It's All Coming To An End

Hi everyone,
Welcome to our final full blog update for 2017. I hope you, like me, have had a wonderful year.
I have really enjoyed teaching every single one of your children this year and wish them all the very best for their future.

As you all know, this is a very busy time of the year. We have final assembly, dance party presentations, class party AND I am so fortunate to be able to attend Government House next Monday, 11th of December to watch our very own Shreya receive a medal for achieving the highest results in the ICAS Mathematics assessment. I am so proud of her efforts and can not wait to see her rewarded for all her hard work.

Dance Party

Room 22's dance party will be held on Tuesday the 12th of December at 1pm - 2pm. This event will take place at Wattle Grove Camp. Students are able to wear party clothes for the entire day.

Class Party

More details to come...stay tuned!

Holiday Learning

It is really important that over the six week break, students get to relax from their year of hard work. It is equally important they stay up to date with their skills in order to begin the new year with confidence. Reading is an important skill and one that should be practiced regularly. Writing also falls into this category. Ask children to keep a diary, write stories based on a topic you give them, or persuade someone to do something. Mathematics skills should also not go unpracticed. Challenge them with times tables, play card games, dice games and of course Numero, if you have a set. Maybe even utilise the student made PowerPoints below.

Kayla maths1234 from Kirsty Campbell
 

Kayla t clocks from Kirsty Campbell

 

Madelyn maths from Kirsty Campbell

 

Gautham mathematics from Kirsty Campbell

 

 

 

Celebrations 

We have some very talented students in Room 22 who LOVE to make PowerPoints. It has been wonderful to see their confidence grow when presenting these. If I'm not careful, I will be out of a job!

All about antarctica shayan from Kirsty Campbell
 

All about butterflies by kayla.t from Kirsty Campbell
 

Balancing amelia 2017 from Kirsty Campbell
 

Max`s presentation from Kirsty Campbell
 

Sea turtles kc from Kirsty Campbell
 

The black piranha mitchell from Kirsty Campbell
 

Tigers parker from Kirsty Campbell
 

2017 space anjelina from Kirsty Campbell
 

All about spiders yusuf powerpoint yusuf from Kirsty Campbell
 

Francis science research from Kirsty Campbell
 

Jaguars josh from Kirsty Campbell
 

Monkeys madelyn from Kirsty Campbell
 

The cat family shreya from Kirsty Campbell

Term 4

Welcome to Term 4!

I know I say this at the beginning of every term, but honestly, where has the year gone?!

This term is a busy one with swimming, dancing and end of year celebrations. In amongst all that we continue our strong focus on English, Mathematics, Science and HASS (History, this term). I have placed an outline of the focus areas of these below.

This term we also welcome Mrs Thomsen who will be completing her third year prac with us. We hope she has lots of fun and look forward to her lessons.


As I mentioned above, dancing has commenced in preparation for our end of year celebrations. I was not surprised to see each and every one of your children so quick to pick up the steps for each routine. It is such a fun way to finish our Thursdays. 

Swimming begins Monday week 5. Please ensure your child comes to school in their uniform (bathers may be worn underneath). They will also require a bag to take to swimming (not their school bag). This bag should contain a towel, thongs (flip flops, slides) and goggles. It is a good idea to also have another separate bag (which will be left at school) with underwear and another school shirt. Students must wear socks and shoes to school, but will change into thongs prior to leaving school. These are much easier for them to put back on after the lesson. Upon our return to school students will be given time to change back into their school clothes. If you have any queries, please don't hesitate to come and chat with me.

Further information regarding our end of celebrations will be passed along as soon as they have been confirmed.


Please find our focus areas for Term 4 below.

Maths:

- Four operations: Addition, subtraction, multiplication and division
- Mental strategies
- Money
- Time

Literacy:

- Review of all content taught through the year
- Persuasive and Narrative Writing and how to 'uplevel' our use of punctuation and vocabulary
- Reading Comprehension

Science:

We are going to focus on Physical and Chemical Science.
Week 5 will be the commencement of the Year 2 Science Superstar Challenge presentations (please a copy of the parent note that was distributed below).
The Year Ones have already completed this task and must be commended on a job very well done. Thank you to all the parents for your continued support!

HASS:

Our focus this term continues to be in the area of History. We have been studying how technology has changed over time.
 

Health:

This term we will be focusing on emotions, feelings and protective behaviors. More information about this will be provided via a letter to parents later in the term.






If you have any queries regarding anything, feel free to come and see me in the morning. If it is something that requires a longer meeting please make an appointment with me.



