INFORMATION

🗓️ Upcoming Dates for August & September:

Wednesday 21st: Author Visit for Book Week - please bring a $2 coin to support this event

Thursday 22nd: Final Gymnastics session #5

Friday 23rd: Book Week dress-up parade (9am)

Monday 26th: Pyjama Day (Grade 6 Fundraiser) Cold coin donation please

Friday 30th: Father's Day Breakfast

Friday 6th September: 'Fairytale Fiasco' Incursion

Wednesday 11th September: Prep Concert

🗞️ News Groups: Bring a poster / photo of who you are going to dress up as for Book Week. Why have you chosen that character?

📚 Term 3 timetable change - week 6

Here is a reminder of the specialists classes for each Prep grade. *Remember that Prep A library / Auslan sessions will be on Friday this week.

🏰 Boxes for STEM creation

Thank you to everyone for contributing boxes for the STEM castle building. The Preps are going to love this challenge! Prep C would still love some donations though!

📚The Book Fair is coming!

The Book Fair will be held from the 2nd - 6th September and we would love some parent helpers to run it. If you have previous experience, or would like to learn, we would be grateful if you would consider helping this year. Please see Julie Barnden if you are interested.

💯 100 Days 📸

We have added some more photos to the '100 Days Brighter' page on the newsletter. Have a look at the Prep page for the additions!

🤸🏽 Gymnastics

This is the final week of Gymnastics. Thank you to everyone who has volunteered to help over the past five weeks. Your assistance has been greatly appreciated by us, and the staff at Eclipse Gymnastics.

CURRICULUM

📚 Phonemic awareness: reading and phonics

Students will complete two UFLI sessions this week (4 lessons and an assessment).

Students will complete a review of the digraphs learnt so far (ch, sh, th, ck, nk, ng, ph, wh) and learn about reading and spelling words with the a_e pattern (long vowel 'a' followed by magic 'e').

Students will read decodable words, phrases and texts. They will review the following heart words: could, would, should, or, for, there, where

And learn the heart word: who

❤️ Heart words will be coming home in your child's book pocket this week. An explanation of the words is below - we will also email this information for future reference.

📸 Learning Snapshot: Look for UFLI dictated sentences on your child's Showbie account!

What can you do at home?

-Assist your child to read their decodable 'take home' book each night and learn their heart words

-Explore the Reading Eggs library and Fast Phonics to read decodable texts

-Continue to revise sounds on the sound/letter ring

📝 Literature: reading responses and writing

The mentor text this week is the fairytale, Jack and the Beanstalk. Students will use this text to form the basis of their literary responses, such as writing an innovation on a text. They will use a photo of themselves to write about what they might find at the top of a beanstalk, and identify the elements of fairy tales that Jack and the Beanstalk exhibits. We will continue to add to our 'Fairy tale character / setting gallery' by using adjectives to describe character and setting.

What can you do at home?

-Reinforce correct entry and exit points for letters if your child writes at home

-Provide authentic opportunities for your child to write at home eg. writing birthday cards, shopping lists and keeping score in games.

-Practise lower case letter formations on the app 'red writing'

🔢 Maths

Students will explore the measurement concept of 'mass'. They will directly compare everyday objects (eg. from the kitchen pantry) to say which is heavier or lighter by hefting and using balance scales. They will use language to describe attributes of mass. See the vocabulary that we will be using below!

Mathematical vocabulary used: equal, unequal, balanced, unbalanced, the same, light-lighter-lightest, heavy-heavier-heaviest, hefting

What can you do at home?

-Bring the language of 'mass' into every day experiences at home - this is especially easy to do in the kitchen!

-Practise writing numbers at home, ensuring that numbers are not reversed! See the poster below which shows the correct entry and exit points for number formation.

🌏 CBL - Respect

We will continue our learning of fairy tales and discussing the elements of respect (or disrespect!) in literature.

We will connect the story of Jack and the Beanstalk to Science, by talking about the life cycle of seeds and plants. Students will make a 'grass head' animal. They will observe the way it changes over a week and record their ideas in a journal on their iPad.

*A note about re-reading take home books ... and why it's OK if your child brings home the same book!

Sometimes, your child might forget to change their take home book or choose one that they have read before. Did you know ... this is actually a good thing! Fluency is the main aim of oral reading, and one way fluency occurs is when automaticity* has been achieved (*the quality or fact of being performed involuntarily or unconsciously, as a reflex, innate process, or ingrained habit). One way we can develop automaticity in reading is to have multiple practice opportunities.

We have included a link below which provides more information about this:

https://phonicshero.com/automaticity-in-reading/

Wonga Weeklies

Term 3, Week 6 · 19 Aug 2024

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