Hello reception children and families and welcome to the end of Week 9! Only one more week to go and it will be our first school holidays – the time has really flown by!

This week we worked on finishing our lanterns for the moon lantern festival. Our focus was on using sustainable products so that we weren’t creating more waste and “using it again before it goes in the bin” – Owen.

These were then displayed in the hall for the moon lantern assembly on Friday where we saw traditional dances and then got very excited for our special guest – the dragon! It was such a beautiful day with so many of us in our cultural clothes! We enjoyed our shared lunch outside in the sunshine!

On that note, please remember to send your children to school with a hat and advise your child’s teacher if they need their own sunscreen as we will be applying sunscreen before recess and lunch each day.

We have been continuing our work on patterns this week as we also continue with our end of term assessments in all learning areas – these will inform the report your child receives at the end of the year.

We started our new poem ‘Rocket Ship’ which is in your children’s learning journals for you to enjoy at home. We looked at the letter ‘r’, the sound it can make and where we can see it in words. We then practiced all of the letters and sounds we have learnt about so far: b, a, s, r.

If you require vacation care during the holidays please book in now as the OSHC can book out and this allows time to ensure there is sufficient staff.

We hope you enjoy the beautiful weather this weekend and we look forward to welcoming you back for our final week of term 3!

Quick reminder that next Friday is sports day and children are asked to wear their house colours. If you are unsure which house your child is in please ask their teacher.

Ms. Yeend, Mrs. A and Mrs. McGlone.

Dear Families,

Welcome to our week 8 Blog!  The children have certainly had another fun and fabulous week of learning.

This week for mathematics we have started our Algebra unit on ‘patterns’. We  explored and discussed how patterns are all around us, and that repeating patterns could be colours, shapes, pictures, symbols, sounds or movements.  We introduced the children to patterns through various visuals and books.  One great story used to introduce the students to patterns was ‘Pitter Pattern’ by Joyce Hasselberth. Throughout the week the children have copied and repeated simple AB patterns using  a variety of materials such as pattern blocks, tiles, counters, unifix cubes, LEGO and natural materials.

For Word Study we introduced ‘Stinky socks’ the poem. Through the poem we were able to explore letter ‘s’. We have practised sounding out letter ‘s’ and writing it. We also had created a ‘Stinky  socks’ poem puzzle for the children to explore. We hope you are enjoying  sharing the weekly poems at home with your child to as this will support their phonological awareness.

Raised Garden Bed

This week were very excited to have been given a garden bed by Mr. McCarthy. RIA & RLY worked together to plant an   an array of lovely herbs which included Vietnamese parsley, thyme, coriander, chives and parsley. This will be a wonderful opportunity for our students to tender and care for our garden by watering and weeding. We look forward to harvesting some of these lovely herbs to be used in our canteen.

The Moon Lantern Festival

The Moon Lantern Festival or Mid-Autumn Festival is a popular harvest festival celebrated when the moon is at its fullest and brightest. At Holy Family we will be celebrating the Moon Lantern Festival on Friday 22nd September 2023.  Students are invited to wear traditional or cultural clothing. Assembly will take place at 9:00am and it will highlight cultural aspects of Moon Lantern Festival. Activities will include a lion dance, singing and sharing of cultural information. The winners of the Lantern Making Competition will also be announced at the assembly.

Our children have been very busy designing and creating lanterns using recycled materials such as boxes and paper  shopping bags. We had decided to use a sustainable approach to making the lanterns. Through the process they were able to engage and work collaboratively with a partner to design and use craft tools.

We have shared videos and stories about moon lantern festival inviting the students to discover  and be apart of this special cultural celebration which is an important celebration and tradition for many of our Chinese and Vietnamese  families. We would like to celebrate in our class community by holding a special shared lunch next Friday the 22nd of September. We ask that the children still bring in their packed lunch for the day but in addition are also welcome to bring in a shared plate to share.

A few friendly reminders:

• Please ensure you bring your child’s library bag including their books and learning journals each day as we are using this as a form of communication with families.
• Please remember to return all library books each Friday – for books that are late your child will come home with a slip asking for payment of the book if not returned.
• The weather is warming up! We have been monitoring the daily UV index and have been applying sunscreen to keep sun safe. If your child has a special sunscreen please let your child’s class teacher know. We would also like to encourage the children to start wearing school hats. This has also been requested by our P.E teacher who has mentioned the children will start to spend more time on the oval for their P.E lessons.