Thank you for a wonderful year. I look forward to a great Term 4.

Kirsty Campbell-Court

Book Week, Carnivals, Theatre...oh my!

From Mrs C

Here we are almost at the end of Term 3! I am really not ready for this year to end. I don't want to say goodbye to anyone!

This term has been full of events. We have a wonderful time and been a part of many exciting things.

• Book Week

• Math Games

• Father's Day

• Wizard of Oz and much, much more.

Happy Father's Day

I hope all the dads had a wonderful day and enjoyed their presents.

Book Week 

What an amazing week full of dressing up as our favourite characters, sharing our favourite books and beginning to develop our own stories for later publication (come and see the Room 22 Library during Learning Journey, Tuesday 19th September).

We also got to enjoy a whole school parade

Wattle Grove Primary School - Book Week DressUp 2017 from Stuart Meachem

 

Math Games 

We were very lucky to have Mrs Lowther and her class of Year 6s come to teach us how to play Numero.  Mrs Lowther couldn't believe how quickly the children of Room 22 picked up the skills required to play (I was not surprised at all, of course!) and provided them with many challenges. We absolutely LOVE Numero and play it as often as we can.

What Is Numero?

Numero is a card game that you can use to help develop your students’ mental computation skills.  What’s great about this game is that you can start very basic by only using the number cards (1-15), but you can also extend the game further by introducing wild cards (these include the operations, fraction/decimal/percentage and square root) and scoring.  This is an important feature of this game as you are able to differentiate for the various abilities in your class.  There are 3 basic rules for Numero, which are explained further below.

How Do You Play Numero?

It is best to learn Numero in pairs and only using the number cards.  Each player is dealt 5 cards and then 2 cards are placed in the centre facing up (if you are playing with more than 2 people then you turn up the number of cards to match the number of players).  Place the remainder of the pack face down in the centre.  See the picture below.

How to deal The person who did not deal (or if more than 2 people are playing, the person to the left of the dealer) begins play.  Each person plays a number card from his/her hand to the centre and this must be a take, a build or a discard.  This is where the 3 golden rules come into play.

Golden Rule No. 1

Each turn, play one number card only from your hand: either a take, a build or a discard.

Golden Rule No. 2

When you build, you must have the answer to that build in your hand in a single card.

What Is A Take?

This is when you use a single number card from your hand and either match it directly to one in the centre or a combination of cards in the centre.  The cards that you have taken from the centre and the one in your hand are placed face down near the player, as these are now the winning pile.  In its simplest form, the player with the most cards at the end is the winner.  The player then picks up cards from the pile faced down in the centre to restore his/her hand back to 5 cards.
With this rule it’s important to remember that when taking, you can only use 1 number card from your hand, but you can match this to as many cards that equal your card that are in the centre.

What Is A Build?

Sometimes it is not possible to perform a take, so the next best option is to try and build.  This is when you use a card from your hand and add this to a card (or combination of cards) in the centre.  This essentially creates a new number, ready to take in the next round. 

What Is A Discard?

If you cannot take or build then you must discard 1 card from your hand to the centre cards.  This is placed as a single card in the centre and not on top of any other cards.  The player’s hand must again be restored back to 5 cards. 

How Does The Game End?

The game is over when there are no cards left in the face down deck and 1 player has no cards left in his/her hand.  I always ended the game a bit differently from the official rules, but both ways work.  For your junior primary students, you then get each player to count how many cards are in his/her winning pile; the student with the most is the winner.
The official ending is similar but also includes:

• The cards left in the centre are added to the winning pile of the player who did the last take;
• Any cards left in a player’s hand are deducted from the winning pile; and
• Each player counts the cards in his/her winning pile and the player with the most is the winner.

So What About Golden Rule No. 3?

The first 2 rules are all you will need when playing Numero with only the number cards.  It is best to master these first 2 rules and the number cards before moving on to Golden Rule 3 and the Wild Cards.
Golden Rules No. 3 is: Every wild card played from your hand gives you another turn and if that is a wild card, another turn.
I will not show examples of this rule in this post, but will address this rule and wild cards in a later post.

Wizard of Oz 

We are very fortunate to have been able to attend the first Wattle Grove production of the Wizard of Oz. Mrs McIllwraith did an amazing job of bringing it all together. We thoroughly enjoyed every minute. I love how the students came back excited for their future roles in theatre.


 

Wattle Grove Primary School - Wizard of Oz Play 2017 from Stuart Meachem

Welcome to Term 3

A Note From Mrs C

I know I say this all the time but, TERM 3??!! How is it already Term 3? Time flies when you're having fun, they say. We must be having a ball!

