Week 5 Update

 Good afternoon parents,

I hope you enjoyed the short week, as sad I was that the carnival didn't go ahead it was a great opportunity for some extra learning! I have to admit thought that I am very keen for this wierd in between weather to disappear...I am very much a winter girl and am pretty keen to transition that wardrobe over!

I just need to remind you that I will be absent Monday to Wednesday of this week. I am attending the first two days of a Leading Wellbeing in Schools course at CEWA in Leederville which I am incredibly excited about but I am also needing to check in with my mum who had a knee replacement 4 weeks ago...she had a bit of a slip yesterday and needs some support for the next couple of days so I will be heading up to Perth today. 

Whilst not ideal, I am very pleased to let you know that Miss Kyla Posthumus will be running our class whilst I am away...she is an excellent teacher and the students that have had her before love her. With Ben's support, she will be running 4DEL as if I was there!

I will also be attending the funeral of David Clift on Friday afternoon to support the family. I have been very lucky to have taught all three Clift children and have known David and Annemarie for some years. If you can please add them to your prayers list for this week as it is going to be a tough one for their family.

A few reminders for the coming week...

Swimming Lessons - These begin tomorrow, Monday 8th March. Your child is able to wear their sports uniform all week which helps with ease of getting changed. 

Please make sure they are bringing a sturdy bag to hold all of their bits and pieces and that all is labelled...thongs, goggels and undies are the first things to go missing and are rarely claimed! 

We will be leaving school at 11.40am ready for our lesson to begin at 11.55...we will return to school by 12.50pm so canteen is a go for those wishing to order on Tuesday, Thursday and Friday.

As you can see from our lesson times, we are swimming over some of the hottest parts of the day...sunscreen and rashies are a must! 

Laptops - Last week was a tough one with a number of students forgetting these or coming with them not charged. We had online PAT assessments scheduled and some students were unable to complete them...this has a flow on effect of them then having to miss other class learning to complete these tests at a later date.

Laptops are to come everyday with a minimum of 75% charge, even during swimming lessons.

Altar Servers - Your child brought home a permission slip last week, if you can please sign and return this note (even if your child is not able to participate) I would be most grateful!

This is a fantastic opportunity for your son or daughter to give back to their community and is not a weekly requirement.

Haircuts - The back to school tidy up has worn off and some students are in need of a fringe trim. A reminder that your child's fringe should not cover their eyes...I have bobby pins if needed so please book in for a tidy up if this affects your child.

If I can ask that the girls are also ensuring that long hair is also tied up, past the collar and it needs to be tied back. Hair accessories must also be in the neutral, black, white or teal realm. 

Stationery Check In - Those walking glue sticks are now long gone and don't even mention the pencils, erasers, rulers or scissors! Can you please check with your child if they are missing any essential items and send in some of their spares please?

Congratulations to our first Star Citizen for 2021 - Kye Godding! Always a tough pick but Kye is one of those amazing young men who is quietly hardworking, thoughtful, considerate and always takes time out of his day to have a chat with me and look out for his classmates! A valued addition to our class for sure!

OUR LEARNING - WEEK 4/5

Our narrative writing is going great guns, we have been looking at how to construct a good paragraph in our narratives and this week we are going to work on writing a REALLY good orientation as a class in our modelled writing and then we will be moving on to the students writing their own orientation using the same stimulus. This gives the students a good guide of what a good paragraph looks like and then gives them to confidence to practice writing their own. Next, we will be looking at our character descriptions and how we can really bring our main characters to life!

In our maths sessions we have been looking at using place value to help us understand how multiplying by 10 and 100 is not just about adding a zero. 

In your child's One Note/Maths section, you will find a copy of the place value chart that we use during class. We play a really fun game with this chart...ask your son or daughter to show you! 

A couple of great points for this are - it helps your child to correcly say large numbers up to millions and helps them to connect place value knowledge to numbers. 

Place value and times tables are two of the key points that help your child to feel confident within their maths learning...the place value game is a lot of fun to play as well!

In our Friendology session this week we were talking about Friendship Fact #3 - Trust and Respect are the two most important qualities in a friendship. This led into a great discussion where we looked at Brene Brown's work on The 7 Elements of Trust using the BRAVING acronym. The students are using this as a prompt to write an acrostic poem about how this works within their friendships as well!

In our Keeping Safe lessons on Thursday, we discussed the differences that we all feel in what our early warning signs are that our bodies give us when we are feeling unsafe. It was so interesting to see the similarities and differences in these warning signs...this is hugely important to that students are really tuned in to these so that they are aware when they are feeling unsafe and how to do something about it!

Our science lessons are going great guns! You might have recently heard the following words  "Look out, I'm doing Science!" shouted loudly in your home...please note that safety has been stressed but Science is more fun when you can practice it at home...usually in the bath! 

We have been looking how plate tectonics, volcanoes and earthquakes can impact what the environment looks like after they have occurred. Students have been thinking about the landscape before and after of these events.

In art, we have been looking at warm and cool colours and how they work together. We are working on an amazing art piece which will hopefully be finished in the next couple of weeks ready for display...it has required multiple shapes, drawing of straight lines and lots of colour! I can't wait to see them finished!

I think that is it...even though the week was short, the learning was not!

HOMEWORK - WEEK 5

Students are again asked to complete their learning grid for this week. 

Please note the addition of 2 Champion Life Challenges over the week. This is an excellent resource which provides students (and family members) the opportunity to up their physical activity whilst listening to and learning from some amazing role models.

Any videos uploaded are viewed only by me and all videos stay in house at Champion Life...I can assure you that your plank, fast feet or lunges challenge will not go viral!

Please make sure that you are marking your son or daughter's spelling each night to avoid mistakes being repeated across the week.

If you have any questions on any of the above, please do not hesitate to get in touch.

Have a fantastic week!

Kind regards,

Mrs Delane