Week 3 Term 1 2020
Good evening parents,
Wow! What an absolutely wonderful start to the week we have had. Monday and today were two days jam-packed full of learning - place value in mathematics, manipulating sounds in our spelling groups to create new words, writing recount texts, beginning our reading groups, applying new decoding strategies and some students have even worked on finding evidence in the texts we have read to answer questions.
We have also been having great fun getting stuck into our science concept topics (sound in Year One and push/pull forces in Year 2) and learning about digital technology apps as a tool to record our learning. I am so proud of how much focus and persistence with a positive attitude our 1/2K team are showing when learning new things. In just a few weeks we are already growing our confidence to problem solve and continuing to build our independence to complete our work, try out new things and even suggest other ways we can show what we know and have learnt.
Thank you to all who could make it to our parent information sessions last week, I hope it was a great way to find out the 'nitty gritty' of both our Year One and Year Two learning and life in our class. Please feel free to refer back to the previous blog post for a link to the slides presented.
A few pieces of information for this week...
AGM
This Wednesday the 19th of February, we have our annual AGM beginning at 7pm. We would love to see you there to tell you about all the wonderful things the school has been doing!
Homework
Yay! The time that you have all been waiting for! Yesternday we sent home a homework book and their R.E.D reading folder. Please have a read of the homework grid and complete the shaded parts with your child every night. They include:
1. Read every night (with the supplied reading book) - reading every day will increase their knowledge of words and sentence structure, build upon common word recognition (sight words), develop their vocabulary, give them daily opportunities to decode and read unknown words and apply reading strategies learnt in class and develop their comprehension skills. It is important that they read aloud to you every night for 10 minutes.
2. Be read to by an adult or older sibling (Year 1 students this can include the PLD comprehension book that comes home on Thursdays) - this develops their understanding of text structure, vocabulary and grammar including the use of punctuation.
3. Read the words on your fluency grid. Please give them a small tick next to each word they read aloud correctly without requiring sounding out or guessing. Place a small dot next to those words not recognised to try again and focus on the next night. You can time your child to try and read more each night or aim to read all of them each night with growing accuracy and speed. Please also discuss what each word means if any words are new.
The children's reading folders will be reviewed each morning during gathering time. If your child is still continuing to read the same book that they picked previously they will still be required to write the title of that book in on the particular day (Mon to Thurs) it is during gathering time. If the whole text is easily read in one night during the 10 minutes, your child can choose to reread the same text for a second night to develop their confidence and fluency or choose a new one. Year One parents are free to assist their child writing in the titles during gathering time. Please ensure that your child is reading aloud to someone.
Please ensure that your child brings in their homework book and red reading folder everyday. It is a good habit to put the homework folder, book and RED reading folder inside the school bag straight after your child is finished each afternoon or evening to help prevent it being forgotten. If your child does not have a homework file, can you please send one in - we encourage you to reuse the one they used in Pre-Primary/Year One.
Incursion/Excursion Notes and Swimming notes
If there is anyone that has not returned their incursion or excursion notes, we have some spares in the classroom if you would like to fill one in, otherwise, it was included in the last newsletter for you to fill out and print at home. Swimming notes are also required back ASAP, if you need another one, please come and see me.
News Roster
The News Roster will be coming home at the end of this week so keep an eye out for the roster along with a blog link copy. Please check your child's group and the days and weeks they will be telling their news (either 4, 6, 8 or 5, 7 ,9) or good reminder will be the day they come home with the news bag! The children have been so excited to begin tell their news to everyone. Please see parent information night slides included in previous blog post for further information.
Box construction
We need your boxes! As a part of our Learning Centre rotations on a Friday, we would love it if you could bring in some old boxes that we can use. Please bring them to the Early Childhood wet area when ever you can throughout the week.
Please feel free to email us with any questions at all you may have about your child, their learning or routines/happenings in our classroom.
Thank you for your on going support and assistance,
Penny and Gemma
Wow! What an absolutely wonderful start to the week we have had. Monday and today were two days jam-packed full of learning - place value in mathematics, manipulating sounds in our spelling groups to create new words, writing recount texts, beginning our reading groups, applying new decoding strategies and some students have even worked on finding evidence in the texts we have read to answer questions.
We have also been having great fun getting stuck into our science concept topics (sound in Year One and push/pull forces in Year 2) and learning about digital technology apps as a tool to record our learning. I am so proud of how much focus and persistence with a positive attitude our 1/2K team are showing when learning new things. In just a few weeks we are already growing our confidence to problem solve and continuing to build our independence to complete our work, try out new things and even suggest other ways we can show what we know and have learnt.
Thank you to all who could make it to our parent information sessions last week, I hope it was a great way to find out the 'nitty gritty' of both our Year One and Year Two learning and life in our class. Please feel free to refer back to the previous blog post for a link to the slides presented.
A few pieces of information for this week...
AGM
This Wednesday the 19th of February, we have our annual AGM beginning at 7pm. We would love to see you there to tell you about all the wonderful things the school has been doing!
Homework
Yay! The time that you have all been waiting for! Yesternday we sent home a homework book and their R.E.D reading folder. Please have a read of the homework grid and complete the shaded parts with your child every night. They include:
1. Read every night (with the supplied reading book) - reading every day will increase their knowledge of words and sentence structure, build upon common word recognition (sight words), develop their vocabulary, give them daily opportunities to decode and read unknown words and apply reading strategies learnt in class and develop their comprehension skills. It is important that they read aloud to you every night for 10 minutes.
2. Be read to by an adult or older sibling (Year 1 students this can include the PLD comprehension book that comes home on Thursdays) - this develops their understanding of text structure, vocabulary and grammar including the use of punctuation.
3. Read the words on your fluency grid. Please give them a small tick next to each word they read aloud correctly without requiring sounding out or guessing. Place a small dot next to those words not recognised to try again and focus on the next night. You can time your child to try and read more each night or aim to read all of them each night with growing accuracy and speed. Please also discuss what each word means if any words are new.
The children's reading folders will be reviewed each morning during gathering time. If your child is still continuing to read the same book that they picked previously they will still be required to write the title of that book in on the particular day (Mon to Thurs) it is during gathering time. If the whole text is easily read in one night during the 10 minutes, your child can choose to reread the same text for a second night to develop their confidence and fluency or choose a new one. Year One parents are free to assist their child writing in the titles during gathering time. Please ensure that your child is reading aloud to someone.
Please ensure that your child brings in their homework book and red reading folder everyday. It is a good habit to put the homework folder, book and RED reading folder inside the school bag straight after your child is finished each afternoon or evening to help prevent it being forgotten. If your child does not have a homework file, can you please send one in - we encourage you to reuse the one they used in Pre-Primary/Year One.
If there is anyone that has not returned their incursion or excursion notes, we have some spares in the classroom if you would like to fill one in, otherwise, it was included in the last newsletter for you to fill out and print at home. Swimming notes are also required back ASAP, if you need another one, please come and see me.
News Roster
The News Roster will be coming home at the end of this week so keep an eye out for the roster along with a blog link copy. Please check your child's group and the days and weeks they will be telling their news (either 4, 6, 8 or 5, 7 ,9) or good reminder will be the day they come home with the news bag! The children have been so excited to begin tell their news to everyone. Please see parent information night slides included in previous blog post for further information.
We need your boxes! As a part of our Learning Centre rotations on a Friday, we would love it if you could bring in some old boxes that we can use. Please bring them to the Early Childhood wet area when ever you can throughout the week.
Please feel free to email us with any questions at all you may have about your child, their learning or routines/happenings in our classroom.
Thank you for your on going support and assistance,
Penny and Gemma
