Term 2

Firstly, welcome back to Term 2, 2017. I hope you all had a relaxing holiday and found some time for fun and family. I certainly enjoyed spending time with my own children and of course the sleeping in wasn't too bad either ;)

The end of Term 1 saw us recognise the amazing sacrifices the ANZACS of the past and servicemen and women of the present. It was a beautiful ceremony.

Wattle Grove Primary School - Anzac Service 2017 from Stuart Meachem

 English

Our writing focus for the first 5 weeks of this term will see us continuing with narratives. We have been learning about all the different aspects of this text structure along with topic specific vocabulary, grammar and punctuation. I have enjoyed getting a glimpse into each of the children's imaginations and I am so impressed with their skills so far. Please feel free to come in anytime and read over your child's writing.
This term we will also continue with the reading and spelling of phonic sounds, reading and comprehension strategies and grammar and punctuation. Later in the term we will be conducting another Science Superstar Challenge, this is a wonderful opportunity to assess each child's speaking and listening skills. Keep an eye on the blog for updates in relation to this.


This year we have been reading The Magic Tree House series. We read a little of these small chapter books everyday. Once we finish each book we complete an online comprehension task on The Magic Tree House website. There are many games and activities for children to interact with. The link is below.


https://www.magictreehouse.com/


The books we have completed so far...

Maths

 We will continue to work through our PR1ME books this term. We will be focusing on a range of skills including number, graphing, column equations with regrouping, measurement and shape. You will see aspects of these in the homework practice sheets.

HASS

 This term we are learning all about landmarks in and around Perth. We are also very lucky to have been given permission for an excursion to BOTH the Perth Mint and The Bell Tower. Notices have been sent home regarding this wonderful event, please ensure permission slips and money is brought in by the due date.

Science

 This term we will be focusing on life cycles. We began this new topic by giving each table a set of pictures for sorting and grouping. There were many creative groupings and labels happening. We then advised them that all the pictures could be grouped into just two groups. The discussions around the tables were so intelligent and collaborative and once they realised what the labels were: Living and Non Living the sorting happened in a matter of minutes. Congratulations once again to Table 2 for sorting their pictures this way the very first time. Well done!

As you know, we had Miss Zaffino in our class for one day a week in Term 1. Well we are now lucky enough to have this wonderful lady in our class for the entire term. This is Olivia's final practicum placement before graduating and beginning her teaching career. I hope you will extend the warm welcome I received.
I will now hand you over to Miss Zaffino...






Hello, my name is Olivia Zaffino and I am a 4th year Primary Education student at Edith Cowan University in Mount Lawley. I will be completing my final 10 week placement in Room 22 during Term 2 and as Term 4, 2017, I will have completed my degree and will be a qualified teacher. I have already started teaching some lessons and am really looking forward to getting to know all the students throughout the term :)

What's New In Room 22

We have had a very busy couple of weeks with lots of new learning, activities AND our assembly.

Our assembly was all about the value of respect. In order to ensure students understood the meaning of respect, we read books about respect, watched short videos and had many discussions. Each table group them made a Respect poster to display in our classroom.

We would also like to congratulate our award winners.

Madelyn - Values Award

Shayan - Merit Certificate

Kayla.T. - Merit Certificate

Alysha - Science Award





We are now in full swing of implementing our Kagan Teams. As a group, students talk about and agree on a shared table goal for the 5 weeks they are together.

Each week teams assess their goal and whether they feel they achieved it for the week. I then tick the monitoring chart on the back...they are harsh little critics :)






Our VIP incentive has continued with great success. Our recent VIPs were...

Max

Madelyn

Worry is a feeling we all feel at some time in our lives. In order to live a happy live we need to learn how to deal with the worries we can and the worries we can not control. We read a great book called, Wilma Jean The Worry Machine.

 In the book, Wilma Jean's teacher spoke to her class about their worries. The students wrote their worries on a post-it-note and then sorted them into worries they COULD control and worries they COULD NOT control. So, guess what we did?

