Embedded Files
12th June - 23rd June 2023
CALENDAR
12/6 Kings Birthday Public Holiday
14/6 Sushi and Pizza Lunch (orders and payment must be placed Friday 2nd June)
15/6 Hide the Dog Excursion Grade 3-6
16/6 Winter Sports Day 2 Grade 3-6
20/6 Junior Parent Information Session - 3.45pm - 4.15pm
21/6 School Council 7pm
22/6 Open Afternoon - 3:00pm - 4:00pm
23/6 Last Day Term 2, 2.30pm dismissal
TERM 3 COMMENCES - MONDAY 10TH JULY
19/7 School Council 7pm
20/7 Whole School Indigenous incursion
28/7 Foundation 100 days of school
3/8 Hooptime Grade 3/4 & Grade 5/6
16/8 School Council 7pm
30/8 Summer Sports Day 1
31/8 Hooptime Grade 5/6
PRINCIPAL REPORT
Welcome to the final newsletter for Term 2. It has been a short, yet busy term with just over one week to go until holidays. A reminder that the last day of Term 2 is Friday 23/6, with students finishing at 2:30pm.
Junior Parent Information Session & Open Afternoon (Multicultural Dress)
On Tuesday 20/6 from 3:45 - 4:15pm, there will be a parent information session outlining specific changes to the books that are coming home in green pouches, as well as information on how you can support your child with their home reading program. This will be held in the 1/2 classrooms, but all parents are welcome to attend.
On Thursday 22/6 from 3:00 - 4:00pm, we are opening our classroom doors and welcoming parents/carers/special guest in to see all of the wonderful learning we have done at Wattle View this term. Students are also encouraged to wear clothes on the day that represent their culture. This may be traditional dress or simply clothes representing the colours of a flag. This ties in nicely with our Inquiry topic for this term: Connection to place.
We hope to see you there.
Reports
Over the last month or so, teachers have been working hard, gathering data and writing student reports. Mrs Wright and I have been reading these reports throughout the week and it has been so great to see the wonderful learning and growth that has occurred this semester. A reminder to parents/carers that reports will go live on Compass at 3:30pm on Thursday 22/6. Reports will look a little different this year, but stay tuned for more information on that next week. In addition to reports, student portfolios will be sent home on the same day, whether it be a hard copy folio from the junior school or a digital portfolio from Grades 3-6.
Victorian Premiers' Reading Challenge
The VPRC is still underway with 85 days left to go. As announced at assembly last week, the following people are congratulated for already completing the challenge:
From Foundation - Shiv J, Billy M and Molly M
From 1/2 - Wilma M
From 3/4 - Tahlia W
From 5/6 - Scarlette L, Marcus R, Georgina S and Shakila S
There are still so many of you that are close to completing the challenge so keep up the great work. Last year, we had around 30 read the required amount of books. Let's see if we can get even more this year!
Junior Colouring & Senior Drawing Competition
Also announced at assembly last week were our competition winners, based on this year's National Simultaneous Storytime Reading of 'The Speedy Sloth'.
Congratulations to:
Foundation Winner - Shreelaxsmi A
1/2 Winner - Zara W
3-6 Winner - Lorna M
As a result of winning the competition for their age group, each student was able to select a book this week for them to take home and keep. Well done to the winners and to everyone else who submitted an entry and gave it their best shot.
Playground News
You may have noticed earlier in the week that the playground people were at school, making the necessary adjustments to our new playground equipment. Now that it is ready to go, we will be able to start building edging around the outside, with soft fall going underneath to keep you all safe when playing. It's taken longer than we'd hoped but we're almost there!
Drop Off Zone
As mentioned in a previous newsletter, there are strict council rules around drop of times in the morning. This is policed by the council and not by the school. However, lately there have been some complaints from the Salvation Army regarding drop offs on their property. Please ensure you are sticking to the correct drop off areas and not spending any more time than necessary or stipulated by the signs. Pick up and drop off times can get quite busy and we appreciate everyone's cooperation and patience when doing so.
As always, feel free to come into the office and say hello or email either of us with any questions or queries.
Stay warm!
Andrew Reardon
FOUNDATION NEWS
It's been a busy fortnight in Foundation, here's a bit about what we have been doing...
LITERACY
We have explored the /th/ digraph (can you believe it make two sounds!), students read 'The Lost Thing' and then made their own 'thing', using a variety of materials. They became mad scientists when we learnt the /oi/ digraph. We boiled red cabbage, added different ingredients to the boiled water - and the water changed colour! We have also revised the /ue/ digraph - this has proved to be a tricky one to remember, so extra practise at home would be great.
NUMERACY
Students have started to learn that addition is when we join groups together to make a larger group. We have practised our addition using different hands-on activities, such as using counters, UNIFIX, playdough and fingerpainting. Students created a map of the school, thinking about where different features are located.
INQUIRY
We continued to explore our connections to different places around the world, we found out that a lot of people have connections to different countries, how cool!
REMINDERS
- Foundation Showcase this Friday!
Some lucky Foundies visited Wattleview Kinder to tell them all about starting school.
GRADE 1/2 NEWS
What a fabulous fortnight we have had in Grade 1/2!
Literacy
In writing, the students have been learning about the differences between a fragment and a sentence, as well as reinforcing the basic punctuation needed in sentences. The students have come a long way in their understanding of nouns, verbs and adjectives and had a go at locating them in their own writing pieces. Students have continued with the writing genres of recounts and narratives during writing sessions. There has been a spelling focus on /z/ sound.
