From the Classroom

Foundation

Our Term calendar calls this week, Term One - Week Three.  However, the Foundation children have only attended school for seven days.  I must congratulate children and parents on a commendable start to the school year. We are slowly building our resilience and stamina for each day to end positively. Wednesdays will be an important day to recharge and be well rested for our Specialists days. Art is on Thursday, Music and P.E. on Friday afternoons.  The children will attend school for 5 days after the March long weekend.

During our day at school, we have had a strong focus on reading, in whole class situations, non-fiction books using the app EPIC.  They are very engaged with these and so far the books have mainly consisted of animals. This week we have read books on the topics of Turtles and Tigers.  This correlates with the Letter T which we have focused on in our phonic lessons. On Tuesday they made a mini book on this letter.  This went home in their blue plastic pocket. We talk about the name T, and the sound we expect it to make is “t” like in tiger, ten, table. 

In Numeracy we have focused on Pattern and identifying, as well as constructing them with unifix and coloured pop sticks.

They also enjoy the app Little Monkey which uses a ten frame to solve problems such as “how many more to make 10”.

Most learning at school is pasted into our Learning Book but sometimes activities may go home in their plastic pocket.  It is a great idea to make a Learning Box for home.  These tasks can be stored in this box and when time allows you can revisit learnt material.  Retention of concepts requires multiple exposures and by doing this, it will certainly assist.

Please remember to fill out your child’s Home Reading Log.  I greatly value this practice and it demonstrates a home/school partnership with learning to read.

Thank you so much to those who have brought their children to school for Prep Assessment on a Wednesday.  I am enjoying this 1:1 time and getting to know the children on a more personal level. I am looking to fill 4 time slots next Wednesday 16th Feb; 10 am, 11 am, 12 pm and 2 pm. 

Please email me if you can fill one of these. Thanking you.😊

Grade 4

This week in Grade 4 we have been busy integrating our theme of Weather/Natural Disasters into all our areas of learning (Reading, Writing, Maths & Science).  Students started the week by making their own mind maps with words related to our topic, we have collated these and are in the process of creating a class mind map on the wall that we can add on to as we learning new things.

We got to visit Hayley and Harold from Life Ed on Tuesday and students loved learning about different medicines, as well as problem solving ways to make ourselves feel better without taking medication when we have headaches or sore throats.

On Wednesday afternoons, we participate in sport with the Grade 3’s. We are using this time to practice our Athletics skills in preparation for upcoming events. Students will have the opportunity to practice Long and Triple Jump, Shot Put, Discus, Relays, Hurdles, Long Distance Run, Sprint and High Jump.

Our EPIC code is gbz5452

Lunch Time Games

Each Tuesday, Mrs Lardner and Miss McCoy along with Junior School Council are running a lunch time activity. Students can come into the Tutoring Room and play a variety of board games, some favourites this week were Connect 4, Spot It and Tenzi. Students can also use the Magna Tiles and Lego to build their creations.

Congratulations to Indie G for beating both Mrs Lardner and Miss McCoy in Spot It!

Grades 5/6

We have had a smooth start to the year. Our first unit of the year  is focused around  weather and natural disasters. Our learning across all curriculum areas will involve this theme. 

This week we conducted our first science experiment. We were testing how rain falls from a cloud.