Market Day

What a fantastic Market Day we had hosted by our Year 6 students. This year it was made extra special by their winter wonderland decorations in the trees. Market Day is the culmination of many weeks of planning, creating and budgeting. We are very impressed by the resourcefulness and creative thinking demonstrated by our students. 

Meeting with Teachers

It's not too late! This week we have started our parent - teacher meetings to discuss end of semester progress. If you haven't booked with a teacher, you are welcome to email them directly to book a time. We encourage parents to come prepared with any questions you may have about your child's learning and what their next steps may be. Don't be nervous, we are all here to support our students! 

School Improvement: Reading

In Semester 1 we have maintained a strong focus on our reading improvement strategy. We have specifically been looking at our processes for co-designing goals with students. This includes providing them with strategies to achieve their broader goal on a visual tool they can access when reading independently. We've noticed a big difference in our students knowing their next steps and the personal satisfaction they feel when they experience success. 

Our next steps are:

Reminder: tomorrow is our K-6 School Photo Day.

Rebecca Turner

Principal

Reader’s Workshop: 

This term in Reader’s Workshop we have been working on our individual reading strategies. We use our reading folders daily which remind students of their reading goal and how to be a successful reader. We are continuing to build independence and stamina. We have been focusing on the reading strategies of inferring and five finger retell to assist with comprehending a text. Students have been learning to ‘read between the lines’ by using our prior knowledge and clues from books to work out what the author has not said. We have been developing a love of reading anywhere and anytime! Students have been enjoying reading just-right books to help them get smarter at reading. This term they have also enjoyed spending time reading with buddies, classmates and soft toys. 

Don’t forget to read every day and fill in your reading log one book per day! 

Writing: 

This term we have been learning how to write information texts. We started our learning by deconstructing procedures and looking for language features and the structure we needed to follow. We then began discovering how to gather facts from information sources such as books, eBooks and appropriate websites on topics that gauge students’ interests. Year 1 has also been learning how to read and understand non-fiction texts, such as a table of contents, glossary and the difference between a fact and an opinion when gathering information. Students have been using the bump it up wall, checklists and student rubrics to help them independently improve their work. They have written information reports in small groups, pairs and individually on a range of topics. 

Mathematics: In Mathematics, Year 1 students have been focusing on creating equal groups. Students have been given opportunities to explore dividing large number of things into equal groups. They have been using a variety of manipulatives such as counters, cubes and everyday objects. These activities will aid their foundations for multiplication and division.  

Students in year 1 have also been enjoying learning about subtraction. They have been engaging in a variety of planned activities to practice their subtraction skills. Students have been using different strategies such as using manipulatives, counting backwards and forwards to subtract one-digit and two-digit numbers.  

Science: 

In Science, students have been exploring various habitats and understanding the essentials for the survival of living things. Their learning journey has been enriched by using a diverse range of resources. These include informational books from our school library, digital books accessible through the Epic reading app, and the use of QR codes to access informative videos. Through these research activities, students have been able to deepen their understanding of local and native animals. This includes gaining insights into their habitats, identifying their needs to live, and even engaging in drawing and labelling the unique features of these animals. 

SEL/Health  

In Health, we have been learning how to build respectful friendships. Students have been exploring how to be fair and honest. They have been learning what makes a good friend and how to be kind to each other. 

• Newsletter Term 2 Week 9

Welcome to your P&C update. To get in touch with us on any of the announcements below, please send us a message on Facebook or email us at ngunnawalpandc@gmail.com

School Disco

A reminder that we will be hosting a school disco on Friday 28 June. 

Separate discos will be held for junior (preschool to year 2) from 5p to 6p followed by senior (year 3 to year 6) from 6.30pm to 8pm.

School Lunch Clubs

Did you know that our school student leaders run a number of clubs throughout the week during lunchtime?! 

SGMC

Reading

Students in SGMC have been reading the big book ‘Frog’s Lunch’. While reading students have been practising their reading goals

• I can look at all the pictures before reading my book.
• I can point to the words as I read.
• I can use my finger to chunk words I don’t know how to read. 

Students brainstormed everything they knew about frogs.  Then they went to the library to research the life cycle of a frog.

Writing

After watching an informational video about frogs, students drew a picture of one fact they remembered. After drawing their picture, students wrote a sentence. Students are learning to write  letters and words, forming them correctly and writing a simple sentence.

Maths

Students have been looking at data collection and creating graphs. Using a mini packet of smarties children counted the smarties, grouped them into colours and created a graph. Students were then able to answer questions like

• How many altogether?
• What was the most popular colour?
• What was the least popular colour?

SGSG

Reading

During Reader’s workshop SGSG have been looking at noticing and using punctuation. Pausing at punctuation can help us to gain deeper understanding  and improve reading comprehension. 

