Week 5 – Friday – Term 1

 

This morning we enjoyed an assembly presented by 5/6 ND and 5/6 NB. It was a fantastic presentation of learning, showcasing the many artistic talents of the students from dance to animation. The assembly centred around the theme of the bushfires and how from a tragedy new life grows and strength comes.

Assembly Reflection

Laura – I liked the frog walking.

Elnathan – I like the prayer and the last dance because it was peaceful. My sister was in the assembly.

Ishpreet – I liked the colours that they danced with because I like the dance and colours and I also saw my friend.

Keth – I liked the butterfly on the television because it was pretty.

Alexa – I like when they told us what to do when there is a fire.

Jordan – I liked the prayer because I liked it.

Jed – I liked the colours with the dancing.

Hendrix – I liked the Minecraft – they were building the fish farm.

Emily – I liked the dance, the prayer.

Adum – I liked the dance and songs.

Annabelle – I liked the mini craft building because they were making the same thing in real life.

 

Playing Games

Our buddies came over and we continued our conversations about games – The next questions we explored was –

What makes a good game?

Hendrix – They are fun.

Elnathan – A good game is when you listen to each other and make good things.

Annabelle – I good game is sharing ideas.

Abby – Teamwork makes a good game.

Thaison – Playing fair makes a good game/

Jaanpreet – A good detail.

Javeirva – What makes a good game is a fair game

Alexa – a good game being kind to your friends.

Calvin- A good game has to be fun.

Keth – When you do the right thing that is a good game.

Tyson- A good game is when there are no arguments.

Kaisha – A good game is playing fair by the rules.

What games do you want to do with your buddies?

Jayden – Magnet bottle flips

Mya – dress-up

Kalil – Playing with the marble run.

Jacob –  Playing Uno

Eann – Like games we have in the cupboard.

Olivia – Kitchen.

Our buddies are going to come back at 12 O’clock to play games with us.

Play Investigations

Before we moved into play investigations we talked about the Clara learning powers and how we use these during our play.

We will talk in more detail about each learning power over the next few weeks and introduce a Beanie Boo which represents that power.

After our play we drew a reflections of our learning and thoughts about what learning power we might be using.

Before lunch our buddies came back to play games with us.

Game time with Buddies

At the end of the day we talked as a class about ‘Safe Hands’. There has been a few incidents in the yard during recess and lunch, so I thought it was time to revisit this thinking about ‘safe hands’. As a general rule we have a No Touch policy at school. But we talked about asking our friends first before ‘safe touch’ which is things like – fist pump, high five or shaking hands.

We drew our hand on a big piece of paper and wrote our names. Then we talked about safe and unsafe hands. For the photo – it was hands in and ‘Go Team’.

 

 

Have a lovely weekend and I will see you on Monday.

 

Week 5 – Thursday – Term 1

Thanks for a wonderful day of learning together.

What a wonderful day of learning – the children were challenged, they collaborated and solved problems. They made connections with their ideas and knowledge and had fun. I often to refer to the class as a team and what a wonderful supportive team we have in R1 MR.

Literacy Rotations

  • Formation and sound identification – Kk
  • Building words from lego letters
  • Roll the dice – writing high frequency word game.
  • Building sentences – reading, comprehension and building upon this idea.

Sports – Mrs Cooymans said she needed to make some extra challenging rotations for our talented R1 MR class.

Numeracy

The students moved through a variety of number tasks today –

  • Sorting and patterning
  • Number recognition and value (representing number with objects)
  • Number lines and recording skip counting
  • Introduced the children to the concept of before and after a number
  • Number formation and ordering

Shared reading text

The Three little Pigs

You may ask your child to retell the story at home – I hope they don’t make the wolf too scary!

STEM – Challenge

To make a house for a little pig to be safe.

Materials you can use:

  • Pop Sticks
  • Paper
  • Blocks
  • Duplo
  • Lego

Fantastic problem solving, collaboration, design and engineering was observed.

At the end of construction the children reflected upon why they thought their house was strong and going to keep the pig safe.

I will post some more pictures tomorrow as some children were still contracting and we ran out of time.

 

Week 5 – Wednesday – Term 1

 

Our morning routine of a song to welcome everyone into the room and then moving into come read with me is a lovely way to start the day. It enables the children to flow into the room organise their belongings and settle into reading.

After Come read with me the children get their brain break food and sit on the mat ready for the roll, organisation and a new letter is introduced. This is introduced with a story and we also revisit the previous letters and engage in some word building.

