As usual, we had another week full of wonderful learning opportunities.
Now that the focus is off of our Assembly we have been able to establish
a predictable and consistent learning routine within the classroom and
as expected the children have responded well.

Science

During science we started this Term’s investigation into water. Children started by exploring what our senses notice when it comes to water. Each of the children sat with their water bottle and tasted, smelt, felt, listened to, and looked at the water while they engaged in discussions about what water tastes like, sounds like, feels like, looks like and smells like. Some of us were able really pop our science hats on and think outside of the box. Hudson considered the fact that not all waters from all sources will have the same answers, and he gave the example of salt water from the ocean and how that will not taste like the water in your drink bottle. This opened up a new perspective for the rest of us scientists to consider.

Maths

During maths we continued our learning about place value, showing with physical materials that we understand how many ones makes up one group of ten. This can be a difficult concept for children to grasp at first, as one group of ten can look like one, but it is in fact ten. With repeated practice using physical materials children begin to understand this concept which sets them up with the basis of understanding numbers and how we write them and what their quantities are.

We played a bit of a game too… in pairs children took it in turns to roll a die. What ever number showed on the die, that child had to collect that amount of blocks. Children continued doing this and adding to their block pile until all of the blocks in the classroom ran out.

The pairs then had to sort their blocks into groups of tens and left over ones.

After they had a go at recording their number in a HTU (hundreds, tens and units) chart.

Brain Food

Every morning, between 9:40 and 10:20 we find some time to stop, get outside into nature and enjoy a healthy snack. It is a great reset time for the children and allows them that opportunity to recharge themself for more learning. Our morning block is our longest block of learning for the school day as it is two hours long. The other blocks throughout the day are an hour and a half long.

Please ensure your child has a healthy snack in their lunch box for this recharge time, as sugary, salty and processed foods do not provide children with the long lasting type of energy they need to get through their learning. Research has proven time and time again that without the right foods children (and adults) are unable to maintain optimal focus levels.

Ideas include, fruit, cheese and crackers, crackers, vegetables, yoghurt, yakult, boiled egg, oat bakes, dips and crackers.

HASS

During HASS we have been exploring the concept of where we are and where we live. We have had lengthy discussions about how we live in our house, which is on a street, which is in a suburb, which is in a city or town, which is in a state, which is in a country, which is in our world.

We talked about how everyone has an identity which is unique to them and we have special documents which prove we are who we say we are.

The children then created their own passports.

Health

During health we have been learning about different emotions, how we can identify them and which emotions are comfortable feelings and uncomfortable feelings. Together we though of eleven different emotions, the children then organised them into two groups, comfortable and uncomfortable.