Writing

SGSG have been working on extending and expanding their writing skills through writing about common activities, events and weekend recounts. Students are beginning to work on rereading their written pieces and editing their work.

Maths

In recent weeks students have been working on identifying analogue time with a focus on o’clock, half past, quarter past and quarter to the hour. 

Students have started investigating fractions and identifying halves, quarters and eighths. Students were identifying fractions in quantities and in shapes such as in circles and squares.

HASS

As part of our History and Social Science unit SGSG have been looking at past and present technology. Maria and Sharon talked about the technology that was around when they were at school compared to the technology we currently are using in the classroom.

SGEP

Writing 

During our writer's workshop, SGEP has been focusing on persuasive texts. We have been learning about different strategies and techniques advertisements use to persuade their audience. We have been deconstructing various advertisements and focusing on language devices such as puns, rhymes, and alliteration. We have also been exploring new vocabulary- ethos, pathos, and logos and understanding what these words mean and how they link to advertisements. 

Maths

During maths lessons, SGEP have studied a range of regular and irregular shapes and focused on the properties of each shape. We have explored shapes in our environment and mapped out our school using different shapes.  SGEP have been continuing to focus on their mental computation for addition and subtraction and working on our quick recall using fun interactive games such as 99 Maths and Blooket. 

Year 5 students have been introduced to angles and learning the properties of each. We have been focusing on right, acute, straight, and obtuse angles. Students have been learning to estimate different angles and then use a protractor to measure the precise angle. Students have challenged themselves with reflex angles and are learning how to find the degrees. 

Reading 

During reader's workshop, SGEP has been focusing on reading goals to continue to develop a love of reading and improve fluency and accuracy when reading. As a class, we discussed the importance of reading goals and how to determine a goal to work on independently. Next, students selected strategies to work on during their independent reading time to help achieve their reading goal. We have also been reading aloud to one another and noticing when a strategy is being used. 

Market Day

SGEP have applied all their learning this term to create their own market day stall “Bubble Bliss- Don’t Miss this”. They have made their very own ad for the stall as well as promoting the stall around the school. 

Art with Dianna

During The Arts SGEP were given the opportunity to work with a professional puppet maker Lynn Petersen to create their very own unique finger puppets using real wool. Students spent 4 lessons making their puppets from scratch. They started with coloured wool and had to wet it to blend the wool fibres together. After lots of rubbing and blending the students shaped their puppets and added some fun features to give their puppet its own identity. They all turned out great! 

Fornightly Focus

As we head towards the end of another busy term our whole school focus is on Respecting our environment. Teachers are looking for studnets who are keeping our school clean and tidy, putting rubbish in the correct bins and eating in the courtyard before playing in other spaces. Our Thursday lunchtime rubbish raffle is always a hit, organised by our Environment student leadership team and gathering a crowd of waste warriors. 

You can support your child in Respecting our environement by discussing rubbish and recycling processes at home and school. Nude food lunchboxes also helps to keep our school a clean and tidy space whilst looking after the environment by reducing the amount of waste we produce. 

Whole School Target

Last week the PBL team decided on our next Whole School Reward for 60 000 Yunggi Bengals. We are very close with 53 263 as of Friday week 8. We are excited to announce we will celebrate with a Courtyard Disco during the day. 

Bronze, Silver and Gold Awards

It is great to see so many students being acknowledged for their hard work and demonstrating our Safe, Respectful, Responsible Learner values throughout the school. These milestone awards are being handed out in class or cohort assemblies this year, however we look forward to celebrating our Rainbow Awards and new Yunggi Bengal badges at junior and senior assemblies from next semester. 

Have a safe and happy holiday

Respectful

Safe

Respectful

Safe

Protecting ourselves from illness over winter

The cooler weather is well and truly here. We have already seen an increase in COVID-19 and other seasonal illness at school, and across the community. It is important we keep everyone healthy by making sure we take simple steps to protect one another. As parents and carers, one of the simplest ways to do this is to keep your child at home when they are unwell.

If your child has COVID-19 you must let us know by contacting the Front Office.

Your child should only return to school once they are well, and their symptoms have cleared.

Get vaccinated

You are reminded that vaccination is one of the best ways to keep everyone safe. I encourage everyone who can, to get vaccinated for COVID-19 and the seasonal flu. To find out more visit the ACT Health website.

COVID Smart ACT public schools

ACT public schools have a range of strategies in place to keep everyone safe over winter. This includes cleaning of high touch points in schools, as well as strategies to ensure we balance ventilation and thermal comfort in classrooms to help prevent the spread of illness.

You can read more on the ACT Education Directorate website.