Week 5 Term 4

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 23^rd November to Thursday 27^th November (Week 7)  and

Monday 30^th November to Friday 4^th December (Week 8)

Pupil Free Day:         Friday 27^th November (Week 7)

Presentation Night:   Tuesday 15^th December (Week 10)

Our Centenary Fete

On November 1^st 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.”