Thank you for your time
Many thanks to the parents who were able to make time to come and meet with us this week. We really enjoyed learning new and different perspectives of your child, and connecting with you as a family.
A number of parents were keen to learn more about how they can be supporting their children at home, so we have put together a collection of experiences we consider helpful…
- Ask your child to share their Google Drive with you. Google Classroom is a platform that we often use to set tasks and collaborate with.
- Articulate your thinking! Think aloud, so your child can work out how others solve a problem, deal with frustrations, or wonder and question the world around them. For example, when you see a billboard, you may question aloud whether the image makes sense? Or whether the source is reliable? or maybe you are considering dining out over the weekend, and you need ‘help’ in considering your budget, or the best way to feed an extended group, etc.
Reading
- We are currently developing audiobooks for our preps. This project enables us to practice our fluency but offers us a chance to explore the importance of character and character development.
At home, you can help when you
- Share reading aloud. Take it in turns to read a page or chapter aloud, while the other takes the role of researching any new words to find the definition and listen to the pronunciation. You can read anything from news articles, chapter books to magazines. This allows your child to hear fluent reading and practice reading fluently aloud. Many of us continue to read over words that are challenging to pronounce or that are unknown, never to return!
- Discuss idioms, cultural proverbs/sayings, political and satirical cartoons, etc. These experiences connect your child’s understanding of the world to ways we interpret and communicate them to an audience. It’s difficult to interpret text without broad background knowledge. For example, it’s difficult for us to understand that “being green-eyed” compares our feelings of jealousy to being a green-eyed monster if we have never heard or discussed this before!
- Explore challenging and new vocabulary. Guess where the word originates from, connect spelling patterns to words you already know, test out its pronunciation using online tools, confirm the meaning using a dictionary or an online version. Make a family word wall…the more fun and engaging this is, the more interest your child has in learning literacy
Writing
Students have been exploring creative writing and poetry using the writing process beginning with a seed or prompt, as well as figurative language
At home, you can help when you
- Highlight or use expressive/figurative language
- Explore the 5 senses (hear, see, smell,touch and feel) to expand and develop writing
- Play word games, such as Taboo to be able to describe ideas or concepts in a variety of ways
- Observe how writers engage their audience using words, layout, design, etc.
- Discuss new vocabulary- particularly technical or specific words
- Create a family word wall
- Write celebration/greeting/appreciation messages
Speaking and Listening
Students have opportunities to speak and listen in groups though casual formats (such as Community Circles), and conferencing or consulting; and more formal opportunities through leadership roles, Dialogic Pedagogies and presentations of work to their homegroups of sharing published work or work in progress.
At home, you can help when you
- Expose your child to and discuss current issues
- Invite them to tell you more about what shapes their ideas and perspectives
- Ask your child to justify their thinking or their opinion…’ because….’
- Play games, such as Taboo or Celebrity Heads
- Ask your child to approach strangers to ask for directions, information, the bill, etc. on your behalf…this builds great confidence and independence
- Role model how to engage with new people, actively introducing yourself, asking questions or extending invitations, etc.
- Listen to audiobooks or podcasts together and discuss them
Mathematics
Students have been inquiring into problem-solving and how we go about solving problems. We have been looking at techniques such as identifying effective problem solving strategies, using a systematic approach, and identifying different ways of approaching operations in everyday life. We have begun a mathematics project titled “If the world were a village – an inquiry into number” and asking students to deepen their understanding around real-world numbers. Students have started by completing direct tasks that develop their skills and guide their understanding of statistics on a world scale. They will then move towards gathering and analyzing data from our school community and collating that to gain a sound understanding of our community.
At home, you can help when you
- Write, name and discuss large numbers
- Use the NRich website to access problem-solving questions
- Get accounts for sites such as Matheletics and Khan Academy
Additionally, using some of these resources may develop some automatic skills…
Mindfulness
Students have begun considering how they will balance a hectic school environment and the busyness of learning, with learning how to quieten their minds and be present.
At home, you can help when you
- When you encourage your child to write a journal
- Listen to mindful apps such as Smiling Minds, Calm or Headspace
- Role model and discuss a range of strategies to managing big emotions or a busy mind, such as taking a bath, playing an instrument or drawing
- Encourage your child to swim laps, do yoga or take a walk
Welcome Expo
Do you ever wonder what’s going on in the school? The Welcome Expo is coming up! This is an event where students from prep all the way to grade 6 will display their work for you to see. The event will be on the 11th of March, from 4:30-730pm. Please come and invite family and friends to the Expo.
Our investigations this term have been developing a deep understanding of the concept of welcome. We have chosen to display our understandings in a variety of ways, such as
- Welcome gifts, where we make a gift that you would give someone to welcome them, eg, birthday gifts, new house gifts
- A welcome machine, where we have designed and made a machine to help someone. We have gone through a design thinking process in an attempt to understand how we go about problem-solving and creating.
- A Welcome film, in this project we have been reenacting real-life welcoming situations
- Welcome posters, we have been making posters expressing our inquiry
Welcome tour guides will be meeting you at the door and guiding around the neighbourhood to help share our learning journey.
We look forward to seeing you there!
Swanee, Kane, Daniel.S, Juno, Esther
Ever wondered what we get up to during an extreme weather break?
Lots of dancing, drawing, writing, board games, construction…not a bad way to spend some time really 🙂