Xenica Community Report

Welcome to Term 4!

Welcome back to Term 4!  We have a busy and fun term ahead in the Xenica community and can't wait to share with you all the wonderful things we will be doing.

We are very excited to have Emma join us in the Xenica Community. Emma will be joining us as our fourth teacher. Students have welcomed her with open arms and are very excited to be working with her. 

Our Learning 

READING

This term in Reading, we will be working on our phonological awareness and investigating different types of comprehension skills with a main emphasise on literal and inferential questioning. Students will be learning the skills on how to answer questions and identify evidence as the answer in the text. They will also learn the difference between open and closed questions to improve their understanding of a text.

Students will also be given many opportunities to borrow a range of texts from our school library in order to enhance their love of reading. 

WRITING

In Writing, students will be working on developing their word choice by using adjectives, synonyms and figurative language to help us add detail to our writing. Students will be encouraged to expand their vocabulary by experimenting with new and interesting topic words they find in texts they have discovered in their reading. Throughout the term we will have a continued focus on punctuation including fullstops and the appropriate use of capital letters.  Students will be given the opportunity to revise and edit their own work by following the writing process which involves students planning, drafting, revising, editing and publishing their writing pieces. 

We will also be focusing on the following aspects of writing for the remainder of the year. These will include spelling, handwriting and grammar. 

MATHEMATICS

The last few weeks students have been involved in lots of hands on activities that were based around the topic of Measurement. The topics we covered included length, capacity and mass. Students were given opportunities to measure, weigh and fill containers of different sizes using a range of materials such as scales, unifix blocks, water, icy pole sticks and their hands. They were able to make comparisons and draw conclusions using topic specific vocabulary such as heavier than, lighter than, longer than, shorter than, holds more, holds less. 

We will be covering the topic of fractions for the next few weeks. Throughout the topic, students will develop an understanding of equal parts and will understand that two halves make a whole and that one half has two equal parts. 

INQUIRY

This term in Inquiry we have been investigating what a culture is and the diversity of cultures within our Xenica Community. We have been researching different cultures from around the world with a particular focus of those within our community. We will be discussing similarities and differences between cultures and will look closely at the  Australian culture and the indigenous heritage of Australia. 

Students will be using non-fiction texts and their iPads as tools to research about celebrations, foods, costumes, traditions, beliefs and greetings from around the world. 

SEL

In SEL we have been working in small groups to solve scenarios of events that may happen within the community and during outside play. Students were asked to create solutions in the from of a role play to demonstrate red and green choices.

In the next few weeks we will discuss the importance of remaining honest and truthful at all times and how this may affect others. 

We will continue to support positive behaviours in the community through the use of the token wall and the good choices chart. 

Requesting a teacher meeting

As you are aware, our priority is ensuring students are ready for learning in the morning. We kindly ask that if you would like to make a time to chat with your child's teachers please feel free to organise a convenient time via Sentral or write a note in your child's diary. This will ensure that you get our full attention as we are unable to have in depth discussions in the morning. 

Teachers are available during these times, however an appointment must be made prior:

- Thursday and Friday before school

- Thursday and Friday after school

We thank you for your understanding and support with this.  

Important notes to remember:

• The doors will open at 8.45am as learning begins at 8.50am. Students are encouraged to come into the community independently.
• Students will change their take home books each day and bring them home each night. It is important that students take books from the levels their teachers have assigned them as this is their instructional level which we work on to further develop their deeper understanding of texts.
• Students will bring their diaries and homework books to school on Fridays which will be checked by teachers.
• Students are encouraged to bring their iPads to school each day.

We look forward to sharing more learning experiences with you soon.

Kind Regards,

Carla, Maddy, Fanny, Emma and Lucy.