In reading, all classes have introduced Reading Groups across four days of the week. We read one text per week, having a different focus for each session. Our books for this fortnight have been, 'Rainbow Bird' and 'Flood'. We have dedicated a weekly session to vocabulary, asking and answering questions, finding the authors message and purpose and making text to self connections. We are near completion of our class novel, 'Georges Marvellous Medicine' and have had some fun exploring character traits and adjectives using the text.
Numeracy
The student's have practised their subtraction skills using the taught strategies in previous weeks, along with the inclusion of tens friends, twenties friends and vertical addition for some students. They have expanded their data skills to reading and understanding dot plot graphs.
Inquiry
The students have continued their work in understanding and categorising parts of the local community into retail, services and hospitality. They commenced planning their own little community and planned out what retail, services and hospitality they will include.
GRADE 3/4 NEWS
3/4 have had a wonderful few weeks, full of learning and fun!
Students have been very focused on completing their Inquiry projects. We have loved seeing the kids excited and engaged in researching their country of choice. Through inquiry and literacy sessions students have demonstrated their abilities to use technology to research, read information and utilise their comprehension strategies to then be able to summarise the information in their own words. This week students have begun working on their 'good copies' using their best handwriting and presentation skills to put their projects together ready for next weeks open day! All students are super excited to share their work so please come and visit!
In numeracy, we have been focusing on Shape. We started by looking at 2D shapes and their properties then moved into being able to name and describe 3D shapes. Students had lots of fun using clay and match sticks to create 3D shapes, a task that involved students utilising their persistence and problem solving skills! See the below photos of 3/4B students and their excellent creations!
GRADE 5/6 NEWS
It's been a busy fortnight in Year 5 & 6 as we work towards the end of the term. We are really excited to welcome everyone to the 5/6 area next Thursday afternoon for our Street Fair expo. There will be lots of information to read, presentations to look at and activities to participate in.
In English, students have been looking at different types of informative texts that use descriptive language to paint a picture for an audience. We looked at the book Migration by Jean Kirwin and noticed how she describes a setting or a scene for the reader before informing them about the topic. Using this knowledge, students have written descriptive snapshots to transform a reader to a particular place in Asia. Audiences have been transported to places such as Mount Fuji, Boracay Beach, Shibuya Crossing and the Great Wall of China.
In Mathematics, students have been applying their knowledge of calculating elapsed time and converting between timezones to plan a holiday. Students calculated flight time between 8 different destinations, researched the time difference between each destination and the order they would visit them in. Teachers then gave the students a departure time and a length of time they would stay at each destination. The 5/6 students have had to think deeply and do many time calculations to list their full itinerary including departure and arrival times from each destination.
In Inquiry, students have been busily preparing for our Street Fair expo in Week 9. Small groups have been formed to study and present on a particular custom or activity from an Asian country. Students have created multimodal presentations on topics as varied as Origami, samurais, cherry blossom trees and Japanese folklore. Students are busily working on creating practical activities for our audience to engage with next Thursday afternoon at the Street Fair.
SPECIALIST IN THE SPOTLIGHT - PERFORMING ARTS
This term the focus in Performing Arts has been dance! The dances chosen have been linked to classroom inquiry units - a focus on community and Australia in F-2, Australia and South America in 3/4 and Asia in 5/6. Students in Grades 3-6 have also been learning to play the ukulele this term and can now play several songs using the chords they've learned. I hope you enjoy reading your child's report next week for more detailed insight into their Performing Arts learning and the progress they have made.
On Wednesday 7th June students in Foundation - Grade Two enjoyed a shadow puppet incursion by Blanck Canvas, a professional puppeteering company who specialise in large light up puppets. The students learned about traditional Wayung shadow puppets from Indonesia and shadow puppetry as an art form, then were able to create their very own shadow puppet! They were so creative dreaming up and drawing their characters. They learned how to make a hinged rod to help keep their hand out of the shadow when performing. We finished the session with a 'puppet parade' to showcase their creations and we look forward to using their puppets for storytelling in future performing arts lessons. We received an Education Week grant which covered the cost of this incursion. Thanks to the Department of Education Performing Arts Unit for making this available.
On Thursday 15th June our students in Grades 3 - 6 are off to Melbourne Arts Centre to see 'Hide the Dog', a live theatre production by a First Nations creative team with themes around friendship, culture and adventure. It will involve singing, acting, dancing and puppetry and for many students will be their first experience watching professional theatre. We have been preparing for the excursion by learning about the many and varied roles in theatre both on stage and behind the scenes. This excursion cost has been covered by Melbourne Arts Centre First Call Fund grant and we thank them for making it available to our students.
Both the incursion and excursion will offer inspiration for students as they embark on a drama unit next term, with a collaboration between Visual and Performing Arts enabling students to make and perform with different types of puppets.
Our State Schools Spectacular dance team are working hard on learning and polishing their dances. They were able to showcase their talents at our Education Week assembly earlier this term. Tickets for the two performances at John Cain Arena on September 9th are on sale now via Ticketek if you'd like to come and see the show and support our dancers.
Instrumental music lessons on keyboard, guitar or drums are held every Friday and our students are really enjoying learning with Hezy, our instrumental music teacher from NoiseCraft. The students have come so far in the semester they've been learning and many say it's a highlight of their week! If your child is interested in learning an instrument please contact NoiseCraft directly. Forms are available at the office and their flyer is below.
As always, if you have any questions about anything Performing Arts related please contact me.
Sam Lockhart
Performing Arts Teacher
CE DANCE CLUB Flyer.pdf
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