This week our Numeracy focus has been on addition.

I have spent some time working out where each child is at in their addition learning. This involved me sitting with individual children and working through some basic addition with them.

After this, I was able to clearly see which level each child was at with their addition learning. This is extremely beneficial to the children as it allows me to set the same task, at different levels of difficulty. It means we see no children bored because the work is too easy, and no children frustrated or confused because the work is too difficult.

During today’s lesson some children were adding two digit numbers using vertical addition while others were using concrete materials and illustrations to add one digit numbers. Have a look at the amazing work we achieved in today’s maths lesson.

During Literacy lessons selected children who require support with their letter sounds, reading and writing have the opportunity to work with me (Mrs Feher) one on one for mini focus lessons.

Today, I worked with five individual students, we focused on a list of sight words, which are common words children will come across when reading and writing.

When children are beginning to read it is important that they develop a bank of commonly used words which they can recognise instantly, these words are best learnt through memorisation and repetition.

Any sight words which the students found challenging to read were withdrawn from the pile. We then worked with these words further, sounding them out and going through the letters and sounds within the word. To finish off, each student constructed and wrote a sentence using those words.

For the last few weeks we have been learning about place value. Some students found the task challenging at first, while others were ready to work with three and four digit numbers right away. No matter what level we were at we differentiated the learning appropriately. This means children were doing different task, at their level of readiness, but by the end of the lesson we had all achieved the same learning outcome.

Some were working on four digit place value activities while others worked on two or three digit place value activities. Some also worked in a small group with me on basic place value concepts.

Over the course of the three weeks, I saw great levels of growth from everyone!

The children really enjoyed one lesson where they had the opportunity to use thousands, hundreds, tens and units blocks to create animals and creatures, then once they where done, they calculated what number they had all together.

Yesterday 2EF had the opportunity to participate in an Auskick football clinic!

We all had so much fun.

If you are interested in registering your child please click on the link below. The program is not run through or at the school and there is a cost.

https://play.afl/auskick?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI5K7lwIbc9gIVyDMrCh2ZGA-GEAAYASAAEgI2f_D_BwE

At Holy Family we see the results of our wonderful teaching in our older Year 5/6 students in the school. We really do teach the children to grow into inspirational, independent, positive, leading, supporting, kind and empathic people and the Year 5/6 students are walking proof of that.

Last year, I (Mrs Feher) taught a group of wonderful Year Fours who now as Year Fives visit me and 2EF often to say ‘hi’. Recently, I began to ask them to extend their stays and apply their leadership skills to support, guide, model to and teach the Year Twos.

It has been amazing and wonderful seeing these relationships develop between the younger and older students.

Today Jacob and Joshua, two Year Five students from my class last year, read to 2EF before we continued the lesson with Independent Reading.

Throughout the last few weeks, Gurnoor, Matthew, Felix, Yianni and Myla who were also in my class last year have been supporting 2EF as well.

Additionally, we have had support from Year 6 girls, TCross, and Winnie.

We are very grateful to have these wonderful role models in our school, which the younger children look up to.

We are excited for what the rest of the year has in store for these blossoming relationships.

It is beautiful to think that one day all of the Year Twos in 2EF will be the older Year 5/6 students applying their leadership skills and supporting the younger students.

Yesterday, we celebrated Harmony Day! 2EF had a day full of activities which celebrated and highlighted the diversity within Australia and more directly within our school.

The morning began with a reading of Whoever You Are by Mem Fox, this book highlights the fact that no matter where we are from, where we are in the world, or what we look like, we all have the same hearts, smiles, laughs, and pain.

Many of the children wore orange which is a colour that signifies harmony, happiness,  and joy. Other children wore traditional cultural dress to show how proud they are of their culture. It was wonderful to see so many children and teachers were involved.

Once we had an understanding of Harmony Day we had a discussion about our different cultures. We discovered that in 2EF we have a range of different cultures to celebrate. We created digital presentations about our cultures.

After Recess we read the book, My Two Blankets  by Irena Kobald at the same time as every other class in the school. This book is a wonderful book about a little girl who moves away from her country  to live in a new country. She shares her feelings while she adjusts. She uses a blanket as a metaphor. She wrapped herself up in the blanket every night. This blanket was filled with all of her safe, familiar things from her home country. Over time she becomes more familiar with her new country, makes a friend and learns the language. She begins to create a new, safe blanket for her new home as she begins to feel happy and safe there.

We talked about what makes us feel safe and worked to create our own, paper blanket. Each child work hard to decorate one patch of our paper blanket, including all of the things that are familiar and safe to them as an individual.

Once have completed the blanket, we will attach them all together and display our safe blanket

To end our wonderful day we partnered up with some older year 5/6 buddies from 5/6 NB for a shared reading experience.

You know that feeling, where you have been working for hours and your brain becomes fuzzy, you just can’t focus any more? Children get that same feeling and absolutely no learning will come out of this situation.

That is when we call for a BRAIN BREAK! We reset our brain ready for new learning.

Here we are busting a move, doing a cardio workout.

We continue to develop an understanding of 2D and 3D shapes. We are identifying, drawing, labeling and comparing different shapes.

On this particular day we applied our technology skills and used technology to draw and create our shapes!

Writer’s Workshop learning experiences allow young learners to apply their literacy knowledge while making books. Children write stories  using the writing strategies and skills they are taught during Writer’s Workshop mini lessons. Children are encouraged to imagine themselves as authors. They are supported through the planning and editing phases and then finally the publishing stage where they transfer the book into a digital format using their devices. These books are completely lead by the student. The topics and genres are chosen by the individual student, as well as the writing techniques and skills they choose to apply. The children will engage in one on one writing conferences where their teacher  who offers advice, and suggestions, nudges them in new directions with their writing. Spelling errors may be evident during these early stages, but as the children become familiar with the process of editing their text, errors will be less common.

This book titled, Baby Bird was written, illustrated, edited and published by Isla (2EF).

Have a look at her hand crafted draft followed by her digitally created published piece.

During Writer’s Workshop Hannah has been working on several different books. First, she writes her ideas into her Literacy book. Next, she creates the book with pencils and paper. Finally, she publishes her books using Powerpoint on her laptop.

Have a look at her book titled, I love God because…