This week we have been working hard on improving our narrative writing. We have been practicing strong beginnings to ‘hook’ our readers. We have also been working on using strong and descriptive nouns and adjectives.

Now we are writing a narrative to enter into a competition. The details can be found here.

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In Melbourne recently at a wonderful IB conference on Digital Citizenship, I met a teacher who inspired his students to interact with their class blog through a 5 star comment system.

You can read his blog post here

Today our class decided that we would set ourselves a similar challenge, but ours would be a 6 star challenge!

We think that a great comment would have:

• a greeting
• correct spelling and punctuation
• descriptive sentences
• a positive comment
• a signature or sign off

For a bonus star you should try to put a question to encourage further discussion.

Students who consistently achieve a 5-6 star rating will have earnt a licence to be a guest blogger on our blog.

Zimmer Twins is a great site for making simple animated video stories. you can create your own story or use one of the ‘cliff hanger’ starters. You simply drag and drop to select characters, settings, actions and emotions. You can also type into the conversation bubbles.

For great online logic puzzles visit the following website: http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/puzzles/
It will keep you thinking for hours if you let it!

Thanks to ‘Free Technology for Teachers’ for these great sites.

Welcome back.

Our vegetable patch is beginning to take shape. Hopefully we will be ready to begin planting early next week.

In maths we have been looking at symmetry and division. The children have made a variety of symmetrical patterns as well as trying some tricky symmetry problems and in writing we are currently experimenting with writing a puppet play.

On Thursday we were visited by the people from the Grab 5 program. They talked to us about the 4 things that we need for a healthy body – healthy food, exercise, sleep and water. The children then sorted foods into the 5 food groups and made a healthy eating poster. This program will run for 5 weeks, culminating in a cooking activity. The cost for this program is $5 which will be deducted from the excursion fund. Look for the slideshow of their work in this blog. Also, don’t forget to check out the online activites for My body, My job. I have put a heap of links on the relevant page in this blog.

Coming up in a couple of weeks is the visit from Music is Fun Band. They have been visiting our school for several years and the children always really enjoy their performances. I’m not sure of the cost yet, or whether there is enough left in the excursion fund to cover it, but will let you know when I know.

Don’t forget that we are having an ICT sharing evening on Tuesdayat 6pm, where your children will be sharing their e-portfolios with you. This is a collection of their work throughout the year, mainly PYP, that they have put into a webpage format. Many thanks to Jonathan for his help in computing throughout this year 🙂  Please bring along a USB if you would like to keep a copy of their work.

I just found this website called Spelling City. You can put your spelling words in and it will make a whole load of activities to do with those words. Things like wordsearches, hang mouse, matching. Check it out 🙂

Author and Illustrator Sally Heinrich will be visiting our school during Book Week next week, and our class will meeting her on Wednesday morning at 11.30am. You can explore her books and a gallery of her artwork at the Sally Heinrich website.

Along with the special lunch on Tuesday and our guest author and artist on Wednesday, we have a lot more in store…..

Each day the children are able to participate in a quiz based on some of the book week short listed books. To enter simply go into the library and answer the question for the day and put your entry into the box for your chance to win a great prize.

On Friday we celebrate Book Week and Grandparent’s Day. Children dress up as a favourite  character and we will have a parade in the morning at 9.30. Special guests are welcome to join us in the classroom before the parade to share a book with the children.

After the parade the children have a special song to sing to all the Grandparents and special family friends.

There will be a morning tea provided at recess time for you to enjoy as well.

Hope you can come along and enjoy the day!

Over the next three weeks we will be doing some cooking each week to help us learn about Procedure Writing.

Monday Week 3:       Honey crackles and cheese twists

Wednesday Week 4:  Pizzas and hedgehog slice

Monday Week 5:       Fruit skewers and pancakes

To help pay for the ingredients each child will need to bring $4.00. This will cover all of our cooking over the three weeks.

Of course, if you are able to help between 10 and 11 am please let us know.

To share all of the work that we have been doing in PYP on our unit of inquiry into Imaginary Countries we will be holding a Country Expo.

You are invited in to our rooms when your child will explain some of the things that they have learnt about and made for their country. They will have practiced this and are quite excited at the thought of sharing their work with you.

When:       Wednesday 19^th August (Week 5)

Who:        Anyone your child would like to share with – eg. Parents, grandparents etc.

Here are some more diary dates for you 🙂

Thursday 6th August:  Performance ‘Emily Loves to Bounce’ at Noarlunga

Monday/ Tuesday 17th and 18th August: School Photos

Friday 28th August: Book Week Parade and Grandparent’s Day

Thursday 3rd September: Jump Rope for Heart Jump Off Day

Friday 11th September: Show Day

Welcome back!!
Just a few bits and pieces about this term –
We are now trialling changing our readers once a week (Mondays) so the children are trying to gauge how many readers they will need to last the week. Some will need 5, while others will only need 2 or 3 depending on the type of books they are reading. This may take a while to perfect but we’ll get there in the end.
We are looking at Colour and Light as a mini unit in technology/science. This week we explored a lot of different equipment including prisms, kaleidoscopes, holoscopes and stellascopes. Next week we are planning to try to make our own kaleidoscopes!
In English we are focussing on Procedure writing. Today we made a creature for our imaginary country and then tried to write instructions on how to make it. Next week we will be doing a similar activity and then we will be doing some cooking which we will be writing about. More information on this will follow – watch for the note in the next week or so.
In maths we are learning about fractions which will link to a unit of work on time. You can help by talking to your child about fractions when you are cooking, or cutting a sandwich/pizza/cake into equal parts. You could also talk to your child about telling the time on an analogue clock (one with a face rather than a digital clock). It is particularly helpful to talk about what half past, quarter past and quarter to look like, as well as 5 minute intervals. Of course in order to understand these concepts children need to have an understanding of where the starting point is (at the 12 because half past actually refers to half way around the clock, or half past the hour).
Your child may also have mentioned  that I am having a blitz on neatness – handwriting, use of margins, date and title 🙂

All in all its shaping up to be another busy term!

Jag the Jaguar

This is Jag the Jaguar. He has started to come home with us at night time. He has a journal that we are helpling him write. So far on his adventures, he has been swimming, dancing, camping out, and eating yummy dinners.