Week 4 Term 1



Upcoming Events:  Wednesday 21st February - AGM - Wednesday night is the school's annual AGM starting at 6pm.  Please come along if you are available.Friday 23rd February - Opening Mass - We will come together as a whole school to celebrate Mass at 9.30am at our church Our Lady of the Southern Cross. It would be wonderful to see as many parents there as possible.

Spelling This week our schedule, routines and specialist timetable are in full swing. This has meant that this week we began our spelling rotations between the Year 1-3 students. The junior primary PLD phonic spelling program at OLC ensures your child is provided with appropriate explicit instruction and spelling phonic concepts and words suited to their individual needs and abilities.  These lessons take place in the morning after morning fitness Monday to Wednesday.  Your child will be given a list on Monday morning which will be glued into their light blue Look, Cover, Write, Check homework pad and kept in their homework folder.    

Morning Routines A few changes to gathering time routine as we are getting used to our regular timetable that started today. Each morning Tuesday to Friday your child will need to complete their R.E.D. reading log title at the white jellybean table and then complete the gathering time task if there is time before 8.45.  Gathering time work/tasks will be left on desks as we will need to leave straight away for morning fitness as this also starts again this week.  We have decided to keep their homework folders at school over the weekend (just taking home their PLD comprehension book) and I will ensure that they complete the title for Monday reading at school so Monday mornings will just involve students completing the "Look, say, cover, write and check" method for their sight words in their dark blue skinny pad.  Tuesdays and Wednesday tasks will be to write sentences for each of their PLD phonic spelling list in their yellow Writing book, Thursdays will be a maths game or Mathletics and Fridays will be setting up and beginning their Day 5 of Think Mentals. The morning task will also be written in the agenda on the Smartboard each morning (once the projector link wants to start working for me - hopefully tomorrow!)

HOMEWORK Tonight your child came home with a blue spelling folder. Inside is a list of their PLD phonic spelling words, that students will be studying for this week. It is designed so that students are able to use the flap to 'cover' over each word as they write them.  We ask that your child practises these words in preparation for the spelling test that takes place in class every Friday. Aim for three times a week, however if your child wants more practise that is fine, or if you feel they have consolidated the words then no more practise is necessary! Please mark/check these with your children as you do them.  There is also additional lines/room on each page for your child to practise their tricky sight words each night. Sight words will be tested in class once a week on a set day (either Tuesday or Friday).  
Just to reiterate... homework is not to be a stressful time for families.  It is more about getting into good organisational habitats. Designate 15-20 minutes Monday-Thursday and encourage children to do as much as possible.  Thank you for your ongoing support and patience as we send out homework each week. 

 Week 3 Learning - We had a wonderful time on Friday afternoon during our visual art lesson learning about facial features and the proportions of our face (plus even a little maths about fractions and symmetry!).  We created our own monochrome self portraits that are ready to display.  
Our Daily 5 Reading Workshop has continued to be implemented.  We have been learning about the importance of being an independent reader and the reading behaviours and strategies that real readers use.  We also learnt that it is important to 'really read' instead of fake or pretend reading to build our reading stamina, exercise and strengthen our reading brain muscle and skills.  We know to choose a quiet spot in the classroom to help us concentrate if we are Reading to Self during small group guided reading groups which will begin later this week.  


 It has been a great start to the term as the children are settling in and becoming such a great learning team.  Please feel free to ask any questions you may have or let us know any thing that may help or be hindering your child in their learning and days at school.
Thank you so much for your support and assistance.
Kind regards and God Bless, 
Penny and Kristy 


Popular posts from this blog

Week 3 - here we go!

Image
Week 3 - here we go! I hope you all enjoyed a magnificent Mother's Day weekend and our 2K kiddies gave their mum extra love today. Casuals for Catholics this Friday- Every year Bishop Holohan asks schools in the Bunbury Diocese to hold a ‘Casuals for Catholic Care Day’ for a gold coin donation (larger donations can be made in the front office). This will take place this Friday, May 18th, and students are encouraged to wear free dress for a donation. Homework - Please refer to the previous blog post in regards to homework for 2K students this term.  Your child's homework folder should now also include a Mathletics booklet which is optional.   This booklet focuses on the addition and subtraction operations with number which is our fortnightly maths focus.  Please send it in when completed to help us celebrate with your child their extra effort and learning! Learning Concepts for this fortnight in 2K English: Reading and Writing:  This week we are begi...
Read more

Week 6 Term 3

Image
Upcoming Events: Thursday 23rd August: School photos Friday 24th August: School photos for families and siblings Thursday 30th August: Book Week dress up day School Photos Our school photos will commence this Thursday 23rd and as it is usually our sports day, we are asking the children to come in full winter school uniform (including a school jumper), dress black shoes and hair accessories must be in school colours only (teal green, white or black)  and bring their sports shoes in their bag to change into after their photos in the morning.  Photo order forms for online ordering were delivered to the children on Friday. If you wish to have Family/Sibling photos, please collect an envelope from the office and more information about family photos can be found in the latest newsletter. Operation Christmas Child Over the next fortnight, the Year Two children are going to participate in an initiative called 'Operation Christmas Child' which aims to pack a shoebox to give ...
Read more

End of Week 8 and Week 9 Home Learning

Dear Parents, It really has been an interesting week to say the very least and the unknown of the future that lies ahead for all of us. During all of the these closures there is difficulties and feelings of stress and anxieties and now in addition, so many of you have the added pressure of being a teacher to your children.  Some great advice that I have seen and totally agree to involve the following points: -You don't need to try to replicate the whole school experience, do what works for you and family. -Don't try to be your child's classroom teacher.  Just keep being the teacher you already are and who have been as their first teacher since the day they were born. -Please be easy on yourself - keep in mind that we are trained for years and had many years practise and do not expect you to replicate the same overnight.  We know that we couldn't possibly take over your job overnight and we know and understand that you wouldn't be able to do ours.  Let us s...
Read more