Welcome

Hello and welcome to Room 6's blog for 2020. This blog will be a place where parents/carers can log on to see what is happening in Room 6. We will post photos of the students involved in different activities, keep you updated about upcoming events and let you know what we will be focusing on in the classroom.

We would like to welcome all the students and parents to Pre-Primary, and a special welcome to all our new students and families. We look forward to working with the parents and getting to know your children better throughout the year.

It has been a busy start to the year and the students have done well adjusting to full time school, especially considering some of the extremely hot days we have been experiencing. To ensure your child gets the most out of each school day, please make sure they are getting plenty of sleep each night. Children this age still need between 10-12 hours of sleep to be able to function.

We look forward to working with you and your children this year. Please do not hesitate to arrange a meeting if there is anything you need to discuss regarding your child.

Parent Information Session

On Tuesday 18^th February at 4.45pm, we will be conducting the Parent Information Session. We encourage all parents to attend the session, as it provides valuable information regarding your child’s year in Pre-primary. It is also an opportunity for you to ask any questions. We would like to remind you that this is a child free event. Please organise alternative care for your little ones.

 

School App
If you haven't already done so, download the Wattle Grove Primary School App. It allows you to notify the school if your child is absent, order from the canteen, keep up to date about coming events and receive the school newsletter.
The App is available for Apple as well as Android phones.

 

Canteen
The canteen operates on a Wednesday and Thursday. Orders can be placed online, via the School App, or by writing it on a lunch order bag, available from the classroom. Students can order for recess and lunch (if you are ordering using the lunch bags, you need to write recess and lunch orders on separate bags). Pre-Primary students are allowed to order icy poles and ice creams on Thursday.

Library
Our Library day is every Wednesday. Students are allowed to borrow one book at a time. Students must have a library bag to be able to borrow books and books must be returned before they can take another book. Library bags and books need to be put in the Library box.

Week 8 Home Practice

Please click on the link below to access the Home Practice sheet for this week. Unfortunately I am unable to print it at this time.


https://drive.google.com/file/d/1SMpPYRevZUJS9wL6vRoq03n3IUmGXNX9/view?usp=sharing

Term 3 Learning

Term 3 is a very busy term. There are many events happening this term to be mindful of. Students also have a lot of content to cover before they are ready for Year 2. Thank you to all parents for your continued support from home. There are no scheduled parent interviews or school reports for Term 3, although, I am happy to meet with you if you would like a progress meeting. If I have concerns in any area for your child, you will be contacted by me.

ENGLISH

Phonics : 

In phonics so far this year we have covered a few spelling rules.

Blend: two consonant letters coming together to make one sound.

Digraph: two letters coming together to make a new sound.

Tricky Y: The letter y is a consonant when it is the first letter in a word. If it is in the middle or at the end of a word, it is a vowel. Tricky y can say 'e' like baby or 'i' like spy.

R-Controlled Vowels (Bossy r): bossy r controls the vowel to make a new sound.

Split Digraph (Bossy e): Bossy e makes the vowel say its name.

We are now covering vowel digraphs. A vowel digraph is formed when two vowels are next to each other in a word. We are learning the saying "when two vowels go walking, the first one does the talking and says it's name" to help us identify the sound that the digraph makes. 

Students are now discovering that there may be more than one way to make a sound. They are beginning to sort out which sound is used with each word.

Reading

Students reading abilities are continuing to improve. You may have noticed that their books are getting harder and are including more words. Our main focus now is on students being able to comprehend what they are reading. There is no point in reading a text if they are unable to understand or retell it. 

We are encouraging sequential retelling of stories, including their introduction (setting and character), events, problem, solution and ending. We are also expecting them to apply their understanding of the book to more complex question types that require inferring skills. To infer means to have an educated guess using the known information. 

Writing

This term we have a focus on narratives. So far we have only introduced the beginning of a narrative. We have been working on something called 'sizzling starts'. Attached is a link to a power point about creating sizzling starts. Please ensure all talk homework is being completed on the Wednesday night and is signed. Completion of this task ensures your child can make the most of their allocated writing time getting their ideas on the page, rather than thinking about what to do.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1PhAtgieI4kjQknuVaiR77s-p9MAsO9wM

MATHEMATICS

Number

This term in Number we have a strong focus on place value. Each number to 100 has a specific value. This is represented by tens and ones. We are able to break numbers into parts using their tens and ones. For example, The number 24 has 2 tens and 4 extra ones. The 2 in 24 represents the 2 groups of 10 and the 4 represents the 4 remaining ones.

