First post

WELCOME 
Welcome to our very first class blog.  The blog will be updated on a regular basis and I hope that you find this informative and useful.
We have had a wonderful Term 1 and I am amazed how fast it has gone.  My class consists of 23 beautiful, exuberant students.  They settled well into the roles and routines of the class and school. They have all worked hard, already shown some amazing potential and it looks set to be a fantastic year.  I hope you all have a Happy Easter and a safe and enjoyable holiday.  I look forward to seeing everyone back at school on Monday 20th April, 2015.

CLASS COUNCILLORS

Congratulations to Eve Gulikers and Logen Morling, who were elected as our, Semester One School Councillors.  They have both eagerly attended their first Student Council Meeting and we are sure they will represent our class very well.

Hi, my name is Eve Gulikers. I am an only child and I have been at Wattle Grove Primary for three years.  My favourite subject at school is Literacy.  My favourite animals are:  horses, kittens, huskies, wolves and guinea pigs.  I have five pets.  Charlie and Lola are my cats, Smudge and Calico are my fish and Jason is my budgie.  My mum and dad were very proud when I was chosen to be a School Councillor.

Hi, my name is Logen Morling. I like to play football, do Taekwondo and play with my friends.  My favourite subject at school is Prime Mathematics.  I am very happy to be a Student Councillor in Room 23.

LITERACY 
The children have been working hard with us in Literacy.  Some of the things they are trying to remember to do are:
· Start sentences with a capital letter.
· Finish sentences with a full stop.
· Write neatly and clearly.
· Leave spaces between my words.
· Form letters correctly and sit them on the line.
· Sound out words they am not sure about spelling.
· Use correct spelling when writing.
· Try to use words other than said.
· Start with a big opener and use a lots of different sentence starters.
· Use different connectors, not just and all the time.
· Use adjectives and verbs to make our writing more interesting.
· Use a capital letter for a proper noun.

VCOP and BIG WRITING

Writing is a whole school focus at Wattle Grove Primary. You may have heard your child come home and talk about VCOP and Big Writing. Essentially, the two combined form a very powerful writing program. The gains that a child can make in writing when using the VCOP method can be rather outstanding. It would be wonderful for this program to also be encouraged at home. Finding opportunities to discuss VCOP will have a great impact on the writing skills of your child.  Here is a quick rundown of VCOP and a few ideas to do at home:

V-Vocabulary (Wow words!): • Talk about and write down interesting (WOW) words in the stories you are reading at home. • Try using the words you have found in a sentence. • Have a mini-quiz: ‘How many words can you think of instead of ‘said’, ‘went’, ‘nice’ or ‘good’. Put each one in a sentence. • Give your child a Wow word to put into a sentence. How many different sentences can they make?

For example, alternatives to went could be: shuffled, toddled, crept, meandered, plodded, trudged, wandered, moving unsteadily, lumbered, doddered, waddled, limped, wobbled, lurched, quickly stomped, marched, strolled, traipsed, strutted, hiked, roamed, paced, stepped, pounded, prowled sneaked, tiptoed, crept or pattered. Imagine how these words could enrich a piece of writing and promote creativity.

C – Connectives are used to join sentences together. The simplest connective to use is ‘and’. E.g. ‘Bill went to the shops and bought an ice-cream.’ Other more complex connectives include – Then, after, so, while, because, although. • Try to search for connectives in the stories you read at home. Use them in a different sentence. • Try rearranging sentences with the connectives at the start. • Give your child a connective and ask them to use it in a sentence.

O- An opener is the first word used in a sentence. When children start on their writing journey most sentences initially begin with ‘I’. To develop this try: • Searching for openers in the stories you read at home and use them to start your own sentences. • Give your child an opener and ask them to complete the sentence. Some good openers are:  Next, Although, I discovered, Eventually, Finally.    • Search for powerful openers. These end in ‘ly’ and ‘ing’ e.g. Surprisingly, Steadily, Glancing.

P – Punctuation • Look at different types of punctuation in your reading at home. • Ask your child to give examples of when they would use a question mark or exclamation mark. • Punctuation Kung-Fu (make the shapes of each punctuation sign in the air.) • Use different types of punctuation in different sentences.

Big Writing is the time of the week where students are able to showcase their VCOP and writing skills. 

HARMONY DAY

The children all enjoyed coming to school dressed in their national costume.  They all looked great.  It was wonderful to see so many children participating and it was great to raise $550 which will go towards the relief fund for Vanuatu.

MATHS

The children have been learning column addition with carry-overs and, more recently, subtraction with borrowing.  They have put in a huge effort, as these are both quite difficult concepts to learn.  It is very important that the children show their working out for both addition and subtraction.  Not only do they get an extra point for correct working out, but it means that I can see if they understand the process.

Last week we came up with some steps to follow for subtraction.

 

Steps for Subtraction

1.              Look at the symbol.  Is it ‘+’ or ‘–’?

2.             If it is a ‘–’, look at the ‘first’ column (ones).

3.             Is the top number bigger?  Can you take the bottom number from the top number?

4.             If so, do the take away.

5.             If not, you need to borrow from the next column.

6.             Cross out the number in the ‘next’ column and replace it with a number one (1) lower.

7.             Put a one (1) next to the number in the ‘first’ column.

8.            Do the take away.

9.             Repeat steps 3 – 8 for the other columns (10’s, 100’s, 1000’s etc)

 The children have also been working hard to learn their times tables.  Some children are still learning these tables.  Other children already know their 0, 1, 2, 5, and 10 times tables and are working at calculating them quicker.  These children will be going on to learn their 3 and 4 times tables.

The children are also trying to work out their basic addition and subtraction facts quickly and accurately.  It is vital that they learn these facts so that they can become quick and competent with all mathematical calculations.

PARENT MEETINGS
A big thank you to all the parents who came to the meetings on Tuesday 31st March. 
It was wonderful to have the time to chat about your child.  I hope you also found the time valuable.



COMING SOON
The Easter Hat Parade
65 Roses Day