WEEK 6

29th May - 9th June 2023

PRINCIPAL REPORT

This week I was  invited to be a special guest at the Foundation wedding of q and u. What a wonderful, engaging occasion this was, with everyone looking rather dapper in their wedding attire! The ceremony was officiated by Miss Martha Ramsden, with Miss Natalie Pike ensuring all parties were where they needed to be at the right time. What a wonderful, unique way to cement phonological awareness, I loved it!

On Tuesday this week, I hosted a Principals Network meeting here at Wattle View. A number of the Principals from our local Primary and Secondary schools came here to tour, and learn all about the wonderful things our school has to offer. They were particularly impressed with our calm, orderly learning environment, the teaching and learning programs offered, along with the myriad of extra curricular activities our students participate in. I put on a small morning tea for them, and funnily enough was asked what catering company I used. After my initial giggle, I swiftly informed them that it was the magic of Robyn Hickleton, one of our wonderful Educational Support Staff members. Thanks Robyn for putting on such a professional looking spread!

Staff Professional Practice Day - Reports and Three Way Conferences

On Friday last week, our staff busily spent the day writing reports for your child/ren. These reports will be accessible via Compass on the last Thursday of this term. A small change to previous years here at WVPS,  sees our Three Way Conferences (Formal interviews) occurring in Weeks Two and Three, of Term Three. Please stay abreast of your Compass feed, particularly in the last week of this Term, for a sign up portal. These Conferences provide the perfect opportunity to discuss the Semester One report, along with providing the opportunity for your child/ren to set new learning goals for Term Three. 

Staying Well 

We are certainly seeing an increase of student and staff absences due to illness, of late. Keeping our school community well is top of mind for us, especially as we head into Winter. Just a reminder to practice prevention measures including.

• washing and sanitising hands regularly

• avoiding touching eyes, nose and mouth with unwashed hands

• covering nose and mouth when coughing or sneezing

• staying home if unwell and consulting a general practitioner (GP) or Nurse-on-call as required

• staying up to date with flu and COVID-19 vaccinations.

Book Fair

Thanks again to everyone who supported our Book Fair, and of course Robyn Hickleton, our Library Coordinator (I know, she is a jack of all trades!), who coordinated this event for our students and community. What a huge success it was, with a total of $2437.00 spent on books overall! The profit made by Wattle View allows us to purchase new books for our Library, so thank you!

Stay well everyone and enjoy your week!

Tracy Wright

Foundation News 

WEDDING BELLS! 

We had a beautiful wedding and joined q and u in phonemic awareness (too cute). The foundation students look stunning in their fancy clothes. We ate cake, shared qu words and enjoyed a lovely ceremony (photos below). 

Aside from the wedding, we also explored new digraphs /ch/ /sh/ and /ou/. We read new and interesting books about First Nations people, and engaged with videos and texts that explore Aboriginal culture.  We read 'Somebody's Land' By Adam Goodes and Ellie Laing , 'Sorry day' by Coral Vass and 'We are Australians' by Duncan Smith and Nicole Godwin. Students were so engaged with these texts and asked the most amazing questions. We really enjoyed the discussions and rich conversation that was focused around Reconciliation Week, and we look forward to exploring the topic further in the coming weeks. 

In Numeracy, we have started to investigate addition and what addition means. Students have used a wide range of manipulative materials to create various addition sums (and they were great at it!). We will continue working on this skills for the remainder of the term. We have also been working on directional language (left, right, up, down, beside, between). 

For Humanities, we have have continued to explore place and community. We have looked at how places have changed and what is found in a community. To continue with our Reconciliation theme, we looked at how people are connected to places and how some places in Australia and around the world may be more special to some people. 

GRADE 1/2 NEWS

We have been having a great week here over in Grade 1/2!

Literacy 

In writing, we have been finishing off our Information Report books. Students have been working hard researching facts and drawing detailed pictures about the topics they are 'experts' in. This week they get to share their Information Reports with their peers and teach one another all about their chosen topic. What clever little authors!

In reading, we have been focussing on modelled reading. Here we take a deep dive into one specific book and learn all about the higher level vocabulary words, ask meaningful questions, find the main idea and the author’s purpose behind writing the text. As Week 6 is Reconciliation Week, we were reading the book Somebody’s Land which shares some Aboriginal history.

For our Book Study of ‘George’s Marvellous Medicine’ we have been making some weird and wonderful predictions of what we think would happen to Grandma once she tries the potion George concocted for her. We also identified nouns, verbs and adjectives within the text in order to create our own interesting sentences.

