There is still plenty of time to join in the challenge of reading different quality literature as recommended by the NSW Premier! Only 30 books that you can read on your own, read them with someone or someone can read them to you. There is helpful section to search for book choices on the Premiers Reading Challenge web site. Log onto Premiers Reading Challenge search and then explore the available categories. OR .... take a chance on a PRC 'Random Book' suggestion at: Premiers Reading Challenge Random book suggestions
Please contact the Learning Hub if you have any questions or log in issues.
Next Friday the 8th of June is Kindergarten's Learning Festival. A time where we celebrate the learning that has taken place with our family and loved ones. You are invited to come for the morning to see some of the learning that has taken place both within and outside the classroom over the course of this semester.
Schedule
8:30 - 9:15: Assembly in the Hall
9:15 - 9:30: Music Lesson with Mrs. Burt
9:30 - 10:30: In the classroom with Students
Whilst in the classroom you will have the chance to not only see the learning that has taken place this semester but also to participate in some learning activities that we enjoy. It will be an excellent time to interact with your child and see them in action.
Every morning in Kindergarten we participate in Literacy Groups. The students enjoy and look forward to joining in various activities to build their skills. Although the activities change each week (with some of our favourites being revisited) the core skills that are being developed stay the same.
- Using our Phoneme Phone to listen to the individual phonemes in a word
- Recognising Hotowords within 3 seconds
- Using picture clues to deduce what the next word is in a story
- Becoming familiar with the THRASS chart and the 44 phonemes
Developing each of these skills are important as the students move along the road to becoming competent readers. Because each students journey along the road is different each groups activity is particularly targeted towards helping them where they need it the most.
We have some amazing help from other teachers throughout the week such as Mr. Marrott, Mrs. Bennett and Mrs. Milner. Each group not only gets a day during the week to work with myself but also some of the other teachers who help out.
The other aspect of Literacy groups which is important is the independence and collaboration that the students need to show. As there are four groups, two groups need to be in charge of themselves to ensure that they are on task and in the best learning space they can be. To help with this I assign one person in the group to be in charge. Their job is to ensure that the group is on task and to use their noticing eyes to see who is participating the best. The person who is working the best gets to put a marble in the jar, so that each morning at lest four marbles are put in the jar, one from each group.
Over the course of this semester the students have enjoyed experiencing Mathematics using hands on experiences. Some of the main items that we use in the classroom to explore numbers and manipulate them are dice, counters, paddlepop sticks, rubberbands, milk bottle top lids, and plastic shapes. Just this term we have learned how to create patterns of varying complexity and how to count up into the teen numbers quicker.
In regards to this, last week we spent time learning about a quicker way to count teen numbers through the use of paddlepop sticks. At the beginning of the week we spent some time bundling paddlepop sticks into groups of ten (which was excellent for our 1 to 1 correspondence). The next day we learnt about how when we count we don't actually need to start at 1 every single time. If we know that there is already 10 in a bundle (which we know because we made the bundles) then we can just start from ten and continue counting.
This lead into a group game where we would take turns rolling a dice to see which number would come up, from a plastic container we would then take that many individual paddlepop sticks and place them next to one bundle. Using the count on method we would practice counting on to see how many paddlepop sticks we had all together.
Everyone did an amazing job and had so much fun rolling dice and counting with the bundles that we had created.
For our Geography unit this term we will be looking at special places within our local environment. Starting with special places within the school.
To begin this unit of inquiry and exploration we needed to define what An Environment was as this was important to know before we could begin looking at our school environment in more detail. To begin with we participated in a Think Pair Share where we thought about what "an environment" could be, then shared with a partner, before sharing our thoughts to the class.
Below are our initial thoughts on the subject...
Hugo and Ming Ming – Rubbish and keeping it clean for the
animals. Everyone should pick up rubbish to keep it clean especially on windy
days
Florence and Alena – When you knock down your house you find
pink stuff that is like cotton candy and every time when you bang it down you
see pink stuff.
Scout and Kate – Animals, Scout heard about the environment
at the aquarium with his Mum. Fish are also part of it.
Indigo and Sophie – Eating, we thought as it starts
with an ‘e’ and has a ‘t’ in it so it might be about eating
Isobel and Annabelle – Sickness because Will told me it might.
Annabelle thought nature, and nature is a good home for the animals
Keira and Taylor – Nature and also how our bodies move
George and Charlie – George – I think it means nature.
Charlie – it’s about encouraging people.
Louis and Sofia – Sofia – It means when you litter you’re
meant to pick it up otherwise the animals might eat it and get sick. Louis –
oil in the forest or plastic would ruin it. There’s forest, rain, water, and
grass.
Paris and Nataya – It means it makes the whole world dirty.
It’s bad. If we put rubbish everywhere it makes it dirty.
Mia and Will – Will – You breathe in cars gas in a carpark
and it can make you feel really sick and vomit. The gas makes you sick. Mia –
you don’t lie to Mum and Dad.
