Junior School News

Important Reminders

Student Led Conferences

We look forward to listening to your child present their learning goals to you at the Student Led Conferences next Tuesday, 29th August. Please make a booking via Compass if you have not already done so.

Take Home Books

Please ensure that your child has their Take Home Bag.

If they do not bring their Take Home Bag, they will not be able to bring a decodable text home. 

Learning in Action

Literacy

Grade 1: This fortnight, Grade 1 students have been learning all about narratives, having explored the key features of narratives such as beginning, middle, end, setting, characters, problem and a solution. They have recognised these features in well known stories such as ‘The Tale of Peter Rabbit’, which students were very excited to discover was written in the early 1900s! Students have been learning to apply what they’ve been learning about narratives in reading to creating their own writing, ensuring their sentences have a noun, adjective and adverbial when. Our vocabulary words for the past 2 weeks have been ‘compulsory’ and ‘modern’. 

Grade 2: Over the last fortnight, the Year 2 students have looked at the structure of narratives. Focussing on the orientation (setting/characters), problem and solution. They have read texts such as The Sea Saw, by Tom Percival. The students have taken note of events that lead up to a problem in the narrative. They have also been encouraged to identify character traits, looking at external and internal traits. The students have looked at a thesaurus to broaden their vocabulary when describing characters.

Library

Grade 1: The Year 1 students were tasked with the very important role of voting for the book which they thought should win the LPS Award for the Children’s Book of The Year Awards 2023. The students were shown how to record their own thinking after listening to each book, so that at the completion of listening, they knew exactly which book was to receive their vote. And vote they did. Some reasons for their voting are as follows:

• I voted for ‘Market Day’ because I know how it feels to go to a market with my mum - Harper L 1PA
• I voted for ‘Jigsaw’ because the dad didn’t know he lost a piece of the puzzle but the kids found it - Evvie 1I
• I voted for ‘Bev and Kev’ because I love giraffes and birds and sometimes I feel sad and I need to find a place to think - Elisa 1KA
• I voted for ‘Market Day’ because I liked it the most - Charlie 1T
• I voted for ‘Lionel and Me’ because I like dogs - Isla 1I
• I voted for 'The Best Hiding Place' because the boy wasn't found and it was exciting - Mitch 1I

Grade 2: The students have listened to more adventures in Lewis Carroll’s story ‘Alice in Wonderland’, and some of those in ‘James and the Giant Peach’ by Roald Dahl. They have also listened to either ‘There’s No Such Book’ by Jake A. Minton, or ‘My Strange Shrinking Parents’ by Zeno Sworder. These two books were shortlisted for the Children’s Book of the Year Award by the Children’s Book Council of Australia (CBCA). The students are working well in their triad group to compare similarities and/or differences they notice in the texts. They have also discussed the orientation, problem and solution Jake A. Minton and Zeno Sworder have created in their stories. They continue to focus on their speaking and listening skills as they each take a turn.

Year 2 Library is on a Monday. Please return books that you are done with as the students cannot borrow if they have the maximum number of books out on their library record.

Maths 

Grade 1: Students have finished their unit on division, They have successfully identified and applied different strategies to solve division problems. These included drawing a picture, creating equal groups, using a number sentence template and skip counting with counters. Students also learnt how to identify common mistakes when sharing equally by using the phrase ‘The mistake is ___ because ___’. 

Grade 2: The students have continued to look at division problems with a focus on worded problems. Students have used counters, unifix, drawings and/or skip counting to make the process more efficient when working out a problem. 

We have continued to look at analogue clocks. We have revised the hour and minute hands, skip counting by 5s to help us to read the minute hand, and looking at a clock in halves, to tell the time as ‘past’ and ‘to’. Some students have also looked at time in reference to how much time has elapsed in everyday activities.

