Reading

Readers Workshop is part of our daily routine and a wonderful way to start the day! At the beginning of the term, we established our expectations around what makes a good reader and what is a ‘good-fit’ book for each of us. Next, we focused on the skill of ‘making connections’ to other texts, to personal experiences and the wider world. We have learnt to find connections in our texts whenever we read independently and we record our connections in a variety of ways to share within our classes.

Writing

This term, we have been learning how to write narrative texts. We have learnt about the structure of the narrative arc. We have used descriptive language to develop interesting characters and settings, and children have learned to correctly use quotation marks to demonstrate speech. We illustrate our knowledge through deconstructing texts in our  ‘Bump it up’ lessons. We collaborated and used a rubric to grade and order the texts. Writing samples and marking rubrics have been displayed in the classroom to support us to ‘bump up’ our writing.

Spelling and Grammar

Students have been exploring digraphs and trigraphs in spelling. Each week the students identify ten words using the focus digraph or trigraph blend. Throughout the week we engage in fun hands-on activities to help remember the spelling rules of the new words. Each word is segmented into its morphemes then students choose a word to investigate further in their word of the week activity. This consists of locating the definition of the word, identifying synonyms, antonyms, and prefixes that give meaning to words. 

Maths

Our first number unit for the year is complete. This unit required students to investigate several key features of whole numbers. Learning tasks engaged students in how to identify ‘odd’ and ‘even’ numbers; representing, recognising and ordering numbers up to five digits; partitioning numbers into their place value and expanded notation; as well as rounding numbers to the nearest tens, hundreds or thousands. Our learning tasks involved a range of whole class, small group, paired and independent activities that provided both support and extension opportunities for students.

HASS

We have been investigating rules and laws, how they are made, by whom and who they are made for. In Civic and Citizenship, students have created their own ‘country’ and have decided on their mode of governance, based on their knowledge of Australian democracy. Students created their own ‘elections’ using Google Forms, and have voted for each other’s leader. They have also drafted a set of rules, and consequences if broken, with which to govern their country.  We may have some future leaders among us!