Friday, 9 June 2017
Recycled Metal Art
Today we had a go making recycled metal art. We looked on Pinterest and had a discussion about what we might like to try creating and then planned our art using our cardboard backing. Here we are creating....
Monday, 5 June 2017
Weekly Notice
Hi everyone, welcome back to another week of great learning in Room 13. I hope you all had a lovely long weekend and everyone is refreshed! Here we go for Week 6.....
*We had such a great time last week with our Autumn theme, which was not planned but sometimes you just have to go with what nature presents to you. The kids did some amazing art, which can be seen in the hall foyer, wrote some gorgeous poems and carried out some very clever statistical maths investigations. We had a lot of fun playing with leaves too.
*Maths - this week we will be looking at addition and subtraction through problem solving. It is expected after 2 years at school, that the kids will be able to hold a number and count on and back to solve addition and subtraction problems.
For example
There are 23 kids in Room 13. On Thursday, 6 kids were away. How many kids were in Room 13 on Thursday?
The children might say...
23 - 6 = hold 23 in their head and count back 22, 21, 20, 19, 18, 17
or if they have that consolidated they might.....
23 - 3 = 20 and 20 - 3 = 17 this is the beginning of breaking numbers and is the first step towards working towards "after 3 years at school".
Now that some of our kids are working towards 3 years at school, the expectation is that they will be able to use other strategies such as separating tens and ones and adding in tens.
For example:
There are two paddocks on Mrs Russells farm. In one paddock she has 34 calves and in the other 23. How many calves does Mrs Russell have altogether?
If the children are working towards 3 years at school they might say....
34 + 10 +10 + 3 = 57 They break the 23 into 10 + 10 + 3
or they might say....
30 + 20 = 50 and 4 + 3 =7 so 50 + 7 = 57
Some of our mathematicians are already working at Stage 5 "after 3 years at school" and are able to work into the thousands. We need to have a really good understanding of numbers to 1000 and place value to be able to do this.
*Writing - we are assessing writing this week. We will be looking at explanation writing which we have made a good start on. The assessment task will be in the kids portfolio at the end of the term.
If you have not sent back your child's portfolio back to school, please do so that I can put this terms assessment tasks into it."
*R.E - we are continuing our strand study on God. We are looking at the creation story and deciding what God created and what man has made.
*Reading - wow, some of our readers have reached Silver which is awesome! While testing over the last few weeks I identified these areas of need...
-reading punctuation - if the children do not read commas and full stops their phrasing is off and the story does not make sense. Please ensure they are pausing at a comma and completely stopping at a full stop.
- comprehension - lots of our kids can read anything they pick up now which is marvelous. We do need to make sure they understand what they have read and that they are taking something from the story. It is helpful if you ask them a couple of little questions after they read such as...
why did ___________ do that in the story?
where did they go in the story?
why do you think that happened?
What made ____________ say/think that?
If you take a bit of time to check in, you will see the bits they have not understood and then perhaps they could have another go at those parts the next night. The reason for only giving them two books a week is so they can reread stories and get a really good understanding of them.
-rereading - I encourage the kids to reread the sentence if they get stuck or if it just doesn't sound right to them. Rereading helps them with fluency and comprehension so just give them a little reminder before they start reading.
Golden Time: this week we will attempt again to complete our recycled art. Please send anything shiny to school this week - nuts, bolts, old jewellery, cutlery - anything shiny at all.
Thank you for your ongoing support of our class and your kids learning. We are having such a great time in Room 13, they are an amazing bunch of kids and it is super cool spending my days with them.
Have a great week
Annie
*We had such a great time last week with our Autumn theme, which was not planned but sometimes you just have to go with what nature presents to you. The kids did some amazing art, which can be seen in the hall foyer, wrote some gorgeous poems and carried out some very clever statistical maths investigations. We had a lot of fun playing with leaves too.
*Maths - this week we will be looking at addition and subtraction through problem solving. It is expected after 2 years at school, that the kids will be able to hold a number and count on and back to solve addition and subtraction problems.
For example
There are 23 kids in Room 13. On Thursday, 6 kids were away. How many kids were in Room 13 on Thursday?
The children might say...
23 - 6 = hold 23 in their head and count back 22, 21, 20, 19, 18, 17
or if they have that consolidated they might.....
23 - 3 = 20 and 20 - 3 = 17 this is the beginning of breaking numbers and is the first step towards working towards "after 3 years at school".
Now that some of our kids are working towards 3 years at school, the expectation is that they will be able to use other strategies such as separating tens and ones and adding in tens.
