Koo Wee Rup Primary School ‘Together We Learn’

Term 4 Newsletter

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Welcome back to Term 4 to our Koo Wee Rup Primary School Community. There are many exciting things happening at our school. The new outside stage is almost complete and weather permitting we are planning to use this for our ‘Carols by Candlelight’ on Thursday, 4th December. Our students will also enjoy performing on the stage at other times also. This project was funded predominantly by the Bendigo Bank. The ‘Communities for Nature’ grant project is about to begin with clearing of rubbish at the front of the school. The first step to the process is establishing a native environment free of weeds for native wildlife including the Southern Brown Bandicoot and Growling Grass Frog. This project also includes the construction of an outside classroom to be used for ‘hands on learning’ where our students will gain an increased awareness, respect and care for nature. This week we had a visit from Ryan Smith, minster for Environment and Climate Change to view the area and offer his support. Our Buildings and Grounds Committee are working closely with Cardinia Shire to initiate this project. Stay tuned for dates of working bees to assist us in the establishment of this area. The Koo Wee Rup Primary School Art Show is scheduled for Thursday, 23rd October from 5:00-7:00pm. Our students have been working hard with Mrs Brown to create some exceptional artwork to be exhibited on this night. We are looking forward to seeing you at this community event. Your children are our priority. Please come and see your child’s teacher if you have any concerns. I am out in the yard most mornings just before the bell and afternoons just before the bell. Please come and chat if you would like to.

Fiona Pratt

It’s alive!…... the new and

improved Koo Wee Rup PS

website. Head to

www.kooweerupps.vic.edu.au

to check it out

Junior School Belinda McNaughton, Tanya Kendrigan, Michelle Lucas & Sue Edwards

Term 3. Achievements

In Reading the Foundation children have made predictions about what will happen next, connections between their own experiences and the events in stories and have retold the events of stories. The Year 1 children continued working on inferential questions for both fiction and non-fiction books as well as their features.

In Writing, the Foundation students continued with recount writing and began to explore Information reports. They have also been working on proof reading their own work to check for capital letters and full stops. Year 1’s have been developing their completing information reports in the form of posters. We have also done some recount writing, using the computers to publish our work on the production.

In Maths, the Foundation students have been consolidating their understanding of numbers to 10 including efficient ways to add small groups together. They also celebrated their first 100 days of school with a range of different activities including playing ‘Race to 100’. Year 1’s have continued to work on developing their understanding of place value with two digit numbers including efficient ways of counting larger groups. We also looked at 3D shapes, continued to investigate time and we began thinking about chance and data.

In Science, Foundation explored the different seasons and their features exploring the changes in weather, clothing and animal behaviour. We also looked at how things move and performed small experiments by predicting how objects would move and then testing them. The Year 1 children looked at our senses for physical science and how our environment changes at different times of the day and year for Earth and Space.

Term 4. Focus

In Term 4, Foundation will continue reading a variety of fiction and non-fiction and discussing the purpose for these text types. We will continue to look at areas from the CAFÉ (Comprehension, Accuracy, Fluency, Expanding Vocabulary) menu, such as accuracy to continue to develop reading strategies. Year 1 children will continue to work on developing their reading fluency and comprehension, specifically inferring, when reading fiction and non-fiction books.

In Writing, Foundation children will continue to work on recounts and information reports using the VOICES (Voice, Organisation, Ideas, Conventions, Explore vocabulary, Sentence fluency) menu to assist the students with their writing. We will introduce retelling texts through performance in small groups, as well as beginning to use software on laptops and iPads to construct texts. Year 1 children will continue to work on information reports, recounts and we will look at creating simple narratives. We will also continue to develop our understanding of editing our own work.

We will also continue to work on our speaking and listening skills. We will work on speaking with a clear voice, looking at people when we talk and giving relevant information.

In Numeracy, Foundation will continue to focus on Number using hands on activities and games to develop the student’s mathematical knowledge. We will be introducing data with students asking relevant questions and then representing the information in a variety of ways including simple pictographs. We will also revise other areas including patterns and measurement. Year 1 children will continue to develop their understanding of numbers to 100, including applying counting strategies to simple addition and subtractions problems. We will also look at data as well as money, capacity and simple fractions.

Our Integrated unit for this term is based on Health and Personal Safety. We will be visiting Harold and the Life Education Van in Week Two. In the classroom we will continue to look at our feelings and how we react in different situations as well as identifying people who can help us when we need it.

Middle School Kelly Clark, Peter Cleeland, Lisa Soutar and Jenn Woods

Term 3. Achievements

One of the most exciting events of Term 3, was of course the musical ‘Jack and the Bean Stork’. Students spent

many weeks practicing their song and choreography in preparation for their performance. Parents provided

magnificent costumes to wear on the night and students looked fantastic for their performance. The actual night

was a great success and we couldn’t have been prouder of our students! We also want to acknowledge that the

night would not have been such a huge success without the support of our wonderful parents, grandparents and

friends.

Other achievements for Term 3 include our NAPLAN results for our year 3 students. Students should be very

proud of their achievements, however also remember that NAPLAN is a snapshot of their learning and should be

taken into account alongside other areas of learning and assessment.

