Wednesday 25 October 2017

Super Scientist

Is a competition from Yr 1—6, where all students give a 2—5 minute science based presentation. This presentation needs to take the form of an information report of a science concept or idea.  We are looking for the students to be able to explain the scientific nature of the report they choose to do to their audience in an enthusiastic, detailed manner.  

A letter will be going home soon to explain the topic that everyone in grade three will be producing their presentation on.

Dancing

Congratulations to Room 11 who have displayed amazing dancing skills this term. Already we are learning four dances, and the instructor has been very impressed with our rhythm and behaviour. Well done, Room 11!

Numeracy

This term in Numeracy, we are focusing Money, Chance and Data and Mental Calculation. We have been learning different strategies for subtracting money, and so far we are getting really good at it. Maybe next time you go shopping see if your child can work out the change to be given!

Literacy – Persuasive Texts

Over the last few weeks, we have been focusing on writing persuasive text. In Week 2, we wrote our persuasive topic was ‘I am amazing’. I was really blown away by the quality of the work produced and touched by the thought and feeling that went into these writing pieces. We are going to type these up now and publish this work as they are priceless.


Thursday 10 August 2017

NAIDOC Day

Last week was NAIDOC week, where we celebrated Aboriginal culture, history and achievements. We made damper and then we created a procedure poster. On the Friday we decorated a boomerang, learnt the Aboriginal names of animals and places, and made a poster about a famous Indigenous Australian.

Assembly

Our assembly was a fantastic success. Thank you to all the parents who helped their child learn their lines and practice the song at home.

Literacy

This term in Literacy we are focusing on poetry. Learning poetry helps us to develop a better understanding of figurative language, which is also our other literacy focus. So far we have learnt Acrostic Poems, Cinquain Poems,  Diamante Poems and Limericks.

History

This term in History we are learning about Australian celebrations and commemorations. So far we have learnt about the First Fleet and Foundation Day. We created a timeline of the events and learnt about the symbolism of the Australian and Aboriginal flags.

Science


This term we are investigating Physical Sciences. Last week we learnt about the main sources of heat. Over the term we will observe heat and its effects on solids and liquids. We will also investigate how energy flows through simple systems.

Sunday 25 June 2017

Term 2 Fun!

Term 2 is nearly over and hasn’t it been a busy term? I hope everyone has a well-deserved break and comes back refreshed and ready to go for Term 3!

Super Science

Congratulations to everyone in Room 11 for producing such fantastic Science experiments! Each year the quality of these presentations gets better and better. It is thrilling to see how motivated each student is about their topic. A special congratulation goes out to Lilian and Kyle for representing Room 11 in the Year 3 presentation final. You made us proud!

Science Project.

This term in English, we have been learning how to write an information report, and in Science, we have been investigating the Solar System. The students in Room 11 were given a chance to combine their learning and produce a science report poster on a chosen planet. The students also had to create a show bag which would hold two other items. Thank you to the parents that helped facilitate this project. It was so exciting to see how motivated each student was about their project. We enjoyed making the show bags in Design and Technology too. The results were fantastic!

Assembly

Room 11’s assembly will be on the Friday of week one next term! Preparations are well underway. Please ensure that your child knows their lines and knows the words to the song. You can find a link here! It would be valuable to practise both over the holidays so we can hit the ground running on the Monday of Term 3.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQrlgH97v94

Miss Mills



Wednesday 17 May 2017

Super Scientist 

 The wonderful Super Scientist competition has returned for Term Two. The aim of the competition is to promote interest in Science and develop scientific understandings, with an oral language focus. The competition requires the students to give a 2-5 minute science based presentation. The presentation can take the form of an experiment, a demonstration of a science concept, or an oral report of a concept/idea. We are looking for the students to make sure that they are able to explain the science behind the experiment. We will be starting the presentations for Room 11 at the beginning of Week Six. We will need to choose our three class representatives that will complete in the Year Three final by the end of Week Six. Good luck to everyone.

 Literacy Pro 

 This week we resat our Literacy Pro test to see if our reading has improved. We have loved doing Literacy Pro and earning many certificates. We have been working very hard on our comprehension skills this year with great success.