Then we move into literacy rotations. Today our rotations were –

  • Formations and initial sounds – ‘Cc’
  • Building CVC words with magnets and picture prompts. – hearing and identifying sounds in words. e.g. h-a-t.   n-e-t
  • Covering the caterpillars with play dough – fine motor and oral language
  • High frequency word cup game. – Building upon identification of key words for reading and writing.

The children enjoy rotating through these activities for about 10mins on each task before we had recess.

Recess

Library and Ash Wednesday Mass

After recess we had a super quick borrowing session at the library before we moved into the hall for Ash Wednesday Mass.

The children were amazing during Mass – attentive and respectful. The songs were always popular giving the children an opportunity to move around, sings and follow the actions.

The children received their symbol of a cross of ash on their foreheads back in the classroom after lunch.

After Mass we continued our discussion about Lent and Ash Wednesday and we also talked about reflecting upon the choices we make (change our thinking or actions to be positive).

Our focus for Lent is helping and being kind to others.

Today we changed our cloth in our prayer area to purple.

 

Lunch

Planning my play

Why would we have a plan?

Keth – So we can think what we are playing.

Annabelle – We are planning to play new stuff we make.

Jed – So you can play different things

Ishpreet – Someone plans to make a car.

What is a plan?

Elnathan – A plan is something when you don’t know what to do and someone tells you what you do.

Alexa – A plan is like you are planning a holiday. So if you are planning a holiday you need to check what you need. You need a passport and your luggage and if you are bringing any phones and ipad you need to bring your charger because that is the most important thing.

Jordan – Or else you forget something

Today we explored the idea of planning our play investigations. The children shared their ideas about what they thought s plan was and why we might need to plan.

I talked to children about a plan is a way for you to organised your thinking before you play.

You need to think about what you might want to do – Who you are going to play with – And what you might need. The children then used words or pictures to plan their play. It was great to hear the discussion amongst the children about what they were going to do before they started planning.

 

Week 5 – Tuesday – Term 1

 

Wonderful community of supportive readers – The children have the opportunity to read independently or  read with others each day.

After reading we moved into ‘Rocket Writing’  – This is a time I am encouraging the children to write – to write a story, a list, words, letters, sentences. I want the children to believe in themselves as writers and be confident to have a go and along the way develop strategies to develop their writing – for example where do you find words to write? What do I do if I don’t know how to spell that word? How do I set out my writing? Where do I put a full stop?

RECESS

After recess we shared a clip about ‘Pancake Day’ What it means? and Why it is celebrated?

After the discussion we talked about a making pancake procedure. This leads into our focus upon Lent and the Ash Wednesday Mass tomorrow.

The children were every excited to make and eat pancakes today.

(Additional item – Baking Powder – 2 tablespoons – if you are going to make some at home)

After we made the mixture the children recorded their procedure in their writing journal using pictures and words.

There was a lot of discussion and new terminology introduced -for example

  • What is a recipe? Why do we follow a recipe?
  • What is a procedure?
  • Liquids – what are they?
  • Reactions – can you see a reaction  – what happened to the dry ingredients?
  • Change caused by heat – how did we cook the pancakes?
  • Dry ingredients – what are they?
  • Combining ingredients
  • measuring – cups and tablespoons – why do we measure ingredients?
  • Observation/noticing changes

After Lunch we shared the Prayer –

Some of the children’s reflections:

Elnathan – So when you follow his words you will be better.

Keth – When they say the right word they listen to it.

Jed – It is being kind and sharing.

Ishpreet – I will listen to God.

This morning we explored the letter ‘Oo’ and then we made a list of words with an ‘Oo’ sound at the beginning, middle and end. The children explored formation before moving into Play Investigations.

Letter ‘Oo’

Have a nice night – see you tomorrow.

Week 4 – Friday – Term 1

Today was a fantastic Friday of learning and fun.

After assembly we went to Log Park for some fitness and to enjoy the beautiful weather.

Fitness – Log Park

Laura – You can make a base.

Keth – We were making a home, maybe.

Ishpreet – We were making a base.

Alexa – We were making a camp site with Annabelle, Laura and Adum and it a kitchen and it also looks big.

Owen – We were trying to make it bigger.

Kalil – We were making with the logs.

Mya – I was about to build a house with more logs.

Eann – We were making a Spiderman base.

Jordan – Me and Jed and I were taking the logs out of the big mountain where the big tree was.

Annabelle – Working together is team work.

