Learning & Teaching (Term 1)
Foundation
Dear Parents,
Welcome to Foundation. We are very excited to be your child’s teachers. The bell will ring at 8:30am. This is the start of the school day.
To help settle your child into the school routine please assist with the following tasks...
please encourage your child to place their bag into their locker
place water bottle on their table
place reading wallet in the basket by the entry door
Thank you for your assistance.
Please give your child a hug and kiss before you leave. Please remind them who is picking them up at the end of the day.
We are looking forward to a fantastic Foundation year.
Thank you,
Loren and Catherine
TERM 1 OVERVIEW
FAITH BASED INQUIRY -Who am I?
Curriculum: History
Connected to this is…
Literacy-All About Me/Family/Friends
Maths- Learning to write and make numbers to 10 initially, Sequencing order of events, Calendars (Celebrations and Commemorations)
Oral Language-Talking about themselves, favourite things to do, important people in their lives, their family, sharing their Holiday Journal Books.
Social and Emotional Learning- Following school rules, qualities of a good friend, listening to others, sharing and turn taking.
CLASS INFORMATION
Please bring in one thing starting with the letter F or L on Monday February 11th eg. fish, fork, lollies, lion, etc.
Students will begin to bring home mini booklets with high frequency words we have been learning. Please take a moment in your routine to read it to your child and have your child read it back to you.
As of Monday, each student will be taking home a Home Reading book. Please sit down in a quiet place with your child and enjoy reading to your child. They may wish to read back to you!
Please remember to send back the Holiday Journal so that your child can present their book to their class.
ORGANISATIONAL MATTERS
Please make sure ALL school items are labelled eg. water bottles, jumpers, hats, containers etc.
If you have a son, can you please have a chat to him about how to use the urinal?
Please remember a labelled library bag and art smock for next week if you haven’t already brought one in.
Please let us know any important information about your child.
Please download the St. Brendan’s Skoolbag App as this is where you will find all necessary information.
IMPORTANT INFORMATION
A reminder that Foundation Assessment Interviews are each Wednesday from February 6th- February 27th. Please see timetable if you are unsure of your set time.
PLEASE NOTE: Session is 1 hour WITH student and teacher and will conclude with a 5 minute discussion with parent.
Year 1 / 2
Overarching Learning Intentions in Maths
Data: Students learn to choose an appropriate questions, gather data in tally form and represent given data.
Grade 1
Choose simple questions, gather responses and make pictographs
Grade 2
Identify a question of interest, collect, check and classify relevant data using pictographs and tablegraphs.
Number, Algebra, and place value: Students will learn to recognise that numbers represent a collection and are ordered. We are using terminology such as more than, less than and the same as.
Grade 1
Develop confidence with number sequences to and from 100.
Skip count by 2s, 5s, and 10s.
Grade 2
Develop confidence with number sequences to and from 1000
Increase and decrease by 2s, 3s, 5s and 10s from any given starting point.
Overarching Learning Intentions in English
Introducing the elements of V.C.O.P (Vocabulary, Connectives, Openers (sentence starters), Punctuation) to up-level their writing.
Writing: being able to produce a recount with correct structure and punctuation.
Reading: read texts with familiar features and structures using developing phrasing, fluency, phonic, and strategies such as prediction, monitoring meaning and rereading.
Speaking and listening: opportunities to express themselves in front of a group and extend their oral language.
Overarching Learning Intentions in faith based inquiry
Students will recognise that the way they think and act affects their relationships with others. Students will look at their own identity within the St. Brendan’s community and learn ways to have respectful relationships with their peers.
Social and Emotional Learning: through programs such as Respectful Relationships and the Resilience Project. We also use Democratic Class Meetings fortnightly.
Homework expectations
10m home reading nightly
high frequency spelling words per week
Housekeeping
Specialist days are on Tuesday and Library is on a wednesday.
Testing for the high frequency words every thursday and friday. Parent helpers would be appreciated.
Please sign the reading diaries every night.
Parent help is always welcomed in the junior area! :)
Communication with teachers
Please meet up with the 1/2 teachers either before or after school, if you are unable to, our emails are:
nristrom@sbsomerville.catholic.edu.au
jkloppenborg@sbsomerville.catholic.edu.au
kdonovan@sbsomerville.catholic.edu.au
Year 3 / 4
We are looking forward to working in partnership with you throughout the year. During this year, St.Brendan’s motto will be that each child is “Known, Encouraged, and Challenged”. Your teachers for the year are;
Year 3/4TT: Bernie Turner and Trish Taranto,
Year 3/4TR: Julie Thomas and Jenny Riddell,
Year 3/4S: Rose Smith,
Year 3/4B: Nicole Bibby.
