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Dear parents and carers,
We have enjoyed the weather this week with the children making great use of all our playing spaces during break times – we’ve had everything from fairy gardens to skipping to basketball to football to playing on the fort.
The children have also been hard at work in class, check out our Facebook page to hear about some of their more recent focus areas.
Welcome to Beau who has joined us this week. We trust that you will enjoy your time working with us here at St Joseph’s.
Tomorrow we will welcome Sen Const Karen Clarke back. She spoke with us early in March about cyber safety and is now able to follow up that visit. It is a terrific opportunity for us to establish links with essential workers in our community.
Last Thursday we received advice that the remaining CG sporting events for 2020 have been cancelled following advice from NSW School Sports. This decision has been taken due to the current concerns around running these events in a manner that is safe for participants, officials and spectators.
With the continuing changes coming from NSW Health and NSW School Sports we are now reconsidering how domestic events might take place.
Staff professional Learning – please be aware that the staff professional learning that was postponed earlier this term, will be held on Monday July 20. We will be working with Fr. Richard Leonard and colleagues from Western Region schools. As such the first day of learning for children in Term 3 will be Tuesday July 21.
Parent Teacher interviews – thank you to everyone for your participation in the interviews this week. We are very aware that the first half of this year has been challenging, and staff have enjoyed the opportunity to speak with you and reflect on how the semester has unfolded.
Reports - We have received advice from Catholic Education that the format of our reports for Semester 1 will be different to previous reports. We will be assessing the areas of English, Mathematics and Religion. The other key learning areas will be assessed in Semester Two. Reports will be sent home during Week 10.
The update of our behaviour plan is a work in progress.
In terms of our behaviour management, we are focusing on how we line up and/or transition from one activity to the next. Transitions take place between lessons, from the classroom out to the yard, from one teacher to another. These times of change may require moving from a favoured activity to one that is not so high on our enjoyment list or vice versa. At these times, it is helpful to listen carefully for instructions and focus on tidying away and preparing (collecting equipment) for something else.
Being able to move from one task to the next with practised ease enables classroom units and playground games to function smoothly.
Please continue having conversations with your children around the things that they can be doing that show an understanding of smooth transitions. This might even be helpful when moving from one activity to another at home.
Changes to routine - Thank you to those families who are keeping us informed when children are absent from school, or there are changes to the regular routine. Be aware that we are required to keep the rolls up to date and that thorough explanation for absences enable us to do so.
School Committee – our school committee have been looking into different projects that would benefit our school. Please take the time to fill in the survey that has been distributed. The link is below:
Please fill out this survey to support our school if you have not already done so.
Kinder 2021 – many families are already beginning to plan for 2021.
If you know of a family who would like more information about St Joseph’s, please invite them to contact us at school.
Thank you to those families who have already returned enrolment forms in preparation for 2021.
Book Club – flyers were sent home this week, please finalise your orders by tomorrow (Friday, 19 June).
Take care and stay safe,
Making Thinking Visible
Most thinking is invisible because it happens inside our heads. Teaching students to make their thinking visible means they can share their thinking with their peers, the teacher, and themselves, in order to make connections and continue to extend their thinking. The use of thinking routines in the classroom, gives students a simple way to express their thoughts. In Religious Education, the ‘I wonder’ statements that students articulate can lead the class to explore many different themes and concepts. Here are some ‘I wonder’ statements that came from Kinder and Year One students after reading about Moses.
I wonder why Moses’ mum put him in the river.
I wonder why God saved Moses.
I wonder why the princess rescued Moses.
I wonder why Moses has a crown.
I wonder why the Israelites were bad.
I wonder why the king (Pharaoh) wanted to kill all the boys.
These ‘wonderings’ allow the teacher to understand what the students are thinking and provide opportunities to explore the historical background of the people for whom the text was written, and themes such as power and greed, at a level that is developmentally appropriate and relevant to the students.
The student who wondered about Moses’ crown was actually referring to a yellow halo around his head. This led to the class exploring some other sacred art images to try to understand what the artists are trying to show by using halos.
The use of thinking routines can also allow teachers to clarify misconceptions. The student who wondered why the Israelites were bad, needed to understand that the people in power wanted others to believe the Israelites were bad, not that they actually were bad.
The use of thinking routines in the classroom allows all students to have a voice and engages every student in the thinking and learning process.
This term has seen the class commence new units of learning based on many interesting topics.
In Japanese, the students have been learning about the Japanese names for the different rooms around a house, information about Japanese houses, including Ninja houses, which are called a ‘Ninja Yashiki’, and information about the features of traditional and modern Japanese houses. The students learnt about the origins of emojis, and the Japanese words for each emotion. They also learnt some key Japanese terminology relating to recycling. They learnt that, as Japan is a small country, it is important to recycle as many products as possible. If something is not recycled it is called 'Mottainai' which means 'what a waste!' This week the students created some origami. The photos show the students with the origami snails they made. This linked to their study of ‘Tsuyu’ meaning ‘rainy season’ in Japan. Generally, it lasts from the beginning of June to the middle of July.
This term, in English, the students are learning about the common elements of poetry and will explore how these may be applied to shape poems, limericks, odes and simple ballads. They will construct different types of poems and deepen their understanding of poetry by examining the language, and poetic devices, as well as how these enhance meaning. They will also recite poetry.
In Mathematics this term, the students have been learning about patterns and algebra. This has included describing patterns using mathematical expression and reviewing the use of the correct order of operations in solving number problems. The students developed their understanding of the Cartesian plane by plotting points as a means of showing position. The students have also been focusing on multiplication and division. This has included multiplication of 3 digits by 2 digits with many examples of using zero correctly. The students also worked to explore division algorithms of 4 digits by 1 digit with zeros and wrote remainders as fractions. They have now turned their focus to the relationship between volume and capacity. They started the week off with an investigation about newspaper cubes and the volume of a room. This involved visualising volumes of cubes and cuboids. A conceptual notion was developed firstly in this lesson by making and counting cubes. This then provided them a sound basis for the understanding and application of the formula:
V = L x W x H
There is much to learn and achieve and, as the term progresses, we will continue to explore our units of work to expand our knowledge and understanding of the key topics we are investigating.
Sora Link
Visit https://soraapp.com in your web browser, or download the free Sora app from the Apple and Google Play stores on a mobile device.
SORA eBooks and Audiobooks
You can login to Sora, with your normal CENet login that you use for school network login.
The Sora ‘Sweet Reads’ collection of 20 simultaneous read titles is available until 31 July and the ‘Always available’ 250 titles collection is also a permanent simultaneous read collection. A particular ‘Sweet Read’ or ‘Always Available’ title could be assigned for all students to borrow and read at the same time.