It's been a lovely, but very wet start to the term.

Some beautiful cookies from a very talented mum of a student I taught last year.

Gorgeous flowers from my lovely neighbour in Room 23

Just a little flooding

You may have also noticed a new addition to outside of our classroom door this term. Each class has been given a pot and some soil to grow whatever they choose. We had a class discussion and a fairy garden was the clear winner (even the boys voted for this idea!). The only stipulation from the kids was that it had to have a strawberry plant...so, of course, we have one. Can't wait for the first strawberry...wonder if can cut it into 24 haha. The rain has seen a huge growth even since this photo taken straight after planting.

Room 22's Fairy Garden

In addition to this, Room 22 has voted in new Student Councillors for Semester 2. Congratulations to Madelyn and Amelia. I am sure they will do us very proud. Well done to Shayan and Kayla.T. for their Semester 1 efforts, I hope you both enjoy your retirement.

Developing Independence

As you may have seen in the School Newsletter (Term 2, Week 8), we have a focus on developing independence in our students. We aim to provide a learning environment that encourages the opportunity for all students to achieve their personal best. It is vital to student success that they are able to set themselves up for the day. This not only encourages independence, but develops organisational skills.

There are a number of ways that families can support their child in these areas.

1. Commit to your child going to school every day on time.

One of the most important things you can do to ensure your child has a bright future is to make sure he or she goes to school every day – and gets there on time.

2. Make sure your child gets enough sleep.

A good night’s sleep consolidates learning, as well as assists future learning. Children need between 10-12 hours of sleep each day. Help kids get sufficient sleep by having a regular bed-time and get-up time each day.

3. Establish work & study habits.
The most successful students are those that develop regular study habits that suit their lifestyle, their study style and their school’s expectations.

4. Develop self-organisational skills.

Successful students are often well-organised, self-directed and self-motivated. Such skills as packing school bags and organising morning routines can be great lessons that impact on how kids perform at school.

Throughout the year, we encourage students to develop their independence by completing their classroom morning routines by themselves. Research has shown that a structured and organised morning routine is conducive to successful student learning. Our focus is on developing this classroom environment, particularly in all Year 2-6 classes. Children are encouraged to enter the classroom prepared to independently organise themselves for the school day ahead.  We look forward to working with parents to ensure the success of this whole school approach.

Your support in this focus is much appreciated and your child will thank you in the long run.

NAIDOC

Week 2 was NAIDOC week at Wattle Grove Primary School. We celebrated this on Tuesday by making damper. Thank you to Mrs Polydor for all her expert help. It was so delicious we forgot to take an after photo!

Friday the 28th of July was that day of Wattle Grove Primary School's NAIDOC celebrations.
We spent a wonderful afternoon rotating through all the classrooms of our block completing a variety of activities. Room 22 was the home of Language. We looked at a map of the school and re-labelled it using Noongar words. It is a shame the weather was so terrible and we couldn't walk around to find all the signs, however, a number of students (from all Block 3 classes) have been back to tell me they have seen the signs and that we labelled everything correctly...phew! haha

 Learning Area News

We have a range of new daily reviews we have begun to use this term to not only consolidate skills, but develop fluency, speed and accuracy. I am amazed at the difference these daily reviews are having already and it is week 4...so proud!
Below I have outlined the major foci for Term 3. Please feel free to consolidate any of these areas at home by asking students to explain and give examples or complete tasks online.

English 

Term 3 Focus

•  VCOP aspects
• Sentence structure (use nouns and verbs correctly in sentences)
• Writing (persuasive and narrative) following all aspects of the format
• Reading and spelling silent letters 
• Gaining an understanding of all the different sounds vowels can make on their own and when paired with another vowel
• Reading (by sight, not sounding out) and spelling of high frequency words  
• Homophones/homographs
• Similes and figures of speech
• Contractions  
• Tense, pronouns, adjectives 
• A range of punctuation
•  Fluency and Comprehension

Maths

Term 3 Focus

Number and Algebra

• Orally counting
• Skip counting
• Facts to 10 and 20
• Place value
• Understanding and solving word problems  

 Measurement and Geometry

• Measure using a range of measuring tools 
• Recognise and classify 2D shapes using basic attributes and features
• Recognise and classify 3D shapes using basic attributes and features

 Statistics and Probabilit

• Identifying outcomes of familiar events involving chance and describing them using everyday language such as “will happen”, “won’t happen” or “might happen”
• Asking questions to collect data, sorting data and representing data in a range of graphs 

 

Science

Term 3 Science is all about Physical Science - Forces and Motion.
So far we have explored the many forms of forces and how these forces cause motion.
We now know there are forces such as Magnetism, Buoyancy, Friction and Gravity.

