The Junior School Week 3 Overview

YEAR ONE

Busy little workers we have been this week. 

The Magic Faraway Tree has been our reading focus this fortnight. The children have loved listening to all the wild and amazing adventures the characters are going on. Our favourite chapter so far has been the Land of Topsy Turvy. We all all giggled when Joe was turned upside down for a day. We have learnt about the author Enid Blyton and looked at images of her. Students have written about their favourite part in the story and they can’t wait to find out what is behind the mysterious door in the coming chapter. 

Within Mathematics we have been looking at the terms ‘possible’ and ‘impossible’. Students developed events that would be likely and unlikely to occur. We have also been describing the duration of familiar situations. Students worked in pairs to sort and order situations according to how long they take, such as sorting the time taken to eat a biscuit, the time taken to travel to school and the time taken between their 6th and 7th birthday. 

We have continued to study the weather each day and compare Perth’s and Bali’s temperatures. Students have been learning about our four seasons as well as plant and animal behaviours during each season. This week we have also looked at the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander seasons and compared our four with their six. 

During Mrs Tucker's classes on a Friday the students have been analysing the structure of plants in Science. Last week students used white roses and dye to see the way water goes through the stem of the plant to the flower petals. 

PATHS: 

In PATHS this term, Year One have looked at the uncomfortable feelings Mad or Angry. Mad and Angry are different words for the same feeling. Mad or Angry is the way we often feel when something hurts us, when we can’t do what we want to do, or when someone is mean to us. 

Miss Behiels 

Class Teacher

Kindergarten

If the College being turned into a semi-permanent home for builders wasn’t enough, the Kindergarten classroom has been turned into a construction zone too! The children have been dressed for work in their fluoro vests, safety hats and goggles ready to build some amazing masterpieces. They have been drawing and writing up their own building plans and have become site foremen, advising the other builders how many blocks are needed to build the tower or bridge. Since the students were insistent that they deserved a coffee break quite frequently during their time on site as builders, we have introduced some clocks into the area to encourage the builders to keep working to avoid building delays.

During the week we read the story, “Who sank the boat?” Some clever children were very quick to identify that there is a question mark in the title of the story and so we have been looking in many different picture books to find question marks. The students came up with many theories as to who sank the boat and were determined to create their own boat that would not sink. We investigated waterproof materials and some of the children then created a boat that would float down the channel of the water pipe in the playground. All the children were very proud that their boats survived the torrent of water that came gushing out of the pipe!

This week we were so excited when Ayla brought in some tadpoles to show the class. They were so tiny that we had to use magnifying glasses to see them up close. Some of the students have been documenting their observations through Book Creator (on the iPads), by drawing diagrams or writing some interesting words. The students were so fascinated by the story of the tadpole that we researched the lifecycle of a frog by reading a book and watching a video clip. Lilly taught us a special song about how tadpoles turn into frogs. We cannot wait to see the changes in our own tadpoles; they are already getting bigger each day.  

Mrs Tucker

Class Teacher

OTHER NEWS

The Pre-Primary and Year One families are invited to the iPad information session on Tuesday 4 November, 5:30pm - 6:30pm in the Learning Resource Centre. If you already have an iPad for your child, you are welcome to bring it along although this is not essential at this time. Information will be provided about the minimum specifications and the use of iPads in the classroom. 

Families with children enrolled in Pre-Kindergarten and Kindergarten in 2015 are invited to attend an information session on Friday 7 November. RSVP with the administration staff.

Kindergarten 9:30am - 11:00am

Pre-Kindergarten 11:15am - 11:45am

Melissa Croswell

Head of Junior School

1 November