Junior School News
Prep 1 & 2
Prep News
Prep Storytime
We feel very blessed that our Prep students got to experience Prep story time this Year. It was wonderful to see them all in their PJs. They had an amazing evening. Thanks to Ms Maloney for organising and making the room look fabulous.
Literacy
During our MSL lessons students have been looking at silent e syllable words. We say in class these words are when the vowel is trapped and the 'e' jumps over the consonant and so that the vowel can shout out its name.
Writing
Handwriting has been added to our MSL each morning. Students say 'my name is _ and my sound is_’ to reinforce sound-letter/letter-sound knowledge as well as getting in some focused handwriting practise.
The children are now so confident writing their recounts and they are trying really hard when sounding out their words. They are including some great detail.
Mathematics
During Number students have been exploring Place value. They have been looking at what makes up numbers and using the language of 10's and ones.
We have joined the 1/2's for AFL Maths week. It's been so much fun! We have revised Data by gathering information related to footy e.g. favourite food at the footy and odd/even numbers on jerseys. We even looked at 2D shapes in the AFL. Students completed outdoor activities such as the longest tick, maths specky challenge, counting handball passes and using money to make footy day purchases.
Respectful Relationships
In the unit called 'Anyone can choose' we have read the books 'The Worst Princess & Pink is Not For Boys to reinforce the understanding that girls and boys, men and women can choose to do or be anything that they would like to do or be, regardless of their gender. We looked closely at what the word ‘strong’ means and how anyone can be strong. We made some good connections about when we play too rough on the playground how we can affect and hurt others. We participated in an ‘anybody can’ circle and students joined in saying statements such as 'anyone can dance and play football etc. They then drew pictures in their books.
Inquiry
During Inquiry Preps read the book incredible you. They looked at what makes us incredible, different and similar.
1/2 News
During Respectful Relationships we completed a lesson called 'Labels Are For Jars'. Research states that gender norms influence beliefs about emotional experiences and self-expression. For example, men and boys are expected not to express their feelings of vulnerability and sadness because ‘boys are tough’ and ‘boys don’t cry’. Dominant conceptions of masculinity and femininity can limit the possibilities that children see for themselves and others and influence their behaviour and relationships. During the lesson, students were asked to describe what they thought labels are used for. We looked at a variety of packages and determined what useful information we could gather from them. The students said things like ingredients, directions of use, weight, price etc. We then looked at the label 'boy' and 'girl' and helped the students understand that the label girl or boy does not tell you much about the person’s interests and preferences. This activity helped the students practice ways to disagree with people when they say things like ‘boys can’t’ or ‘girls can’t’?
Literacy
Multisensory Literacy
This week students have been looking at the C,K rule which included the ending CK rule . We call this the cat/kite rule and the kids say the rhyme, K takes i, e and c takes the other three.
Have a listen to this funny parody to find out more about the cat/kite rule.
CK rule is for single syllable words - when you hear the /k/ sound at the end of a word AND the /k sound/ immediately follows a short vowel sound, it is spelled ck. If it is followed by a long vowel or consonant, it is spelled with a k for example take.
The kids loved watching this video from Nessy Spelling Strategy. Have a watch with your child to help them remember when to use this rule.
Writing/Inquiry
Throughout the past two weeks we have connected our knowledge of East Timor with our report writing skills to share our opinions and facts about Remexio. The students have loved applying their new found knowledge of East Timor and Remexio to develop amazing and insightful reports on Australia's neighbouring country. This has been a fantastic way to wrap up our Inquiry unit of Social Justice and build our awareness of the communities and countries in our wider community. We have also taken this time to build our 5 Star Writing skills. This includes using correct punctuation, finger spaces, presenting our work neatly and looking to see if our writing make sense. This has helped the children provide a touch of sparkle to their work! We are so proud of the reports they have written, some students even made their way down to show Mr Collis.
Mathematics
In 1/2 we have been learning all about Money. We have been looking at the value of coins and notes as well as identifying and ordering them from least to most value. We have been building our money vocabulary including cents, dollars and prices. During our money unit we have created a range of prices using different sets of coins and notes, as well as pricing a range of classroom objects to buy and sell.
For the end of term we have gone AFL Maths crazy! We are exploring the world of Maths that the AFL footy involves, such as score keeping, adding up points and goals as well as looking at chance, data and graphing.
We have also been completing a series of rotations in the junior school, each focusing on a different element of footy Maths. This has included Miss Prosser exploring shape through building a dream footy player, Mrs Brown investigating the area and perimeter of a footy boot, Miss Rafferty representing fractions by creating an ideal football team and Miss Maloney looking at symmetry. We have topped off the week with endless footy games and drills outside to strengthen our counting of twos, fives and tens, as well as making some delicious football biscuits!
Religion
Throughout Term 3 the Year 1/2s have been exploring a range of Bible stories. These included the stories of ‘Zaccheus’ which focused on greed, ‘The 10 Lepers’ and the importance of helping others who were different and ‘The Blind Man’ which highlighted the importance of gratitude. To conclude this focus the students reflected on these three stories through creating a ‘Y Chart’ and connecting the stories to their own lives and experiences, which resulted in such beautiful insights shared by many students. Even Michael joined in on this session!
Reminders
- 16th September - Footy colours day. Students wear their footy jerseys or footy colours.
- End of Term student pick up at 1.00pm
- 11th - 21st October (excluding Monday 17th)- Swimming program 2022. Students will need to bathers, towel, cap, thongs, hair ties and hair brushes. They will wear their sports uniform underneath their bathers and their things to school in the morning and change into their runners afterwards.
Happy holidays,
The Junior team.
Classroom Contacts
Should you wish to get in touch with your child’s teacher for any reason or you wish to make an appointment to speak with them, please contact them through Seesaw directly. If you prefer you can also use email. You can reach us on these addresses:
sprosser@shsandringham.catholic.edu.au
srafferty@shsandringham.catholic.edu.au
jbrown@shsandringham.catholic.edu.au
kharper@shsandringham.catholic.edu.au