Students have been looking at numbers individually and how they can be broken into their tens and ones. We are now looking at how place value can help us as a strategy to add and subtract larger numbers together.

 Here are examples of the way we are teaching students to break and add or subtract larger numbers.

Some students still require consolidation of the basic concept of breaking an individual number into their place value using blocks, straws, and MAB's. Others are able to complete these sums already.

Measurement

We will also be looking at capacity and area in Measurement this semester. Capacity is something that can be easily reinforced at home through cooking and water play when the weather improves.

SCIENCE

Our topic for Science this Term is light and sound. We are investigating what each of these things are and how they work. So far we have learnt these words:

Light: Something that we see. It travels in waves. 

Sound: Something that we hear. It travels in waves.

Luminous: An object that creates its own light.

Illuminated: An object that reflects light from another source.

Reflection: When light bounces back off an object.

Refraction: When light passes through an object it bends.

Last semester, many students recieved a 'C' grade in Science. A class goal for us this semester is to increase the number of 'B and A' grades in this learning area. To achieve this, students must not only beable to recite definitions and learnt knowlegde, but also apply this understanding to answer and respond to more complex questions, justifying their responses. 

HISTORY

This semester we will be working through our History curriculum. For Year 1 students, History includes learning about their own families and comparing them to the past. 

Special Events 

Science Week

This week was Science week at Wattle Grove. Students have had the opportunity to participate in a range of activities including completing quizzes and designing aliens. They have all designed and made a paper aeroplane which will be used in a paper plane flying competittion on Monday. Mr Sanderson has also had some Science demonstrations in the undercover area during lunchtime for students to watch.

Book Week

Book Week will be celebrated in Week 6.Wattle Grove will be having a book parade for students on Friday 30th August. Students are asked to dress up representing a character from a poem or nursery rhyme. There will be a parade. Information about this will be distributed closer to the date.

Sport Carnival

The Sport Carnival will be held on Friday 6th September, weather permitting. More information will be provided closer to the time. 

Learning Journeys

As part of our ongoing communication with parents. We will be holding a learning journey on Tuesday 24th September. Parents and carers will be invited into the classroom to see the work students are doing. More information will be provided closer to the date.

National Quality Standards

Please see the following link for information regarding the National Quality Standards (NQS)

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1sbRFvcw6Nl7XiMLpNC3D-sFddSFeqRBE

Family Photos

Dear parents,

This semester as part of our History program, we will be looking at family units and comparing life from the past to the present. We would like all children to bring in a family photo to share. Please make sure it is one that they can use for learning, not a special one. A printed copy of a photo is sufficient. If these photos can be in by Tuesday next week it would be greatly appreciated.

Thankyou

Speaking and Listening Task

Dear Parents,

In Week 4, the Year One children have been invited to recite a poem to their peers. This can be a nursery rhyme.

Each recital should be no longer than 2 minutes. Children will need to focus on their voice and expression, movement, action and enthusiasm.

Props and sound effects can also be used.

Each class will select their top two finalists and they will move forward to the Year Level Challenge in Week 5.

The overall Year One winner will recite their poem at the Book Week Parade in Week 6.

Parents, please help your child to select a suitable poem or nursery rhyme and rehearse at home. Students are to have memorised the poem and not read from flashcards.

If you have any questions about the poetry recital, please come and see us.

Kind regards

Year One Teachers

Term 3

Term 3 Learning

Term 2 has been a very busy term. I apologise for the lack of blog posts this term. Here are just a few things that have been happening in our school and class in Term 2. I hope all families have an amazing 2 weeks quality time with your children. You all definitely deserve the break. Reports will be coming home with children on Thursday this week. I will also be sending home test books this week. Test books must be returned before Friday. 

English

Listening and Speaking

This term we have had our Super Scientist competition which was an exciting way to present an experiment to an audience. Congratulations to Ethan and Liam who were the Year 1 Room 24 finalists. Unfortunately they did not make the year level overall winner, however, we all think they did an amazing job! A big thank you to all parents for your support with the Super Scientist, without your time and effort to support your children, events such as this one would not be possible. We look  forward to Semester 2 Super Scientist!

Speaking and listening will be a focus in our classroom next semester. I would like to see all students develop more confidence in this area and require less support to scaffold their presentations. 

