Please let your child's class teacher know if you would like to get involved! 

All volunteers require a Working With Children's Check which you can apply for here:

https://www.workingwithchildren.vic.gov.au/individuals/applicants/how-to-apply

Junior School Council (JSC)

The JSC had our first meeting for the term on Tuesday. We discussed issues such as the possibility of having a canteen, clubs, the amount of books in the school, sports equipment and mist fans. We also discussed a proposal for a fundraiser this term.