Education News
At CSPS English and Mathematics are high priorities.
Parents often ask what they can do to help at home. Reading with your child and having them read to you on a regular basis is very important. Other activities such as using Reading Eggs or Reading Express will also help. 20 minutes a day, 4 times a week will make a HUGE difference to your child's reading.
Using mathematics on a daily basis such as working out costs, distance, time and using the 4 operations of addition, subtraction, multiplication and division in daily life will help your child develop a positive attitude towards becoming numerate.
Mathematics at CSPS
Mathematics is a key focus at CSPS and we use a number of approaches when teaching the skills of mathematics. In all classrooms teachers will explicitly teach mathematical concepts and skills and then through other activities move from "I do" to "You do it alone."
These steps can also be explained as "Show me, help me, let me."
Ask your children about "Buddy Maths" or Collaborative Maths where a word problem is presented and in pairs they work together to solve it. Each idea and attempt is valued and celebrated where the mathematical thinking is developed. Collaborative Maths
Develops students’ persistence, rigour and problem solving.
Takes the focus from correct answers toward explanation and understanding.
Help your child develop a positive attitude towards mathematics
Maths is everywhere, and everyone can be good at it! Here are six tips for helping your child develop positive attitudes toward maths.
Being wrong can help you be right.
A lot of us feel frustrated when something that involves maths goes wrong. Having trouble cutting a piece of wood too short, or underestimating how much food you needed for a dinner party are experiences we all have had at one time or another. You can turn negative experiences like these into positive learning opportunities when you talk with your child about what happened, and what you might do differently next time around.
Show a “can-do” attitude toward maths.
Your child learns from your behaviors. Avoid making comments like, “I was never very good at math.” If you use your everyday maths experiences (such as counting change at the shops, timing how long something takes, or measuring ingredients in the kitchen) as opportunities for success, your child will develop self-confidence and problem-solving skills that will carry over into other maths environments.
“Talk maths” with your child.
The next time you need to measure or count something, share what you are thinking and look for ways your child can take part.
Model problem-solving strategies.
No matter what the problem is, it’s always a good idea to take a break when frustration sets in and start again when you’re fresh. And sometimes breaking down the problem into smaller problems helps you see a solution that makes the bigger problem easier.
Ask questions.
When your child is trying to solve a problem, ask questions such as “How did you figure that out?” or “What are you thinking?” or even “Can you draw me a picture to show me what you mean?” Having children explain their logic can help them better understand their reasoning and see their way more clearly to a solution.
Focus on the process.
Knowing how to approach a problem is just as important as coming up with an answer. Don’t dwell on arithmetic mistakes. Instead, focus on supporting the strategy your child uses to approach a problem. Often, there’s more than one correct way to solve it.
Mathletics
Mathletics is an online tool that all students at CSPS have access to. Students can complete a full set of curriculum activities, backed up by interactive tutorials. Games and apps in the Play area target maths fluency, including Live Mathletics. Students can earn points and certificates for working on Mathletics. Teachers will set tasks for students to complete. Each student at CSPS has a Mathletics password. If you do not have one please email your class teacher.
Writing at CSPS
At CSPS we use the framework of VCOP to talk about writing. Activities and games are based around V - Vocabulary, C - Connectors, O - Openers and P - Punctuation. Big Write and VCOP is designed to bring the fun back into writing, to make children want to write and to be continuously challenged throughout the writing journey.
Based on the premise that ‘if they can’t say it, they can’t write it’, the students talk about what they are going to write about before writing.
Next week all children from Year 1 to 6 will be participating in a Big Write. Each class will be completing activities leading to the celebration of writing about the set topic. Foundation students will participate in a Big Talk activity.
For Big Write on Thursday, 14 March students are writing a persuasive text about Junk Food-Should it be banned at school?
Students need to talk about their ideas and opinions with as many family members as possible. A great time to do this is when you are sitting at the table for dinner.
Students would love to hear your opinions and ideas as well to help them with their ideas. Please remember to use the ‘because’ word and remind your students to do the same. That way when we complete the Big Write they will have so many ideas and will be able to use connectives like ‘because’ to make their writing interesting.
VCOP provides ways for students to uplevel their work:
V=Vocabulary, wow words
C=Connective, words that join ideas together
O=Openers, amazing ways to start a sentence. Words that end in ‘ly’ or ‘ing’ are power openers.
P=Punctuation. Ask your child to show you Kung Fu Punctuation (hand signals) to demonstrate.
Taling together as a family will make the Big Write a true celebration of writing at CSPS.
Bullying NO WAY day
Bullying NO WAY day is on 15th, March 2019. As a whole school we will be completing activities throughout the week of 10th - 15th of March. Bullying NO WAY have a very useful and resourceful website for parents and carers.
Please take a look at the following link:
https://bullyingnoway.gov.au/YourRole/Pages/For-Parents-and-carers.aspx
This page is resourceful for parents and carers to understand what bullying is and isn't, talking about diversity, problem solving skills, strategies that can help and many, many more.
CSPS School Song
