SMPS Family iNewsletter

Class Updates and Reminders

Messages from our Learning Levels...

Prep

Dates to Remember:

  • Week 5: Thursday 20th May – Meet Adele Crozier in-visit (meteorologist)
  • Week 6: Monday 24th May- Growing Nutrition Workshop
  • Week 6: Friday 28th May: SMPS Open Day: 9-10:30am: We welcome the community to visit and see what students do in school.
  • Week 7: Friday 4th June- Farming our Future Workshop

 

Reminders:

Seesaw

Thank you for your engagement with Seesaw so far. We hope you are finding the platform useful and insightful. A reminder to continue checking Seesaw on a weekly basis for updates and celebrations of your child’s learning. 

This week’s post focused on number recognition and subitising. Please see below for some ideas on how to practise these skills at home.

 

Number Recognition

Students should be able to recognise numbers from 0 to 10 as numerals. There are many ways to practise this skill at home in real-life settings. Can they identify numbers around their home or on their way to school?

Numbers on license plates
Numbers on clocks
Street numbers
Tram stop numbers
Clock numbers
Numbers on license plates
Numbers on clocks
Street numbers
Tram stop numbers
Clock numbers

 

Subitising

This is the ability to look at a collection of objects/dots and say the amount without counting. We tend to do this naturally when we look at dice- for example, when we roll a 6, we do not need to count the dots to know it’s a 6.

subitise with dice
subitise with plates and lollies
subitise with dominoes
subitise with dice
subitise with plates and lollies
subitise with dominoes

Captain Trash

Unfortunately, Captain Trash was unwell for his scheduled visit on Monday 10th May. We are hoping to organise an alternative date. Captain Trash will teach students the importance of Reuse, Reduce, Recycle.

 

The Australian Early Development Census

 

The Australian Early Development Census (AEDC) is a nationwide data collection of early childhood development at the time children commence their first year of full-time school.  The AEDC highlights what is working well and what needs to be improved or developed to support children and their families by providing evidence to support health, education and community policy and planning.

The AEDC is held every three years and involves teachers of children in their first year of full-time school completing a research tool, the Australian version of the Early Development Instrument. The Instrument collects data relating to five key areas of early childhood development referred to as ‘domains’, these include:

  • Physical health and well being
  • Social competence
  • Emotional maturity
  • Language and cognitive skills (school-based)
  • Communication skills and general knowledge

As per the letter sent out on Tuesday 4th May, if you consent to the collection of your child’s information, you do not need to do anything. If you do not consent to the collection of your child’s information, please contact the office on 9935 9399 or email south.melbourne.ps@education.vic.gov.au before Monday 24th May. 

Grade 1

Dates to Remember:

  • Week 5: Monday 17th May– CERES towards zero waste Incursion.
  • Week 5: Thursday 20th May– Meet Adele Crozier in-visit (meteorologist).
  • Week 6: Thurday 27th and Friday 28th May - Trash Puppet Incursion (two classes on Thursday, two on Friday)
  • Week 6: Friday 28th May: SMPS Open Day: 9-10:30am: We welcome the community to visit and see what students do in school.

Reminders:

Upcoming Incursion - This term for our Inquiry topic, the Grade 1 students have been learning about sustainability. On the 27th and 28th of May the students will be taking part in the incursion ‘Trash Puppets.’ In the incursion, the students will be designing and creating puppets out of recycled objects. Could you please send in any clean recycled objects such as plastic bottles, containers or toilet paper rolls in to school or the students to use in the incursion?

Seesaw - Have you checked Seesaw this week to see all the great learning happening in Grade 1?

School iPad - Please help us keep the children's iPad as a learning device. Some children have downloaded extra apps and games onto their iPads which are very distracting for these children and their classmates. All the apps they need for learning are already on their iPads.

Grade 2

Dates to Remember:

  • Week 5: Monday 17th May: CERES Towards Zero Waste in visit: Students will learn about sustainable practises when disposing of waste.
  • Week 6: Friday 28th May: SMPS Open Day: 9-10:30am: We welcome the community to visit and see what students do in school.

Reminders:

Teachers are continuing to monitor your child's homework and are checking their diaries each week. Please support your child by reminding them to do at least 4 nights of reading and ONLY 1 lesson of Mathseeds and recording this in their school diary. 

Seesaw - Have you checked Seesaw this week to see all the great learning happening in Grade 2?

Grade 3/4

Dates to Remember:

  • Week 5: CERES Incursion; Weather Station Incursion
  • Week 6: Friday 28/05 SMPS Open Day 9-10:30am - We welcome the community to visit and see what students do in school.

Reminders:

Charging Devices

Throughout the week students use their devices to engage in learning opportunities and access the programs we use regularly at SMPS. For this reason, it is important that students come to school every day with a fully charged device. We have noticed an increase in students not charging their devices and ask that you ensure they have a routine set up to help them remember to do so.

Camp

Grade 3 and 4 will be going to YMCA Lady Northcote in Glenmore from Monday 6th - Wednesday 8th December 2021. In order to calculate the cost per child, we would like a rough indication of how many students will be attending. We estimate the cost to be around $430-$450 per child, although this figure may decrease if we have a high number of students attending. This link will take you to a form  which will ask you to indicate whether your child is likely to come to camp this year. Please submit the form with your response at your earliest convenience. If you are unsure, please select the most likely option. Your response will not be set in stone so you can change your mind at a later date if you need to. If you know that your child will not attend, please select ‘no’ so we can calculate accurate costs for the attendees. More details about camp will follow in the coming weeks.

Grade 5 and 6

Dates to Remember:

Reminders:

Homework Expectations:

-Reading for 30mins a night 4x a week: signed in Reading Diary by parent/carer

-Spelling for 10mins a night Monday-Thursday

-Minimum of 200 Mathletics activities points a week

Junior School Council (JSC)

The JSC will be meeting next week to discuss a fundraiser to be held on June 18th, the formation of a sub-committee to try to get more books into our school and lunchtime clubs. Stay tuned for further information in the next iNewsletter.