Beau and Mrs Milner – When you do something wrong and you get in trouble.
Lachlan and Hope – Hope – Nature and bush and animals.
Lachlan – spiders, dirt and bush.
During our next learning session we decided to ask other people in the school what they thought "an environment" was. So we took some iPads around to the different classrooms where we filmed other students and teachers to get their thoughts. Afterwards we came back and watched each one to see if our definition of "An Environment" had changed.
After some discusssion we created our definition of what an Envionrment is...
"An Environment is a place that can be inside or outside and relates to the physical space around us." - KMD
Thank you for all the support you have given the children and the school with Book Club in Term 1.
The LOOP purchase process is working well and deliveries seem efficient. Thanks also to the behind-the-scenes Mums who happily assist with distribution.
To being our new Science Unit we started off by watching a video with a couple of toys moving in it.
After watching we participated in a See Think Wonder Routine where we would get the chnace to say an I see... an I think... or an I wonder.... statement about what we watched in the video. Below are just some of the statements that we made.
I
saw a rocking hedgehog- Charlie
I
saw a man going down a ladder - Mia
I
saw the hedgehog walking along then stopped. - Isobel
I
saw the man going down the ladder and then the hedgehog moving - Alena
I
think the man fell off the ladder and bumped the hedgehog to move - Beau
I
wonder if the man touched the hedgehog to make it move. - Taylor
I
don’t think the man bumped the hedgehog- Florence
I
think the man going down the ladder hit the back and fell and the hedgehog
starting moving - Will
I
think the person was like a battery that moved and bumped into the hedgehog to
make it move - Louis
I
think the person fell down the stairs. The persons bottom bumped the hedgehog-
George
I
saw a man coming down the stairs and bumped the hedgehog, and it moved - Zya
I
saw a man going down the ladder, I think he he might have battery in him to
move - Lachlan
I
think the man doesn’t haven’t batteries. - Paris
I
saw a person put the man down and he moved. When he got all the way down then he
hit the hedgehog and it moved. - Scout
I
think the man went down the ladder and bumped the hedgehog to make it move. -
Nataya
I
wonder how the toy moved. - Mr Donaldson
I
think the man went down the ladder, because he had a battery in it. And when
the person put the man on the ladder it turned the man on. - Ming Ming
I
think there are no batteries in the man. - Hope
When he was let go it just fell down because the
person dropped it, and it stopped when it hit the ground - Nataya
I
think there was a button on the man to make him move - Sofia
I think that the man fell down the ladder because there is something in the world called gravity where things move towards the ground. - Isobel
I think that the person quickly wound up the hedgehog before putting it down which is why it moved. - Hugo
Welcome back to school and the beginning of
Term 2. I hope that everyone has had a relaxing and pleasant mid-semester
break. We have an exciting term ahead of us with existing skills to be
developed further, as well as new skills to learn.
The theme of ‘Friendships’ will be the
focus of many of the units we participate in this term. While this will be the
main focus of our PDH (Personal Development and Health) lessons, it will also
be incorporated into our English content. Developing friendship skills, as well
as learning how we can care for each other, is an important area to focus on as
we work towards creating a caring and collaborative learning environment. This
key focus links in well with our ‘Learning@StLukes’ dispositions, which will
continue to be incorporated into each aspect of School life.
This term we will be undertaking some new
units of inquiry. In Science we will be looking at forces and movement and how
they relate to the world around us. It will be an exciting unit full of investigation,
questioning, discussion and hands-on learning. This unit ties into our ‘News’
time, which we will be starting this term. Towards the end of term Students
will be creating a Rube Goldberg Machine at home to present to the class. More
information about this will be sent in a separate email regarding News.
In Geography we will be investigating our
school as a place that we frequent and belong to. We will be exploring familiar
places, examine how and why these places are used, as well as how we can care
for them.
News will be starting this term in Week 2,
continuing through to Week 9. There are four main topics that we will be
looking at in regards to what we are presenting for News, each one related to
our learning: Moving Toys, My Friend, Friends in a Book, and Rube Goldberg. The
email you will receive will outline in more detail how News will run, as well
as the dates for your child’s News days.
Checking the Grammar News and class blogs
are still the best way to keep up to date with classroom and school
information. Below are some keys dates for this term:
Mothers’ Day Stall – 9th May, Week 2
Open Day – 10th May, Week 2
‘Lion King’ Musical – Week 5
Kindergarten Learning Festival – 8th June, Week 6
School Photos – 13th June, Week 7
Mathematics Workshop for Parents – 21st June, Week 8
Life Education Van visit – Week 9
During Terms 2 and 3 Kindergarten students
wear their Winter uniform on Tuesday through to Thursday. On Monday and Friday,
they are to wear their sports uniform, with their coloured house shirt on
Monday and their white sport shirt on Friday. Also as a reminder, full school
uniform means that students wear hats and blazers when arriving at and leaving
school each day. Sun hats are required each day for outdoor play.
Only 30 books that you can read on your own, read them with someone or someone can read them to you.