Today we continued our project about writing and we explored the question –

Where do you see writing?

Kalil – I see writing on paper.

Jed – Coffee cup

Adum  – I see writing on books.

Felipe – I see writing on the classroom assistant (chart.

Bior – I can see writing on the whiteboard.

Jed – I can writing on a door.

Elnathan – I can see writing  on the wall.

Keth – I see writing on a box (label)

Annabelle – I see writing on a car.

Laura – I see writing on boxes.

As a group we talked about different places where we see  writing. What do we see at home and at the shops? What if we went to the mail box – what would we find?

Letter

Magazine

Catalogue

Invitation

Card

Signs

The children explored these ideas about where they see writing. As a project we will take forward one idea to build upon next week.

Next week we will build upon the idea of performing. This idea came from the children’s engaging play on the stage. Children took upon different roles of performers, assistants, popcorn sellers and security.

If you were going to perform on stage what would you do?

Kalil – I would tell a joke.

Jordan – I would make a really joke.

Jed – I would dance.

Felipe – I would show all my tricks.

Adum – I would perform with the puppets.

Annabelle – I would do a show with people – I would use dresses.

Hendrix – I would do puppets.

Laura – We could make puppets.

Emily -I would dress up

Alexa – I would dance or sing or I would dress up.

Jerry – I would do a show with animals.

Ishpreet  – I would perform a puppet show.

Elnathan – A puppet show.

McKayla –  I would do a puppet show.

Bior – I would make a puppet show.

Senay – I would do a trick.

Eann – I would dance.

Keth – I would do dancing.

Mya – I would perform a dress up.

Have a fabulous weekend – see you Monday.

 

 

 

Week 4 – Thursday – Term 1

What a busy Thursday we have had :0)

Tomorrow there is no sausage sizzle as they have all been sold. Thank you for you support.

Literacy Rotations

  • Mini Books – Sounds I  know – Ss – Mm – Aa – Pp – Tt- letter and sound recognition and word building
  • Lego words/letter – letter recognition and fine motor skills
  • Handwriting – formation, fine motor and word building
  • Puppets – Oral language skills

 

Sports

Today during ‘Sports/PE the children enjoyed moving through a variety of stations.

Ishpreet – In PE today we got to do some ball stuff. We did volley ball with the short nets.

Laura – I like the ball catching, because you get to throw and it comes back to you.

Bibi – I liked throwing the ball into the big net.

Keth – I like playing catching the ball.

Elnathan – I like doing the shooting in the hoops and the soccer goals.

Alexa – I like the soccer game because it very fun and I also like the basketball and my Mum and Dad like basketball.

Adum – I like doing the scooper thing when you catch the ball.

Mya – I liked throwing the beanbag.

Jordan – You learn sports.

Kalil – I was good at the soccer game. I like sports because there is basketball hoop.

Jed – I like the shooting in the hoop.

Tower Challenge

After lunch Challenge – Make the tallest tower you can which is capable of standing freely and not attached to anything?

This challenge brings together – science, technology, creativity, problem solving and persistence

What materials can we use?

Annabelle – Boxes

Ishpreet – cardboard, blocks

Mya – Paper

Laura – Blocks

Kalil – Paper

Jed- Blocks

Keth – Blocks

Alexa – lego

Emily – Pillows

Eann – Lego

Jordan – Logs

Bior – Bricks

These are some of the questions we reflected upon at the end of the building time –

Why were some towers taller? Why did some fall down? What problems did you have to solve?

Ishpreet – The tower fell down becasue it didn’t have a base.

Mya – My feels down more because it didn’t have base.

Keth – Ours didn’t fall down because it had a base.

Jed – We used team work.

Eann – My tower can scoop things up at the back.

Amazing learning was observed during this time 🙂

 

 

 

 

 

Week 4 – Wednesday – Term 1

 

Literacy Focus

Letter ‘Mm’ – we reviewed our sounds and made a list of words while the children enjoyed a brain break

Literacy Rotations

Rotations this morning

  • Writing sight words on paper on the wall (great gross and fine motor activity – which was lots of fun) Building upon recognition of High Frequency Words
  • Formation of ‘Mm’ – word building
  • Paper folding – making a mouse  – Following directions/sequence  – fine motor
  • Playing a game – oral language and collaboration

 

After Library, as part of our ‘Keeping Safe Curriculum’  we talked about people in the community who can help us   – The children recorded their ideas in their learning journal.

People in the community who can help us:

Emily – Teachers help you.

