From the 1/2 Classrooms

During our Maths investigations in Statistics and Probability: Data Collection and Interpretation, students have been asking good questions, tallying results, graphing and interpreting the data. Students in 2DF were asked, ‘What is Your Favourite Day of the Week?’ It was clear that Friday was the most popular choice. With further questioning, we discovered it wasn’t just that Friday was the final day of school for the week followed by the weekend, but also the class’ favourite lesson, Developmental Play!

Teachers encourage student voice and agency during this time, providing activities based on their interests and abilities. Teachers strive to improve wellbeing on a Friday afternoon, allowing students to work at a more relaxed pace. Curriculum links are made along with real world connections (currently with Autumn and Easter) as well as nurturing students own passion projects over several weeks. 

Teachers plan activities that support students fine motor skills that help to improve pencil grip and handwriting such as playdough, Lego, colouring-in and scissor skills including cutting cardboard. Developmental Play is also a time for students to catch up on un-finished tasks from the week, allowing all students an opportunity to feel success and pride as they finally submit a piece of work that they had previously run out of time for.

Students are given opportunities to develop their Learning Asset skills. In particular, a focus on I Am A Collaborator by working with partners or small groups on a common goal, taking turns in games, practicing how to enter an established activity, sharing resources and follow game rules, whilst managing the feelings of winning and losing appropriately. 

Students also focus on I Am A Self-Manager as they decide what activity to complete during the session, setting up and packing up after themselves and keeping to an agreed time limit so activities can be shared by all. 

It's a lovely time to see new friendships develop and old friendships grow as students engage in like minded activities, inspiring and supporting one another on common goals. 

• Ask your children to plan, design (labelled diagram) and then construct out of recycled materials. Students could reflect on what changes they needed to make along the way.
• Get messy in the kitchen together, with some baking, or meal preparation, talking about healthy food groups as well as measuring/weighing. 
• Make a batch of playdough encouraging your child to kneed the dough (it is warm when made and a great sensory experience). You can get creative and add scents to your dough, change the colour with food colouring or add herbs/spices/flowers eg. rosemary, cinnamon, lavender. You may like to halve the batch and keep a portion at home, whilst sending the second half to school. Our recommended air tight storage is in a Sistema 1L container. These are easy enough for students to open and close independently and are sturdier than other containers (eg. Take away food containers).
• Provide opportunities for your children to keep a holiday journal with photos and memorabilia (ticket stubs, maps/brochures).
• Visit the local library (take part in the Premiers Reading Challenge).
• Family board games and card games are a wonderful way to reinforce social behaviours (Jenga, Pick-up Sticks, Operation, Snap) as well as making curriculum links with Maths (Monopoly, Uno) or English (Guess Who, Celebrity Heads). 
• Encourage mindfulness by slowing down, listening and dancing to music, planning a PJs day, spending time with pets and family, walking or riding in the local community, play dates with friends.

Happy Holidays, from the 1/2 Team.