Then we talked about solutions for the worries we COULD control. For the worries we CAN NOT control we talked about using 'The Worry Hat' to store our worries in until we found a solution. That way we will never get 'The Worry Flu'. We thought the book was AMAZING!

Love,

Mrs C x

Welcome to 2017

Hi everyone,
What a start we have had to 2017. As you will be aware, my once Year One exclusive class has become a Year 1 and Year 2 class. How lucky am I?

Australia Day Celebration

I would like to say a very big thank you to the parents that made it along to the Parent Information Session. It was lovely to see so many familiar faces and meet the new ones. Your support is greatly appreciated!

Please find a copy of the PowerPoint slides below

Parent info night 2017 from Kirsty Campbell

 

We have had a very busy start to the school year and as you will be aware, we also scored the first assembly for the year (no pressure haha). Please find a copy of the booklet and a link to the song below.

Assembly program for parents from Kirsty Campbell

Link for the song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ri8QRBo-Agg

 We will be hearing this song a lot over the next week...sorry!


Congratulations to our 2017 Semester 1 Student Councillors as voted in by Room 22 students.
The process begins by students nominating themselves. This then proceeds to a secret ballot whereby students write down two chosen names. We then collated the information to determine the winners and the Year Ones came out on top! The names of two Year Twos also came up often, but as they had a turn at being councillors last year, they graciously stepped aside for the Year Ones (such mature children in Room 22).

And the winners are:

Kayla

Shayan

We  have begun to work in our collaborative learning groups. Children worked together to name their group and set their goal for the 5 weeks. We have also been learning all of our new roles. Please find an outline of each below.

Collaborative team roles from Kirsty Campbell

A new incentive we have this year is the Class VIP. I use a 'random selector' app on my iPad to generate the name of our weekly winner. So far, the winners have been...

Kayla - week 2

Mitchell - week 3

Savarnah - week 4

 This incentive involves getting to sit on the VIP chair complete with cushion, using the VIP pencil pot with stamps, post it notes, fancy pens and smelly textas (I think they love stationary almost as much as me!). The VIP also gets an exclusive 'Sport Ticket' pass for the week to choose a piece of sports equipment to play with at recess and lunch, is the first to exit the room and is the line leader. I LOVE how excited they get!

English

We have been focusing on many areas of literacy, using lots of warm up slides from last year to get those cogs turning again after the holidays.
Persuasive writing is the genre we are focusing on at the moment. Ask your child for the 3 elements a good introduction needs :)

Maths

Our PR1ME books have now been delivered and we have begun working on them also.

Science

Our topic for Science is the Water Cycle.

These areas will be updated frequently as we move through the units of study. Please keep an eye out on the Notice Board window, for the sign that tells you when a new blog post is up.

Thank you for your support.

Mrs C x

Almost That Time

 The End is Near

It is almost that time of the year...time to say goodbye, time to relax and prepare for the New Year ahead. The time of year when Mrs Campbell is constantly in tears at having to say goodbye to children I feel are my own. I have thoroughly enjoyed my time with your babies this year. It has been amazing to watch them grow and mature. I would like to take this opportunity to thank you all so much for your support this year, but most of all for entrusting me with your most valuable possession...your children.

Term 4 is always a big term and this one is no exception!
We have had:
Family Fun Night - Thank you very much for all your generous donations. We were by far, the most well stocked stall. It was a wonderful night. The children were so well behaved and it was fun watching them so full of joy!

Wattle Grove Primary School - Family Fun Night 2016 from Stuart Meachem

Year 6 Graduation Ceremony and Dance - Another wonderful night. It was lovely to see some of the first students I met at Wattle Grove graduate.

Wattle Grove Primary School - Year 6 Graduation 2016 from Stuart Meachem

 

Wattle Grove Primary School - Graduation Dance 2016 from Stuart Meachem
 

Humphrey's Dance Lessons
Swimming
and all the usual teaching and learning.

