The Learning Zone

"Learning is a treasure that will follow its owner everywhere." - Chinese Proverb

"Coming together is the beginning, staying together is progress,

and working together is success." - Henry Ford

Big Write and Highlighting

Each week, after the students have finished their Big Write, they complete a variety of editing processes -one of these is known as 'highlighting'. This is where students identify the vocabulary, connectives, openers and punctuation in their written work and highlight each aspect in the appropriate colour - yellow for vocabulary (or 'wow' words), pink for connectives, blue for openers and green for punctuation. Students are able to easily identify which of the four components they have done well, and those that could be improved. With the support of their teachers, they then set goals for future writing tasks.

Armidale Diocesan Mathematics Initiative (MaST)

What is happening in the world of mathematics at St Joseph's? Let's take a look!

Please see the information below to assist your child at home or to see what they have been doing so far this term.

Maths At Home:

Kindergarten - Division

Before your child can begin to practice division problems, they first need to understand the concept of division. Explain it to them by relating the idea of division to the idea of sharing and grouping. Help them conceptualise it by explaining how a number of items can be shared equally between groups, and give them examples. You might show them how six biscuits can be given to three children so each of them has two, or how someone with eight apples could give four each to two friends.

Problems of the Week:

Try these problems. You could use counters, toys or even draw your answers.

Kye had 10 jelly beans and he shared them equally with Mason. How many jelly beans did each boy receive?

Bridie is making necklaces with beads. She has 15 beads and wants to put 5 beads on

each necklace. How many necklaces will she make?

Roman had 18 cards. He gave two friends and himself an equal share so that they could all play a card game. How many cards did they each receive?

Stage 1 - Data

Stage 1 have been working with data. Look at the graph below and discuss the following questions.

How many eggs were collected on Wednesday?
How many eggs were collected on Tuesday?
On which day were the most eggs collected?
On which day were the least eggs collected?
How many eggs were collected altogether?
On which days were the same number of eggs collected?
How many more eggs were collected on Saturday than on Friday?
How many more eggs were collected on Tuesday than on Thursday?
How many eggs were collected on the weekend?

Stage 2 - Angles

Stage 2 are working on Angles.

Stage 3 - 3D Space

Stage 3 are beginning a unit of work on 3D Space.

In our world we are surrounded by 3 Dimensional objects. At school your child has been learning about prisms and pyramids. Ask them to explain what the difference is between these two categories of 3D objects. They should also be able to explain the different types of prisms and pyramids and how they are named.
Students have been gaining an understanding of nets, i.e. what a 3D object would look like if some of its sides were unattached and layed flat. Encourage your child to pull apart any containers that may be in your recycling to help them understand the net of that object.
Create fun and relatively easy origami by using websites like Easy Origami Instructions and Diagrams to transform 2D shape into a 3D object.

Have a great week of learning and fun!

Maree Holland & Greg O'Toole