No 7 2013 - Echuca West Primary School

ECHUCA WEST PS GRADE REPORTS
Prep A: This week we welcomed Miss White to our room who is a
3 rd year Student Teacher from Latrobe Bendigo. The Preps have
enjoyed the extra teacher’s attention. Life Saver Col came to
school on Wednesday and taught us valuable information about
how to be safe in all types of water and great rescue techniques.
We were also fortunate to see and listen to Trevor Vincent and
Judy Pollock who competed in the Olympic Games. Their medals
were on display also. Please remember that Library day is
Wednesday and Library books need to be returned so your child
can re borrow. Today we enjoyed reading and Phys. Ed with our
Grade 6 buddies. Enjoy the cooler weather and the weekend.
Grade 1B: We have managed to fit lots into this short week! Our
daily Literacy sessions are running really smoothly and everyone is
doing a great job of working responsibly at their activities. This
week we enjoyed reading ‘Little Red Riding Hood’ and looking at
how the author used talking marks when the characters were
speaking. We had an interesting discussion about whether Little
Red Riding Hood was disobedient or whether she just made a
mistake when she wandered off the path. We examined the names
on our Name Wall and discovered that Archie and Kiarrah both
contain ‘ar’ so we listed lots of other words that contain this blend.
In maths we looked at subtraction and made subtraction stories.
On Wednesday we attended a SINK or SWIM session, which is Life
Saving Victoria’s new program targeting inland waterway safety.
We also had a visit from Trevor Vincent and Judy Pollock,
Olympic athletes, who brought along their medals. In Science on
Thursday we investigated crickets and sang our current favourite
song, “The Ants go marching!” It’s been a fun week.
Enjoy the weekend everyone!
Grade 2C: We had Lifesaver Col visit us this week to teach Prep to
Grade 2 about Water Safety.
Here are some letters that Grade 2C wrote to Lifesaver Col!
To Lifesaver Col,
Thank you for visiting me at Echuca West. I will remember to stay
calm and not panic and wear a life jacket.
From Mason
Dear Lifesaver Col,
Thank you for visiting me at Echuca West. I will remember to make
sure I have a grown up with me when I swim.
From Dakota
Dear Lifesaver Col,
Thank you for visiting me at Echuca West. I will remember to make
sure I will have a grown up with me when I swim. I will make sure
I wear a lifejacket when I swim in the river and I will stay calm and
not panic. I have learnt a lot about water safety.
From Halle
Dear Lifesaver Col,
Thank you for teaching all of us safety. We appreciate you. You are
good, Col.
From Stephany
Grade 3D: We have all enjoyed the short week in Grade 3 this
week! This week we presented our Shoeboxes. This was very
exciting. We all had a chance to present our shoeboxes to the class,
explaining all of our special items. It was a bit scary talking in
front of the class but we all managed to do it very well! We then
had a 'Shoebox Exhibit' and we were able to have a closer look
inside everyone's shoebox. People had family photos, pictures of
their pets, favourite teddy bears, favourite books and movies as
well as sports uniforms. In Literacy, we have been writing
persuasive pieces. This week we discussed whether too much
money is being spent on toys and games. We had lots of mixed
opinions in the class! In Maths, we have been looking at addition
and adding 2-digit numbers together. Enjoy your weekend
everyone. Grade 3 and Miss Hill
Grade 4E: This week was Shoebox Week! On Tuesday the students
brought in their decorated and filled shoeboxes. Everyone got the
chance to share all the special things inside their box that
represented their life. It was a great opportunity to get to know
one another better. In Literacy we looked at information texts and
have used that knowledge to create information posters about our
shoeboxes. They are on display in the classroom and friends and
family are welcome to come and have a look. Today we finished
off our Shoebox Celebrations by sharing our shoeboxes with our
Grade 2 buddies. Well done everybody, you did a great job!
P.S. Congratulations to all our swimmers and basketball players
who did so well at Zone and Vibe last Friday. You were wonderful
ambassadors for our school.
Grade 5F: Another busy week in Grade 5, which has seen us start
a lot of new topics across the curriculum. In Literacy we have
moved on from narratives and have started looking at persuasive
writing. We are looking at the important features of persuasive
writing, and how to self-assess and improve our own pieces. We
also started a study on the use of apostrophes, and looked at how
to expand our vocabulary using the books we are reading. In
Maths we have moved on from division to focus on time. We are
looking at telling the time and duration of time. Our Photo Stories
are coming along in Integrated Studies, and we are aiming to have
them finished by the last week of school. It is easy to get distracted
looking back at all our photos, but all students are working well to
create their presentations. We were very excited to do soccer trials
for inter-school soccer this morning, and we’d like to thank Mark
Urbaniak for his help... Have a great weekend!
Grade 6G: This week we have started to finalise our life stories on
Photo-stories. We will organise a date so that our family and
friends can come in and see them. We have a range of photos and
information. We have also put music to them. We are very proud
of the work we have done. We are also in the finishing stages of an
animal power point. It has been great teaching each other lots of
skills using these programs. Throughout the week we have also
completed our writing pieces for the writing4fun competition. In
Maths we have looked at telling the time. We have calculated that
on the Monday holiday our class combined watched and used
almost a staggering 90 hours of technology. We are going to look
at the amount of television we watch next week and graph this
information. We have also had our trials for the upcoming soccer
tournament. There will also be opportunities for students to play
interschool sport through our Friday sports coming later in the
year. Congratulations to those students who nominated and were
successful for the Student Action Group. It will be great to see
these students showing a range of leadership qualities throughout
the year. Being part of the SAG team gives them a voice in the
school and the ability to make changes around the school and see
how decisions get made in a school environment. Well done on a
great week!
SCIENCE
Preps, Grade 1 and 2- Schoolyard Safari:
We explored the school ground to see what small animals lived
there. Since then we have had a close up investigation of worms,
snails, ants and crickets. We discussed what we knew about them,
listed what we found out after our observation and completed a
labeled diagram of each animal.
Grade 3 and 4 - Plants in Action:
We have been busy learning about seeds, germination and flowers.
We also planted bean seeds and watched most of them develop
roots and leaves. For our latest project we made a face on an
empty eggshell and planted grass seeds inside the shell. Some of
the eggheads have sprouted an amazing head of hair!
Grade 5 and 6- Life in the Balance:
We investigated the interactions between living and non-living
things and how invasive and feral animals and plants can upset the
balance in an ecosystem. We found out a lot about cane toads and
the problems they are causing. It was fun playing the game Roo
Survival, where we role played kangaroos seeking resources like
food, water, space and shelter. When the kangaroos could find the
resources they needed, their numbers increased for that year.