Level 1: Connect
Welcome to Week 5!
A reminder that students need to be wearing a wide brimmed hat when they are out in the school yard. Students are able to leave their hats in their school locker is this is convenient for you.
Don't forget to pack cutlery if you order a lunch through the canteen that requires it.
Thank-you for your support in helping to establish students in the routine of take-home readers. Students change these over twice a week (more often if necessary).
Could all parents/carers please say goodbye to their child at the classroom door, rather than coming into the classroom. It is so important that your child comes into the classroom independently and they unpack their own bag and put it away. We know they can all do it themselves! They are extremely capable and if for some reason they can't, their teacher will be there to help them. It also makes for a much more settled morning for every child in the class. Thank-you.
We have a 'fruit or veg' snack everyday at 10am to give students a 'fuel up' in between a 2 hour morning session. Could you please remember to pack something for your child, even on lunch order days. Thank you.
Celebrations 🎉
Science:
Students enjoyed a super-engaging and interactive science lesson with Wilko, exploring concepts of gravity and structures. Level 1 students would need to collaborate in a small team, to design, plan and build a free standing structure that would hold a golf ball on top. There were many interesting designs and students were able to experience success and have a great time doing it!
The following week students were set a challenge of rolling a golf ball for 1 metre, into an ice cream container, without pushing it! It was wonderful to see so many teams working together to figure this challenge out. Lots of success at the end of the hour!
Buddies:
Students have been meeting with their Level 6 buddies. Each fortnight they get together with their buddies for a Maths session that the Level 6 students have organised. Lots of fun! Each Wednesday students will be eating their lunch with their buddies. The friendships that have formed are very cute!
Cooking:
Level 1 students dusted off their chef hats and got busy in the kitchen! In this lesson, students made savoury muffins using common pantry ingredients and some fresh eggs and veggies from our chickens and garden. We had discussions about how the recipe can be easily adjusted to add other fresh ingredients/ flavours. It is safe to say, the muffins were a hit!
What's coming up in the next 2 weeks:
Maths:
We have continued consolidating our understanding of place value through a range of activities including explicit instruction and even games! We have also continued exploring the concept of subitising. Subitising is an extremely important Math skill that enables students to harness their creativity and explain how they see numbers in an efficient way.
Reading:
We have continued on with 'Fluency Pairs' this week. Fluency Pairs is a reading strategy where two students read together to improve their reading fluency and accuracy. This method involves one student reading aloud while the other listens and provides support as needed. The roles are then reversed, with each student taking turns as the reader and the listener. Each student gets 1 minute to read and then they record the amount of words they have read. We then repeat the process each day with the same passage.
Spelling:
Our spelling focus for the next 2 weeks is:
Do you know what a Heart Word is?? It is an irregularly spelled word, meaning some part of the word will have to be 'learned by heart'. Heart Words are also used so frequently that they need to be read and spelled automatically. Examples of Heart Words are: said, are, and where. These are the Heart Words we will focus on over the next 2 weeks:
Inquiry:
Students have been exploring the concept of 'community'. This involves students gaining an understanding of what it means to belong to a community as well as the various forms of communities they belong to. Over the coming weeks we will segway into the responsibilities of community members to positively contribute whether it be a school, home or sports community.
Have a great fortnight, see you in week 7!
Suzanne, Sean, Nishtha and Leon😊