FACILITATOR'S NEWS What's coming up at Silkwood? SCHOOL ...

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CLASS 3 WATTLE NEWS MAIN LESSON Length and Time is our main lesson for the rest of the term. We experimented with Thales’ notion of measuring objects by measuring their shadows today. Thank goodness it wasn’t raining. The children have been having fun testing out their furlongs against other children by carrying bags of sand. PROFICIENCY LESSONS We have been working on describing, completing and creating number patterns using addition and subtraction. For some children it has been a lesson in perseverance, they have had to learn that the answer doesn’t always jump out at them. HPE Lots of fun and noise was heard as we played our four goals team game last Friday. A rematch is scheduled for this Friday. EE The children are surveying their family’s water use this weekend. Many will be surprised how much their family uses. SOCIAL SKILLS We have been learning that proactive choices often means saying NO to a friend. This can be difficult to do but ultimately you are responsible for your own actions. Annette CLASS 4 TALLOW NEWS What have we been up to… MAIN LESSON We have started our forebears Main Lesson which seems to be a great hit. Most children have interviewed their grandparent in preparation for their project. We visited Paradise Country yesterday where we saw heaps of old artifacts, gold panning, went to Clancy’s mine and saw some really cute animals. Next Tuesday we are heading to the old village in Beenleigh. The children will get first hand experience of an old school house! PROFICIENCY LESSONS In English we have been working on setting and what a plot is in the narrative genre. They all are very enthusiastic about what they can write, what problem can they create to fix. In Maths we are persevering with 2 digit multiplication using a range of strategies to help us understand it. HPE Archery continued last week but as the weather was so wet on Monday Ana took the class for team building skills. It was so funny to watch each group working together for a common goal. They had a great time. EE We are continuing on our Water Project. I have had a basic experiment outside so the children can see first hand what the water cycle is all about. This project is done at school SOCIAL SKILLS Finishing off the last of our 7 habit skills, my favourite Sharpening the Saw!! Making sure you have time for you, else everything you’ve worked hard for can just break down. Joanna PREP NEWS What have we been up to… MAIN LESSON Children have been exploring different styles of lines through movement, art, story telling, discussion and song. They have begun creating their Bindi the Rabbit main lesson book, which follows the story of Bindi and friends as they hop, fly, swim and jump. What will Bindi get up to next week? GROUP TIME Our group time is proving to be a highlight of the day, with many of the children expressing a fondness for that particular part of our rhythm. To our puzzles and practical life station, we have added a range of pre handwriting/fine motor skills exercises for children to explore. Following an autumn theme, this week our painters have been exploring red and yellow and what happens when the two colours meet. We are in the process of creating beautiful invitations to our Autumn Festival. The Starbright children have been immersing themselves in world flags through puzzles and drawing. They have been learning where to locate Australia, Japan, Italy, New Zealand and England on a world map. HPE This week the Moonlight children played an Albanian hopscotch game called Varra. They also had fun hiding a wooden block for their friends to find in a Native American game, Hide and Switch. We look forward to playing a game of South African marbles – Dithwai – and an Italian game with song, Angels and Trolls. If any of the Prep families would like to share a traditional game with the children, we would be most excited to learn it! EE We are looking forward to catching up with Natura Education again in the next couple of weeks. They helped us create our mini composts and we bet that just like us, they will be thrilled to see how our composts of been decomposing. We have been discussing the importance of healthy soil. Speaking of healthy soil, a big thank you to the Moonlight mums, who have been tending to our garden. It is looking more and more beautiful and it will smell just delightful with the addition of fragrant herbs and flowers. Starbright were unbelievably lucky to witness a Monarch Butterfly emerging from it’s cocoon during morning circle! What a delightful surprise. CRAFT / LOTE We have begun creating two, large sheets of felt in both classrooms. How wonderful to see layers of beautiful colours coming together. We can’t wait for the end result. The children are getting better and better at finger knitting and sewing. Our current project is the creation of drink bottle holders so that we have a handy place to store our water when we go on excursions. SEVEN HABITS Children have been involved in brainstorm and discussion about their ideal classroom and in writing their classroom mission statement. Next week we continue to immerse ourselves in habit two, begin with the end in mind, by exploring ideas about goal setting (as simple as baking bread) and the steps required in reaching goals. THINGS TO LOOK FORWARD TO We are enjoying the preparations for our Autumn Festival, which is on Wednesday 28 th March. Parents have been notified and an official invitation, made by the children, will be sent home in the next week. Clare and Maree Follow us on Twitter and Facebook SILKWOOD NEWSLETTER 9 MARCH 2012 4 | P a g e
