Student News
Swimming update:
On Friday 6th March, students will take part in a Learning to Swim in Clothes session. Students are asked to bring a long sleeved shirt and long pants to wear over their swimmers.
This lesson will focus on important water safety skills, helping students understand how to respond safely if they enter the water while fully clothed.
Junior Room Home Learning Expectations:
Children need a lot of practice to develop their reading skills to the point of fluency. Grade 1 students are expected to read daily with a supportive adult for 10 to 15 minutes. This will enable children to apply their letter-sound knowledge to reading simple text. Reading at home should be a successful and positive experience for your child.
Parents are asked to sign and complete their child's diary each night. If you require any assistance with filling in the diary, please speak with Miss Fenwick, who will be happy to help.
Beginning next week, Grade 1 students will bring home a spelling homework book. This will include weekly spelling words and activities to practise at home. Students will also have a list of "tricky words" to support both reading and spelling development.
Foundation students are encouraged to read with a family member every night to help foster a love of reading. Diaries are also to be signed nightly. This will continue until students have been introduced to more of the phonetic code later in the term.
From next fortnight, Foundation students will begin bringing home sound cards to strengthen their understanding of letter-sound relationships. Families are asked to practise these sounds each evening.
Student diaries are checked every Friday to monitor home reading. Home readers are changed every Monday morning, and library books are exchanged every second Monday.
Junior Room Writing:
This week in the junior room with the Grade 1 students, we started our InitalWrite journey by conducting our Welcome lesson. Students read the well-loved book "Pete the Sheep" and illustrated their favourite part or character from the book. The students learnt what sharing with a partner looks like and how to take turns and listen.
We are so excited to begin the InitalWrite journey next week with our Foundation students!
Senior Room Writing
"Understanding your family history is important." Is it or isn't it? That's the topic up for persuasion in the senior room. Students have had some robust discussions, detailing their reasons for why knowing our family history can be so valuable for us. One of the features we use to capture the reader's attention in a persuasive piece, is to begin with a rhetorical question. Here's an example of some of our introduction starters:
"Did you know that so many people live their lives without even knowing what their ancestors had to go through to get you here where you are today?"
"Isn't it important to know your family history so you can understand how you got on this planet?"
"Isn't it important to get a deeper understanding of our family history?"
"Have you ever wondered where you came from or how you came to be?"
"Do you ever think about your past family and how you are here living and breathing today?"
Stay tuned to be convinced by the finished persuasive writing pieces!
Swimming and Gym Photos
Reading at home with your child fosters language development, emotional bonding, and a lifelong love for reading, significantly enhancing their overall growth and learning.
