From the Classroom
Reading in Grades 1 and 2: Mesmer Activities
Grades 1 and 2 are absolutely loving the reading hour. We are having a big focus on our comprehension strategies during our mini lessons, with students then applying these skills in independent reading time. Reading conferences have also been popular, as students work individually with their teacher to set reading goals. This term, we have also started completing Mesmer activities to assist with phonics development. All students have been tested and are working on point of need tasks. This may include letter/sound work, short vowel sounds (cat, let, pig, hot, cup), digraphs (ch, sh, th), blends (cl, sn, br) and the list goes on. Students have been highly engaged through educational activities and look forward to this part of the daily reading hour. Foundation students have completed the test and will begin Mesmer activities soon! See photos below of us busy at work.
Art News
The Grade 3 and 4 students have been working on a mixed media artwork over the last few weeks based on agate geodes. We first researched what they are, how they are formed and where they are found. Some students even had one at home! We used torn coloured paper for the centre, then used a number of different materials for the rings, including textas, oil pastels, watercolour paint, glitter and metallic pens. You can see their wonderful creations in the learning street. Please enjoy some photos of the Grade 3 students creating their artwork.
Science News
This term our focus in on chemical science. The Grade 1 and 2 students are learning about how things change when something happens to them, for example, a change in temperature including when something is frozen, melted or cooked. We did a simple experiment to see if adding different ingredients to ice could help it to melt the fastest, and how this could be helpful to our everyday lives. We found that salt overwhelmingly won the melting race and it is due to the salt dissolving into separate sodium and chloride ions that break down the bonds between the water molecules. How cool! Here are the Grade 2’s eagerly awaiting the final result of our experiment.
Frog Bog
As always students love to play down in the Frog Bog, some students have started their own business. You can choose to participate in long jump, ten pin bowling or mini golf. Students pay with crystals the local currency.