We hope you all have a wonderful and relaxing weekend

From RIA & RLY 🙂

Niina Marni reception children and families and welcome to the end of Week 7!

Only three more weeks until our first school holidays, time has certainly flown by!!

Information and reminders for the week:

• Parent teacher meetings will be happening next week (week 8) from Tuesday 12th to Friday 15th. They will each run for 10 minutes and are available to be booked in from 3:10 – 4:10 each day. Some spots have already been booked so we appreciate your understanding with this. Please email you child’s teacher (email addresses in last weeks blog post) or verbally communicate this to them at drop off or pick up. Unfortunately, if meetings for the week are not booked in by end of day Monday 11th they will not be able to be booked in. The reason for this is that we have organised this in our own time as the school does not conduct these meetings in Term 3 so we will have already organised our week’s events.
• Please ensure you bring your child’s library bag including their books and learning journals each day as we are using this as a form of communication with families.
• Please remember to return all library books each Friday – for books that are late your child will come home with a slip asking for payment of the book if not returned in a timely manner.
• This term’s exploration of Humanities and Social Sciences within the Reception curriculum, we will be investigating our personal and family histories. Through inquiries into their family, familiar events and their own history, the children will develop a deeper understanding about why some events are important in their own and others’ lives. We will be focusing on the key questions:o What is my history and how do I know?o Who am I, where do I live and who came before me?o Why are some places and events special, and how do we know?

  Our first task is to investigate our own families. In the classroom we will be creating a class family tree/belonging wall. We kindly request a hard copy of a family photo to be added to the tree. It would be greatly appreciated if you could include a small amount of information about your family history.

  Information you might like to include:

  o Where was I born?

  o Were any members of my family born overseas? If so, where were they born?

  o Does my name have a meaning?

  o Are there any significant events or traditions my family celebrate?

  Thank you for your support with this activity!

This week we have been finishing our unit of learning on number sense and 1:1 correspondence. We have been continuing to investigate and solidify our understanding through play experiences whilst others engage in some play based assessment tasks. We are excited to move on to our new numeracy unit next week – patterning!

We have continued our phonics explorations through the use of different poems. This week our poem is Abby Cat – you will notice these glued in to your child’s learning journal for reading at home. We have moved on from the letter ‘b’ to the letter ‘a’! The children have been showing us they are very keen to learn how to form new letters and discuss what sounds they can make. Did you know, some letters can make more than one sound? We have been discussing this in class whilst exploring the letter ‘a’!

For science we are focusing on how different objects move. On Monday we posed wonderings and formed predictions about whether different objects would roll or slide down a ramp and next week we will begin our own investigations in small groups!

For relaxation time after lunch we have been learning how to draw different animals using Art Hub for Kids. This week we looked at turtles and bees! You might notice these drawn in your child’s learning journal.

We can’t wait to see what next week brings for us, please enjoy looking at these photos together with your families over the weekend!

Ms Yeend, Mrs A and Mrs McGlone.

Happy Friday Everyone!

It  has been another wonderful week of playful learning and discovery in RIA & RLY. We are so proud of our learners on how confident they are becoming in their school environment.

During this term we have been observing the children in all areas of the curriculum with a lens of literacy and numeracy skills and positive dispositions for learning. Our focus for numeracy this week was building number sense by connecting number names, numerals and quantities, 1-10. This included sharing counting books where we were able to explore numerals and the corresponding number of items that matched. We also explored numerals and their matching quantity by making number towers.

For Word Study the children were introduced to a Beehive Poem in which we read together to explore graphemes and phonemes. We introduced the letter ‘B’ (both upper and lower case) and connected letter name with sound. You would have noticed that the children have been bringing home their Learning Journals and at the back of their journal they have a copy of our Beehive rhyme to enjoy reading at home. This is not a homework task, just a wonderful opportunity to enjoy shared reading time together and enrich their  literacy experience.

Our Belonging Tree

Earlier in the term the children were invited to create their own totum pole during nature play which enabled them to share stories about themselves.  These will be used in the creation of our ‘Belonging Tree’. Our belonging tree will enable the children to feel a sense of belonging, get to know more about one another and create a sense of community as we see the differences and similarities each family bring to our class community. A place where we demonstrate inclusivity by respecting and celebrating the diversity among us. We have invited our learners to bring in a photo of their family. Thank you to everyone who has brought in a photo. If you have not yet brought in a photo could you please bring one in next week, as the children will be invited  to displaying their family photo on our tree.

