Focus On Reading

Hello again,

This week I am going to try something different. When we are at school, I shall ask one or two of the children to “read” the news and then upload it here for you to access (fingers crossed) as a soundbyte.

news-for-blog

Please make sure that your child is reading their lexile book for at least 15 minutes for homework each night. There are far too many children staying in at recess and lunch on a Friday to make up their reading time. As I always tell the children, footy players practise footy skills to get better. Netballers practise their netball skills to get better at netball. Readers MUST practise their reading skills to get better at reading. There is just not enough time in the school day for all their reading practise to be done here. We have daily reading at school from 8.50 – 9.10. It is at this time that children are also changing books and taking quizzes and reading to adults. We have explicit reading lessons on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays when Mrs Corey, Mrs Bradshaw and Selena also work with us to improve our reading skills.

Reading is not just about sounding out the words correctly. That part of reading is called decoding. It is also about understanding what you have read. That part of reading is called comprehension. Many children have a good grasp of simple comprehension but their higher level comprehension skills need improving. Take a look at the passage below for an example of the different types of comprehension levels that children need to know.

” Katy had a cat called Snowball. Snowball had 4 kittens. They were also little white fluffy cats. Katy had trouble trying to think of names for all the kittens”

A low level question could be, “How many kittens did the cat have?” We call these “here” questions because the information can be found directly, here, in the text.

A mid-level question might be, “How many cats were there altogether?” This is a “hidden” question because the answer is not directly in the text, but you can work it out from what is written.

A high level question could be, “Why did Katy have trouble trying to think of different names?” This is what we call “head” questions as the answer is not in the text at all. It requires the reader to use what they have read in the text to come up with their own ideas about something.

Next time you are listening to your child read, see if you can challenge them with a few “hidden” questions as well as some easier “here” questions.

Thank you to all the adults who are supporting their child’s reading program.

I hope to have “The News” sound byte on here by Wednesday. Please come back then for another look.

Regards,

Louisa Guest

Can vinegar and baking soda make a rocket?

Procedure:

1 Get a canister and a bowl.

2 Put baking soda and a little bit of water in the bowl and mix well till it’s thick like a paste.

3 Fill the canister half way with vinegar.

4 Put the paste on the inside of the lid.

5 Put the lid back on the canister and shake.

6 Put it upside down and let it go.

7 Make sure its away from you!

Conclusion

Vinegar is an acid. Baking soda is a base. A chemical reaction between the two causes carbon dioxide to be produced. This gas causes pressure in the canister. This causes the explosion.

By Nutty and Hoo.

Reading for homework

There are quite a few students who have not read their lexile novel and taken a quiz yet. Remember – you should be reading at least 15 mins at home every night as well as reading in school each morning.  Unless you are reading a novel like Harry Potter like heps_jeff is, you should be doing at least one quiz a week.  Well done to all those studnts who have completed one or more quizzes. If you do not have internet at home, there are plenty of opportunities for you to take your quiz at school

Parents – please ask your child to log on to lexile and show you their results.

Regards

Mrs G

Your homework is to post a comment on this blog. You might say how you like the new format (or nt) You could do me a PQP on it if you wanted!

Also, everyone needs to read at least 15 minutes per night. This means everyone should have completed a lexile quiz by Friday lunch, unless they have already seen me and shown me they are ready a huge book like Harry Potter

You need to ask your parents/carers if they are available to come on our excursion on Thursday 4 December to Signal Point Information Centre at Goolwa and then to Granite Island at Victor Harbour.  Sorry no preschoolers

.

Welcome back to school everyone.

This term will be an incredibly busy one, wrapping things up ready for next year. Early this term, I shall be asking the students to provide me with a list of people that they would like to have in their class next year. This way, I can ensure that everyone will have at least one friend with them. Class composition has not been finalised for 2009 yet so teachers will not begin the class placement process for a couple of weeks. Please be reassured, we do our best to ensure that students are placed in an environment that will best suit the individual’s needs – socially and academically. There will be a transition program in weeks 8 and 9 for students to meet their new teachers and class mates – more of that nearer the time.

Class equipment

All students were given a full set of stationery for the year. Lots of items are lost and missing. Many students have had these items replaced but there is no more money left in our class funds for me to provide any more replacement stationery for the students. If your child comes home asking for a new pencil or pen or ruler, it is because they have lost at least 3 or more this year already. Please support my efforts to help them be responsible for their things by getting them to “work” for the money to buy the replacements. They could help out with some extra chores around the house or use their own pocket money to buy them. It may help the students to learn more about the value of such items. If your child has their class calculator at home, please remind them to bring it back to school as it is an essential piece of equipment for Maths. Now that we are entering warmer months, all students must have a water bottle on their desk each day. Most students still have the bottles that I bought for them at the start of the year but if your child has lost or broken theirs, please could you send in a replacement.

Learning program

In Maths this term, we are revisiting algorithms – the correct written way of solving math problems. We will also revisit time, money and decimals. The PE program incorporates orienteering this term so we shall complement this and study mapping in Maths at that time.

Literacy will focus on information report writing and information gathering. We are creating an online magazine called an e-zine. Hopefully some other schools in SA and USA will be contributing to our e-zine. The spelling program will continue to focus on letter-sound patterns and I still use the Soundations program to teach these sound-letter relationships to the students. There are lots of great literacy sites in our links section for students to improve their literacy skills.

The child protection curriculum content that I will be focussing on this term is media and internet safety. We will be looking at classifications of programs, films and games, revisiting “Cyberquoll” and cybersafety issues. To complement this we will be exploring the concept of copyright and other ethical issues around using ICT.

The Arts will still be a strong focus, even though we have finished our part in the DECS Music Trial. The CD launch was very successful and I’d like to thank the visitors who attended and made this a very special occasion for the students. I will be addressing visual arts this term with an exploration of famous artists and students producing their own versions of famous paintings. Another internet project that we will be involved with is one where we create our own postcards and upload them to a google maps project so that children in other parts of the world can learn more about the landmarks in our part of the world. Creation of the postcards will be part of our visual arts studies.

As well as attending Science with Ms Litzow, I’d like to do more Science in class this term. We will be doing some kitchen chemistry and explorations on solar power

Some sad news is that our little guinea pig, Randall, died in the last week of the school term and unfortunately Rocket, our rabbit, also died during these holidays. We will miss them. They were very lucky pets and got lots of love and attention from all the children. I got them from the Rabbit Rescue Farm at Smithfield Plains so we were able to give to 2 unwanted pets a very good home while we had them.

As always, please do not hesitate to make an appointment to see me if you have any concerns about your child.

Regards,

Louisa Guest