Year 2 students are very excited about Maths Masters. Here is the link to the belts and activities to help your child achieve their next goal (copy and paste the link if link doesn’t work directly). If time permits at home, your child might like to work on an activity for 5 or so minutes, 3 times a week.

 https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1HrbYUBgO5DwoOHFoQEmLt1dsYm1oksyo

Inquiry

Grade 1: This fortnight, students in year 1 have continued looking at history. Students focused on the 1900’s last week and had a surprise visit from Miss Ibbotson's Nanna. Miss Ibbotson's Nanna was born in 1936 and shared about what her life was like growing up, going to school, and what she did for fun. The students had a wonderful time listening to stories and asking questions. This week, the focus has been on the modern world and comparing our lives to parts of history. Students have also started preparing for Celebration Morning by creating their own timeline, which they are excited to share with you all. 

Grade 2: Over the last fortnight, students have discussed and looked into the changes of communication over time.

Wellbeing

RRRRs

The students have worked on two sessions over the last fortnight. 

Creating a gender-friendly classroom: The students were very good at providing suggestions on how we can talk to others if they are not behaving in a respectful manner to someone. E.g. ‘Yes, girls can play footy. Anyone can play football.’ They also drew some great sketches of examples where students are being gender inclusive. E.g. Boys partner with girls on a work task, boys and girls sitting beside each other at their table, both genders playing a game together.

What is gender-based violence: The students discussed fair play and unfair play. They also discussed the word ‘violent’ in reference to rough play - hitting, kicking, pushing, biting, throwing things, as well as verbal violence - teasing, name calling or yelling. Students discussed what emotions people might feel if they experience some sort of violent behaviour towards them. They noted sensations in the body people may experience too.

                                                                        Go Matildas!

                                                                            Book Week 

                                              So much creativity and fun celebrating books!

Preview for Learning

Literacy

Grade 1: Next week, Grade 1 students will be further consolidating their learning about narratives. They will consider what they know about the features of a narrative when using a front cover to make predictions about a book. In writing, students will be building on their own ideas to create interesting sentences with sufficient detail and interesting words.

Grade 2: In the coming weeks, students will continue to build their understanding of narratives. They will plan and draft their own narrative. The students will also focus on making inferences as they read. They will continue to look for clues in the text to increase their understanding of what they are reading, as well as to work out the meaning of unfamiliar words.

Library 

Grade 1: With the voting finished, the Year 1 students will work in their triads to examine the data presented on the graph and make statements about what the graph is telling us.

Grade 2: The students will listen to more read aloud texts from the shortlist for the Children’s Book of the Year Award, voted by the Children’s Book Council of Australia (CBCA). They will engage in deeper discussions in their triad group in order to compare and contrast the orientation, problem and solutions of the stories they have listened to.

Maths 

Grade 1: Next week, students will begin learning about fractions. They will learn to identify equal and unequal parts of a shape or collection. From this, we will explore halves and how to represent them using A4 paper.

Students will continue learning about time (duration). They will look to identify how long events take and make comparisons to other events. For example, how long does it take to brush your teeth compared to eating your lunch at school.

Grade 2: Over the next fortnight, Year 2 students will be extending their knowledge and ability to work out division problems. They will make the use of arrays in order to show their thinking and write equations to match up with pictures they are presented with. The students will use their knowledge of time and clocks to create a timetable. Students will be encouraged to use the language, ‘quarter ‘to’ and ‘quarter past’ the hour.

Inquiry:

Grade 1: Students will continue comparing their life to history by creating a class Venn diagram. Students will also continue reflecting on their learning and preparing for Celebration Morning.

Grade 2:Over the next fortnight, we will look at the history of toys and games. The students will also have the opportunity to reflect on their learning about how technology has changed over time and how it has affected people. 

Wellbeing

RRRRs

Over the next fortnight the students will be working on the following topics: 

The opposite of violence is respect

• Being helpful, respectful, cooperate respectfully with others
• Identify how people feel when their friends play with them in a friendly, fair and respectful way
• Identify strategies that peers can use to solve problems in a respectful way

Respect my space, respect my body

• Learning ways to tell people when they do not like the way their body is being treated by others
• Learning ways to seek safety or help when in the presence of violence or inappropriate forms of personal contact

Student of the Week

Congratulations to our Grade 1 and Grade 2 award winners.