Class News
Year 4
In Year 4, we have recently been participating in Bike Ed Training to practise and refine our skills before camp. We have been practising taking off, stopping, signalling to turn, head checks, riding in a single file and in pairs. We are very excited for Bike Camp in Maldon next Wednesday!
Meg Stewart
Year 4S Teacher
Year 5
Year 5 competed in the World Maths Day 2018 last Wednesday. This involved the entire class completing 20 mental maths activities over 48 hours, competing against students ‘live’ around the world. At one stage, the live leader board revealed that Reuben was sitting in the World Top 70. A great cheer erupted in the room, Reuben's classmates recognising his achievement.
All students challenged themselves at various points duing the day and it was great to see the class supporting each other in their maths in such a vibrant fashion.
We’ve also begun looking at chance and probability with an emphasis on identifying how many possible outcomes there are when chance is at play. Dice, coins, spinners, marbles in a jar,the number of students in a class or school, horse racing and even the game ‘Two Up’ have been looked at by the students in determining ‘possible outcomes’. Our next step will be to conduct our own chance investigations. These will involve coin tossing and dice rolling.
In Number, addition and subtraction are the key operations being revisited. Students will be stretching themselves to try written and mental strategies they’ve not encountered or haven’t wished to attempt before.
In English, we have been working on narrative writing and analysing all the key features that make narratives more engaging for the reader. We’ve used a ‘Lotus Diagram’ to plan more effectively, looked at the structure of narratives, including a twist, how figurative language can be used for dramatic effect or comparison and how a ‘sizzling start’ ensures a reader is hooked and wants to read more.
As mentioned, we’ve been looking closely at a few varieties of Figurative Language with the main few being similes, metaphors, personification, alliteration, hyperbole, idioms and the class favourite, onomatopoeia. The class loved watching some old Batman clips where a 1960’s Adam West ‘Kapowed’ his way through dozens of evil henchmen.
Our current challenge is to be able to recognise figurative language in digital and print media and hopefully become much more adept at making our own writing more interesting by using similes, metaphors etc.
Some examples of students’ figurative language to-date:
“Every room in the house was fine except for Saxon’s. It was like World War One had happened in there!” - Savannah
“Your torn jacket looks like it’s been through World War Two!” - Freya
“I was winded and it felt like I had hit a rock” - Dakota
“That puppy is as cute as a button!” - Mary-Jane
“It’s as hot as a burning desert in here!” - Imogen
“It’s been fantastic working with a group of students who have such a wonderful prior knowledge about figurative language!” - Mr Mac, Tuesday 13th of March, 2018.
Other News…
-Holly loved going to the Ed Sheeran concert on the weekend
-We’ve had students representing the school and district in swimming.
-More than half the class played in the Soccer Tournament today.
Congratulations to the girls team who won the competition and for Tom who captained the boys team to a semi final.
-We love our massive, cheerful classroom.
-Mr Mac’s wife Claire is pregnant and the two of them are expecting a baby girl in early September!
James McMahon (so excited to be at St James)
Year 5 Teacher
Year 6
Debating Workshop
On the 7th of March, the Year Sixes were able to assimilate great learning in debating. This was done with the assistance of our stupendous teachers Jessie and Carina. Thanks to them we have developed all the possible expertise to continue our Civics and Citizenship unit. Using the variety of skills we have learnt we can further evolve into something much bigger and better and help contest and build on the ideas of others to make better decisions for everyone in the world.
By Chilli R and Ginger C in Year 6O
Foundation
‘The Magic Hat’ by Mem Fox and Foundation
In Foundation we have been reading the story ‘The Magic Hat’ by Mem Fox. The story has many rhyming words and is lots of fun.
We have made magic hats and have been wearing them during read to self and writing time.
In writing, we have used the rhyming words in the story to help us write other words like hat, cat, mat, rat, sat, bat and fat.
Our magic hats are amazing!! We have loved reading the story and making our hats.
Cathy Busch and Bernie Whiffen
Foundation Teachers
Foundation, Year 1 and Year 2
St James has Chickens!!!
Foundation, Year One and Year Two have eggs that are about to hatch and new born chickens in their classrooms!
If you are walking by these rooms you might hear the sounds of chirping coming from inside. The chickens will be with us until next Friday so please come in and have a look at these amazing animals.
The children have had so many questions about the chickens and they have been enthralled at how these little creatures move and change.
When you see the chicks you might like to count how many there are or how many are hens or roosters.
Fun Fact: You can tell the difference straight away by the colour of the chicks. The hens are brown and the roosters are yellow!
Come in and have a look!
Cathy Busch
Foundation Teacher
