Mac St News - Friday 29th May
Principal's Report
Dear Parents, Carers and Community Members,
It has been a wonderful few weeks since our last newsletter. Our students have been busy in their classrooms and have now commenced Week One of assessments.
This week has been our first go at formal in class testing. Students have been working hard on their independent activity books, while I complete individual tests with students. This week we begun unit 6 of sounds write. Students are doing so well during class time for these lessons and are progressing along as they should. We have been working hard on our dictation sentences and writing the words that we hear by saying the sounds. We have begun a unit in reading on Aboriginal Dreaming stories and have been reading Tiddalick the frog.
Students are learning about aboriginal perspectives and the idea of dreaming stories for the next 4 weeks and will hear a variety of different stories both in reading and knowledge time to help understand Aboriginal Culture and traditions.
What a busy week we have had.
We have been doing lots of testing and some of that testing has been on a iPad!
In maths one of the things that we have been learning are number facts. In our picture you can see the place value facts for 15 and 28.
We did gymnastic in PE and used water colours to paint a sunflower in art.
We are all looking forward to the weekend.
Last Friday students were learning about capacity. Capacity is how much a container can hold. The class used the informal unit 'cups' to measure equal portions of water. We first estimated how many cups our container could hold before filling it one cup at a time until we reached the top.
he class counted as we went. The Grade 2's then had the opportunity to estimate how many cups they would need to fill their chosen container. There was lots of water spilt, but students had a great time!
This week in the 3/4 room, the 3/4 class have begun their semester one assessments. This is a time when Mr G gets to see what each student knows and how much progress they’ve made since the end of semester two of last year.
The testing process is quite rigorous, however there are also times when there is some one-on-one assessment. As such, students have some work to undertake whilst Mr G is with a student doing this testing. Comprehension booklets, maths booklets and operations booklets are just a few of the things that students occupy themselves with in this time. Fortunately, colouring-in is another task which usually comes towards the end of each assessment day – a nice reward for the day’s efforts.
JSC Games
Over Term 1 and so far in Term 2 the JSC (Cruze, Emily, Macey, Nate, Arnold, Jack, Izzi, Will and Finn) have been running 15 minute games at second play. We do this to connect with the younger kids and to get other kids to make new friends so they are not lonely. We also do it to teach students to be responsible and resilient so they are not upset if they go out in a game.
Some games we play are Cat and Mouse, Poison Ball, Finger Poison, Tag, Sprouts and In The Water Out The Water.
On Mondays it is F-2 game, Tuesday is 3-6 game and on Thursday it is open for the whole school. We enjoy playing these games and always encouraging the other kids to join in.
By Macey, Jackson and Emily
Our school was recently donated a beautiful package of comfort kits by a local parent who runs a volunteer program called “Little Anchors”. The program supplies handmade comfort kits that schools can give to children who might need some comfort or a moment of calm throughout the day. Each kit contains a macrame worry doll, a pocket hug and a calm breathing card. If your child comes home with one of these kits, it’s likely they’ve had a visit to the wellbeing space.
I support students in one to one and small group sessions on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, helping children with things such as friendship difficulties, social skills, worries and anxiety, emotional regulation and learning calming strategies they can use both at school and at home. These little kits have already been such a lovely support for some of our students, and we are incredibly grateful to “Little Anchors” for their generosity and kindness in helping us continue supporting the wellbeing of our students in such a thoughtful way.
Student birthdays
Happy Birthday to all students who will celebrate their birthday in the coming days/ week.
- Ellie O
- Gabrielle
