Week 5 Term 2
Good afternoon parents,
What a wonderful week we have had with all the beautiful children back in class! It has been great to get back to some sort of normality for our class routines and the children have loved seeing their friends and playing in the sunshine last week. Unfortunately I had been sick for most of the week - such unlucky timing with all school learning finally back on deck but luckily we have the blessing of the amazing Mrs Sorgiovanni as our teacher to keep it all going without a hitch.
A few messages for this week:
Pick up and drop off
This has been working really well and the children have been coming in settled, ready to learn with the greater independence in the class during gathering time - rest assured they are smooth starts and their confidence and readiness to start the day is interesting to see as they walk down the path on their own, unpack their bags and set up their belongings on their own. Thank you for your patience in the pick up lanes, we are trying to get through the line as quick as we can and it has been great to see some of your friendly faces in the cars! As there are still restrictions with parents coming into school grounds, we are trying to make sure there is one of us (Mrs K/S, Mrs Edwards or Mrs Peacock) along with Mrs Hughes is waiting in the top car park waiting to greet children most mornings so please feel free to drive on safely through the pick up lane (so you don’t even have to get out of your car 🥰). Hopefully we can have you onsite again soon to share our school with you! Feel free to email or send in handwritten notes with your child if you want to let us know anything at all - just like in the olden days when we were at school!
Merit award winner
Congratulations to Alex in our class who was the merit award winner for this week. It was lovely to have this award read out for all his class mates to hear! Keep an eye on next week’s star citizen for Appreciation!
Faction free dress
Congratulations to NATURALISTE who was this weeks token winners. They have won the privilege of wearing free dress next Friday!
Homework
Thank you to those parents who are sending in their child's reading folder each day - please ensure this comes to school everyday and it goes back to 'living' in your child's school bag to help prevent it being forgotten. Daily book swap (or title writing if longer book) is continuing with our book changing every morning as a gathering time task. If you have any feedback on how your child is reading, please write it in the reading file pages - we are in the process of reevaluating your child's current reading level by listening to them individually read and goal setting for future growth so you may see changes in their reading content over the next week or so.
Our homework grid is also back for this fortnight and will come home tomorrow. Please remember that weekly homework grid tasks are optional but if the nightly requirements could be completed regularly each day, it will greatly benefit your child. This could consist of: reading aloud for 10 min (no matter what level) then summarizing what was read and discussing interesting words and new vocabulary in text, fluency grid to develop reading speed and spelling words (use fluency grid) containing focus sound (this week it is words with the ar sound that contain the graphemes of ar, a and au - like in the words star, path and laugh. If you could please ensure your child brings it back by Friday Week 6 (5th of June) we would be very appreciative as forgotten books prevents us from setting up the grids and worksheets for the following fortnight.
Our learning in Week 4
I'm sure by now your children have come home with news of a mysterious animal sighted in Dunsborough. We knew little about this animal but did find out that the man - Greg Normandy sighted an animal that was the size of a dog with orange and white stripes. See below the newspaper article from the Margaret River Region News:
This has been a wonderful 'hook' into information report writing and a part of our Talk for Write writing program at OLC. The children have been buzzing with excitement and have been keeping watch down the back of the oval for any mysterious moments in the bush. We then discovered that out in the wild, there are a number of hybrid animals and that have been given new names such as:
- The Liger (Lion/Tiger)
- The Carma (Camel/Llama)
- Wholphin (Whale/Dolphin)
Luckily, we were able to somehow 'track' down some very important information from National Geographic, which lead to information about a strange animal, called the Trabbit! Have a read of the information below:  This is the start of our Talk for Write innovation unit into information reports! Get ready for some very creative writing...and animals!
In Maths we have been learning about 2D shapes and face families. The children have loved taking part in our math rotations. Our reading strategy was focusing on the skill of visualising. This is when we create mental images in our head as we read and use our background knowledge of things to help us develop these images. The children loved listening to the description of ‘The Bunyip’ from the story The Bunyip of Berkeley’s creek. So many different ideas about what this mystery animal looked like allowed us to compare drawings and focus on features and adjectives that were given to us.
