The Golden Sun Newsletter

Argus Community Report

August Update

 

Wow! What a busy Term 3 we have had at Aitken Hill Primary School. Starting with 100 Days of Prep and most recently celebrating our 1st Book Week. Next week we head off on our first excursion to Scienceworks. Exciting events from Term 3 have included: 

* 100 Days of Prep

* PJ day 

* Book Week 

* Scienceworks Excursion 

 

Here are some of our photos from our Book Week celebrations. 

 

We would like to encourage the students to become more independent. Please bring your child to the door and allow them to come into the Community and complete their morning routine by themselves. They will feel more responsible and this develops their independence. 

 

Thank you to all of the parents who volunteered to help on our excursion. Unfortunately due to venue numbers, we are only allowed to take a certain number of parents. If you were not selected this time, hopefully you will get the opportunity in the future. 

 

Please remember in the mornings the teachers are busy getting the students organised and prepared for learning. We are unable to have in-depth discussions with the parents at this time of the day. If you do need to discuss anything with the teachers, please contact them via Sentral to make a mutually convenient time to meet. 

Term 3 Curriculum 

Reading

Students are doing very well with their individual Reading Conferences. Each student participates in a reading conference every 2-3 weeks. In these conferences, individual reading goals are set. The students are learning how to verbalise their learning goals and during independent reading they practise these skills. Throughout the week they participate in a range of learning activities to support their progress towards their reading goals. Please see below for photos of work in our reading sessions.

 

Writing

In Writing, students have been innovating on familiar texts read. Innovating on a text involves students using their imagination and   changing characters, settings and/or story elements to make a personalised version of the story. In Argus, we innovated on Wombat Stew. The students made their own stew using ingredients of their choice and writing a procedure for their recipe. Please see some of our 'gooey, chewy stews' below.

 

In Writing, we are also learning about text structure. This week we are learning about letter writing. We read 'The Day the Crayons Quit' and then we wrote responses to the crayons in the story. Here are some are our postcards back to the Grey Crayon and letters from our favourite crayon back to Duncan. 

 

 

Maths

In Maths, we have been learning about Measurement. We explored mass, capacity and length through hands-on activities where we estimated, compared and ordered objects around the community.  Here are some photos of our explorations. 

 

 

 

Inquiry

In Inquiry, we are learning to be weather reporters. We are learning about different seasons, types of weather and clouds. Soon we will be using this knowledge to create our own weather reports. 

 

Here are our collages and drawings of the 4 seasons:

 

 

Social and Emotional Learning

This term in our Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) unit, we have been busy revising our understanding of emotions and how to overcome certain emotions such as anger, stress, and sadness. We began by creating a poster called “When We Feel…”. This helps us to reflect on how we are feeling and gives us ideas on what to do.

 

When we feel angry we can

  • Take 5 deep breaths
  • Count to 10
  • Listen to music

When we feel sad we can

  • Find a friend
  • Read a book

When we feel scared we can

  • Find a friend
  • Hug a teddy

We have also been learning how to calm our minds and have been practising yoga. We love Cosmic Kids where we can listen and follow along to stories and do yoga:  https://www.cosmickids.com.

 

Our favourite thing this month has been making stress balls. They are easy to make and fun to use! All we need is rice and a balloon (and a small paper funnel to fill them up). They are a great way for us to relieve stress and/or retain focus.

 

This week we are learning about 'Elephant and Ant problems'. An 'elephant problem' is a bigger problem, we cannot solve alone and need teacher support. An 'ant problem' is a smaller problem that we can solve ourselves. We worked in cooperative groups discussing different scenarios and sorting them in 'elephant and ant problems'.  

Notes to Remember

* Please remember doors to the Argus community open at 8.45 and class begins at 8.50. If you arrive after this time a late pass is required

* Ensure your child has a change of clothes in case of accidents 

* Label all belongings

* Students change their take home books each day and please remember to fill out their book titles in their diary each evening 

* Students have letters/sounds and/or sight words to practise each night

* Diaries are checked every Friday, however, students are expected to bring these to school each day.

Tips to support learning at home

If you would like to support your child's learning at home, here is a list of ideas: 

* Read on a nightly basis with your child, talk about the books read (retell the story, identify characters/setting, favourite part, make connections with the text and their own experiences)

* Practise your child's reading goal 

* Encourage your child to use the reading strategies above to read unknown words

* Practise reading and spelling the Oxford Words

* Use known letters/sounds to read and write simple three-letter words eg. cat, pin, net

* Write shopping lists or letters to a friend

* Play games like I Spy and board games

* Practise addition at home using concrete materials, dominoes and dice

* Talk about measurement at home eg. what is longer/shorter, heavier/lighter, what container would hold more/less

* Count up to 20 and beyond and then back again

* Practise number and letter formation. 

 

Here some maths websites that the students love:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D0Ajq682yrA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ss-azuApvA0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0TgLtF3PMOc&t=14s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DzKqCmjVXLI

 

 

Most of all have fun with learning at home, ensure it is enjoyable.

Communication

Don’t forget to check your child’s book bag and diary every day for any important notices and information.

Sentral is also another key form of communication please ensure you have registered and check in regularly for updates and notices. Feel free to pop in and see Fiona, Stacey, Rebecca or Ashley if you have any questions.

 

Thank you, 

Argus Community Teachers