Round the classes
Reception class: Katie
Wow we can’t believe it is week 4 already. We have been working so hard over the past few weeks. In literacy we have busy working on our sounds. We have been learning how to read and write four letter words, as well as write sentences. We have also been doing lots of work in our oral storytelling.
In maths we have been learning about the parts in numbers e.g. if number 5 is the whole then a part could be 4 and 1 or 2 and 3. We have also been learning how to represent numbers in different ways. As part of our work with the Zone of Regulation we have been working on the green zone, we have been learning about the feelings associated with this zone and tools that enable us to stay in this zone. Finally we have been very busy out in our garden. We have been planting veggies and flowers.
Year 1 class: Kelly and Troy
This fortnight we have been working on the following sounds in phonics: 'oy' as in boy, 'ea' as in eat, 'oo' as in moon and 'oo' as in book. They have been writing words and forming sentences using these sounds.
We have starting learning how to write a persuasive text and the children completed their Big Write on: Pets should be allowed at school. They are doing such a great job with this!
It was National Simultaneous Storytime this Thursday and the Year 1 and Year 2 classes joined together to listen to the book: The Speedy Sloth. The children created some sloth finger puppets and worked in pairs to create a story. They planned, filmed and acted out their story and then videoed their story. They did such a great job!
In maths we have been learning about patterns: creating, copying and repeating patterns. We have been using mathematical language such as "what is the unit in the pattern" and "how many elements are in the pattern?"
Year 2 class: Sam and Suzie
In our English lessons this past fortnight, we have been exploring persuasive texts and learning how to use high-modality language, Ollie Openers, and WOW words. On Thursday, the students completed their Big Write, where they were tasked with convincing the readers about which season is the best. The effort and creativity displayed in their writing was fantastic. We saw some excellent examples of persuasive arguments, with students using strong vocabulary and convincing language to support their opinions.
Which is the best season?
In Mathematics, our class has been working hard to develop their problem-solving skills. They have been learning a variety of strategies, including doubles, near doubles, counting on from a friendly number and inverse operations. To make the learning process more engaging and enjoyable, we have been incorporating games and hands-on activities. The students have been participating, and their progress has been impressive.
On Wednesday during Week 4, our class joined Kelly’s class for the National Simultaneous Story Time event. We all gathered together and read ‘The Speedy Sloth’, joining over 2 million children across Australia who were reading the same book at the same time! It was an exciting and memorable experience for our students. Afterward, they collaborated with a partner from a different class to create their own sloth puppets and plan and film their own narrative stories. The morning was filled with teamwork, creativity, and a genuine love of learning. It was wonderful to see our students displaying their character strengths and working collaboratively with their peers.
As always, we encourage parents and guardians to support their children’s learning at home by discussing the persuasive techniques and mathematical strategies covered in class. Thank you for your continued support, and we look forward to another productive and exciting two weeks ahead.
Year 2/3 class: Stephen and Henry
We had fun with hands-on learning this week, making a map of Australia using playdough. Our goal was to model the playdough into the map and then to add the names of the states and territories as part of our Australian geography learning and as part of our learning about the RFDS. This task will give us opportunities to try more challenging tasks, including writing and designing our own travel brochures for different parts of Australia. Our work samples are shown below. The task was also an excellent opportunity to practise our collaborative skills.
You can also see our clips that are added to this newsletter. (see below)
In maths we have looked at some more challenging question types that give us an opportunity to show how deep our understanding is of any particular concept. The example below shows a question type that we attempted.
We are also enjoying having Nicola, our student teacher with us. We have started some activities to help us build our knowledge and skills with recount writing.
Year 4/5 class: Alex
In mathematics this fortnight students have been working toward their goals in the area of addition. They have been learning and revising efficient strategies and making sure they understand how the place value concept of renaming is used in column addition. Students have also been exploring problem-solving strategies that can be used to approach multi-step problem-solving challenges. They have begun to build a class problem-solving toolbox of these strategies.
In literacy students have been analysing their Brightpath persuasive writing pieces to analyse what they are doing consistently and what needs improvement. They have been selecting a goal that relates to one of the VCOP areas of vocabulary, connectives, openers and punctuation.
In Health students have been tracking their Zones of Regulation across the day, discussing triggers which make them feel in the yellow zone and reflecting on which tools they actually find effective and which they don’t, to help them self-regulate in their different zones.