CLASS 5 TALLOW NEWS What have we been up to… Class 5 and 6 recently participated in workshops produced by Enlighten Education and Peer Power where they discussed issues relating to gender, identity and self esteem. Here’s a couple of quotes from two boys who participated in the workshop… "Today I learnt how to be a mature top bloke. You've got to stick up for friends, think about others, help people no matter what and talk to others." "It was fun learning how to be a mature top bloke and that not to be passive. I liked how they presented all of how to be a mature top bloke." MAIN LESSON We’ve finished our first thematic lesson, Indian Mythology, already (no mucking around in 5 Tallow!) and we are onto Geometric Design II which is one of my favs and so is sure to be a hoot. PROFICIENCY LESSONS 5 Tallow is absolutely flying in proficiency as we practice lots of new concepts and I congratulate so many of my students who are electing to pre teach themselves new concepts via the links I am emailing home via parent email contacts. Well done 5 tallow legends! HPE Tearing up the lanes at Nerang pool in preparation for our upcoming swimming carnival where 5 Tallow are set to make a splash with our ever improving swimming abilities. EE We are all a flutter with our Whirly gigs and weather vanes project. Our heads are spinning with ideas and we’re having fun experimenting with new technologies to try out. SOCIAL SKILLS The Class 5 Tallow children are reflecting ever week on their application of the 7 habits through journaling exercises as we continue our examination of Cliques Phonies and other Baloney through a fabulous little book I picked up at last years Mental Health and Well Being conference Sam CLASS 6 NEWS What have we been up to… MAIN LESSON We have nearly concluded our studies of the Geography of the SW Pacific. Our studies have included knowing the locations of our SW Pacific neighbours as well as their climates and the impacts of climate change. Andrew has kindly taught us how to navigate using a compass and Class 6 has studied different ecosystems including those of the marine world. This has been fully realised in an outing to Sea World accompanied by the intrepid Pam, Andi, Rebekah and Michelle. Thankyou ladies! The students have been quite industrious with bringing musical instruments and choreographing dance moves to ‘My Island Home’. We have also had a dose of Tongan culture by learning linguistic phrases, national costume, crafts, nursery rhymes and a stint of traditional Tongan dancing, and Andi will generously share her Maori culture in a workshop. PROFICIENCY LESSONS In maths we are continuing with length, perimeter, area and scale with students working through their set tasks and games. At the moment The World Education Games are being hosted via the internet so the students have been participating intermittently. In English we are aiming towards a creative writing piece, but first we are covering foundational topics such as sentence writing and tense construction. We were inspired by the visiting author Tristan Bancks who regaled us with hilarious accounts of characters in his books. HPE Swimming has continued with even one of the swimming teachers commenting to me how the students have improved. I also saw some promising racing diving off the starting blocks. As of this Monday we will begin our AFL Interschool Sports tournament, and fitness continues on a daily basis with Class 6 showing promise in baton relays around the oval. EE Environmental Education has continued with studying weathering and erosion. This included a creek/bush walk around Silkwood to observe the effect weathering has on nature and where erosion has taken place and how humans have compensated. This walk ended with the students enjoying a paddle in the creek. Enterprise Education saw the final launch of the water rockets. Everyone has participated and there were some phenomenal rockets with Sammie M’s and Hannah’s rocket reaching approximately 20ms and landing in a tree! So thank you to those parents who spurred on that project. CRAFT / LOTE We have continued with puppetry and the students have undertaken writing a short script and performing with the puppets that they have already made. We will continue with making sock puppets and puppets out of fabric as well as a range of other puppets throughout the semester. SILKWOOD NEWSLETTER 9 MARCH 2012 5 | P a g e
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FACILITATOR'S NEWS What's coming up at Silkwood? SCHOOL ...

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