Infants and Primary
Infants
Lots of fantastic learning has been happening in our Infants area. We have been enjoying noticing the change in weather with the warm days finally giving way to some much needed rain and greening up our outdoor spaces a bit, and now of course the chill in the air as Winter starts to set in. Please remember to make sure your children have appropriate warm clothing that is labelled so that it can go home on or with the right person ready for the fresh start the following day.
Our focus at school is for learning and being safe with our friends. Each day, all staff work together with this in mind, and regular Positive Behaviour for Learning (PBL) lessons are taught across our school. The consistent expectations of our staff help align what is taught in the classroom is also being followed up in the playground. Students can expect, and benefit from, common language and expectations from classroom teachers, duty teachers and any casual teacher who might be at school.
Kindy/ Year 1
The learning in K/1 is going ahead in leaps and bounds. Many of our Kindergarten students are really seeing all the foundational sound skills we’ve been working on begin to ‘click’ into place as they are becoming more confident in reading and writing short words. This is such an exciting time for young learners when the reading and writing process begins to make more sense and have more meaning and helps to set them up for future reading and writing success. Our Year 1 students continue to be great role models for our younger students, and this also applies to learning. They love ‘showing off’ what they can do and share with Kindergarten students how their skills too will grow to be able to read ‘harder’ books, for example.
In Mathematics, we have been busy sorting, categorising and displaying information. We have realised that we can sort and classify in many different ways, and have explored this by sorting different items in our classroom and playground, such as Lego, leaves, shape blocks and animals.
A highlight last week was definitely taking part in Year 5/6’s Market Day. So much fun was had and big decisions were made in deciding where to ‘spend’ their tickets. There was lots of coloured hair, painted cheeks, sticky treats and ice-cream cheeks and chins and wrists adorned with bracelets! Thank you to 5/6 and all those involved in making this ‘the best school day ever’ for our younger students!
Year 1/2
In English, students recently wrapped up a unit that looked at different contexts around the world. This unit has connected nicely with a previous History unit looking at seasons and seasonal changes. Students were encouraged to consider their own context, including what different activities or changes they make throughout the year as the seasons change. A literary technique explored was cause and effect. Students were tasked to write using complex sentences with a conjunction to separate the clauses that showed cause and effect.
In Mathematics, students have been strengthening their skills in creating equivalence in a range of ways, understanding that different combinations can provide the same end result. We have just begun a new unit looking at data and have kicked this off by collecting data on the various combinations that can be made when rolling two six- sided dice. Students have practiced creating tally marks to effectively keep count and have held discussions to interpret this data. Over the next week, students will explore a range of ways to represent and interpret data collected.
Students participated in ‘Do it for Dolly’ activities in week 4, learning about Dolly and the meaning of the foundation. To assist students in understanding why kindness is so important, ‘buckets’ have been added to our walls with every student having their name on one. The class have been tasked to be ‘bucket fillers’ by doing small acts of kindness and physically adding to others’ buckets. We have written kind messages as well as added little pieces of confetti into the buckets when one student notices another being kind. This physical representation aims to show students different ways in which they can ensure they are being kind and respectful members of our school community.
Year 1/ 2 have been exploring local Indigenous sites and considering reasons for preserving history. Last Friday, we went for a spectacular walk alongside our local Boorowa River. During this walk, students were encouraged to consider what the area may have looked like before European settlers arrived, how education may differ to now, and what plants and animals are native. Students took a break from their walking to have a fruit break picnic and jot down some notes about what they had been seeing, thinking and wondering during the excursion. This exploration will link in with the Creative Arts unit, Science and English units over the remaining weeks of the term as students make cross- curricular connections.
This will be my final newsletter for 1/ 2 for the year, as I am heading off on maternity leave very soon now. Ms. Phoebe Wood will be supporting 1/ 2 through the remainder of the year. Students are fortunate to have already built such strong bonds with their new teacher over the last year and a half and are very much looking forward to spending more time with Ms. Wood. Thank you to parents and carers for a fabulous start to the year, and although I will certainly miss this cohort, I know I am leaving you all in extremely good hands to finish the year out.
Miss. Friend
Year 2/3
Year 2/3 have just completed our unit of work on Wandi, a true story about a dingo cub who was lost and alone but found safety at a Dingo Sanctuary just outside of Melbourne. We have gained a new appreciation for dingoes and how important they are to the Australian eco-system. We are excited to start our next English unit based on the texts ‘Piano Fingers’ and ‘Sonam and the silence’, we will be exploring how authors use imagery and symbols in literature and identifying how figurative language can influence meaning in a text. In Maths, we have been exploring larger numbers. We are getting very good at partitioning numbers and adding them back together, and we know that zero is a very important numeral. Our next step is working on our multiplication skills. In PDH we have been exploring how to be a good friend to others and how to be assertive in a positive way. We have had lots of extra fun things happening at school over the last few weeks. We enjoyed our visit from the Enviromentors who spoke to us about worm farms and composting. Some of our Year 3’s participated in the Rostrum Public Speaking competition and did a great job. We participated in the National Simultaneous story time in the library and listened to the book ‘The Truck Cat’, some of our class even dressed up as truck drivers. The ‘Do it for Dolly’ colour run was lots of fun, and we all went home looking very blue but feeling good that day.
Miss Downey
Year 2/3 Teacher
Primary
Primary have been very busy over the last few weeks. On the 16th of May a group of students competed in the District Cross Country carnival here in Boorowa, it was a fantastic day and all of the students enjoyed having the chance to run against students from other schools. On Monday 19th and Tuesday the 20th of May, each class enjoyed a visit from the ‘Enviromentors’ group who spoke to us about worm farms and composting. We even got to hold a worm and have a close look at it. Students who had nominated themselves to do speeches participated in the Rostrum Public Speaking competition and all of the students wrote very engaging speeches and did a fantastic job presenting them to parents and the Primary and Infants students. Some Primary and Infants students participated in the National Simultaneous story time in the library and listened to the book ‘The Truck Cat’. It was fun to see some people dressed up for the occasion.
On Tuesday the 27th of May some of the Year 5 and 6 students played rugby league and league tag at the Mortimer Shield in Young, despite it being a little cold and wet they all had a fabulous day. After a postponement in week 4 the Year 5/6 students were lucky to have a sunny day in week 5 to hold their much-anticipated market day. They did a great job of organising and running this day and the younger students loved the stalls and games that were on offer. The cream sponge throwing was a big hit to end the day.
Looking ahead, starting in week 6 we have Gecko Sports coming to work across the Primary and Infants classes. Gecko Sport is a company that visits schools to provide unique sporting experiences aimed at developing students' skills and supporting the PDHPE curriculum. From weeks 6 to 10 in Term 2, students will participate in these sessions every Tuesday with their class. Each session will be led by a representative from Gecko Sport. We also have students travelling to Orange on Wednesday the 11th of June to compete in the Western Cross Country Carnival, we wish them good luck for their run.
Miss Downey
Acting AP Primary