For example:
There are two paddocks on Mrs Russells farm. In one paddock she has 34 calves and in the other 23. How many calves does Mrs Russell have altogether?
If the children are working towards 3 years at school they might say....
34 + 10 +10 + 3 = 57 They break the 23 into 10 + 10 + 3
or they might say....
30 + 20 = 50 and 4 + 3 =7 so 50 + 7 = 57
Some of our mathematicians are already working at Stage 5 "after 3 years at school" and are able to work into the thousands. We need to have a really good understanding of numbers to 1000 and place value to be able to do this.
*Writing - we are assessing writing this week. We will be looking at explanation writing which we have made a good start on. The assessment task will be in the kids portfolio at the end of the term.
If you have not sent back your child's portfolio back to school, please do so that I can put this terms assessment tasks into it."
*R.E - we are continuing our strand study on God. We are looking at the creation story and deciding what God created and what man has made.
*Reading - wow, some of our readers have reached Silver which is awesome! While testing over the last few weeks I identified these areas of need...
-reading punctuation - if the children do not read commas and full stops their phrasing is off and the story does not make sense. Please ensure they are pausing at a comma and completely stopping at a full stop.
- comprehension - lots of our kids can read anything they pick up now which is marvelous. We do need to make sure they understand what they have read and that they are taking something from the story. It is helpful if you ask them a couple of little questions after they read such as...
why did ___________ do that in the story?
where did they go in the story?
why do you think that happened?
What made ____________ say/think that?
If you take a bit of time to check in, you will see the bits they have not understood and then perhaps they could have another go at those parts the next night. The reason for only giving them two books a week is so they can reread stories and get a really good understanding of them.
-rereading - I encourage the kids to reread the sentence if they get stuck or if it just doesn't sound right to them. Rereading helps them with fluency and comprehension so just give them a little reminder before they start reading.
Golden Time: this week we will attempt again to complete our recycled art. Please send anything shiny to school this week - nuts, bolts, old jewellery, cutlery - anything shiny at all.
Thank you for your ongoing support of our class and your kids learning. We are having such a great time in Room 13, they are an amazing bunch of kids and it is super cool spending my days with them.
Have a great week
Annie
Thursday, 1 June 2017
Maths with Statistics
We used our leaf collection to carry out a maths investigation. We decided to find out some information about the Autumn leaves in the St Mary's school playground. To do this we needed to do some sorting or grouping. Some of us grouped according to size, some used colour and some used shape as their category. Then we made a tally chart and a picture graph of what we found.
We found a lot of different information and then we had to comment on what we noticed. We wrote a conclusion which stated things like...
*there are many red leaves in the St Mary's playground
*most of my leaves were brown because it is Autumn and the leaves are dying
*some of our leaves were green because some trees are evergreen and don't lose their leaves in Autumn
*a few of my leaves were yellow, they were not dead but they were dying
Today we used our leaves to make some super Autumn art. We looked on Pinterest to get some ideas, then made a decision about what we wanted to make and what we would need to do it.
We found a lot of different information and then we had to comment on what we noticed. We wrote a conclusion which stated things like...
*there are many red leaves in the St Mary's playground
*most of my leaves were brown because it is Autumn and the leaves are dying
*some of our leaves were green because some trees are evergreen and don't lose their leaves in Autumn
*a few of my leaves were yellow, they were not dead but they were dying
Today we used our leaves to make some super Autumn art. We looked on Pinterest to get some ideas, then made a decision about what we wanted to make and what we would need to do it.
Last day of May
We realised on Wednesday that it was the last day of May and so, the last day of Autumn. We decided to have some fun in the leaves and to do some Autumn maths, writing and art. Here we are collecting our leaves (data) outside.
We gathered our Autumn leaves, then chose our favourite 20 with our buddy. We did lots of talking and compromising during this activity.
Sunday, 28 May 2017
Weekly Notice
Week 5 Term 2, 2017
*We are holding an information evening on: ‘What it means to attend a Catholic School’.
This is for anyone to attend who would like to know more about the unique aspects we cover at St Mary’s and the promotion of Catholic values as a Catholic School. We will look into the RE content taught, Sexuality programme taught, expectations and community spirit as well. WHEN: 5.30 - 6.30pm, Wednesday 31st May 2017, WHERE: St Mary’s School, Rooms 14. WHO: New families, those interested in continuing in the Catholic education system via JPC,.re we go for Week 5....
*We do have Head lice in Room 13. Please check your child's hair and treat if necessary. There are also a lot of nasty cold and flu bugs going around. If your child is unwell, please keep them at home. School is not a great place to be when you feel miserable and of course the bugs are then shared out with everyone....including ME!
