Welcome to Week 3

 Good afternoon parents!

Welcome to another amazing week in 4DEL!

I am super excited to be back on deck after a lovely holiday...my cupboards and drawers are clean and organised. 

I have bothered the girls at Hot Choc more than enough and 4Lane are threatening to cancel my membership!! I am known by first name by all the Australia Post and Toll drivers and Mark and the bank account are all strongly urging me to go back to work!! 

However, it was a thoroughly enjoyable staycation and has done my soul wonders!

I kept in touch with Mrs O'Brien and she was so complimentary in talking about the children and I am so proud to hear how hard they worked and how well they looked after her. She is sad to leave them!

I would also like to thank those that were able to make it to Confirmation this morning to sing in the choir...this is such a gift to share with the wider school community and I thank them and you for getting them there...especially on such a wild and woolly day!

REMINDERS - WEEK 3 

See Saw - You would have received an email from the school last week sharing important information about some changes that we are making to our reporting system for this semester.

In line with this, your child should have also brought home last week a piece of paper with a QR Code and account details for you to set up your account. Please note, multiple people can use the same code and it will access only your child.

I am aware there are a few still on the board at school, I will make sure these go home tomorrow. Please let me know if you are having any problems with this.

We will be setting this up with our students tomorrow and all going well, our first activity will be up by the end of the day ready for you to look at and discuss with your child.

Uthando Dolls - Mr Danaher sent out a request for help last week and I am again asking for assistance for this week and each week for the remainder of the term. In making these dolls, the students learn a wide variety of skills from team work to sewing to a little pattern coordination and the more helpers we have the better and more confident the students feel.

If you are able to make it each week, we would love to have you. If you can only come once, we would love to have you. If any grandparents are free to come and help, we would love to have them. 

We understand it is a big commitment and many of you have smaller people at home...please feel free to bring them along as well. We have loads of games and paper and pencils for them to use and they are no bother at all!

If you are able to assist, please let me know via email or through the link to the roster sent through last week.

At the end of term, we are also going to require some Quality Control - someone to check the dolls will stand up the being seriously loved! This will require taking the dolls home and checking them and their outfits, tidying up any loose sewing or threads etc. If this may be more your jam, please let me know!

Please know Ben and I are so grateful for your assistance!!

OUR LEARNING - 

The term has started off with a bang with the students completing their diagnostic spelling test to see if they have shown growth across the semester in spelling. Many students have been working hard and have moved groups which is great to see, if your child has not moved groups, this is nothing to be discouraged by...slow and steady wins the rock star race and we all know that being a good human is more important that being a good speller!

In writing we will continue working on our Persuasive genre specifically learning about the devices used in this style of writing being - personal pronouns, rhetorical questions, emotive words, exaggeration and facts. 

We will be learning about how best to use these particular devices to present strong arguments to support our position...hopefully moving away from things like "it's not fair" or "because"...sorry if this throws any of you under the bus!! 

We will then move into looking at how to effectively structure a paragraph within a persuasive text using the OREO template.

In maths we are continuing to learn about money and will spend the week completing an investigation. This open-ended mathematics investigation has been designed to deepen students’ understanding of simple financial planning and timetables. 

In this investigation, the students have been given $100 to spend at Leisure Land, a local amusement park. Using the map, price lists and planning worksheets provided in the resource, they must complete a simple spending plan and timetable for their day. 

During the investigation, students will be required to make decisions about rides, entertainment, food, drink and souvenirs. 

They will then need to modify these in accordance with their spending allowance. They will also be required to use mental and written strategies to perform calculations.

We will continue our Confirmation unit in Religion looking at how we can express our emotions in loving and thoughtful ways and how the Holy Spirit may strengthen us when we are finding it challenging!

HOMEWORK - WEEK 3

Is off and away, please make sure that your child is completing all parts of their grid and that they are completing their work to a high standard...their handwriting needs to be neat and all words are to be marked at the end of the week before being handed in or each night as they are completed.

Please note, on Monday's when we set up homework for the week, the students bring me their spelling words to be marked...this is to ensure that they have copied them correctly and made any corrections needed. 

If your child's Monday column has NOT been marked by me, can you please take a moment to mark their words so that they are not making any mistakes that are then repeated.

I am very much looking forward to being back in class with these beautiful kids tomorrow!

Have a great afternoon and stay warm!

Caitlin.