We are also lucky enough to have three Learning Support Officers;
Andrea Connors, Sandra Smith and Louise Street who will be working with various groups of children across the Year 3/4 level.
Literacy
Literacy is broken up into three areas, Reading, Writing and Listening and Speaking.
In small groups, children will be focusing on reading a book with their teacher and learning various strategies to improve their comprehension. They will also be looking at different grammar components and punctuation.
Writing
VCOP (Vocabulary, Connectors, Openers, Punctuation) is a big part of our writing. We will be sending home ‘Talk Homework’ each fortnight. This is a great opportunity for you to sit and discuss the topic they will be writing on the next day. We ask that they do not record their ideas as this is a discussion to generate ideas for them. We have found in the past that this is a vital part of helping children write.
In writing, we will be covering the genre of Narrative writing and Persuasive writing.
Reading
We are really excited to continue our levelled reading program (LLI), which was very successful in 2018. This program aims to improve reading fluency and comprehension. Student's are regularly monitored and moved accordingly.
Later this term some students will be invited to join a ‘Book Club’. Home reading is an integral part of the club. We would love parents to encourage children to complete expectations to ensure ‘Book Club’ runs smoothly.
Speaking and Listening
It is important that we encourage students to use the correct language when speaking and carefully listen to everyone. We work with a program called ‘Visualisation’, which encourages students to listen, repeat and infer the information read to them. They then will be using comprehension skills to answer questions in their books. Throughout the year, we will be asking the children to prepare and present a short presentation to an audience.
Numeracy
This year, in Numeracy we will be using a program called Essential Ass, this is used to Pre and Post Test students in their knowledge of the topics being covered.
Explicit teaching, activities and small group work takes place, targeting the learning outcomes that the student did not understand and extend those students who have a higher understanding of the topic. Apart from this program, student's will be involved in hands-on learning experiences, Mathematical investigations, and problem-solving strategies.
Here is a list of the learning areas that we will be covering during Numeracy in Term 1:
Number and Algebra
Number
Counting and Place Value
Fractions & Decimals
Algebra
Measurement and Geometry
2D Shapes
3D Shapes
Length and Perimeter
Statistics and Probability
Data Representation and Interpretation
Temperature
Specialist
Every week all the 3/4 students complete Japanese, Music, Art and P.E. on a Wednesday. We ask that all students wear their sports uniform on this day.
All 3/4 students complete Library on a Tuesday. Students are to have a library bag otherwise they can not borrow. Books can be kept for two weeks. They can be used for home reading or in their ‘Good Fit’ basket.
Medicines
If your child has to have any medication given at school, please send it to the office as they will call the children up and administer it from there. They also record details of when the medicine is taken etc. However, if your child has asthma ,they are required to keep their puffers in the classroom so they can use it when they need it.
We have several children in the Grade 3/4 area that are allergic/ Anaphylaxis to nuts and dairy etc. If you are bringing food in to share at birthday times, please be very aware of this important issue.
Uniform
It is important that all students wear the correct school uniform. For Summer, this is a dress or a dark blue shirt and shorts, black shoes, navy socks.
On sports days, students are to wear either their dark blue shirt or sports shirt, shorts or skort with runners and white socks. As we follow are a SunSmart school we follow the SunSmart calendar.
Contacting Teachers
We believe it is important to have a strong relationship with parents as we are partners in your child’s learning. So if there is an issue that needs addressing please see your classroom teacher.
As members of the staff at St Brendan's, we have meetings on a Monday night and Wednesday night after school. It would greatly be appreciated if you could please schedule a meeting for another night. If you need to contact your class teacher for a quick issue, please send us an email or write a note in their diary.
Here are our email addresses if you need to contact us:
3/4B: nbibby@sbsomerville.catholic.edu.au
3/4S: rsmith@sbsomerville.catholic.edu.au
3/4TT: bturner@sbsomerville.catholic.edu.au
ttrish@sbsomerville.catholic.edu.au
3/4TR: jthomas@sbsomerville.catholic.edu.au
jriddell@sbsomerville.catholic.edu.au
Housekeeping
If you need to pick your child up early, please go to the office first and they will be called over.
Also in the morning, if you are running late, it is important you walk your child into the office and sign them in.
Please ensure that your child has a drink bottle and fruit snack every day.
Yours in Partnership,
The 3/4 Team.
