From the Classroom
Foundation
Learning
Recently we have been learning rhymes to consolidate our learning to hear sounds in words. We have focused on Hey Diddle Diddle, Hickory Dickory Dock and this week, One Potato, Two Potato. It is exciting to watch the children’s faces light up when they are engaged in these activities. It has created a real interest in the alphabet and a keen ear when learning sounds.
In Maths, the children have been involved in an activity called Build a City. Enjoy some of the photos of their constructions.
To complement their rhyme One Potato, Two Potato, we also did some learning about potato farms, the life cycle of a potato and a simple science experiment using a potato. Included is a photo of this. Ask your child what was involved and what we expect to happen. It is now sitting in a dark cupboard doing its thing!
Learning to read sight words has also been a focus. Sight words are those that are in the Oxford 100 high frequency word list. To date we have looked at … I, a, it, in, is, a, the, to, on, off, at, we, me, be, and up. The children are reading, spelling aloud and writing them on whiteboards. After the Easter Holidays, a sight word display book will be placed in their plastic pocket for practice to consolidate their reading homework. Awesome effort by Havi Coad writing her sight words on a whiteboard. I am so proud of learning in this area.
The students enjoyed viewing the Braveheart Program on Tuesday and the Ditto Keep Safe Adventure Activity Book was placed in their plastic pocket.
Our class is excited for Athletics Day and we have practised the hurdles, sprint and relay. The children know what colour they are in. However, if they have forgotten just give me an email or call.
Grade 1/2
Learning
We have been very creative after reading Feathers for Phoebe. Students had to turn a plain bird into a marvellous one, as Phoebe went from a grey bird to an extremely colourful one. We discussed that our friends enjoy our company when we’re ourselves. We also focused on revision of the sound f and the digraph ph. We went on to read non fiction texts about elephants and dolphins learning many new facts.
This week the Grade One students wanted to learn more about sharks and digraph sh. Mrs Kennedy even helped us learn about Whale Sharks, who are the largest fish in the sea. We did a How to Draw a Great White Shark and wrote down some of our new learning alongside our drawing. Did some revision of punctuation and had to come up with 3 sentences. One with a full stop, an exclamation mark and a question. We used Bruce the Great White from Finding Nemo as our stimulus.
In writing, we have been learning about adjectives. We have been using adjectives to describe different animals. Students have enjoyed up-levelling their words to make their writing more interesting.
Developmental Play is a favourite activity focused on getting along, working together, using kind words, tidying our area and fun. Here are some photos from Wednesdays session.
VHAP - Author's Masterclass
As you may know a group of Grade Sixes in the Victorian High Ability Program including myself, went to Wallan Primary School on Monday the 22nd for a writing masterclass. The masterclass was run by George Ivanoff, author of the ‘You Choose’ books and many other series. In the masterclass he taught us how to turn ordinary ideas into interesting stories and how to up level our character study, all of which has been very helpful so far in our classroom writing. I would also like to thank Mel Calleja for driving us down there and Mrs Kimmorley for coming.
- Emily
