Literacy Update

Handwriting

Last week I shared information about the importance of teaching handwriting. It has been wonderful walking around our school and seeing instruction in this area, consistent and engaging. 

Here you can see Foundation students starting their handwriting journey on whiteboards, ensuring that they are starting their letters in the right spot and going in the correct direction.  The next steps include learning to use dotted thirds to help with the size of the letters. In the middle, students in Year 3 are building on their print while the Year 4s have made the move to learning how to join their letters correctly.

Book Recommendations

Picture Story Book

The Great Rabbit Chase by Freya Blackwood

A pet rabbit called Gumboots, likes to escape! Gumboots takes us on a journey of his escapade and along the way, it celebrates the beauty of being a part of a community. A beautiful story with gorgeous and humourous illustrations. We use this book at school as a mentor text as it models strong examples of varying sentence types. It is a fun story to share, Freya Blackwood is a very talented Australian illustrator and now author.

Middle Fiction

How To Bee by Bren MacDibble

This is a clever, funny and emotional story about family and loyalty. In a world where real bees are extinct, children take on the roles of the bees. They climb the trees and pollinate the flowers by hand. 9-year-old Peony wants to be a bee and live on the farm but her mother wants her to live in the city. Peony is torn between the two different worlds and ways to protect her family. A beautiful story that is hard to put down.

Interview with Chantel Jose, Visual Arts Teacher

What are you reading at the moment?   

The Travelling Cat Chronicles by Hiro Arikawa

Why did you choose that book?

This was a recommendation.

What is the story about?

A man catching up with 3 old childhood friends because he was trying to find someone to look after his cat.

Did you enjoy the book?

I really enjoyed the book because it told the story from the man’s point of view as well as the cat’s point of view.

It was also quite a humourous read. There was a strong theme of friendship and loyalty.

It was an emotional ending but overall, an enjoyable book.

Would you recommend the book to others?   

I would definitely recommend the book, it was quite short and an easy read. It is a feel-good story.

SMART Spelling

We are well into our SMART spelling routines for the year. Thank you to all the adults at home that are supporting the Home Learning component of the program. We were completely chuffed that Michelle Hutchison, the founder of SMART, chose to come along to our school Fete on the weekend and help out at the hair extension stall. The Foundation teachers were very excited to share their ‘Word of the Week’ lights with Michelle. Needless to say, she was super impressed.

In the photos below, you will see the Foundation students creating an ‘experience’ with their word of the week ‘tin’. They made their very own Tin Man and tapped out the sounds so that they were able to record the word on their work.

You will see in the image here, that the Year 5/6 students are looking at the ‘ou’ digraph making the ‘u’ sound as in touch, young, rough and they are using stickers to record the digraphs in their words. 

BOOK CONTACTING

Thank you so much to those fabulous parents who have taken home a bag of books to contact. 

THANK YOU!!! 

Jac Morphy

Leading Teacher

Literacy