MUDLA Visit

This week we ventured back to the MUDLA. The children displayed curiosity and wonder while orienting themselves around the space. Whilst wondering and observing there had been some discussion  about the kinds of environments the animals lived in. We will continue to focus more on habitats and what the animals need to survive next week.

Parent/ Teacher Interviews

Dear families of RLY and RIA,

In week 8 this term (11^th September – 15^th September 2023) we will be holding optional meetings with families to discuss your children’s transition to school. We felt as though it was important for you to have an opportunity to meet with us this term as we don’t always have the time at drop off and pick up to have a meaningful conversation.

These interviews only occur in Term 1 at Holy Family so we have designed this ourselves and as such need to be careful with our times as we will need to book these in. Available times will be from 3:10pm to 4:10pm Tuesday to Friday of week 8 and each meeting will run for precisely 10 minutes.

If you would like to book in a time, please either verbally communicate this to your child’s teacher or send them an email:

Laura Yeend – laura.yeend@holyfamily.catholic.edu.au

Iolanda Aufiero – iolanda.aufiero@holyfamily.catholic.edu.au

Emily McGlone – emily.mcglone@holyfamily.catholic.edu.au

Please note your selected time may not be available as we don’t have an online system to use.

We hope to speak with you soon.

Laura Yeend, Iolanda Aufiero and Emily McGlone.

Just a few friendly reminders:

• Could you please ensure that the Learning Journals  and readers are returned in reader bag each day.
  
• Library Day on Friday for RLY and RIA- all books, 3 readers and 2 picture books will need to be returned for the children to borrow new ones.
• Could you please ensure all children’s belongings are labelled with names

On behalf of RIA and RLY we would like to wish all the Dads, Grandfathers and special people in the children’s lives a wonderful day on Sunday 🙂

Hello reception families and learners and welcome to the middle of the term! We can’t quite believe we have already had five whole weeks of reception! We all feel so privileged to work every day with these amazing young learners and hope you are all proud of how well they have settled in in such a short amount of time.

This week the teachers all met with Lisa Burman to further develop our literacy program. From now on learners will be focusing on a different poem every 1-2 weeks. These will be printed and glued into their learning journals which we would like to start sending home each night. Key changes are:

• Library bags will go home each night and should be returned each morning (a practice that will support them throughout school).
• Learning journals will be in the library bags with the poems in there. You may like to read these with your children at night however this is not homework nor is it necessary. It may just be an enjoyable way of supporting their literacy journey. Please don’t feel as though this is a task as we are learning this in class.
• Library day has now changed for both classes and is on Fridays every week. Please ensure library books are all returned to class on this day.
• Any notices will also be sent home in library bags so please be sure to check them – this will be a primary form of communication between teachers and families.

Bookweek! To celebrate book week we had our whole school parade on Friday morning! Thank you to the families who were able to attend – the children all looked amazing!

Our focus for the term in numeracy is on number sense and subtilising so we have been engaging in activities and picture books to further develop this understanding.

We visited the MUDLA, met with our buddy classes and started documenting our learning in our learning journals!

We can’t wait to see what the second half of the term has in store for us!

Please see this upcoming event below!

New class information and a few friendly reminders:

• Our library days have changed for both classes. RLY will have their library session in lesson 6 on Friday and RIA will have theirs on Friday for lesson 7. Please ensure library bags are brought to school with  all books (3 readers & 2 picture books)  for returning so that children can borrow new books.
• Please ensure all of the children’s belongings are being labelled with names.
• Please bring in family photo which will be used for our ‘belonging tree’.
• School Photos will be held on Wednesday the 30th of August
• On Friday 25 August, students are encouraged to dress as their favourite character from a book.  Parents are welcome to attend the assembly and costume parade at 9am.

We look forward to seeing you all next week for another great week of learning!

From RIA &RLY 🙂

Hola (hello in Spanish – your children have learnt this during Spanish class already!) reception learners and families and welcome to the end of week 3!

