Premiers Reading Challenge 2018

Premiers Reading Challenge 2018

There is still plenty of time to join in the challenge of reading different quality literature as recommended by the NSW Premier! 

Only 30 books that you can read on your own, read them with someone or someone can read them to you.

There is helpful section to search for book choices on the Premiers Reading Challenge web site. 
Log onto Premiers Reading Challenge search and then explore the available categories.

OR .... take a chance on a PRC 'Random Book' suggestion at:
Premiers Reading Challenge Random book suggestions

Please contact the Learning Hub if you have any questions or log in issues.

¡Snap! Mi vecindario 🏘

Students recently made their own Snap cards in Spanish using the vocabulary they have been learning about places in their communities and local areas.
Students then played Snap in pairs!

WEATHER REPORTS #1

It was very exciting to receive our first weather reports on Tuesday. We read the emails from our reporters, looked closely at the photos, recorded their information and looked at the weather symbols using a website (which we accessed on the iPads using a QR code). Once we had recorded all the information, we created a graph together, which allowed us to visualise the differences between the various locations. In answer to our inquiry question “How is where we lived linked to the weather and seasons we experience?”, we are starting to formulate some hypotheses . . . We think that the further north you live in Australia, the warmer the weather will be. Let’s see if next week’s results support this.

Attached is PDF of the reports from Week 1, as well as a copy of our graph.

Verb Rap Song

We really enjoyed watching this today as we investigated verbs!

Count By 5s

T2W3

Some of our hightlights this week included our Geography inquiry about places in Australia and weather. We looked closely at the map of Australia, identified our State (NSW) and also where Sydney is located. We 'zoomed in' on Bayview using Google Earth, which the students found very interesting. This concept of changing scale was supported by using the Google Earth Tool.

In Maths we have continued to investigate a half. This week we have been calculating half of a collection or group. We've discussed different ways of dividing / splitting into equal groups and discovered that in order to be shared equally, there must be an equal number. 

We have also practised our skip counting by 5s. I will include a Youtube clip on the blog which the students may like to watch at home. Counting with fluency is an important skill to master, as it underpins the understanding of place value and our number system. I have been listening to the students counting as part of our Maths assessments. It would be great to regularly spend some time on this at home, counting forwards and backwards, as well as identifying numbers that come before and after a given number - especially if you know your child finds this challenging. Counting up to and also over one hundred is also important. 

 Next week we will be starting our collection of data from our weather reporters around Australia. We have already noticed that the temperatures of locations get warmer, the closer they are to the equator. Let's see if our predictions are supported by the data we collect and analyse. Along with our friends from The Anglican School Googong, we have two reporters in WA, one in Melbourne, one in the NSW Southern Highlands and one in northern NSW. We will also have a group collect information for Cairns.

HOT CHOCOLATE DAY!

¿Qué hay en mi barrio? 🏘📝

Students have been looking at what particular buildings they can identify in their local areas, and why they might be of importance.  Students reflected upon why there may be a library, why there is a hospital or why there is a park in their local areas.
Here are some photos of students drawing and labelling their towns in Spanish.

Mi Barrio 🏘🏘🌆🏙🌃🌇

Students this Term have been learning to identify and describe places in their local communities and neighbourhood.  The following video has been used in class in order for the children to be able to compare their own local area with that of the video of a Spanish community.  See what differences/similarities you may find!

Science - Marvellous Materials!

We really did have a great Term 1 in our science lessons. Whilst helping our friend Sid plan for a sleepover party, we learnt so much about different materials, their properties and why we select them for different purposes.

Sid wanted particular colours for the bunting at his party so we learnt that when we mix colours we can make new colours:  

   

We used our colour mixing knowledge to make purple and green playdough for his guests to play with at the party.

Making playdough helped us explore how people at home can change, combine and mix different materials for a particular purposes.

We were interested to see how some everyday materials can be physically changed by actions (stretching, squashing, folding, ripping) and investigated this by making our own, glittery paper for Sid to use for his invitations.

We found out we can physically change water by freezing or heating it and learnt that this is a reversible change!  We mixed and blended fruit, milk and honey to first make smoothies and then froze them to make ice blocks.  This was not a reversible change…we ate them.

              

               

           

Finally, we learnt lots of new words that can describe the different properties of a material (transparent, opaque, absorbent, waterproof, stiff, rigid, rubbery, spongy etc).  We used these words to sort a number of objects and show our understanding.

          
                                      
        
What a fun time we had with lots of learning experiences happening every week.  We've begun our Term 2 unit on Weather now so are looking forward to doing more investigation into out new topic.