Junior School News
Prep 1 & 2
Dear Families,
Where has this year gone? Time has definitely flown by and with the end of term creeping into sight, the countdown to Christmas has begun. Whilst this is a busy time of year that includes lots of fun activities we aim to keep our structure as smooth as possible so students can finish the year on a high.
That being said, if you feel your child needs a circuit breaker day in the coming weeks to reset, please feel free to do so.
Prep News
We are so lucky to have Ms Emily Lynch a student teacher from ACU in our class helping us. She is here until the 2nd of December. Thank you Ms Lynch for all your hard work.
Multisensory Literacy
During our MSL morning preps have been learning to read and write multisyllabic Words with Closed & Closed Syllable for example: pencil, sunset.
Writing
Students have been learning how to write a persuasive argument. We discussed and wrote sentences about what is the best pet and asked the question, which is better hot or cold weather?
Preps enjoyed Ms Lynch reading them the story 'The Day the Crayons Quit'. They followed up after the book by writing a persuasive letter about their favourite crayon.
In Prep students are also using our 'Bump it up wall' to self assess their work from their daily handwriting sessions. With teacher guidance, they are trying to identify what they need to do improve their handwriting.
Maths
In Number students have been investigating double facts.
We read the story, 'The Day the Doorbell Rang' and learnt about sharing equally. We made our own cookies and shared them evenly with the class.
Respectful Relationships
Prep have been learning about fair and friendly play. We have been role playing in class and playing in friendly groups for the first part of lunch.
Reminder
We have the MOPA excursion next week, please make sure you have signed your Operoo. All details that are pertaining to the excursion are on the Operoo form. Ms Lynch and Mrs Mathias will also be in attendance.
1/2 News
Respectful Relationships
'Respect my space, respect my body' is the theme for our recent Respectful Relationships lessons. While people are often worried that knowledge of the things that are 'wrong’ in the world may tarnish children’s innocence, it is essential that they are aware that their body belongs to them and that they have the right to say no and get help. School based abuse prevention programs have been found to be effective in increasing student knowledge and protective behaviours. These programs aim to build children’s comfort level to disclosing inappropriate sexual advances. Thanks to the Grau-Molina family for lending us the perfect book to introduce this lesson called 'My Body, What I Say Goes'. All of the students were amazing, they participated in the conversations and activities and gave some awesome feedback. During lesson 1 students drew around a body and labelled all the private parts using their correct scientific name. Students then followed up this lesson by creating posters about body boundaries. Have a look at this video to check out a snippet of the lessons.
Multisensory Literacy
We continue to be blown away with how well our students are responding to our structured literacy approach. They have been outstanding and have shown real progression since its introduction. We have covered 3 new reading rules, they are:-
'Eat Bread and Steak',
where ea says e (long vowel sound) like in the word - eat
ea says e (short vowel sound) like in the word - bread
ea says a (long vowel sound) like in the word - steak.
'Double the Power ee' When two e's go together this is double the power and they say the long e sound.
Boil the Toy - the two ways to make the oi sound.
Writing
1/2 spent time this week writing letters. We are participating in a pen pal letter exchange across Australia. Students sent letters to Tasmania, Northern Territory, ACT and NSW. We are looking forward to reading our replies. Further to this, students also wrote thank you letters to the firefighters who visited our school and who help keep us safe. We will hopefully see them again next week when they bring their fire truck.
Inquiry
Creativity is this terms Inquiry theme. Students have set about creating toys for Michael using the design process. They are all planned and ready to get started on the building, cutting sticking and glueing.
Religion
As the season of Advent fast approaches and 1/2's have began exploring the Nativity story. They have carried out role plays and Nativity crafts.
We have also recently sent home some information about creating a Nativity puppet show.
Reminders
- 25th of November - Legoland- please double check Operoo for more information.
- 1st December- 1/2 sleepover. (Year 2's to stay the night) Nativity puppet show due in.
- 8th Dec Christmas play & Carols
- 9th Dec - End of Year Mass
- 12th Dec - Moving Up Day
- 15th Dec - Students' Last Day
- 16th Dec - Staff Last Day
The Junior team.
Classroom Contacts
Should you wish to get in touch with your child’s teacher for any reason or you wish to make an appointment to speak with them, please contact them through Seesaw directly. If you prefer you can also use email. You can reach us on these addresses:
sprosser@shsandringham.catholic.edu.au
srafferty@shsandringham.catholic.edu.au
jbrown@shsandringham.catholic.edu.au
kharper@shsandringham.catholic.edu.au