CLASSROOM NEWS!
Prep/1 News
This fortnight has been full of many new and interesting learning tasks! It is wonderful to watch the Prep/1's extending and challenging themselves in many different ways across their school day.
During writing, we have been learning all about compound sentences. It was so exciting this week to hear the students recall what components make up a compound sentence and then see them include this knowledge in their writing.
This week our Foundation InitiaLit group was introduced to the final letter/initial sound in the alphabet. We have now met all our sound buddies, and continue to extend our understanding of digraphs. Keep an eye out for our new 'Tricky Word' rings that will be coming home this week along with a letter to explain what to do with them.
Maths has been a lot of fun this fortnight, with a focus on additive thinking. Our Grade 1 students have been learning all about using the 'split' strategy to solve addition problems by using concrete materials to support them to visually break down each step and develop a mental understanding of how to use this when solving addition problems. Our Prep students have also been busy learning how to 'count on' from number to add another number to a collection by using lots of fun materials such as Play-Doh and dice!
News from the 3's and 2's!
We have had another exciting fortnight with the wonderful pre-service teacher Miss Kerr teaching us full time, as she enters her final days of teaching placement for her degree. We wish her the best of luck for the exciting journey that lies ahead and we will miss seeing her smiling face every day!
In Maths, Miss Kerr has been teaching lessons around problem solving strategies to have students unpacking worded questions in a multitude of different ways...
Using the C.U.B.E.S. technique to firstly highlight key elements of worded questions, the students have been experimenting with Problem Solving Strategies such as make a model, make a table, act it out and write an equation to reach a logical solution. The students have loved trialing new strategies and have been working diligently with their newly-assigned maths "buddies" to problem-solve collaboratively.
In Literacy, our students have loved exploring Jackie French's outstanding picture storybook Cyclone which cleverly incorporates couplet rhymes to tell the story of a true and devastating natural disaster. The students have used inspiration from this beloved Australian author to develop their own couplets on the same topic, and have also begun to explore ABAB rhyming scheme. We look forward to sharing these with you at Friday's assembly!
In InitiaLit, we have been focusing on the spelling strategies that accompany soft C and G (these letters are "soft" like dance or giraffe when followed by an E, I or Y). In Comprehesion, we have been learning about the comprehension strategy summarising to identify the main idea of a topic. Please ask your child to succinctly summarise their chapter or book next time you read! Finally, the students have loved listening to more of Harry Potter in our Storybook lessons, and were even sorted into their Hogwarts houses!
GRADE 4/5/6 NEWS
We've had a change of plan this fortnight with Mrs. Wilson stepping in for Miss. Childs while she is recovering from her sporting injury! Mrs. Clarke is still here with a wonderful student teacher. Miss. T has been working with a lot of the Grade 4/5/6 kids throughout the morning and the P/1/2s in the afternoons for the last three weeks. We will be saying goodbye to her at the end of this week and wish her well in the future!
Literacy
Mrs. Wilson's literacy group have been working on Alliteration poetry in literacy as part of their poetry topic. They have been looking at a few different styles of poetry. We may have a budding young poet in our midst!
Mrs. Clarke's literacy group have just finished reading The Iron Man by Ted Hughes and writing an information report on Iron. We have also been looking at direct speech and all the rules we need to know to add a suffix to a base word.
Maths
Mrs. Wilson has been following Miss. Child's planning and working with her group looking at shapes. In particular, they have been successfully developing their understanding of area and perimeter.
Mrs. Clarke's class have been guided by Miss. T to continue developing their understanding of mixed and improper fractions and are now moving on to a unit on graphs and what they tell us.
COOKING
This week we had a wonderful time in the kitchen! The students worked together to prepare a delicious dish, learning important skills along the way such as measuring, mixing, and following instructions. It was fantastic to see everyone taking turns, helping one another, and showing great teamwork.
The highlight was, of course, tasting the final product. The smiles (and empty plates!) showed just how much the students enjoyed their hard work. Cooking not only builds independence but also gives students the chance to practise maths, science, and literacy skills in a hands-on and engaging way.
We are already looking forward to our next cooking adventure!
