This week had some familiar and new adventures! We started our school week with another Footsteps dance practise for our Harmony Evening song. We encourage students to practise some of the moves at home if possible. It's a quick but exciting dance!

On Thursday students had their first Mitcham Mates session. Mitcham Mates is a vertical learning approach where students work with peers in the house, from Prep to Year 6, to learn about our school's values and build a sense of whole school community. This helps students to have more friendly faces around the school and work together on wellbeing as a collective.

📚 Literacy

This week in Initialit, we consolidated our understanding of the /m/, /s/ and /t/ sounds, as well as how we form these letters. We also looked at oral segmenting and blending, where students explored the individual sounds that make up a word. We did this by 'stretching' words with our hands and then 'clapping' them back together (for example, s-u-n = sun). 

Using our mentor text of "How To Catch a Star", students learnt about making text-to-self connections. We discussed how these are connections that relate to our lives, such as reminding us of something we have done before or a feeling that relates to a character in the story. The boy in the text wishes to catch a star, so many students discussed wishes they have or times they have searched for stars in the sky!

In Writing, students are becoming independent when writing the date in red, using grey lead to begin writing words and showing three star colouring in their detailed drawings!

✨ Ask at home:

• What are some of your favourite things that begin with the /t/ sound?

• What is the action with your hand for the /s/ sound and /t/ sound?

• Can you break up the sounds in the word 'mat', 'tap', 'log' and 'sun'?

• What connection do you have to the book 'How To Catch a Star'? What do you wish?
  
  

✨ Practise at home:

• Go on a “/t/ and /s/ sound hunt” around the house and find items that begin with /t/.

• Read stories together and asking what connections they have? Does any part of the story remind them of a day in their life?

• Practise forming the letter m,t,s using chalk, paint, sand, or by writing it on paper.

Students are able to borrow one book from the Library each week. However, they can only do so if they bring their library bag. Please ensure you child remembers to bring their library bag to school on their allocated library day (shown below) to avoid disappointment. 

If your child has a specialist class in the afternoon, that teacher will take the students out to the basketball court for dismissal.  

Please note- Timetables change regularly for interruptions such as, NAPLAN, Camps, events etc. Teachers will update the website of any changes.