Lower Primary

Lower Primary

Term 4 

Who can believe that this is the last section newsletter for 2018. The year has just flown by. Once our formal learning programs conclude, Lower Primary will celebrate the achievements of all our students particularly those who are moving to Upper Primary, and of course Christmas! Our special celebrations will include an end of year assembly, Christmas activities and excursions. There will be lots of celebrating to do!

 

REPORTS

It is that time of the year when I read the end of year reports.  I have been impressed by the individual achievements of each of our students and the tremendous effort that they had put into their school work this year. Well done everyone. I am proud of you!

 

TRANSITION PROGRAM

Students and their families are always supported during transitional periods of school life. For Lower Primary students the key periods are when entering school at Prep and when moving to Upper Primary.  We aim to ensure that students can make these transitions as smoothly as possible by being prepared for change.

This year’s Transition to School program has been very successful. The program has offered a range of opportunities for our students entering our school in prep, moving to us from other schools and also our students moving onto Upper Primary.

 We have welcomed 20 new prep students and 2 students from other schools and they have enjoyed spending time in classrooms.  It has certainly helped to make the new little people feel happy, comfortable and keen to come back next year.

Students who are moving on to Upper Primary have also had the opportunity to visit the Bundoora Campus and spend time in those classrooms and they are looking forward to moving on next year. How exciting for them all!

 

LOWER PRIMARY FAREWELL ASSEMBLY

Monday the 17th December will be a very special occasion where we recognise and celebrate the many achievements of our students and formally farewell those moving to Upper Primary and onto other schools. These students have worked extremely hard during their time in Lower Primary, and are now ready to meet the challenges that 2019 has to offer. We are extremely proud of Fabian, Jake, Evy, Nuh, Liam, Naihi, Justin, Nicholas, Shane, Hadiya, Mason, Roman, Maggie, Chloe, Jett, James, Eliza, Daniel, Kenai, Talia, Tamar, Aaren, Shalom, Jamie, Frankie, Veda, Matin, Liam and Angus. We congratulate these students and wish them success in 2019 and beyond!

 

CHRISTMAS CONCERT

The Christmas Concert was a great celebration of the Concord School Community. It was wonderful to see families from across the school come together to recognise the end of a great year.  This concert is always a highlight and our students love to perform for family and friends.  For those who were there on the night we hope that you were as impressed as we were with our students’ performance. A fantastic effort!

 

MOVIE MAKING

This term we have been going to the Discovery Centre each Thursday afternoon with Jackie Lakin as part of PJL, PLB, PNC and PKS’ combined Thursday afternoon activities.  We have been filming a special Concord News Weather Report using the green screen in the Discovery Centre Movie Studio. Ashleigh films all our great acting and makes a DVD at the end of the term for us to take home. All students have been dressing up and acting as weather reporters to report on the weather and temperature for the day. We have dressed up and used props to act out activities and events people can do in different seasons and temperatures. We all think we make great movie stars.

MURAL

Jackie Ellis our Visual Arts teacher, has worked with students from across the section to complete an amazing mural focusing on the Seasons. This art work has been linked to the integrated unit on weather and is also linked to student goals around using primary and secondary colours to create an artwork. As you will see from the photos, the mural is outstanding. It will be mounted on the wall leading up to the outside portables and will be a constant reminder of our students’ artistic contribution to the campus . Special thankyou to Jackie for her creative vision and individual work with students.

English

The students have explored Text Structure and Organisation.  Students have been encouraged to differentiate between a fiction and non-fiction text with our older students looking at the contents, index and glossary of these texts. This has linked into our writing work on narrative texts which have been realistic, imagined, or a mix of both. The students have continued to use Aided Language Displays to choose characters, a setting, a problem and a solution in their stories.  Students have worked with the teacher to create their story and ideas. They have typed these stories and drawn illustrations ready for publication. Some of the inside classes have made times to visit other classes to share their stories and are very excited about doing this. Our younger students have continued to respond to texts orally, by matching or circling pictures, or by the teacher scribing a student’s response. They have also responded creatively through dress ups to act out the story and drawing to show their understanding.

Mathematics

Students are concluding their work in the area of subtraction.

Activities have continued to include:

  • Focussing on less and smaller as subtraction means the group is smaller or less than.
  • Number rhymes and chants such "there was 10 in the bed" “10 little monkeys jumping on the bed” “five little speckled frogs”.
  • Using verbal action stories that involved taking away for example, there were 3 ducks in the pond and one flew away. How many ducks now? These stories are supported by concrete materials, pictures, drawings
  • Taking one away from a group and finding a total
  • Using two different coloured counters on a tens frame to represent that a number is made up of parts.
  • Solve basic subtraction problems using counters to assist them.
  • Solve subtraction problems using count back from the largest number as a strategy for example 7-2 =5  Put the 7 in your head and count back 2- 7, 6, 5

Students have begun work on Pattern and Algebra.

Activities have included:

·         Copying repeated patterns using one to one correspondence with objects

·         Copying a pattern associated with a familiar activity such as a repeating movement pattern- jump, jump, clap.

·         Making patterns based on objects being the same or different.

·         Continuing a simple repeated pattern using certain objects, red bead, blue bead, red bead, blue bead

·         Copy and continue shape patterns of two or more elements.

Integrated Unit - Weather

Over the last two weeks the Preps have been learning about the rain. The students have enjoyed reading stories, dancing to rain themed songs and jumping outside in the puddles. They also made some rain artwork in which students had to blow paint through a straw. The older students have continued withexperiments to investigate weather elements. This week students made a rainbow and completed a procedural text to reflect this learning.

 

HOW TO MAKE A RAINBOW

 Materials: a packet of skittles, a paper plate, water

 Steps:

1.    Put the skittles around the plate.

2.    Pour the water onto the plate

3.    Wait

4.    It made a rainbow

 

Social Competencies

This fortnight students have enjoyed visiting the Life Education Van. Classes have explored the following different themes.

My Body Matters: Has focused on things children can do to keep themselves healthy (personal hygiene, diet, activity and sleep). (PMM & PAL)

Harold’s Friendship: Has explored friendships and caring for others, feelings and emotions, safe and unsafe places and situations. (PNC, PJL, PLB)

Ready, Steady, Go: Has explored physical activity, safety strategies and what our body needs to be healthy. (PHT, PKD)

Safety Rules: Has explored recognising safe and unsafe environments, how to care for each other and maintain friendships, paces and people who we can go to for help. (PLW, PKW)

2018

As we come to the end of another successful year there are many people I would like to thank. To our parents and volunteers, I thank you for your ongoing support and assistance. To the Lower Primary students, I thank you for the effort that you have put into your school work and the way in which you have cooperated with your teachers and friends this year. And finally, to the teaching and support staff, I thank you for your professionalism and commitment to our wonderful students. Great job everyone!

Have a wonderful holiday break with your families and I look forward to working with many of your wonderful children again next year.

 

Kath Moore

Watsonia Campus Principal