A busy start to our term. I hope you are enjoying your child’s posts on Seesaw, they certainly enjoy receiving your feedback.

📚This week we will be participating in National Simultaneous Storytime. Schools reading/ listening to the same story, ‘The Cow Tripped Over the Moon.’  at the same time. We made cow masks with our buddy class to wear during the reading.

📚 There is no  borrowing this week as the library  hosts our  annual book fair. We will be visiting the book fair  and your child will bring a’ Wishlist’ home of books , you may like to purchase. Of course there is no obligation and I will chat to the students about this. More information in the school newsletter.

📚In phonics we are learning about digraphs: 2 letters making one sound. It is important that the sound can be heard, correctly articulated and written. This can be tricky!

📚We have started weekly dictation. Things to look for in your child’s work….letter formation: correct starting points with no reversals, finger spaces, capital letter at the beginning of the sentence, full stop at the end, correct writing of simple sight words, hearing and writing correct sounds in words, remembering the correct sequence of words, illustration to match the sentence ( this reinforces reading comprehension.)

📚 We have worked hard to be ‘Super Hero Learners’ (S.H.L)  and apply these qualities to solving number  problems in Maths. So what do S.H.Ls do? They look for clues, listen to ideas of others,  think about what is being said,ask questions,talk to each other, work co operatively,explain their thinking and record thinking.

Any comments or questions? Please post here, so others can read.

Hard to believe we are heading into the last week of the term!

😀 On Monday morning we are wrapping items for our Enterprise Day lucky dip stall. If you can spare some time to help out that would be great.

😀 If you are joining us on Enterprise Day please meet  in the classroom at 12.15pm.

😀 Readers will not be sent home during the holidays. Please use the break  consolidating sound and sight word knowledge with extra practise.

😀 School dismissal is 2.10pm on Thursday.

😀 Thank you to Nicole ( Lewis’ mum) and Jill ( Juliette’s mum ) who volunteered to be your parent reps for 2017 .Here is a message from them…..

If  you could please ask parents who would like to be involved in social events, and are happy to have their details shared with other families, to email me at nicole@allears.com.au (Parent(s) names, address, phone numbers and their child’s name). I will organise a list of the above and then email to all parents.

To start with I have tentatively organised for a family dinner at the Colonel Light Gardens RSL (4 Prince George Pde) on Friday 28th April at 6pm (last Friday of the school holidays). With tired children after the end of their first term, Easter etc. I thought it best to leave our first event until then. RSVP with number of adults and children is required as soon as possible – we can add late people up to Wed 26th April but the RSL would appreciate early indication of numbers.

Enterprise Day is fast approaching. We will looking at money as part of our learning in Maths.

We will be handling coins, looking at denominations, shapes, sizes, reading prices.

To support this learning could your child please bring along one of each coin, in a named snap lock bag / envelope on Monday. Please ask your child to give the bag to me and  explain to them  that these coins will be used in the classroom and are not for spending at the canteen. Money will be returned the day before Enterprise Day.

Also many thanks for your donations, please keep them coming.

Our reading programme is up and running. I hope that you are able to find 15 minutes a day to complete the tasks: sight words, sounds and reader….and sign the diary.

Did you know….When reading your child is encouraged to use these strategies.

• Be an eagle eye and look at the pictures, they will help them figure out the words.
• Get their  lips ready to make the first sound.
• Finger point, hold the book and turn pages for themselves.

Sight words.

• Read within 3 seconds.
• Transfer these words to the book.

Sounds.

• Continue to say sound and trace using their writing hand.

Would  you like to support our reading programme?

If you have time any day between 8.45am and 9.15 am please let me know via email.

Thanks to the families who have already donated to our lucky dip stall.

We are in need of many more donations eg. toys, children’s books, stuffed toys, puzzles, ‘happy meal’ figurines, match box cars etc. to make our stall successful. It’s a great time to clear out your child’s toy box!

• It was lovely chatting to you last week and I hope it gave you an insight into how your child has settled into school life. If you were unable to attend I am available this week after school on Wednesday and Thursday.
• Your child now has a digital portfolio (Seesaw) to document their learning. Please connect to their journal so you can begin to view, share with your child and comment  on their work samples.
• Harmony Day is Tuesday 21st March. Students are invited to celebrate this year’s theme that ‘Everyone Belongs’ by coming to school replacing part of the school uniform with something sun-safe in the Harmony Day colour of orange. It could be a shirt or shorts or even just a hair tie. This is not a casual day, it is an opportunity to celebrate cultural diversity. We don’t expect families to buy new clothing to wear. If you wear an orange top, the shorts need to be the regular school uniform. If you don’t have any orange then just wear the regular school uniform.
• Literacy groups with room 02 have started. In groups of 4  the students  worked together to name their group; co operatively negotiating an animal name and  together creating a poster . Our first activity was practicing letters sounds and writing words to match pictures.
• We are enjoying our time in the computer room, learning to log on and off and exploring  Kidpix, a great programme that supports our learning in Maths.
• Are you interested in being Room 01’s Parent Representative? A letter was sent home on Friday with all the information.
• Our second Independence Day was better than the first! So successful in fact that we will be having  them fortnightly. The students are so proud of their efforts.
• On Friday we again host the Junior Primary assembly, starting 11.15 am in the school hall.

We did such a great job on our first Independence Day that we are doing it again this Friday 17th March.

Comfidence is growing everyday and the students are more than ready and capable of organising themselves ready for their school day.

I can’t wait to greet them at the big doors and watch them come in.

Thanks for your support.

It was lovely to see all Receptions independently walk into the building on Friday morning and get themselves organised for the school day.One very proud..but not surprised teacher as I know how well we manage our morning routines.We will hold another Independence Day in a fortnight.

Thank you to the parents who attended the reading workshops last week. We would like your feedback on whether you found it useful, would like more information  etc. to assist us when planning other workshops and writing our blog posts on reading.

First readers were sent home on Friday, everyone was very excited and couldn’t wait to share the book with their family! Please sign the communication book in the appropriate column and remind your child to put it back into their blue reader folder.This week we begin reading partners and these books are an important part of this and our daily reading programme.My previous post highlighted some ways to support your child. As we look at reading strategies I will post more information so you can reinforce these at home.

Listening to your child read their book is one way I monitor reading progress and for organisation I do this on their sharing day.During this time I also assess sight word recognition. New lists maybe added then. If a word is highlighted, it needs more practice, of course don’t forget to revisit previous lists to strengthen fluency.

I have sent confirmation of your interview times via email. Please see me if you haven’t received it or if your plans change and the time no longer suits.

Any questions or comments? Feel free to post.

I hope you are as excited as we are about our first readers!

Hey hey it’s Independence Day.
To celebrate 5 weeks of school and how well we have learnt to organise ourselves ready for the school day the Reception team would like to hold our very first Independence Day!
So what does this mean?
This Friday morning, we ask that you farewell your child at the Doolette doors, letting them come in and get organised for their day all by themselves.This is a great opportunity for your child to showcase organisation and independence skills.
You will be surprised at how well they can do this.