SMPS Family iNewsletter

Class Updates and Reminders

Messages from our Learning Levels...

Whole School Dates

  • Monday 23rd-Friday 27th: Book Week - See the book week page for more Whole School information
  • Friday 27th of August: Book Week Character Dress-Up Day - remember to get your Book Week costume ready. We can't wait to see everyone's costumes on Webex on Friday!

Prep

Dates to Remember:

These are the events coming up in Book Week:

  • Monday: Read Aloud with Mr Noel
  • Tuesday: Bring a special book to check-in
  • Wednesday: Buddy Reading with Grade 5/6 and a virtual Author visit from Sue deGennaro
  • Thursday: Book Week in Schools Digital Performance
  • Friday: Dress up as your favourite book character

 

Reminders:

Book Week

More information about the above events will be provided via email and through our daily Webex messages. In the meantime, we encourage students to start planning their costumes for Friday. If they don’t have access to a costume at home, could they make something? See below for some inspiration!

 

Virtual visit from Author Sue deGennaro

Sue deGennaro is a children’s author and illustrator. She has created a range of picture story books that bring children’s imagination and creativity to life. Some of her most popular books include ‘Missing Marvin’ and ‘We’re Stuck’. 

Sue will be joining the Preps on Wednesday 25th August at 10am for a forty-five-minute interactive workshop, which will include readings of some of her most well-known books and a guided drawing session. 

 

Book Week in Schools Digital Performance

We are pleased to announce that the Book Week in Schools Performance can still go ahead as scheduled- online! On Thursday 26th August, our morning check-in will run from 9am-10am so that students can enjoy the digital performance. See below for what to expect:

 

Celebrating the CBCA Book Week 2021 theme: OLD WORLDS, NEW WORLDS, OTHER WORLDS, this interactive and educational musical adventure is a fun filled and energetic celebration of CBCA Book Week 2021, and brings together all the elements of great storytelling - a hero, a mystery, a quest, and an exploration!

 

High Frequency Words

Whilst in remote learning, we will continue to update students’ personalised high

 frequency word list on a weekly basis and post them on Seesaw under the 'Goals' folder. These lists are informed by our last High Frequency Word assessment conducted in Term 2 so they cater to each student’s individual needs. Students should practise reading and spelling these words as much as possible so they are recognised at instant recall. If students need a challenge, they can use their words in sentences or look for them in books.

 

Grade 1

Dates to Remember:

  • Thursday 26th of August 9:00am - 9:50am: Book Week online performance via child's class Webex link

Reminders:

You can use Seesaw families to see the work your child is completing. You can also 'like' or comment on their work. Last week, the Grade 1 teachers left some feedback on students' writing. We will be doing this again this week on some of their Maths Work.

 

In addition to the tasks we set, we really want students to be reading for at least 20 minutes a day. At the end of the day, you could ask your child what they have read, why they liked it or what they learned from their reading. 

Grade 2

Dates to Remember:

  • Thursday 26th of August 9:00am - 9:50am: Book Week online performance via child's class Webex link
  • Monday 9th of September: Afrobeat drumming in school visit

Reminders:

 

Things you can do to support your child...

  • Asking your child what they are reading at the moment
  • Making sure your child is reading at least 4 nights a week and signing the diary
  • Checking if your child has completed 1 lesson of Mathseeds
  • Asking your child what they are learning on Seesaw
  • Accessing the Seesaw Family app to see the work your child is completing. Give the work a 'like' or 'heart' to celebrate the work with your child!

Grade 3/4

Dates to Remember:

  • Later in the term... If restrictions allow, we hope to welcome Maribel and her guide dog Dindi from Guide Dogs Victoria to teach us even more about living with a disability.

Reminders:

  • Reading Targets: Check-in with your child to see if they're "on-track" to meet their target.
  • Things you can do to support your child...
    • Asking your child what they are reading at the moment
    • Helping them to find books that interest them
    • Listening to them read their AR book
    • Making sure that your child is reading for at least 30 minutes a day and finishing a book regularly. Students in Grade 3 and 4 should finish at least 1 novel every 2 weeks. If your child is reading on MyOn, they should be finishing a book daily.
    • Checking the ‘progress’ tab on Accelerated Reader (your child can show you this)
    • Asking if they have taken a quiz recently. Some books on MyOn take 15-20 minutes to read. It is possible for a student in Grade 3 and 4 to take a quiz every day as part of their remote learning reading lesson.

Grade 5 and 6

Dates to Remember:

  • Wednesday 25th August: Buddy Reading - Students who signed up to read to a younger class will need to log on to that class' Webex for the 9.00am roll call

Reminders:

Reading: 

  • We are coming in to Week 7, which means that children should be around 70% of their reading target.
  • We have heard such great feedback from families who have followed previous newsletter instructions on how to access their child's progress page for a 24/7 view of their child's reading. 
  • To help everyone understand the information shown, we'd like to draw your attention to two numbers. Have a check for these numbers on your child's progress page.

Junior School Council (JSC)

The JSC has been working very well as a team even in remote learning. The three sub-committees had individual meetings who then reported to the entire JSC: 

  • The sports sub-committee have discussed an issue brought up by many students which is that there isn’t much sports equipment available to the students. The sports sub-committee has shared this issue with the JSC for further discussion.
  • The books sub-committee has shared the results from the survey about what books students would like the school to buy. We received many responses which helps us a lot in helping students be able to read their favourite books. We have shared the survey results with our librarian, Miss Zoe.

We also discussed what it means to represent our class. Finally, we discussed future fundraisers as we took a look at the ideas collected by class representatives and have shortlisted a handful of ideas. 

 

Our next meeting is on Thursday 2nd September. 

 

  Report written by: Roshan (School Captain and JSC Co-Chair)