Friday of Week 8 saw the end of Room 22 and 24's swimming lessons for 2016. The children represented themselves and Wattle Grove magnificently over the two weeks. A lady that was swimming at the pool on Friday stopped Mr Gartrell to tell him how impressed she was by them. On a number of occasions the swimming instructors also mentioned how impeccable their behaviour was. Such a lovely thing to hear, of course, I already knew this, but it is so nice to hear!

Coming Up 

We have our Presentation Morning which is set to be a wonderful event for all concerned. We hope you can all make it. I can't wait to fill this space below with a collection of photos of our big event!

The last two weeks of school has seen the return of my little helpers...elves to be precise. Each day we use our 'Random Selector' to choose two new elves to help for the day. Stay turned for an elf that may look familiar to you.

Here are our elves for Monday and Tuesday this week. Aren't I the luckiest to have the cutest elves in the world.

Alysha and Shreya

Holly and Chelsea

 Chloe and Deep

Stay tuned for many more!

Santa Claus is Coming To Town

Over the next two weeks we will be partaking in lots of craft and decorating for Christmas. We have lots of fun activities planned and hope you love your presents as a result.

Party Time

In addition to this and to celebrate the end of the school year, we will also be having a class party next Wednesday the 14th of December. This is the day before we break up for the year.
A list will be going up of what to bring...be on the lookout.

Once again, I thank you for your amazing support this year. I have enjoyed getting to know each and everyone of you! I wish you and your babies all the best for Year Two and the future.

Much love,
Mrs C ~xx <3 xx~

Term 4 Weeks 1 - 5

Well here we are, Term 4, 2016!
How fast has this year flown?! It is so hard to think that Year One is almost over. 

The beginning of Term 4 has been a busy one. As you know I have recently returned from America where I attended a fantastic Professional Learning opportunity. I look forward to implementing many new ideas and strategies in my classroom over the coming weeks.

Whilst in America I was fortunate enough to visit Sequoia National Park (http://www.visitsequoia.com/Sequoia-National-Park.aspx). It was just amazing! I have begun to share some of my photos with the children. I have also placed a link for the Park above for you to have a look at.

Reminders

Swimming notes have now been sent home. Please fill out the necessary details and return to school with money attached.

Family Fun Night will be a great night hosted by the school's P&C. We encourage students to bring in some donations for our Bowling stall. These can include small things such as, stationary (pencils, erasers), chocolate, lollies etc. If unsure, please come and see me. Thank you in advance for donating!

Science

As you know, this term we had another round of Super Scientist Presentations. I must say, the standard of these presentations were outstanding once again! I was so impressed by the confidence students displayed during their presentation. Clearly, they were well prepared in order to deliver such engaging presentations. Thank you to all parents and families who have provided such wonderful support for your children. It was very difficult to choose just 2 Room 22 Super Scientist Finalists, congratulations goes to Madelyn and Naomi, who then presented at the year level assembly on Tuesday afternoon. Congratulations to Jessica from Room 9 for taking out the title this term.

Here are a few experiments

  

Literacy

This term we continue to focus of reading and comprehension. It is important to ask you children questions before, during and after reading to ensure they have understood what they have read. In order to develop full comprehension, fluency is imperative. Fluency enables children to concentrate on what they are reading rather than individual words. This skill is developed by re-reading familiar texts. 

We are also focusing on writing. The children have been given prompts for writing such as: If I were the Principal for a day, If I were a superhero, If I were invisible etc. The open structure of these prompts enables children to write freely and concentrate on their spelling, vocabulary and sentence structure. Come in and read some of your child's amazing work, some are quite clever and funny.

Maths

This term, we have been focusing on column equations, both addition and subtraction. We have recently been learning the strategies associated with borrowing and regrouping. We have learned a chant to help us remember the steps. Ask your child for a demonstration. If this is an area you would like to know more about, please feel free to come in and as for a demo. 

This term will also see a big focus on money. Please support your child by allowing them to count coins, discuss the cost of items when you are shopping and how much money would be required to pay for them.