Year 5 / 6
Maths
This year in Maths we are using a new program called ‘Essential Assessment’. It allows us to personalise the learning each student receives through pre-testing so that they are accessing the Maths curriculum at their point of need and therefore greatly enhance each child's ability to experience success. Each session will consist of a tools session to develop automatic recall of number facts and develop problem-solving skills, explicit teaching of current topic as a whole and independent learning activities. Students will also be ‘pulled out’ in small focus groups to refine or consolidate concepts.
Number and Algebra
Number and Place Value
Addition and Subtraction
Decimals
Measurement and Geometry
2D Shape and 3D Shape
Statistics and Probability
Data Representation and Interpretation
Faith-Based Inquiry
Following the Doctrine of Horizons of Hope, the senior school be incorporating the values and beliefs of the Church into all facets of the class. Specifically, we will be utilising on VIA Character Strengths focusing on one particular Character Strength per term.
For social and emotional capacities of the Victorian Curriculum, we will be using The Resilience Project curriculum to build resilience, social skills and promote mental health. The Resilience Project incorporates content descriptors from Numeracy and Literacy Curriculum's and works hand in hand with our Faith-Based Inquiry approach.
Term One we will be heavily focusing on the Character Strength of Leadership connecting this strength on community and student’s Identity. We have prioritised this character strength as it is an important characteristic as we ask every member to demonstrate leadership qualities for the rest of the school. The students will be immersed in the teachings of Jesus relating to leadership and identity via the Bible Passage John 13-1-17 Jesus Washes his Disciples Feet.
English
English is broken up into three areas, Reading, Writing and Listening and Speaking. Some of the areas we will be looking at in Term 1 are:
Reading and Viewing
Reading and Viewing will take place 1 hour a day in each classroom as per the guidelines of the Victorian Curriculum. The sessions consist of parts of the Daily 5 and Cafe Model in each of the classrooms. Each 1-hour session will have different rotations that the students will be immersed in different genres.
We are utilising The Fountas & Pinnell’s Leveled Literacy Intervention System (LLI) in our reading. LLI is an intensive, small-group, supplementary literacy intervention for all students, with differentiated teaching for all levels of reading. The goal of LLI is to lift the literacy achievement of all students involved in the program. LLI increases reading volume by engaging students in large amounts of successful daily reading and also
deepen and expands comprehension with shared reading experiences.
Writing
Using VCOP (Vocabulary, Connectors, Openers, Punctuation) strategies the children will reread and edit their own and others’ work providing valuable peer feedback. Students will be planning, drafting and publishing Narrative and Persuasive genres. Each week the children will look at different components of grammar and punctuation and develop a handwriting style that is legible and fluent.
Speaking and Listening
The children will be encouraged to participate in oral presentations on known topics in Term 1. As the year progresses we will work towards debates and unknown topics.
Homework
Home reading is compulsory 5 times a week. We expect students to be reading for 20 minutes during this time. Students need to record in their diary the book they are reading and are required to have a parent or guardian to sign that particular date.A spelling activity and a Maths sheet (either a general number worksheet or a sheet based on the topic being covered in class at the time) which will be handed out every Monday morning and due on Friday.
Specialists
Students will be participating in Japanese, Art, Music and Physical Education throughout the year. Japanese, Art and Physical Education are on a Tuesday, Music is run on a Wednesday.
Students also have the opportunity to visit the school library weekly and are encouraged to borrow books that are ‘Good Fit’ for their individual reading level.
Uniform
Full school uniform Monday, Wednesday and Thursday.
Sports uniform on Tuesday and Friday. Runners are only to be worn on these days with plain white socks (no labelled socks please).
Remember girls are to be wearing navy blue socks.
If for some reason your child is out of uniform, a courtesy note is required. In the student’s diary is satisfactory
If a student is not wearing the correct school uniform and has not provided a note with a written warning letter is to be sent home which the parent or guardian is to sign it and send back to class the following day
Girls - hair tied back with hair ties school colours
stud earrings
no nail polish
Communication
Classroom teacher first
Please email us if you wish to speak, which we can answer any questions through email form or organise a suitable meeting time
Diaries with any queries and questions are checked by LSO or Teacher daily
If your student is sick or absent, please phone call to the office on 5977 7277. The office has absentee notes to fill out
Email:
Justin Barry- jbarry@sbsomerville.catholic.edu.au
Margaret Van Der Peet- mvanderpeet@sbsomerville.catholic.edu.au
Ben Thorn- bthorn@sbsomerville.catholic.edu.au