Owen – The ambulance can help you when you get hurt.

Alexa – The workers in the shop (Security guard)

Jordan – The police can help you.

Elnathan – Fire fighters

 

 

At the end of the day we talked about some different ideas we could explore during play investigations.

Play Investigations is a time when we think about –

  • How we can  challenge our  thinking?

  • What is something new we could learn?

  • Can I teach my friends something new?

Play Investigation – Ideas

Sausage Sizzle

Dear Parents/Caregivers,

To use up the stock purchased for the Fish Farm fundraiser, we will be holding a Sausage Sizzle at Recess on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday of this week unless otherwise sold out.

Sausage on bread will be $1.50 each for purchase by students with payment by cash only.  They will be available from the area near the table tennis table.

 

KERRY WHITE

PRINCIPAL

 

Week 4 – Tuesday – Term 1

What a fun and busy Tuesday we have had.

Happy Birthday McKayla - we enjoyed celebrating your special day with you :)

Literacy Morning

Today we started our day with ‘Come Read with Me’ – please remember your reading bag each day so there are plenty of options and opportunities for sharing books.  Thank you

Then we talked about the letter ‘Nn’ –  formation and sounds and then we created a list of words which had the ‘n’ sound at the beginning, middle and end. The different sounds we are exploring are enabling us to build words (so it is important to hear the sounds in parts of a word) e.g. p -a-n

 

The children enjoyed a brain break and we shared our letter ‘n’ introduction text. This text also revisits our previous sounds and introduces the children to word building using those sounds.

Then we moved into our High frequency word review and handwriting. The children used their books and also a large piece of paper for these tasks.

As the paper was out on the floor – after recess we used the medium of drawing for relaxation to enter the class for learning. The children drew spirals, lines, zig zags and other shapes.

We turned over the paper and used a picture of the ‘cat in a hat’ as a prompt for our rocket writing time. This is a time when we encourage the children to be confident writers and just write (use their knowledge of words and sounds and have a go). This was also a very collaborative time as friends near by helped each other. The children drew pictures, wrote phrase, words and pictures.

 

Numeracy

As a group as watched a clip about counting by 2’s – we talked about how it is quicker to count to a big number by 2’s and even quicker to count to 20 by 5’s and 10’s.

When the children lined up for Spanish we  skipped a child and counted by 2’s.

The children in reception explored making groups.  The children in Year 1 sorted objects into groups of 2 and counting by 2’s.

The children recorded their understanding in their numeracy book.

Week 4 – Monday – Term 1

What a wonderful busy day of learning today.

Come read with me is a lovely way to start our day – I observe many children sharing their books with their friends, other find a quiet space to read and others read with me. Reading every day is such an important thing to do and having this time each morning enables me to spend quality time with each child during the week to focus upon strategies to support them as a reader.

It was a day of the children making connections and challenging their thinking.

After come read with me we moved into our focus letter for the day which was ‘Ii’. We enjoyed reading the shared text together, building words with the ‘Ii’ and formation. During this time the children enjoyed their brain food. It is great to see so much variety of fruit in their lunch boxes.

The children then moved into ‘Writer Workshop’. Together we constructed to sentence ‘It is a hot day’. This sentence starter is an options for the children to use in their writing. From this sentence starter we talked about where we might be and what we might be doing. The high frequency words we have introduced to the children are building upon their word bank as a writer. The children are encouraged to copy the words and we also help scribe the children’s ideas.

After recess we continue on with Writer’s workshop – but we first we reflected about this time and things that we do during this time.

Writer’s Workshop

Jordan – You have to write sentences.

Kalil – You have to write words.

Alexa – Writing words and doing your letters. You sound the words out.

Jordan – You can ask a friend.

Mya – Today I copied the words and drew a picture.

Jed – Writer’s workshop is about drawing and learning.

Adum – Writer’s workshop is about telling a story.

Elnathan – You can ask a teacher.

Ishpreet – You can see words on the sheet.

After Writer’s Workshop we went and enjoyed Music.

After Music we had a Mini Maths lesson around the song

’10 Fat Sausages’

Before we played the song we talked about how the children may have heard this rhyme at Kindy – but  now when they listen they need to use their clever thinking brains to work out the pattern and what else this rhyme is telling us about numbers. Then the children recorded their ideas in their mini math books.

The children’s recording reflected: Number formation, value, one-to-one correspondence, counting by 2’s (groups) and subtraction.

Please enjoy some photos of our day.