Week 4: Highlights

Meetings and Assemblies

First up Monday morning students attended house meetings for forty minutes to elect the House and Vice Captains for the sporting houses and also to organise which swimming races they will compete in at the school's Swimming Carnival which takes place on Monday March 7th. They also attended the Meet and Greet assembly Tuesday morning to focus on the value of effort. Thursday afternoon they attended the first whole school assembly at 2-00 o'clock.

Mathematics

This week we did a second and more challenging relay. These three questions caused the most consternation amongst the kids and Mr Bucher will be unpacking the top two of these pictured below Friday  4th of March when he is next on class. I will be doing a focus on decoding graphs next week.

All students now have logged on to Maths Online and most have completed the first three lessons on 3D shapes. They can access this site from home to do revision exercises.

Writer's Notebook and Picture Book of the Week

We read this book and students then wrote their own letters from either a red pencil or a red crayon's point of view. They used a spokes wheel which is a visual organiser which assisted them to unpack possible ideas. They have a bank of visual organisers pasted into the back of their Writer's Notebooks. Take the time to have a look. They are a great way to help children to unpack ideas and  to plan their writing.. They then completed a  draft in their Writer's Notebook and now are producing the top copies which go in an envelope and will become part of the letter stack they are  creating. Our main focus was on the use of commas in lists and the use of commas which show possession. This stack will contain four to five letters. Four students shared  their first letters in the first whole school assembly on Thursday 24th February.

Art
The students are now onto designing their boats which they will insert into their stormy seas next week.

.
Charlotte's Web Novel Study

On Wednesday students started making their interactive lap books. They did their cover designs. I have used a great idea from a North American Teacher, which I purchased in the holidays, to kick start  the unit. I encouraged the children to draw their own front covers rather than use the stencil as this encourages them to be creative. The children have seen the video so they know what is expected and how to go about the unit of work. I have got all the necessary materials such as vibrantly-coloured manilla folders and split pins. The activities the children can choose from are available in the grey shelving system on top of the tote trays. Feel free to have a look. Children will be given guidance in writing about settings, character and plot development as well as focusing on timelines, Venn diagrams and predictions.

Here are a few students with their finished covers, so gorgeous and a lot of effort made. Effort is our school value of the month.

Persuasive Writing
Mr Bucher  did a lesson Friday the 19th focusing on junk food.  On Tuesday I did a second lesson with the children focusing on desired traits for election to the School Representative Council.We viewed a  funny video and then focused on the structure of texts looking at introduction, first argument, second argument, third argument and then conclusion. Students wrote a persuasive text to convince their classmate that they should be elected as the class representative on the school council. We listened to the speeches of the thirteen students who elected to run for this in our class on Wednesday afternoon. ASIDE: Mrs Klonaris and I will be running the Student Representative Council this year. We will be escorting (driving) the students attending the GRIP conference with the elected council reps and the house captains on Tuesday the 1st of March to the Grand Chancellor. Here is the clip I showed the children to motivate their persuasive writing:

Spelling
Spelling was a MAJOR focus this week on the are words. Students were closely guided through the setting out process and the tricky sections on the fortnightly unit were explained. The Spelling Bingo words were all "are" words too. I am encouraging students to take pride in their work. These will be tested on Monday 29th of February to determine the revision required. Four students were  also started on Word Shark which is a computer program, designed to specifically meet individual needs. All students also now have an Individual Spelling Card. Ask them to bring it home. After five successful tests on any word a teacher or parent can sign the word off. Words are continuously added to these cards and are taken from the students' Writer's Notebooks. Next week the focus will e on "ea" words. Some students have also been given postcard with five words from their writing to learn. I do regular tests on these and appreciate any parent help with this.

Word Shark

Word Shark

Mrs Andropolos took the class on Friday,  in lieu of Mr Bucher, and did a fabulous Spanish lesson wherein the children learnt how to introduce themselves and say how old they are and where they live. There is a display up in the art area of the work completed in this session. Andrea also did a maths game focusing on adding to 100 using a game wherein students had to employ strategies to win. Any completed co-ordinates work has been backed and placed in  their portfolios.