PLEASE NOTE: Sports Uniform will be worn on Friday 14th February not Thursday - this week only

Thursday 13th February - Parent Volunteer Induction - 3.00 pm

Friday 14th February - Parent Volunteer Induction - 8.00 am

Tuesday 25th February - P & F Meeting - 7.00 pm

Tuesday and Thursday mornings starting 18th February - Cross Country Training - 7.30 am - Assemble on basketball court

Thursday 26th March - Cross Country

Dear Parents and Guardians,

During the early weeks of Term 1, we will be establishing routines, expectations and independence to ensure your child’s transition to Prep is smooth.

We will continue to develop student literacy through the InitiaLit program. This program focusses on whole class instruction encompassing all foundational skills needed in all areas of English. Term 1 learning will focus on syllables, rhyming, Phonics, Phonological awareness and teaching of handwriting.

Mathematics will include students making connections between number names, numerals and quantities up to 10. Counting forward to 20 and backwards from 20.

In Religious Education we will learn about the celebrations that tell us about God. The students will identify words, actions and symbols used in the Sacraments of Baptism and Eucharist to communicate God’s presence and action. By participating in rituals, students will be able to describe and explain the significance when believers gather as community to pray.

Our classroom will be a safe, nurturing environment, where a growth mindset is valued.

Yours Sincerely,

Miss Knight

We have had a fabulous start to 2020 in Year 1, the students are settling in and enjoying our new routines.  The students are particularly excited to be learning how to correctly form the letters of the alphabet on red and blue writing lines.  We are also preferring reading with a partner over many other activities, which makes my heart smile. Our attendance is 96% with 25 out of 27 students attending 100% of the time.

This term we will be learning about animals.  In English we will be learning about Informative Text and how writers use titles, headings and facts to communicate information.  We will apply our learning by composing a report on our favourite animal. In Science we will be investigating why animals live where they do.  We will learn about animals that fly, swim and walk - what they eat, where they live and how they move. In Technologies, we will learn how to use Seesaw to design our information reports.  We will include pictures, text and voice recordings to share our knowledge.

In Maths we have been learning many ways to represent two digit numbers.  Using mathematical language, we have been describing number sequences and which numbers are more than, less than other numbers.  We are very good at counting forwards to 100, and are still learning to count backwards from 100. Next week we will be learning about chance and probability.  We will develop our understanding of events that are certain, unlikely, likely, never.

Home Learning for this fortnight - reading every night and spelling words (ff, ll, ss, zz). Optional - Literacy Planet and Maths games.

What a wonderful start to school Year 2 have had. It is wonderful to see the strong friendships continue and the quick acceptance of new students into the class. Our class has been busy over the past two weeks learning routines and preparing for an amazing term of new learning. We are also very excited about receiving our new iPads.

This term all units have a connection to technology and machines. As such, our class has been busy reading the text ‘The Incredible Freedom Machines’ as the quality text that will support students with writing their own imaginative narratives. The class have designed their own ‘Freedom Machines’ and are currently planning their narrative. With so much imagination flying around our room I am sure these stories are going to be fabulous.

In week 2 we started our reading group rotations. Throughout these rotations the class get to practise and consolidate their learning from other areas of our literacy session. Students participate in spelling, reading, writing and speaking and listening activities during this time. It is easy to see that Year 2 are a great bunch of dedicated learners.

Following on from last year, attendance is still priority focus for our school. I am proud to say that Year 2 are currently sitting on 95% attendance for Term 1 so far. Keep up the great work Year 2.

Year 3 has had a busy start learning new routines and ways of working at a new year level.  It is fantastic to see our class so settled and working so well in such a short space of time. 

In our classroom, we want all of our classmates to feel welcome and excited to come to school. We encourage students to be the best learners they can be. To help make sure our class is a welcoming, happy place for all, we often talk about the St Joseph’s Way. 

Last week we focussed on how being respectful helps everyone to feel safe and welcome. This week we are focusing on how to line up and move around the school responsibly and safely.

In maths we have been concentrating on foundational number skills that we will build on all year. We started with what makes odd and even numbers, and the patterns we can find of these numbers. We have moved on to look at the place value of numbers. We have been practising making, reading and organising 4 digit numbers. We can explore this concept with explicit teaching which is reinforced through the use of manipulatives, games and lots of repetition. 

In religion we have started a unit of work on how Jesus was a man of action. To explore this, we are examining the 10 commandments and why they were important to Jesus. We also relate this back to our lives so that the students can understand religion in the context of their lives.

We were thrilled to get new Ipads and have begun using them in the classroom.We have saved usernames and passwords to streamline the process but practise will help.