Penny and Gemma
What a wonderful week we have had with all the beautiful children back in class! It has been great to get back to some sort of normality for our class routines and the children have loved seeing their friends and playing in the sunshine last week. Unfortunately I had been sick for most of the week - such unlucky timing with all school learning finally back on deck but luckily we have the blessing of the amazing Mrs Sorgiovanni as our teacher to keep it all going without a hitch.
A few messages for this week:
Pick up and drop off
This has been working really well and the children have been coming in settled, ready to learn with the greater independence in the class during gathering time - rest assured they are smooth starts and their confidence and readiness to start the day is interesting to see as they walk down the path on their own, unpack their bags and set up their belongings on their own. Thank you for your patience in the pick up lanes, we are trying to get through the line as quick as we can and it has been great to see some of your friendly faces in the cars! As there are still restrictions with parents coming into school grounds, we are trying to make sure there is one of us (Mrs K/S, Mrs Edwards or Mrs Peacock) along with Mrs Hughes is waiting in the top car park waiting to greet children most mornings so please feel free to drive on safely through the pick up lane (so you don’t even have to get out of your car 🥰). Hopefully we can have you onsite again soon to share our school with you! Feel free to email or send in handwritten notes with your child if you want to let us know anything at all - just like in the olden days when we were at school!
Merit award winner
Congratulations to Alex in our class who was the merit award winner for this week. It was lovely to have this award read out for all his class mates to hear! Keep an eye on next week’s star citizen for Appreciation!
Faction free dress
Congratulations to NATURALISTE who was this weeks token winners. They have won the privilege of wearing free dress next Friday!
Homework
Thank you to those parents who are sending in their child's reading folder each day - please ensure this comes to school everyday and it goes back to 'living' in your child's school bag to help prevent it being forgotten. Daily book swap (or title writing if longer book) is continuing with our book changing every morning as a gathering time task. If you have any feedback on how your child is reading, please write it in the reading file pages - we are in the process of reevaluating your child's current reading level by listening to them individually read and goal setting for future growth so you may see changes in their reading content over the next week or so.
Our homework grid is also back for this fortnight and will come home tomorrow. Please remember that weekly homework grid tasks are optional but if the nightly requirements could be completed regularly each day, it will greatly benefit your child. This could consist of: reading aloud for 10 min (no matter what level) then summarizing what was read and discussing interesting words and new vocabulary in text, fluency grid to develop reading speed and spelling words (use fluency grid) containing focus sound (this week it is words with the ar sound that contain the graphemes of ar, a and au - like in the words star, path and laugh. If you could please ensure your child brings it back by Friday Week 6 (5th of June) we would be very appreciative as forgotten books prevents us from setting up the grids and worksheets for the following fortnight.
Our learning in Week 4
I'm sure by now your children have come home with news of a mysterious animal sighted in Dunsborough. We knew little about this animal but did find out that the man - Greg Normandy sighted an animal that was the size of a dog with orange and white stripes. See below the newspaper article from the Margaret River Region News:
This has been a wonderful 'hook' into information report writing and a part of our Talk for Write writing program at OLC. The children have been buzzing with excitement and have been keeping watch down the back of the oval for any mysterious moments in the bush. We then discovered that out in the wild, there are a number of hybrid animals and that have been given new names such as:
- The Liger (Lion/Tiger)
- The Carma (Camel/Llama)
- Wholphin (Whale/Dolphin)
Luckily, we were able to somehow 'track' down some very important information from National Geographic, which lead to information about a strange animal, called the Trabbit! Have a read of the information below:  This is the start of our Talk for Write innovation unit into information reports! Get ready for some very creative writing...and animals!
In Maths we have been learning about 2D shapes and face families. The children have loved taking part in our math rotations. Our reading strategy was focusing on the skill of visualising. This is when we create mental images in our head as we read and use our background knowledge of things to help us develop these images. The children loved listening to the description of ‘The Bunyip’ from the story The Bunyip of Berkeley’s creek. So many different ideas about what this mystery animal looked like allowed us to compare drawings and focus on features and adjectives that were given to us.
I hope you have a lovely rest of your weekend an stay safe during this crazy storm that's about to hit!
Penny and Gemma
