Learning and Teaching News

This term the Prep, Year 1 and Year 2 teachers are working with Misty Adoniou, Associate Professor in Language, Literacy and TESL, University of Canberra to develop our knowledge of vocabulary and the most effective way to teach students how to spell.  Not only is it about the sounds in words but by looking at word origins and word meanings, we aim to introduce a love for words and a curiosity about how they are used. 

Last year the Year 1 and 2 teachers were lucky to work with Misty to grow their knowledge and skills in developing their students as writers. Her mantra is you only write as well as what you read or have read to you. Using great quality literature we have become familiar with what great writers do. We have used their words and their writing style to create our own quality pieces. We call these texts mentor texts. 

The mentor text we have been using in Year 2 is Frog Finds a Place, by Sally Morgan. The sentence we have innovated on is…. 

One dark night, Frog dreamed he made a mighty jump on rainbow legs past the clouds through the glittering stars right up to the moon. 

The students innovated on this sentence and wrote their own story starter. They then used this story starter to create a narrative. 

Enjoy the following examples from our writers in Year 2.  These are first drafts, the next stage involves the writers becoming editors. 

Students will dress up related to the book week theme. They will be making masks for their costumes at school and are not required to buy anything for the day. Their masks will be related to creatures, animals, minibeasts seen and read in books. They can match their mask with clothes from home, for example- a ladybug mask could be matched with black tracksuit and t'shirt. If your child has sport on this day please make sure they are wearing their running shoes.

DRESS UP DAY WILL TAKE PLACE ON THURSDAY 5TH OF NOVEMBER.

Elise Coghlan

Literacy & Numeracy Leader