*Writing - this week we are looking at explanation and focusing on compound sentences - these are sentences that have and or because or but joining two ideas that are linked. We will also be talking a lot about rereading sentences after we write them to ensure they sound right and have the correct punctuation.
*Maths - We will be spending the week on Statistics this week. The children will be deciding on a Mathematical investigation and will be gathering and recording data, and then presenting their findings.
*RE: we are currently working on the God strand. We are discussing how God created the world and how we are responsible, as God's family, for preserving the gifts he has given us. This fits in nicely with our Reduce, Reuse, Recycle study.
*Reading - I am really pleased with the reading assessments. Some kids have moved up a level and that is always pleasing. As a result of this testing I have found the following:
-the kids need to really focus on the meaning of the story which is comprehension. Many of them could read the higher levels very well but could not answer the questions at the end. It's a great idea to have a talk to your child after reading to ensure they have understood what they have read.
-some of the fluency and phrasing was low. Fluency can be gained from rereading texts often and phrasing can be improved by ensuring the kids read the punctuation carefully. Thank you for your support with home reading.
*Spelling - we will have a spelling test in Week 9. The test will be on the words the kids have been bringing home to practice.
*Cross Country - our race is coming up and we are practising as often as we can (weather dependent). I will let you know the details as soon as I know.
Golden Time - this week we will be making recycled art. Please could we have anything metallic you might have at home.....nuts, bolts, wire,old cutlery, necklaces, beads.
Have a great week
Annie
Wednesday, 24 May 2017
Head Lice
We have head lice in Room 13. Please check your child's hair and treat if necessary.
Thank you
Thank you
Weekly Notices
Hi everyone, sorry this is so late, I was sick on Sunday and Monday but here is the outline for the rest of the week....
*No sausage sizzle this Friday!!!!!
If our kids want to bring $2, I will get them hot chips and sauce for lunch instead.
*Cross Country is for Year 3-6 only! Our Cross Country will be later in the term.
*Mass on Friday at 9am - Pentecost. All families are welcome to attend.
*Writing - we are writing retells this week about the Pentecost story.
*Reading - I am finishing off the Running Records, our kids are doing so well. Keep up that lovely home reading and please ensure you are reading to your children as much as possible. We are great role models and we can show our kids what good reading sounds like.
http://www.greatschools.org/gk/articles/read-aloud-to-children/
*Maths - this week we are finishing our unit on skip counting. There is lots of maths that goes with skip counting eg doubles, halves, evens, odds, 10's groupings etc. Some practice while in the car or the bath or at bed time would be super. We are using it to solve problems like:
Makenna had 5 friends to her party. Each friend had their hair in 2 ponytails. How many pony tails were there altogether.
2,4,6,8,10
The kids sometimes need to draw a picture or use some materials to help them keep their counting ordered. Some will simply know that 5 groups of 2 or 5x2=10. That's great too.
*Golden Time: We will definitely do our recycled pencil holders this Friday. There will be no assembly so we will have plenty of time. Please send in any old buttons, fabric, beads, feathers etc so we can make them amazing!
Have a great week.
Annie
*No sausage sizzle this Friday!!!!!
If our kids want to bring $2, I will get them hot chips and sauce for lunch instead.
*Cross Country is for Year 3-6 only! Our Cross Country will be later in the term.
*Mass on Friday at 9am - Pentecost. All families are welcome to attend.
*Writing - we are writing retells this week about the Pentecost story.
*Reading - I am finishing off the Running Records, our kids are doing so well. Keep up that lovely home reading and please ensure you are reading to your children as much as possible. We are great role models and we can show our kids what good reading sounds like.
http://www.greatschools.org/gk/articles/read-aloud-to-children/
*Maths - this week we are finishing our unit on skip counting. There is lots of maths that goes with skip counting eg doubles, halves, evens, odds, 10's groupings etc. Some practice while in the car or the bath or at bed time would be super. We are using it to solve problems like:
Makenna had 5 friends to her party. Each friend had their hair in 2 ponytails. How many pony tails were there altogether.
2,4,6,8,10
The kids sometimes need to draw a picture or use some materials to help them keep their counting ordered. Some will simply know that 5 groups of 2 or 5x2=10. That's great too.
*Golden Time: We will definitely do our recycled pencil holders this Friday. There will be no assembly so we will have plenty of time. Please send in any old buttons, fabric, beads, feathers etc so we can make them amazing!
Have a great week.
Annie
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