Community Report
August Update
The Achilles Community are having a great term!
In Reading, we have been learning about monitoring our reading, such as, rereading to check for understanding, and reading around the word to find word meaning in context.
Our community have been working on individual reading goals, and making sure that our book bags have a ‘just right’ book and a ‘book of interest’ at all times, to support maintaining our daily home reading.
In Writing, we are learning about different spelling patterns, parts of words and syllables, as well as different forms of punctuation! We have had a lot of fun learning about words and how they work! Students have been using their knowledge of syllables to write Haiku poetry. We are also starting to check through the Oxford Word List to make sure that we can read and spell as many as possible!
We have been learning about multiplication in Maths: reinforcing our understanding of multiplication as repeated addition (3x4 is the same as 4+4+4,) creating and understanding arrays (rows and columns of objects/pictures to represent multiplication facts) and memorising our times tables!
BOOK WEEK - READING IS OUR SUPER POWER!
Book Week 2019 was a huge success! The Achilles Community had a lot of fun creating our door display, buddying up with the Argus Community to create super hero masks, and dressing up as our favourite book characters on Friday!
Our Inquiry WONDER WALL is now filled with big questions and wonderings from our community. From questions about black holes, to the ‘why’ of the colour of planets and stars… curiosities are beyond sky high!
We are starting to plan and create our project presentations based on our 'big question' Inquiry research. Students have selected their own mode of presenting the information they have learned: from dioramas and models, to online quizzes, to posters, keynote presentations, and more! Ask your child how they have chosen to present their research, and if they need to bring any materials from home to support their presentation.
The Achilles Community have been doing an amazing job collaborating to organise and maintain our learning spaces! Through collective responsibility and teamwork, we have been coordinating our ‘Achilles Community Job’ groups to manage and share the effort in keeping our community tidy, organised and clean. The Achilles Community are taking pride in our spaces, and it is great to see everyone pitch in and demonstrate outstanding work ethic and communication skills!
Our community have a student-led ‘Achilles Community Meeting’ every Wednesday afternoon, where students manage the meeting agenda and chair the meeting. It is great to see all students having the opportunity to take on leadership roles. Our community members all have the opportunity to speak and share ideas about how to continually improve and move forward. We focus on learning goals and social and emotional awareness. We also give ‘shout-outs’ to community members we have noticed doing good deeds! It is a celebration and something that we look forward to each week.
As well as our development of communication and leadership skills through our community jobs and meetings, in SEL (Social and Emotional Awareness) we have also been learning about friendship. The Achilles Community acted out some outstanding roleplays to show different examples of what it means to be a good friend.
THINGS TO REMEMBER:
- We encourage students to read for at least 15 minutes each night, and to choose from a range of different texts, such as, the many genres of fiction (realistic, fantasy, Sci-Fi, mystery, comics, etc.) non-fiction, books, websites, and other media.
- We also encourage students to regularly practise learning multiplication facts/times tables. It is recommended to start by memorising 2s, 5s and 10s, and then 3s and 4s, and then the rest, up to 10 times tables.
- Students are learning and revising how to spell words from the Oxford Word List. You can find information and resources here: https://www.oxfordwordlist.com or ask your child about what has been provided for them to utilise at school and or to practise at home.