As part of our Reading program, we have been focusing on the Childrens Book Council of Australia Short Listed

books for 2014. Some of the books we have been reading include ‘The Parachute’ by Danny Parker, ‘The Rules of

Summer’ by Saun Tan, ‘The Treasure Box’ by Margaret Wild and ‘King Pig’ by Nick Bland. Students have been

using comprehension strategies such as predicting, inferring and making connections through describing how the

text makes them feel, what it reminds them of and what they wonder about the text.

In our Writing program we have been focusing on information reports. Students in 3/4K researched and

completed an information report on The Water Cycle, while students in 2/3C focused on an information report on

elephants. It was fantastic to observe students use the skills they have acquired in research utilising books and

iPads to find information, develop a plan, draft and then create a high quality piece of published piece of work.

As part of our Maths program, we continue to focus on ‘The Assessment for Common Misunderstandings’ to

assess and monitor student learning in the area of number. We have focused on place value, mental strategies for

addition and subtraction, multiplication and measurement.

Our Inquiry unit has been very exciting beginning with looking at Earth and Space science in which we explored

Earth’s rotation on its axis in relation to day and night. Students also participated in a science incursion that

provided great hands on experiences. We also looked at how weather and human activity can affect local

landscapes.

Term 3 Focus

During Term 4, we will be working on procedural reports and focus on personal writing through using our writers

notebook and Writer’s Ideas book.

In Reading we will continue to focus on our CAFÉ model of Comprehension, Accuracy, Fluency and Expand

Vocabulary. We will be looking at both fiction and non-fiction texts in relation to finding the main idea and

summarising.

Our focus for Maths will continue to be on number and place value as well as an introduction to fractions and

decimal numbers.

Our Inquiry unit will be a focus on health in terms of the human body. Students will also participate in a visit from

‘Harold’ from the Life Education program.

Finally, we would like to thank parents for their continued support of their children’s learning as we look forward

to another fantastic term in which students continue to have high expectations for their own learning and work

towards achieving their very best.

Senior School Linda King, Simon Price, Geordie Disney and Sam Cameron

Term 3. Achievements

The Writing foci for term 3 were Explanation and Narrative. For the explanation texts, students were guided through the writing process using the topic of Volcanoes as it linked in with our Inquiry topic of Natural Disasters. Students used information that they gathered from a variety of sources such as the internet and non-fiction books to explain how a volcano erupts. Writing narratives was a fun process as students first looked at creating a character to be part of their fiction story. Next, we focused on using imagery to describe a setting to be used for their chosen character. Once students had come up with a problem and solution for their story they were able to write and publish some amazingly creative stories that were shared with the junior school during Literacy week and thoroughly enjoyed by all.

Reading saw us learning about public speaking including the Year Four students creating and presenting a piece promoting a part of Australia as a tourist destination and the Year Five and Six students ‘Raising a Toast’ to a person whom they felt gave a lot to the community. Our two winners (Safa and Chelsea) went on to represent the School at the Lions Speech Competition. Chelsea won the best speech award in the Year Five and Six competition and will go on to the District competition. The children improved their reading knowledge and skills by learning about and practicing the skills of skimming and scanning, inferring, finding the main idea and summarizing. In Maths this term we have been focused on learning all about Time including telling the time, 24-hour time, and using real life timetables such as Metro and V-Line to plan realistic journeys to and from the City. We have also focused on Shape and used knowledge of 2D and 3D nets to create our own 3D

constructions. Working as a collaborative senior team our weekly maths groups have contributed to a growing confidence within our students to use complex Number strategies and apply various problem solving methods. Our Integrated focus has taken a Scientific Spin during Term 3 and has been all about ‘The Changing Earth’. As well as our exciting Science Incursion, students have studied the science behind how our Earth has been shaped today including – the Earth’s Core, Tectonic Plates, Natural Disasters and how they occur, and investigating the social and economic effects that communities face during these times. Term 4. Focus

Next term in Writing, the senior students will again be immersed in a range of writing experiences. By using our VOICES program we will provide students with the opportunity to write using a variety of text types as well as stimulating interest by including fun and personal writing into our curriculum. We will focus on discussion and procedural writing as well as creating a year book for students to gather and present highlights of the 2014 school year.

Term Four’s Reading will be focusing upon using mature and powerful picture story to fire up the imagination of our students and instill a love of good literature in them. The specific foci will be author’s purpose, synthesising (using all of our knowledge to help us understand what we are reading), comparing and contrasting different text types as well as studying some specific authors and their works. We will also be conferencing with the children to both gain a greater understanding of their abilities and learning needs as well as helping them to maintain their enjoyment of reading through suggestions of what they could read.

For Maths in Term 4 the children will be working in different mathematical groups based upon our observation and our end of term assessment data. Our other main foci besides Number will be on financial mathematics including the use of money, budgeting and incomes. Students will integrate this learning with our Inquiry topic and it will be exciting to immerse them with authentic real world maths problem solving. We will also investigate Location and Transformation and Geometric Reasoning.

Integrated studies will have two main focus points throughout the term. To begin with students will take a visit to The Life Education Van, and then undertake the unit ‘My Health Journey’ looking at healthy minds and bodies as well as some changes associated with growing up. Our second focus will be on economics and our Earn & Learn Unit will allow students to develop authentic financial skills.