Mitchell exploring friction

Joella exploring gravity

Buoyancy exploration

Magnet exploration

HASS

Term 3 HASS is History based. We will be learning all about how technology has changed over time. Stay turned for more on this!

Goodbye Miss Zaffino, Genius Hour and End of Term 2

 From Mrs C

Hello everyone,
Can you believe we are here...the END of Term 2 and half way through the year!
The end of this term also marks the end of our time with Miss Zaffino. This is her final practicum  placement for her teaching degree. We will miss her very much and wish her every happiness in what I believe will be a very successful career as a dedicated teacher. I know I speak for not only myself, but the children when I say we will miss the laughs and the fun learning. We truly have 'had a ball', 'lost our marbles' and 'lived it up'.
Congratulations and best wishes Miss Zaffino.
Sorry guys, it's back to just me after the holidays.

On that note, I would like to take the opportunity to wish everyone a safe and relaxing holiday. Your children work so hard each term and it is important for them to have some time to relax, unwind and have fun. Please ensure your child has some down time to enjoy the things they love.

English, Maths AND Everything Else, All In One!

You may have heard your child come home talking about 'Genius Hour'.
Genius Hour is the way we have combined English, Mathematics, Science, HASS and so much more into one lesson!
So what is it?

Genius hour allows students to explore their own passions and encourages creativity in the classroom.  It provides students a choice in what they learn during a set period of time during school.

The search-engine giant, Google, allows it’s engineers to spend 20% of their time to work on any pet project that they want.  The idea is very simple.  Allow people to work on something that interests them, and productivity will go up.  Google’s policy has worked so well that it has been said that 50% of Google’s projects have been created during this creative time period.  Ever heard of Gmail or Google News?  These projects are creations by passionate developers that blossomed from their their 20-time projects.

I have taken this idea and modified for our class. The results have been so amazing and I am excited to make some changes for the better for our next round in Term 3 where we will be explicitly learning each concept before applying our knowledge.

Students start by brainstorming an area of interest, from this they develop a BIG research question or what we like to call 'a wondering'. They then decide how and what they will use to research their questions, taking notes and paraphrasing. The next start is creating. This is where students choose how they would like to present their information. We had Powerpoint slides, posters and even a model of the Big Ben!
The final stage is presentation. In this stage students must present their 'wondering' and what they found out along the way.

Below are some of the outstanding work presented during our first ever round.

All about ayres rock Kayla.T. from Kirsty Campbell

The great wall of china Shreya from Kirsty Campbell

 

The great wall Dani from Kirsty Campbell

We look forward to sharing more amazing projects in Term 3.

Happy Holidays xxx 

Science, Shopping, HASS, Gold and Even Some Bells

So much has been happening in Room 22!
We are loving having Miss Zaffino in our class and really enjoying all the fun things she has planned.
Room 22 has been full of laughs and joy.
We love the fact Miss Zaffino is organised and works so hard.

We have met our Canadian pen pals, been engaged in some awesome Science learning and even been on an excursion! Below are all the details.

Science

This term we have been learning about Living and Non-Living Things. Miss Zaffino taught us a cool acronym to remember all the aspects of Living things. Ask you r children to explain MRS GREN. It has been a great device for remembering what defines a living thing.

To ensure we understand the needs of living things we even have a class plant, kind of like our pet. Meet Lucinda Greenleaf. She has a watering schedule and her own care plan. We love hearing the children coming in saying good morning to her.

We even got to plant our own beans to observe and monitor their growth.

Miss Zaffino also has a shop that is open each Friday afternoon for children to purchase items with the 'money' they have earned during the week. We even have a bank manager to check over the column equations used to add funds and work out change. So fun!

As part of our HASS unit this term, we are learning all about significant landmarks. In order to get the excitement going and brains firing with questions we visited both The Bell Tower and The Perth Mint. It was a wonderful day and learnt so much!

The Bell Tower

 The Perth Mint

Since returning from our excursion we have been designing and making our own coins. These will be ready to showcase sometime this week. Keep an eye out for our display.

Please feel free to come in anytime to look at our displays. Please see me if you'd like to make an appointment to discuss anything.

Thank you for your support
Mrs C and Miss Zaffino xx