 Comprehension Skills – What are they and how can I help my child? 

Comprehension is the understanding and interpretation of what is read. To be able to accurately understand written material, children need to be able to (1) decode what they read; (2) make connections between what they read and what they already know; and (3) think deeply about what they have read. One big part of comprehension is having a sufficient vocabulary, or knowing the meanings of enough words. Readers who have strong comprehension are able to draw conclusions about what they read – what is important, what is a fact, what caused an event to happen, which characters are funny. Thus comprehension involves combining reading with thinking and reasoning. What parents can do to help at home

  •  Hold a conversation and discuss what your child has read. Ask your child probing questions about the book and connect the events to his or her own life. For example, say "I wonder why that girl did that?" or "How do you think he felt? Why?" and "So, what lesson can we learn here?"
  • Help your child make connections between what he or she reads and similar experiences he has felt, saw in a movie, or read in another book. 
  • Help your child monitor his or her understanding. Teach her to continually ask herself whether she understands what she's reading. 
  • Help your child go back to the text to support his or her answers. 
  • Discuss the meanings of unknown words, both those he reads and those he hears. 
  • Read material in short sections, making sure your child understands each step of the way. 
  • Discuss what your child has learned from reading informational text such as a science or social studies book.

Tuesday 4 April 2017


Buddy Class

On Monday March 20, Room 11 met our senior buddies for the first time for 2017. We talked about our hobbies and interests with each other. We completed our Harmony Day flags and helped each other find some interesting facts about our chosen country. We finished off the session with some peer reading.

This Monday our buddies came to Room 11 to help us create Easter Cards and prepare Easter Biscuits. We ate our biscuits at recess and they were delicious.

Harmony Day

Thank you to all of the students who made such a great effort to dress up for Harmony Day this year - you all look remarkable. We are so fortunate, at Wattle Grove, to have so many different cultures, beliefs and backgrounds that all make our school such a great place to be. Thank you also to the parents for helping out with your child's dress. Furthermore, Miss Randall deserves a huge 'thank you' for all of her hard work that went into the art installation. It was unfortunate that due to bad weather, the art work had to be taken down so quickly.

Literacy

Over the last few weeks we have been focusing on narrative writing. More specifically, we have been learning how to write a spectacular orientation. I am very impressed with the imagination and diligence all students have been displaying during our Big Write time. I look forward to reading everyone’s stories each week and I am impressed by the growth shown. Keep it up Room 11! 

Wednesday 8 March 2017

Science

This term in Science we are learning about Earth and Space Sciences. We have been investigating the solar system, and how the orbit of the earth and moon around the sun gives us day and night. On Friday we went outside to look at our shadows. We noticed how our shadows changed shape depending on the direction our body was facing. We also investigated why shadows change shape during different times of the day. 


Thursday 23 February 2017

Welcome Back!


Welcome back to Wattle Grove Primary School.

I am very excited to see all the familiar faces from last year and a few new ones too! We have had a very successful start to the year and everyone has settled in nicely to the new class. It is nice to be in a different room this year with a great amount of shade from the trees. They say a change is as good as a holiday!

Numeracy

We have been practising our skills during our Numeracy Block. After a whole class lesson we break up into our groups and rotate through our activities. The activities are:
·       LESSON WORK, where we independently work on the concept we have just been learning
·       NUMBER FACTS, where we work on our multiplication, division, addition or subtraction facts.
·       GAMES, where we play games to reinforce our calculation strategies.
·       TEACHER, where a small group works with the teacher.
It has taken a little bit of time keeping the noise level down but we are getting there!

Literacy

Over the last 4 weeks, we have been focusing on writing persuasive texts. We have been concentrating on making sure each of our paragraphs has examples to back up our opinions. We have also been working on identifying persuasive devices such as emotive language, high modality words, fake statistics and a call to action.

Homework

Homework will be marked as a class each Monday. Thank you to all the parents who have ensured this is completed each week. Each activity is linked to the learning the we have been exploring in class.