From Miss Baines
We are nearly at the end of Term 2. After a very
different start to the year, all the students are now back at school and back
in routine. As some students did miss a lot of school, we are having to
revise a lot of concepts that would normally be mastered by this time of year.
For this reason, we encourage all students to revise the concepts that we have been learning this semester,
over the upcoming holidays.
English
Handwriting
- This term the children have been working hard during handwriting to form upper
and lower case letters with the correct formation.
Adjectives - Adjectives are words that describe a noun. The children
have been adding adjectives to sentences to make them sound more interesting.
I.e. The spider was in the web. Add adjective, the black spider was in the web.
Sight
words - We continue to revise and read all introduced sight words. So far we
have learnt the golden, red, blue and green words. The children are expected to
read these words in isolation and are now beginning to recognise them with in
sentences.
Phonics
- We have focused this term on initial blends. A blend is two sounds that blend
together, you can hear both sounds. The children are expected to read words by
blending these sounds together.i.e. cl-a-p bl-o-b sl-u-g pl-u-g
Numeracy
Number
stories - We have continued revising addition and subtraction number stories.
Children use counters to represent the items stated in the number story. They
are then asked to draw a picture to represent the number story, before writing
it as a sum.
Doubles
- We have also been learning about doubles to 10. I.e. double 1 is 2, double 2
is 4, and double 3 is 6.
Days of
the week - The children have enjoyed learning the days of the weeks. Ask them to sing you the song (it’s sure to get stuck in your head.)
Revising numbers 1-20 - Children are encouraged to read, write and say, numbers to 20. They are also encouraged to recognise numbers that come before or after a given number.
Morning Drop Off
We would
like to congratulate all students for the independence they have demonstrated
with coming to school each day this term. The students have managed to get
themselves to class, get anything they need from their bags and set themselves
up for the day. The staff have all commented on the positive attitude displayed
by the students at the gate each morning. A big thank you also to the parents,
for supporting us with the drop off and pick up of your child at the gate.
Reports
Semester One Reports
will look a little different this semester. Each
child will still be receiving a written report. There will be no learning area
grades on the report, just an effort grade. Students will also have a General
comment as well as a comment for English and Mathematics. There will be a
letter included to explain the reporting. Reports and Work Sample Books will
come home on Thursday 2/7/20. Work Sample Books will need to be returned at the
beginning of Term 3, so that we can continue adding work.
Science and Technology
This term
in Science, we have been learning about the way objects move. We learnt that
objects that are a cube shape slide, objects that are a sphere shape roll and
objects that are a cone or cylinder shape roll and slide.
We did lots
of investigations to help us understand why some objects roll or slide further
than others.
With all
our new knowledge, we had to design and make a car using Mobilo or Lego.
We wanted our cars to move as far as possible. Well done to Anya, whose Mobilo
car went the furthest.
Positive Behaviour
The last
few weeks, we have had a big focus on demonstrating positive behaviour.
One way we teach this is by encouraging the children to be bucket fillers, not
bucket spillers. Bucket filling encourages positive behaviour
by using the concept of an invisible bucket to show children how easy and
rewarding it is to express kindness, appreciation, and love by "filling
buckets." Positive actions and behaviours are encouraged as they fill up
buckets. Negative behaviours are referred to as bucket spilling. We have
done lots of different activities centred around kindness and
positive behaviour. The words and actions of the students since
focusing on this program has been absolutely wonderful to see.
Miss S
This term, Miss Schirripa (Miss S) has been working in Room
5. She is a pre-service teacher, completing her final teaching practicum. Miss
S will finish up at the end of this term. We have loved having Miss S with us
in Room 5, and she will
be greatly missed.
Happy Holidays
We wish all
our families a safe and enjoyable holiday with their children. The children are
on holiday break from Monday 6th July, with children returning on Tuesday 21st July.