Our attendance this fortnight has 13 out of 18 students attending 100% of the time. It is great to see most of the students everyday, with the exception of a bit of sickness going around. Thank you to the families for letting me know of any absences. 

Below are some photos from drama class where we have been learning to use our bodies to make shapes like dogs in kennels or dog food in bowls. The students practised their teamwork skills to get these creations done in less than 10 seconds!

It has been a very busy 2 weeks and the students have settled well into Year 4 and are learning about the

4 R’s – Responsibility, Respect, Resilience and Ready to Learn.

In Religion the last 2 weeks we have been focussing on our Unit Being a Jesus Community and learning about our School Motto – ‘Bring Faith and Learning to Life’ and our Patron Saint - St. Joseph the Worker and the special person that he was.     

                  

In Maths we have been learning about Place Value and Odd and Even numbers as well as 2 D and 3 D shapes.

The students have received their new Laptops this week and have participated in the Digital Citizenship Lessons in regards to Cyber Safety. Please encourage your child to talk about this very important theme regularly. Ask them what it means to be Cyber safe and always ensure these practices are being adhered to.

Communication

Should you ever have any queries or concerns or just want to have a general chat about your child please don’t hesitate to see us.

Our email addresses are mturner@cns.catholic.edu.au and sulanas@cns.catholic.edu.au we will endeavour to return your email within 24 hours. 

Reminders

• Auslan is on Monday 
• Library Day is Wednesday – please ensure Library bag is packed on that day
• Physical Education is Thursday – please wear Sports Uniform on that day
• Health is on Friday

We are looking forward to watching the Year 4 students progress throughout the Term.

Kind regards,

Ms U and Ms T.

In Year 5 we have had a fantastic start to the school year. As the days go by, the students are getting more and more familiar with new routines. Our 4R’s have been a big focus in the classroom and will be referred to constantly throughout the school year. We are aiming to be the best people we can be, while attaining academic and wellbeing success. 

There have been many introduction lessons to the key learning areas and the students are showing enthusiasm to their learning by having many discussions as a class or within small groups. In our Religion lessons we have been exploring St Joseph. Who he was, why our school is named after him and what this means to our school. We will be sharing this knowledge with the school on Friday at our first school assembly for 2020. 

Our Math lessons have been all about focusing on Place Value. We have been looking at how numbers change when adding 100’s, 1000’s and 10 000’s, rounding, sorting, ordering as well as writing in digit form and number form. While in English we have been practicing a new schedule for reading as well as exploring our knowledge in narrative writing. Our understanding of the purpose and the structure has been a focal point while still remembering our punctuation and grammar. All of these elements create an engaging text for the reader. 

One of our highlights though has been receiving our new laptops. We have been learning to use them in effective organisational ways. This ensures there is optimal learning happening, rather than time wasted on remembering login details and website links. As the weeks go by the students will be learning to use them in a variety of ways, which will build on their already extensive knowledge. They are a great learning tool like many of our resources are in our classroom and I look forward to seeing how the Year 5’s grow within a challenging but safe environment. 

Year 5 attendance this first fortnight sits at 11 out of our 13 students having 100%. This is a fantastic start to our school year. 

What a fantastic start to 2020 in Year 6! I am so proud of how each student has come into our class with enthusiasm, positivity and a real “get to work” attitude.  The last 2 weeks have been all about routines, new roles as Year 6 Leaders, creating our 4R’s charts, setting boundaries, team games, icebreaker activities as well as starting all our new units. We shared a lovely prayer ritual each morning and journalled many of our ideas.

In Maths we have been exploring very large numbers and learning how to say them correctly, as well as prime/composite numbers. In Religion we explored some aspects of St Joseph which was really interesting, and how we can show some of his qualities in our daily life at school. We have been looking at Prophets this week, what is a prophet and what is their message?

Our Science unit is Creators and Destroyers and closely integrated with other areas of learning. We will be learning all about volcanoes, earthquakes and how they affect our Earth. Lots of hands on learning in this unit. In English we wrote a Letter to Ms Newell to inform her about ourselves, as our focus this term IS TO INFORM. On Monday the students were introduced to Friendology, which is a social skills program helping us to understand different aspects of friendships.

Possibly the highlight so far for the students has been designing the Year 6 shirt in groups. Each one has been well thought out and beautifully presented.  Our voting will be this Friday. We look forward to seeing the final design! 

The kids have been awesome and really showing great leadership skills to the rest of the school! They are really taking on our Yr 6 theme of……..Be brave, Do good, Lead the Way.

The below photos are of Year 6 eating lunch.  Our prayer ritual on the first day of school and working in class.