You can't catch me I'm the Gingerbread Man!

Over the last week, we have been reading and writing about the Fairy Tale 'The Gingerbread Man'. Today we decorated our own Gingerbread Men. Mrs Wallace took photos of our creations so we can do some descriptive writing about them tomorrow. I hope they were as delicious as they looked!

What games did children play at school in the past?

This week we explored games children used to play in the past at school. We had a go at playing tiddly-winks, marbles, hopscotch and knucklebones.

Flowers and Petals

Today in maths we made number flowers by adding the matching number of pop stick 'petals' to a given number. We had to count very carefully to keep track of all the colourful petals!

Congratulations!

Room 3 are all very proud of Alexus and Megan and their recent success in the Junior School Poetry Competition. Here is some footage of their prize ceremony courtesy of the wonderful Abby Bills-Strange.

Some lovely pics of our three class final winners, including Daisy Makin who placed third. Thank you to Mr Wallace for judging our class competition.

Week 5 Newsletter

Dear Parents and Caregivers

A big congratulations to Alexus and Megan who took out 1^st and 2^nd place, respectively, in the Year 0/1 Poetry Competition. Your performances were outstanding girls and Room 3 are very proud of you both.

We look forward to welcoming Agustin to our class next week, along with Rosie, Harrison, Baxter, Archie and Archer who will be joining us for visits throughout the week.

Thank you for the great work you are doing at home with the High Frequency Sight Word cards. The children are recognising these words with improved accuracy and speed and this knowledge is flowing through into their reading and writing.

In maths this week, our focus has been on matching the number of objects in a set to the symbols/words for numbers. This is a concept you might like to practise at home by making some simple numeral cards (0-10) and then have your child count out a set of simple objects (e.g. stones, blocks, beads etc) to match a chosen card.

For our Inquiry this week we brainstormed games children played at school in the past and games we play at school now. We used a Venn diagram to display our ideas, which helped us to identify games that were both played in the past and still played now. We followed this up by learning how to play hopscotch. The children are interested in learning more about the game of Jacks (Knucklebones) if you happen to have a set at home we could borrow please.

As we reach the six week mark for each child, I will be inviting parents, caregivers and their child to make a time to meet with me to share results of the School Entry Assessment and set Learning Goals. These meetings will take approximately 30 minutes and take place on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday afternoons, after school. Please let me know if these days are difficult for your family and I will try to arrange an alternative time with you. I will be putting a booking sheet next to our class noticeboard early next week for you to schedule a meeting time.

Have a lovely weekend.

Kind regards

Cara Wallace

  
   Next week’s sounds/letters:       m   and   d

Working together

We worked co-operatively with a partner to design, illustrate and make a rain stick, based on the traditional Chilean musical instrument. Our rain sticks were constructed from cardboard tubes, tin foil and rice. In Chile they are traditionally made from hollow cactus leaves, cactus spines and small stones. When you tip the rainstick up, the rice trickles down over twisted spirals of tin foil, inside the tube, mimicking the sound of rain. Please come and view our finished products in the classroom and have a go with them yourself!

Week 5 Reminders...

• Tomorrow (Wednesday) is a Mufti Day to raise money for the School Fair. Gold coin donation please.

• Congratulations to Alexus Massicks and Megan Jones who will represent Room 3 at the Year 0/1/2 Poetry Finals this Thursday 21 August, at 9.10am in the School Hall.

• The Year 4 Bake Sale will be held at morning tea time on Thursday 21 August. Items will priced at $1-$2. The Year 4 children are raising money for their School Camp in October.

• Orders for Class and Individual Photos are due in by this Friday 22 August.

Week 4 Newsletter

Room 3 Class Newsletter

Term 3: Week 4                               15.8.14

Dear Parents and Caregivers

It’s hard to believe we are already at the end of Week 4! Teaching is such a wonderful job when you have a class as enthusiastic and excited about learning as Room 3. The children have made such fantastic progress in their learning already. We look forward to AJ and Henry joining us next week. Our class Library day will be Tuesdays from 10.30-11am, beginning next week. Year 0/1 children can issue one book per week.

On Monday I will be sending home a bag of high frequency sight words for you to practise and learn with your child. Once these words are mastered (ie. consistent, instant recognition) I will give you the words for the next level, and so on. Please keep these cards in your child’s reading folder and return them once mastered, at which point the next set wil be issued. More detailed guidelines will be included in the bag.

In writing we continue to focus on Fairy Tales. This week we began looking at ‘Goldilocks and the Three Bears’. The children are learning how to use a Story Map to plan their writing. We have learned how to describe the setting and characters of a story. It’s great to see the children beginning to use some of the high frequency words they are learning in their writing.

In maths we have done a number of fun activities to help us identify odd and even numbers, leading on to skip counting in 2s. Ask your child about ‘Loud’ and ‘Soft’, the two puppets who helped us learn this concept. ‘Soft’ counts the odd numbers in a soft voice, alternating wiith ‘Loud’, who counts the even numbers in a loud voice.

As part of our Inquiry, ‘Change is Good’, the children were able to identify new technologies that have replaced old-fashioned methods for completing everyday tasks e.g. from open fire to heater, and from broom to vacuum cleaner. They completed fantastic drawings to illustrate their understanding. These are on display in the classroom.

The children have worked hard to practise their poems this week. We recorded each other on the iPads to identify areas for improvement and it has been great to see everyone’s confidence grow over the course of the week.

Our class competition will be held in Room 3, on Monday 18 August, at approximately 9.10am. Our judge will be our school Librarian, Lauren Bartram. Mrs Bartram is also judging Room 5, prior to coming over to us, so it is probable we may start a little later than 9.10am. Families are welcome to join us – it will be a short and sweet event!

Here’s hoping for a warmer weekend!

Kind regards

Cara Wallace

  
   Next week’s sounds/letters:       h  and   r

C is for Cookie

We had fun this week baking cookies for 'c' week. We are learning to work together as a team by taking turns, helping each other and communicating effectively. We must have worked together well, because they were delicious! Here is the recipe if you would like to try it at home:

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients

125g butter

½ cup caster sugar

½ cup brown sugar

1 egg

½ teaspoon vanilla essence

1½ cups self-raising flour

1 cup chocolate chips

Method

1.         Cream butter and sugars together until light and fluffy.

2.         Add egg and vanilla and beat well. Add flour and mix to a soft dough. Stir in chocolate chips.

3.         Place rounded spoonfuls of mixture onto lined baking trays. Bake at 190ªC (160ªC fan bake) for 8-10 minutes.

4.         Cool slightly before removing from trays to cool completely.

Room 3 Rockers

This week we have been working on creating rock guitars with unique designs in Art. Come in to the classroom to check out the finished results - they ROCK!