Fun and Games

Our focus in Sport this term has been on learning how to play some playground games. 'What's the time Mr Wolf?' is a favourite and so is 'Stuck in the mud'. Today we had a terrific time playing with the parachute. We worked out that the more we worked together the more success we had. It was a super fun lesson in team work and cooperation. 

Congratulations!

Well done Jemma, Ainlinn and Ellie! You have listened carefully and done some terrific work. I'm so proud of you!

Keeping hydrated and relaxing with a movie

It is hot, hot, hot!!

We've had plenty of water to drink throughout the day and relaxed indoors with the movie Madagascar during lunch. We so thankful for a spacious classroom and good air conditioning!

Read to Someone

Most of you are familiar with the Daily 5 structure. It is made up of five components: 

Read to self 

Read to someone

Work on writing

Word work 

Listen to reading

Last week we started read to self, so now we are building our stamina (training ourselves to focus on our reading). Today we introduced "read to someone", which is reading to a peer. Each component will be introduced gradually while we develop our good reading habits. 

Self Portraits

Today, in Art, we worked on creating self portraits using pieces of coloured paper. The children used different colours, tearing each piece to create the head, body, limbs and facial features. They concentrated, cooperated and produced portraits they were proud of. 

Subtraction

Subtraction is a word we introduced yesterday and talked about some more today. We practised subtraction one number from another using drawings and our fingers. Why not have a discussion about the word subtraction with your child today. Perhaps you can practise together using household items (pegs are a personal favourite). Numbers below 10 are a good place to start. 

Our first official church time for the year

We attended our first College Church time for the year this morning. We were lead by a new worship team and listened to an encouraging talk by Mrs Gray.

Mrs Murphy presented our Primary Prefects for 2016 with their badges and Mr Gray presented come very deserving students with Honour Awards. 

So Proud of Kindergarten

It's only the end of Week 3 and I can honestly say that I am so pleased with how hard our Kindergarten class has been working. We've worked on our knowledge of sounds, learnt more sight words and practised writing. We've continued to focus on forming our letters and numbers correctly, understanding the basics of addition and learn about shapes. We've sung, played, listened and explored together. I'd say it's been a pretty successful week!!

A special congratulations to Darcy, Joshua and Nash who were recognised in today's Primary Assembly for their effort in different areas. 

Friends of 10

Some of you with older children may be familiar with the "Friends of 10". These are the various number combinations that add up to equal 10. They are at the very foundation of addition basics and, without giving them a name yet, today we continued our investigation of numbers that add together to equal 10 as well as the pattern they create. 

Numbers that Equal 10

Today we started to investigate numbers that add up to make 10. We started with 10 counters each and eaprated them into a 1 and 9, then 2 and 8, 3 and 7, 4 and 6 then 5 and 5. We observed that even though the size of the groups changed, we still had the 10 counters we started with.

Developmental Play

Developmental play is a very important part of our week. It is the time when children learn the important skills of communicating, listening, sharing, exploring and problem solving. They learn to work and play alongside children they would not normally play with. 

We do we do developmental play for about 45 minutes every Monday and Friday afternoon. 

Paper Bag News This Week

Don't forget this week I s "paper bag news" week. 

I can't wait to see what the children choose to share with us! 

Homework Starts on Monday

Your daughter or son will come home on Monday with their homework book. Everything you need to know about the homework is detailed in a note on the inside cover of the homework book. I will also post a copy of this note under the "Homework" tab of our blog. For now there are only 3 things you need to know.
1. The purpose of homework this term is to help the children learn and/or revise their sounds and sight words.
2. The homework book needs to come to school every day in the black book bag. This is because we cover a new sound each day and we paste the sound sheet of the day into the homework book to keep all of that work together.
3. Homework is not compulsory. Your child will never be punished or reprimanded for not completing the homework. We understand just how busy families are, so please don't ever let homework become a stressful experience.
If you wish to preserve the life of your child's homework book, please feel free to cover it in clear (or other) contact. This is by no means a request or expectation, but totally your choice.

The end of Week 2

What a week we have had!
Water fun day on Monday, Meet the Teacher night on Thursday, Primary Assembly and Foundation Day Assembly today, plus loads of fun learning throughout the week. I am super impressed with this amazing group of kids; they bring a constant smile to my face.

Today in Primary Assembly we celebrated the focus and dedication of three of our awesome classmates.

Congratulations to Karli, Adrian and Sophia! We are so proud of you.

Later in the morning we celebrated 17 years of  education at MACC.

Happy 17th birthday to a school that I am so proud to call "ours"!

Kindy Maths

This term we will be moving towards 'Daily 3 Maths':

Maths writing

Maths by myself

Maths with a partner. 

This structure is hands on and appears very much like play. 

Below are some photos of the children engaging in activities which encourage the correct formation of numbers as well as the one to one relationship when counting.