In geography students have been applying their mapping skills to create a map of Uraidla Primary School which includes the map features they have explored such as border, orientation, legend, title, scale and source.
Students thoroughly enjoyed our Walk Safely to School Day in Week 3. We have also had our third and final Bike Ed session. Students demonstrated persistence, co-operation, effort and respect in their lessons with the instructors who commented on how much they had appreciated working with such a focused group of students at Uraidla Primary.
Year 5/6 class: Sallie
Although I missed 4 days of last week (had a great time with my family on a houseboat to celebrate my son returning from college in the US) the students were kept very busy with Andrew (OSHC director and relief teacher).
On Wednesday they had the last 3 sessions of bike education, and they were lucky that the weather allowed them to get out and about in beautiful Uraidla.
Students started a unit of work on persuasive writing and Andrew introduced the idea of pathos, logos, ethos (ask them what this means). It culminated in groups running different debates.
We have started a maths investigation that will feature our knowledge off fractions and decimals (you will be invited to a special games night to showcase our creations).
We have continued our discovery of maps and getting to know different countries with our studies in geography.
Benji has been at District footy, Ivy and Edith plus Callum, Innes and Harrison from Alex's class have competed in cross country and dates have been set for girls' and boys' netball and year 6 Aquatics Camp. Always on the go!!
SAPSASA News
District Football
At SAPSASA football I was representing the Hills district and I was picked out of seventy people. We had three try-outs, two of them were with everyone and the last one was with a reduced squad. I was able to make it through all of the try-outs. After the try-outs were over, we had three trainings (once a week) until the carnival week. The carnival went for three days with three games a day, so nine games in total. The first game that we played we were winning the whole game until the last twenty seconds when they kicked a goal and won by two points. The next two games that we played we won by a lot but we weren’t able to apply the mercy rule (if you are winning by a margin of more than sixty points the opposition gets to kick it out of the middle instead of a ball up.) We made that our goal of the season. We won all the rest of our games and the last three games we put the mercy rule on our opposition. I was put in full back for every game except one half where I was put in full forward and I kicked three goals. Due to our eight wins and one loss we got second place in division two and we moved Hills up to division one for the first time ever. We had a lot of fun.
By Benji
Cross Country
On Tuesday 23rd May, Harrison, Callum, Innes, Edith and Ivy ran in the SAPSASA district competition at Woodside recreation grounds. Arlo, Callum, and Innes ran 2km and Edith and Ivy ran 3km. There were schools competing from all over the Adelaide Hills.
The basic rules of cross country are:
- If competitors running cross country stop, they are immediately disqualified (you can run, walk, sprint, jog or skip, JUST DON'T STOP!)
- You have to do the entire lap/laps
- Unspoken rule: show good sportsmanship.
All in all, everyone competing at cross country ran hard, showed good sportsmanship and had a great time!
By Edith Comey
PE: Henry
Since our last newsletter we had a fantastic visit from a representative of the SANFL. On this day he ran a footy clinic with all the classes. The junior primary classes focused on fundamental ball skills including how to hold a football correctly, handballing and kicking the ball. The middle and upper primary classes went to the next step of skill development and incorporated marking the ball and kicking to a target. The junior primary students have brought home a flyer advertising the Auskick program that runs in Uraidla on Sunday mornings if they would like to play further!
Outside of football, our focus in PE over the past fortnight has been the development of throwing and catching skills. We started with learning how to chest pass a basketball between partners, ensuring that our eyes are on the ball when it is thrown towards us. We then followed on this learning by experimenting with throwing and catching smaller balls such as tennis balls by playing a range of ball games. Lots of fun!
Indonesian : Ibu Susan
We have been very productive building sentences using sea creature words plus prepositions of place and colours and numbers! This requires an understanding of Indonesian word order which is different to English. The younger students have enjoyed stories about various sea animals and are focusing on the words besar (big) and kecil (small).
Science : Troy
In Science this fortnight students have begun some new topics. Students in Year 2/3 have begun looking at matter and the properties of solids and liquids. Alex’s and Sallie’s classes have started looking at different states of matter and how these can change from one to another. The receptions and Year ones are beginning to create animals and their habitats using everyday materials with the year twos beginning to look at different forces and their impact on objects.