Buddy Lunch

On Thursday we had a barbeque for a special Buddy Lunch. Our parents came along too so they could meet our buddies. Thank you to all the parents who helped to organise the lunch and get all of the food ready on the day! Here are some pictures of our Buddy Lunch.

The Rainbow Fish

We've been reading a book called The Rainbow Fish.

In the story the rainbow fish shares his shiny scales with other fish to be a nice friend. We've been talking about what makes a nice friend.

We have been learning about the letter r. We have thought of some words that start with the letter r;

rainbow
run
rug
robot
rocket

We made our own rainbow fish and we tried to colour in the scales in a repeating pattern. Here are some of our fish:

Doubles

This week in maths we are learning about doubles. We are learning the doubles facts:

1 + 1 = 2
2 + 2 = 4
3 + 3 = 6
4 + 4 = 8
5 + 5 = 10
6 + 6 = 12

Today we played a doubles game in pairs where we had to roll a dice and double the number shown. Then we put a counter on that number on the game board. The winner of the game was the first person to get four counters in a row.

Learning About Sounds

In our class we have been learning about the sounds for each letter of the alphabet. These clever girls worked really hard as a team to complete this alphabet jigsaw puzzle. Each letter of the alphabet is matched with two words beginning with that sound.

Making Patterns

This week in Maths we have been learning about patterns. Patterns are repeating sequences and can be found everywhere; strings of beads, tiled floors, stripy clothing or rows of flowers and trees can all make patterns! We can make patterns by clapping, writing numbers or arranging items on the table. Have a look at the patterns we made in class today.

The Letter D

We've been learning about the letter d. We thought of some words that start with the letter d:

dog
dinosaur
drawing
drink
drum

Have a look at some of our 'd' activities:

Grade 5 Buddies

All the prep students have now been matched up with Grade 5 buddies. The buddies will be doing activities together every week in Term 1 and every fortnight in Term 2. It's been wonderful for the preps to have an older friend to look out for them in the playground and help them settle into school.

Creating a Learning Community in Prep A

Making Two

This week we have been learning about the number two. We have been working with play dough to make two things the same. Then we made the number 2.

Welcome New Preps

Welcome to Prep! I am very excited to be working in the Prep area this year and it has been wonderful to meet all the new preps and their families. Here are some photos of the Preps on the first day of school.

Term 4 Welcome

The year sure is flying by! Welcome back to school for Term 4. In the coming weeks Level 3 will be showcasing their work from our 'Splash' unit. This will include our Short Film Festival where our still-frame animation movies will be played. After this 'official' launch, we will be putting the movies on our blog for you to see.

We are also finishing off our Waterwatch Program with a community mural to be displayed in the Whitehorse City Council offices. This mural will be presented to Melbourne Water and the Whitehorse City Council at a special assembly.

Our Term 4 unit is called 'This is Australia' and will focus on geography, culture and historical Australians who have made positive contributions to shaping our nation. Students will be completing projects on historical Australians. It would be wonderful if parents could assist their children to research their topic at local libraries. More information to come!

Thanks for visiting our class blog.

Welcome to Term 3

I hope you have all had a fun and relaxing break from school and are feeling refreshed for an exciting term ahead including our annual swimming lessons, Book Week and Footy Day.

Our topic this term is 'Splash' which is all about water! We will be learning about marine environments, the water cycle, the distribution of fresh water around the world, conservation and of course water safety!

Our focus in English will be narrative writing and we will be creating our very own picture storybooks. We will also be working on some still-frame animation stories involving sea creatures! Keep checking our blog for further updates!

Spelling Words

Today Grace gave ME a word to learn how to spell:

antidisestablishmentarianism

Is this really a word?! Looks like I better start doing my Look, Say, Cover, Write, Check homework for my test on Friday....

Exposition Writing

This term our writing focus is Exposition. This text type requires forming opinions, giving reasons and evidence for views, being persuasive and carefully organising paragraphs. Our class has been working very hard to learn these skills. Our first exposition can be found in the previous blog post. It was written as a shared piece, with everyone contributing their ideas. If students would like some extra practise on forming convincing arguments they may like to try this game.



I'm working on making this bigger! Zooming in works quite well in the meantime.

Welcome Back to School!

I'm preparing to welcome my new class for 2011 which is very exciting! I hope that all the students and families from my grade have had a fun and restful break and have made the most of all that special time together. I'm looking forward to hearing about what you've been up to. Mrs Hamilton and I have been very busy planning for Term 1. Our Integrated Unit will be called Gadgets and Gizmos. In this unit we will learn all about simple machines and hopefully have the chance to make some wild and crazy contraptions. Enjoy your final day of holidays, kids! See you all on Friday!