Xenica Community Report

JUNE UPDATE

We would like to congratulate all the Xenica students on a fantastic term 2! Children have been working very hard throughout the semester and should all be very proud of their efforts. 

Our Learning 

READING

The last few weeks in reading we have been focusing on using text clues and our background knowledge to make inferences. Students have been looking at how illustrations give us an insight into characters feelings by looking at facial expressions and body language. We have also spent some time focusing on visualising and making connections. In order to visualise, we needed to use our senses to create a picture in our mind based on what we read. Students were given the opportunity to read short paragraphs and highlight key words that helped them create a mental image. We also had lots of fun listening to different types of music and closed our eyes to visualise being in a rainforest or at the beach.

WRITING

In Writing we have been learning about different text structures. Two text types in particular that we have focussed on this term are Narratives and Procedural texts. 

Some students had the opportunity to publish their texts independently, while other students focussed on sequencing and planning their ideas using graphic organisers. 

We had lots of fun writing a procedure about the toys we made as part of our 'Forces and Motions' topic in Inquiry. We made sure to write down all the materials and equipment we used and then wrote out the steps in order so that we could teach someone else how to make a toy.

MATHEMATICS

This term in Maths, we have spent a lot of time focussing on Additive Thinking. We learnt lots of new strategies that will help us with adding and subtracting 2 and 3 digit numbers. Some of these included the split strategy, friends of ten, doubles facts, rounding off to the closest ten, estimating and checking. We have all been working on how to explain our thinking when we solve problems. Instead of just getting to an answer, we have been saying thinks like: 

• I know this because________
• I used the _________ strategy to solve my problem
• I worked this problem out by _________

Recently, we have been learning about 2D and 3D shapes. We learnt about shape features such as faces, edges (Sides) and vertices (Corners). We went on a shape hunt around the school and could identify different shapes in the environment and had a go at drawing and making some of them ourselves using different materials such as straws and blue tack. You can also try this at home.

INQUIRY

Our Term 2 Inquiry unit is 'Forces and Motion'. Students have been working very hard the last few weeks to design and create toys that demonstrate a force of either push or pull. Before constructing their toys, students were asked to follow the design process where they did some research and then planned and designed their toy. Students brainstormed some items they required to make their toy and used a range of recycled materials that were brought in from home to construct their toys. This included boxes, containers, bottle top lids, tubes, cardboard and milk bottles.

We would like to thank all the families who contributed to bringing in materials and those who took the time out of their day to come along to our toy expedition. The students were very excited to share their learning with you all and loved explaining the steps on how they created their toys. 

Athletics Day

We had so much fun at our first Athletics sports day on Thursday 27th June! You couldn't wipe the smiles off our faces! Take a look at some of our photos from the day. 

Important notes to remember 

• Community doors open at 8.45am, as learning begins at 8.50am.
• Students will change their take home books each day and fill out their book titles in their diary each evening.
• Students will complete their spelling words each night.
• Homework books and diaries are checked every Friday. Students are expected to place these items in the tubs every Friday morning.

Ways to support your child's learning at home

• Read with your child each night. Discuss important events and information from the books they read.
• Ask your child questions based on their book, make use of the question sheet in your child's book bag.
• Have your child write their spelling words in sentences. They could also make their words out of play dough, cut out the letters of their words from magazines/newspapers and make a word.
• Write down 2,3 or 4 digit numbers on sticky notes. Have your child order them from smallest to largest.
• Practise letter and number formation with your child in their homework book.
• Practise skip counting by 2's, 3's, 5's and 10's with your child.

We would like to thank all of our families for all your support this semester. We hope you all have a wonderful and safe break and we look forward to seeing you when school returns.

Kind Regards,

Carla, Maddy, Fanny and Lucy.