Classroom News
Foundation News
Welcome to week 5! We are so proud of the students and how they have settled into their first year of school. They have adapted well to our new school routines and constantly amaze us with how settled they have been. We have hit the ground running with our learning tasks and it’s wonderful to see how the students have grasped many new concepts. Just a reminder that this Wednesday (26th February) will be our students last Wednesday off and they will begin attending Wednesdays from 5th March.
Literacy
Literacy has seen students begin to read about our book series main characters Sam, Dan and Nat. Over the last 2 weeks, students have learnt the sounds /t/, /p/, /i/ and /n/. They have focused on identifying these sounds in words and also using them to build words such as ‘pit’ and ‘tin’. When writing, students have been taught how to correctly form letters. We have been identifying who is in our sentence and what they are doing. Students have created simple sentences by changing the ‘who’ in their sentence for example Willow sits or Ella sits.
Numeracy
We concluded our pattern topic by creating 3 step patterns out of objects and colours. Students headed outside to use objects in nature whilst also using classroom materials such as teddies to create their patterns. We moved on to sequencing of events. Students were able to recognise the order they complete certain events eg we put our socks on before our shoes. They have also described the order they complete their morning routine and also the sequence of events for our RESET routine.
Future learning
This week students will continue learning new sounds /m/ and /d/. We will look at the sounds they make and continue to segment and blend words with the sounds we have learnt. You can help at home by asking your child ‘What sounds do you hear in the word sun?’ In Numeracy we will also continue looking at the order of events, with a particular focus on what days of the week we do certain things. You can help at home by discussing with your child what days of the week they do certain activities eg ‘On Thursday you have swimming lessons’ or ‘ On Monday you have Visual Arts’.
*Reminder*
Students need to continue bringing their hats to school every day, otherwise they will be playing under the COLA. Hats are also beneficial during subjects such as Kitchen Garden and PE.
Keep bringing in your child’s diary. It is a great means of communication between home and school. Anything urgent however, sent a message through Sentral.
point!
Junior School News
Phoneme Focus Sounds
Literacy
Junior School students have been studying Fairy Tales and Fables. We have read a range of well known Fairy Tales such as Sleeping Beauty, Rumpelstiltskin, The Frog Prince and Rapunzel. In Content Knowledge, students listen to the story and answer a range of comprehension questions to understand the problem, resolution, morals and messages within the story line. In Text Construction, students have been expanding kernel sentences from the story to add more detail and information. They have also been using picture prompts from the stories to create the four sentence types; command, statement, exclamation and question.
Numeracy
In Numeracy, students have been exploring place value, by using tens frames and dice to make two digit numbers. Junior students have also been practicing bundling ones into tens, to rename numbers and build on their subitising skills.
*Reminder*
When students read at home, please remind them to log it in their diary to receive a dojo!
Middle School News
Literacy
Content Knowledge:
In Content Knowledge this week, students learned about the Age of Exploration and how this led to expeditions to Australia. Students built their knowledge of Australian history while practicing their syllable chopping - a useful technique for decoding unknown words. Practice your syllable chopping at home!
Next up:
Decoding words and note taking while reading to record our new knowledge!
Text Construction:
Students continued their sentence level work, including distinguishing between sentences and fragments, identify subjects and predicates and locating parts of speech. All of this skills are essential for building high quality sentences and paragraphs!
FOR THE FUTURE
Content Knowledge: Decoding word sand note taking while reading to record our new knowledge!
Text Construction: Sentence level work
Maths: Addition and Subtraction
Skills in Focus
The Zones of Regulation supports students to build awareness of their own feelings and emotions, and then develop appropriate strategies for managing these emotions. This is a useful resource for families to use at home too. Check out this link for a range of parent and family friendly resources: Zones of Regulation
*Reminder*
15 minutes of home reading each day.
Please record this in the school diary. Families of Grade 3s; check out the information about NAPLAN!
Senior School News
Literacy
Content Knowledge:
Students have finished off their first unit for the year, ‘Democracy, what it means for me’. Students learnt about the 3 levels of government (Federal, State and Local) and explored the roles and responsibility of each. They also investigated the election process and researched several different political parties.
Text Construction:
Students created a pamphlet to reflect their learning about the 3levels of government. They also created their First Speech reflecting on what they would do if they were elected as a Student Principal of Teesdale. However, the real learning took place when the students formed groups to create their own political party. Students had to come up with a party name, logo, slogan and prepare a campaign poster and speech to present to their class. After we heard all of the party speeches, we had a mock vote and followed the preferential voting system. Well done to all students. There were some very impressive speeches and campaigns.
Numeracy:
We have spent the past few weeks looking at ordering numbers up to seven digits. We have investigated fact families where we can use addition to solve subtraction equations and subtraction equations to solve addition equations.
OTHER IMPORTANT NEWS!
*Grade 6 Shirts have been ordered! We are hoping to have them in stock towards the end of the term.
*Urban Camp Planning is underway for our 2025 Urban Camp. We will have more information in this in the coming weeks.
*Home Reading It is important for Senior students to continue to ready at home for enjoyment. If you’re running low on reading material, students have a variety of books to choose from at school.
*Social Media at home: We have had a few incidents of undesired behaviour stemming from technology use at home that has flowed into the school day. This has taken a considerable amount of valuable school time to mediate. Please ensure that you are checking-in on your children when they a reusing technology at home and be proactive to help reduce any unwanted behaviour online. We are all in this together!
Specialist Spotlight
In The Kitchen Garden…
We have had some high temperatures to deal with but we have definitely been resilient and have some projects on the go.
The seniors have cleared and are planning an outdoor area right beside our garden. Creativity, up-cycling and energy has been required.
Our middle school have been planting out our beds, mastering secateur use and tending to the seeds and gardens.
Our juniors have been learning about our compost system and thinking about how we can improve things.
In the kitchen we took advantage of the abundance of zucchinis at the moment. Even though zucchini has a bad reputation, delicious muffins, soup and fritters were cooked by our crew. Shout out to Bev, who made it happen.
Here are some of the zucchini recipes we have been following:
https://sallysbakingaddiction.com/zucchini-muffins/
https://www.recipetineats.com/crispy-zucchini-fritters/
https://www.recipetineats.com/creamy-zucchini-soup/
-Leonie