We’ll start with some information/reminders:

• For now, library books don’t need to be returned to school until your child’s library day. Tuesday for Mrs. A’s class and Wednesday for Ms. Yeend’s class. Please enjoy reading these with your children at home and building that love for literacy. Library books are the responsibility of the children and families so please support your children to care for these books and return them the following week. If books are not returned then learners are not able to borrow a new selection of books nor will they be able to borrow without their library bags.
• Please check your children’s school uniforms at home to ensure they are the ones your purchased – we have had a few new jumpers go missing as well as hats and ties. Please also ensure you have labelled your children’s uniforms to make it easier to find who they belong to – any unclaimed clothing will be taken to lost property in the front office after a week.
• We have noticed some children have been eating everything in their lunchboxes and are still hungry so please ensure there is enough food for morning fruit, recess and lunch time.
• Our learners have become very interested in buying food from the canteen! This is of course very exciting for the children and we along with the canteen staff are supporting them to look after their money. You can also purchase lunch orders via the QKR app where you can also purchase drinks and snacks.
• We are now seeking family photos to create a class belonging wall/family tree. Please bring in a hard copy of a family photo for us to add to our tree!

Ok, enough admin – now the fun stuff!

This week we have deepened our engagement with our word study and bookmaking pedagogy. Whilst bookmaking was made optional all of our learners chose to write a book or continue with one they have already started! We also started our sharing circle, where learners are invited to read their finished books to their peers at the end of our bookmaking session – well done to our brave learners who chose to share this week! For word study, focusing on our name’s – the letters, sounds, syllables – has supported our learners skills with recognising their names as well as writing them. This practice supports early literacy skills as they build their knowledge base of phonics and phonological awareness – and a love for everything literacy!

We have continued with our number sense and subtilising activities through dice games and numeracy materials on offer. By exploring materials before commencing a unit of learning on a mathematical concept learners are supported to develop a connection to the materials, how to use them and what we can learn from them.

We continued with our totem pole experience this week by taking all of our resources out to the oval and decorating our totem poles to display as our class family tree in our learning environment. We also finished our self portraits (there are still a couple left to do due to absences). They are on display in our learning environments so please pop in at drop off next time to view your child’s artwork and see how they view themselves through their mark making!

This week the learners in RLY also met their buddy class! We were all so excited to see some familiar faces and to get to know each other ahead of our joint class assembly next term!

Week 5 is book week so we will release more information closer to the date.

We hope you enjoy your weekend with your families and can’t wait to welcome you back for week 4!

Ms. Yeend, Mrs. A and Mrs. McGlone.

Niina Marni learners and families and welcome to the end of our first week of Reception!

It’s been a very busy but very beautiful first week of school for our community. We couldn’t be prouder of how well the learners have settled in to their new environments and routines.

For the first term the focus is on learner wellbeing, routines, expectations and relationships. Our goal is to support our learners to feel safe and secure and build a positive connection to school life in the hopes this will set a strong foundation for the next 12-13 years for them.

A few friendly reminders to get us started:

• Learners will be welcomed in to their environments at 8:50am each morning. They will be supported to put their lunch boxes in the fridge, drink bottles on the stand, and to sign in with their name stones.
• School pick up time is 3:00pm – please notify the office if you need to collect your children earlier than this so we can support them to get ready for your arrival. You will need to sign them out in the front office if they are picked up early.
• RIA will have P.E. on Tuesdays.
• RLY will have P.E. on Thursdays.
• Please bring your children in their P.E. uniform on their respective days.
• RIA will have library on Tuesdays.
• RLY will have library on Wednesdays.
• Please remember to send your children with their library bags on their respective days – we will be borrowing books for them to bring home from next week and they will need to return their books the following week before they can borrow any new ones.
• If you would like to do a lunch order you can do this via the QKR app on your phone.
• If you have any feedback or questions please email you child’s teachers:
• RLY – Laura.yeend@holyfamily.catholic.edu.au
• RIA – Iolanda.aufiero@holyfamily.catholic.edu.au or Emily.mcglone@holyfamily.catholic.edu.au

Now the fun stuff!

We spent each day exploring our new surroundings and getting to know our community a little better. This includes the playground, log park, the fish farm, the MUDLA and the library! We also visited the canteen and discussed where we go to collect lunch orders, where student services is, where the Think Tank is, and where all of the toilets are.

But we spent a lot of our time just exploring our new learning environments in Room 21 and 22! Here we started to build connections with our peers, teachers and educators. We engaged in relaxation, story times, and explorative playful inquiry! We also did our own self portraits that will be displayed on the walls, made our own locker tags and had multiple short circle times a day where we would learn about our new school and how to use safe hands.

We learnt how to use laptops with the help of some older students from Years 5/6 – a highlight of the week for some of us! And we even made our very own puppet show!

We had such a great first week of school and can’t wait to do it all again next week!