Numeracy

This week we have moved on from addition to subtraction. We have been discussing what subtraction is and a variety of strategies we could use in order to work out subtraction problems. These include: counting back, number lines, tens frames and partitioning.

Continuing on with data, students have been learning about bar graphs. We are learning how to recognise what a bar graph is, how to draw information from a bar graph, as well as how to create our own.

Inquiry

We are still looking at the idea of our local community in Grade 1/2. After coming back from our fun excursion to Mountain Gate shops, we were able to view our path from school to the shops on a map and could see all the services, hospitality and retail shops there are in the area.

We then looked at different images of our local community and how it has changed over time. We talked about what has changed and developed and what has stayed the same.

GRADE 3/4 NEWS

3/4 has been full of amazing work this week in Literacy and Numeracy! 

Literacy 

In literacy the students demonstrated what they have learnt about explanation texts by completing a big write about 'How to be a Good Friend'. 

This week we also came together as a cohort to learn about Reconciliation week, students understood what it means and why it is an important time for our country to stop and reflect. We had some wonderful insightful discussions about the changes each of us can make in our community through being kind and standing up for others. We then created a beautiful collaborative artwork which will be on display next week in the 3/4 building, be sure to come in and check it out! 

GRADE 5/6 NEWS

Welcome to week 6 of the 5/6 Newsletter.  This will be the last 'teacher' version for this year; as starting from week 6, the school captains and other notable students will be adding their own valuable self reflections on learning within our space.  We hope this will further reflect the true spirit of 'student voice' in the later years of student life at Wattle View.

Literacy 

The shared reading of David Walliam's novel 'Fing' has helped students raise healthy debates on the choices an author makes regarding character developments using various literary devices to engage the reader.  In writing, students have returned to descriptive language using a variety of Tier 2 words.  Students have identified a particular place in their Inquiry focus country and brainstormed nouns, adjectives, verbs and adverbs to create vivid descriptions.  Our next step will be to create audio recordings of these descriptions to 'transport' their audience to that spot.  We look forward to hearing some of these at the forthcoming 'Market Stall' night later in the term! 

Numeracy

In Maths groups, students are continuing to examine the close links between fractions, decimals and percentages.  Some have begun to learn the process in converting fractions to decimals and vice-versa.  Our measurement lessons have taken our students on a virtual 'jet-set' adventure; as they have taken a look at the geographical relationship between longitude (distance measured East and West of the Prime Meridian) and time zones around the world.

Inquiry

Students this week have begun to delve deeper into some of the cultural traditions of Asian countries.  We have formed small research groups to look into things people do or play in Asian countries in order to become experts on these different topics.  Students have been looking into topics as varied as the Korean game Yut Nori, the history of Muay Thai in Thailand, the Japanese tradition of Sumo wrestling and the ghost stories of Yokai.  Students are using their knowledge to create multi modal texts to engage their audiences and present their information in a captivating manner.

SPECIALIST NEWS

Wattle View Sports

District Athletics

Early in Term 2, 50 Wattle View PS students from Grade 3, 4, 5 & 6 attended the Scoresby District Athletics Carnival to participate in track and field events. The students showed great effort and determination in their individual events and when not participating they gave their peers wonderful support from the grand stand. We had two students earning the right to compete at Division Athletics later in the year. Well done to Evie M and Jazzlyn. Wattle View PS placed 8th in the overall standings.

Well Done Team

Zone Cross Country

In Week 4, we took 24 of Wattle Views' fittest athletes to Jells Park to compete in the Zone Cross County. The students had to run through the mud and up and down steep hills across a distance of 2 or 3 kilometres. The students all tried their hardest with four students earning the right to compete in the division carnival on the 2nd of June. Congratulations to Imanie, April, Harriet and Roza. Wattle View PS placed 8th in the overall standings.

Well done Team

Up coming

Winter Sports for Grade 5/6 will be taking place on Wednesday 7th and Friday 16th. Students have received their parent consent forms which need to be returned ASAP. The sports the students will be participating in include:

• Football - Lewis Park

• Netball - Knox Regional Netball Center

• Soccer - Knox Regional Sportspark

Girls Footy for Grade 5/6 girls will be taking place on Thursday 8th at Kings Park, Upper Ferntree Gully. Students have received their parent consent forms which need to be returned ASAP. 

Junior PE

In the junior year levels in Term 2, the students have been developing their hand-eye coordination skills, participating in activities where they are tracking balls that are moving towards them to catch them as well as working on their underarm and overarm throwing.