From Mrs Harney
Wow! I cannot believe that we have less than
5 weeks of the 2015 school year left. It is amazing how the year has
flown by.
Please put these important dates in your diary:
Swimming
Lessons: Monday 23rd
November to Thursday 27th November (Week 7) and
Monday 30th November to
Friday 4th December (Week 8)
Pupil
Free Day: Friday 27th November (Week
7)
Presentation
Night: Tuesday
15th December (Week 10)
Our Centenary Fete
On November 1st 2015,
the Wattle Grove community (past and present) came together to celebrate an
important milestone in our school’s history, its centenary. The fete was an
incredibly successful product of lots of hard work, commitment and dedication
from many members of the school. No one can deny, however, that it was
certainly worth it. Thank you to the parents who helped out in the lead up, or
on the day. It was wonderful to see many of the children and their parents at
the fete as well as catching up with past teachers, students and their
families.
At the fete the choir
were singing some really nice songs. The Premier, the Hon. Colin Barnett, visited and
really enjoyed himself. There were so many stalls and things to do, it
was hard to see everything. Our Lolly stall was a great success. A
very big thanks to Ruby's Mum, Kerry Henshall, for organising the collection of
all the yummy lollies and the helpers for the day.
It was great seeing
the displays from the past century and how much Wattle Grove Primary School
has changed since we were a one teacher school in a draughty hall.
The staff, all enjoyed dressing up in
costumes from the past and were thrilled that so many children came dressed as
children from 100 years ago too.
My favourite part of
the Fete was:
Ruby: "Watching
people get dunked."
George: "When
I saw my brother and cousin singing in the choir."
Ashley: "Going
on the bouncy castle."
Cody: "Holding a chicken in the animal
pen."
Zakk: "Getting two vouchers to go to
Bounce.”
Hannah: "That I got to see my brother singing
in the choir."
Swimming Lessons
The whole school attends swimming lessons in Week 7
and 8. Our class is attending the first
lesson and the bus will be leaving the school promptly at 8.45am. It is vital that all children arrive to
school at 8.30am. This is to ensure that
the children all get checked off and loaded on the bus before the siren at
8.45am. If your child is late, they may
be left behind. Your child will need to
wear their bathers, thongs/sandals and their school shirt to school and bring
their towel and goggles. They will need
to have their school uniform in a separate bag and they will change into their
uniform when we return to school. If you
have any questions, please do not hesitate to ask.
Our Goals
Each term, students write their
academic and social goals for the term. They needed to have Mathematics
goal, English goal and social goal as well as any others, like Italian, Art or
Sport. Setting goals at the beginning of each term gives students a clear
long-term focus and helps them to recognise the short-term improvements that
will allow them to achieve their goals.
This term we had some excellent goals set,
including
Fearne:
"To learn my Italian foods.”
Holly:
"Put 100% into all my work.”
Logan: "To
learn my Italian foods”
Eve: "Give 150% to everything I do.”
Asten:
"To try harder with my oral reading.”
Moonisa: "To be kind and supportive to all my friends.”
It’s great to see students pushing themselves to
accomplish great things through perseverance.
Comprehension
We
have been looking at different parts of comprehension. The latest part we
have been focussing on is Fact or Opinion. When we read the text we need
to work if the statement is able to be checked to see if it is correct (fact)
or if it is what someone thinks is true and can't be checked (opinion).
EG: It is a fact that Athletics is exercising and it is my opinion that
exercising in fun.
We have also been
looking at Cause and Effect, where the cause leads to the effect and they are
connected. Also, Inferring, where the answers are not usually in the text, but
there is information to give us clues to think about. These are much
harder to do but Mrs Harney is pleased with our progress.
Music
We
have been playing the ukulele and we have been learning songs to sing with the
ukulele. We have also been practising pitch patterns.
As well as ascending and descending scales singing 'Kookaburra sits in the old
gumtree'.
Edu Dance
The
children have been doing Edu Dance for four weeks now. They are trying
very hard to follow what our teacher wants us to do. Some of the moves
are a bit tricky and sometimes we get a feet muddled up. It is a lot of
fun and we will have perfected our dance by Presentation Night.
Writing
We
have been writing lots of Persuasive texts recently. Some of the topics
have been: All Suburbs should have a skate park, Family or Friends -
which are best, Reading books is better than watching TV, It is cruel to keep
animals in cages, Children get too much homework. There many things we need to
remember to put in our Persuasive Text to convince the reader of our
opinions. These include: an introduction, an opinion, reasons, examples
and a conclusion.
What we think about
Persuasive Texts:
Mackenzie: “They
are fun and they help you to get smarter because you can learn more words.”
Iraj:
“They are awesome because you can practise writing about interesting
animals and other types of species and how they should be cared for.”
Georgia: “They
are good for you because you learn how to
persuade and you need to persuade
people when you are older.”
Yasaman: “I
think they are good for your brain and you can tell people if you like stuff or
not, like ‘Cats or Dogs are better’. I think cats are better because they can
help to lower your blood pressure."
Serah: “I
think they are quite hard to do because sometimes it is very hard to think of
three reasons."
Rafi: "I enjoy
writing them because you can give your opinion on a subject.”
NAPLAN
Tests
This
week the children have been participating in some mock NAPLAN tests. We were very pleased with the way they conducted
themselves during these tests and their great results.
This
is what the children thought of the tests:
Isabella:
"They were fun. I think I
did well.”
Prithul: "I think they were pretty easy,
even though there were some questions in Literacy Conventions that I didn’t
understand.”
Madison: "They were horrible because they
were super hard.”
Logen: "It was pretty easy because you
were reviewing everything you have done in class.”
Shiam: "I think they were pretty easy
because they had some easy questions that I understood.”
Charitha: "The Maths was the easiest and I
enjoyed that one.”