Phonics

This term we have looked at some new spelling rules.'bossy r' - bossy r controls the vowel to make a new sound e.g. ar, er, er(uh), or, ir, ur'tricky y'- a y in the middle or at the end of a word is a vowel. It can make the sound 'i' or 'e''bossy e' - bossy e makes the vowel say its name.
We have also been consolidating our digraphs; sh, ch, wh, th, ck,   

Reading

Reading should be occurring in all households daily. The more students are reading, the greater success students will have at school. Reading develops students understanding of phonics, vocabulary, grammar, writing, knowledge of the world, and can also support them in other curriculum areas such as science, geography and history just to name a few. In today's society, students are reading less and turning to IPads and other ICT devices before picking up a book. I would like to set a holiday challenge to students and parents. I would like all students and parents to find 10 minutes each day during the holidays to sit down and share a story or a book together.

Comprehension

Comprehension is a very important part of reading. Students generally are very good at reading the words using their decoding skills, however, when it comes time to retell and answer a range of questions about the text, they are unable to do this well. Before they will be moved on to a higher level, their understanding of the texts read and their ability to retell (summarise) and answer a range of question types needs to be adequate. There is no point in reading something if you do not have an understanding of what you have read.

Writing

 

Texts

We have been writing procedural texts this term. Procedures are found in instructions, recipes and rules for games. We have looked at the different elements of a procedure and had a go at writing all parts. We have had a big focus this term on using simple punctuation in sentences. Students know and can say when to use a full stop and capital letter, however, most are still not applying this to their writing without reminders. Further opportunities to practice and consolidate this at home will be beneficial to everyone. 

Grammar

We have also been looking at grammar this semester. We now can identify nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs in a sentence. Next time we will be looking at doing some sentence building to create more complex sentences in order to improve our writing. We have also looked at tense this term and how to identify if a sentence is past, present of future text.

Spelling

Students are progressing in their spelling and most are on track in this area. Please make sure that students are practising their words in dictated sentences at home as some are finding this a challenge on test day. Below is a link to Term 3 spelling. Your children know which colour groups they are for phonics, sight word lists have students name next to them. A copy will be glued into home practice books next term.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1Rg0GqBZJDA2RN5mbm8SLOudHnca2JjaM

Mathematics

Number

This term we have begun some more complex concepts in Mathematics. Students have been looking at larger numbers and using place value to break these down into smaller numbers. A solid understanding of place value is necessary before students can move onto more complex concepts. Without this firm understanding and ability to apply their understanding, they will struggle in future years with Mathematics. Please support your child at home with Mathematics as well as Literacy. If you need any support with the strategies that we use in class, I am more than happy to make an appointment with you to show you how it is done.

Measurement

In measurement, we have looked at measuring and comparing mass (weight) and calendars and clocks (telling the time to the hour and half past). It would be fantastic to see or hear about lots of cooking experiences happening at home with students are your helpers to consolidate these skills. It may also be time, if students do not have one already, to have a calendar on the fridge and a simple analogue watch to tell the time with. The more exposure and opportunities for practice with these concepts, the better students will understand and be able to apply their skills in class.

 

Statistics

This term we have focused on creating and interpreting simple data tables and graphs. Most students are able to record data using a tally and also read and interpret tables and graphs. They can also record data using simple bar graphs. A focus now is to develop students ability to compare the data in tables. They also need to work on developing their own questions in order to collect and record data.

Science

This term we have been focusing on biological science.
We have discovered the difference between living and non-living things. We now know what the basic needs for survival are for people, animals and plants. We have been working on our very own projects this term where we have designed and created our very own alien animals. We have done lots of research into animal body parts and their purpose, habitats and how features in these places help animals to survive, we have even looked at parts of plants and have been investigating how these grow. We have been busy creating our dioramas to demonstrate our knowledge about living things. These will be displayed in class next term once completed this week.

Geography

This term we finished off our landscape features concept in Geography. We now know all about features within our environment and can classify them into natural, managed and constructed features.

Health

Our focus this term has been on resilience. We have looked at skills and strategies to support us when we are feeling a little down. We have also enjoyed two incursions this term to support our passenger and road safety concepts from Term 1. Both incursions were very informative and engaging for students. It is hoped that students are able to apply these skills and understandings to their own lives and will use safety gear when on bikes, scooters, skates and skateboards.