Term 2 Week 5 and 6

Term 2 Weeks 5-6

Excursion ‘Diary of a Wombat’

Year 1 students thoroughly enjoyed their visit to Monkey Baa Theatre to view the production of ‘Diary of a Wombat’ based on Jackie French and Bruce Whatley’s multi award winning picture book. Students were enthralled by the adventures and chaos that Mothball, the naughtiest wombat in Australia created in the lives of the humans around her. Doormats, bins and washing lines were no match for this mischievous marsupial. Between scratching, sleeping and eating Mothball discovers that with a bit of persistence, humans are easily trained! Students were entranced by the spellbinding magic of puppetry and live music. It was exciting for the girls to have Mrs Davis join us for the occasion. A wonderful theatre experience was enjoyed by all.

Picture books for young and old

We are so lucky at Danebank to be blessed with an exceptionally well resourced library, as well as all learning spaces having access to hundreds of different books. While chapter books and books with more text serve a purpose, we need to appreciate and remember that picture books represent a unique literary form that blends stories with art. In a picture book, the illustrations are as important as the text and both work together to tell the story.

Five reasons why we need to be embracing picture books at all ages:

1. Picture books can be complex; in fact, their sentence structure and vocabulary can often be more sophisticated than their rivalled chapter books. Many picture books offer interesting story plots and can use amazingly complex vocabularies.

2. The illustrations are married with the text to help children understand what they are reading, allowing them to analyse the story, often independently. The illustrations provide a powerful comprehension tool.

3. Language: Picture books allow children to practise the sounds of language and they provide us with the chance to introduce new and interesting words to them. The rhythm and rhyme in many picture books makes for great read alouds and children learn words more easily when they hear them spoken often.

4. Repetition: The repetition in many picture books allows a child to participate in the story. Young readers get excited when they can anticipate an upcoming line and children consolidate their skills like phonemic awareness, phonics, comprehension and fluency.

5. Picture books help develop story sense. Children learn the beginning, middle and end of a story and can often relate to the age-appropriate issues and conflicts.

The final reason that we value the reading of picture books for all ages at Danebank is that they are FUN! The key is to always make reading time an enjoyable and positive experience. Picture books have a life of their own, a tool that we can use to engage our learners, making them excited to delve into a book. Reading should never be perceived as a chore so let’s keep it alive!

Here are some picture books we are currently reading In Year 1:

Unit: ‘Adventures’

Week 1: Where the Wild Things Are

Week 2: Felix Meets Alexander

Week 3: Lester and Clyde

Unit: ‘Aboriginal Australia’

Week 4: Why I love Australia by Bronwyn Bancroft

Week 5: What we Count, Then and Now by Bronwyn Bancroft

Week 6: In Your Dreams by Sally Morgan

Unit: ‘Masterchefs!’

Week 7: Pancakes! Pancakes! By Eric Carle

Week 8: The Magic Gelato Churn by Rosie Pupo

Week 9: Honey Biscuits by Meredith Hooper

Happy Reading!

Jump Rope for Heart

Over the next four weeks of Sport, Year 1 students will be participating in the Jump Rope for Heart program. This is a great opportunity for your daughter to learn new skills and develop her fitness as well as raise money for the Heart Foundation.

The ‘Jump Off’ day will be during Year 1’s sport lesson in week 9. Each child will be challenged to jump for a number of minutes, that number being their age. For example, a year 1 student who is 6 will need to challenger herself to jump continuously for 6 minutes.

Students have been encouraged to skip as part of their ‘homework.’ You can also support her by helping her raise funds for the Heart Foundation. This is optional.

Students were given brochures in Sports class this week. Fundraising will be completed online only. You will need to go to the Heart Foundation website and register her and make sure you join her to Danebank Primary School.

Health

Students have been learning about the importance of eating a healthy breakfast to improve their focus and concentration at school each morning. We have looked at the differences between healthy and unhealthy food.

For our HSIE unit ‘Families’ and ‘Workers in the Community’ we studied the role of Dentists, Police Officers and Fire Fighters in our community and the tools they use their profession.

National Simultaneous Story Time

On Wednesday, Year 1 was involved in the National Simultaneous Story time. This is an annual campaign that aims to encourage children to read and enjoy books. It was wonderful for the Infants grades to be involved in such a fun event.

We read the story at 11:00am, along with thousands of other schools and libraries participating across Australia at the same time. This year the selected title was “The Cow Tripped Over the Moon” by Tony Wilson. This is a fun book with simple nursery rhymes!

In partnership with The Party People, the CBCA will be able to offer a vast range of creative costume ideas for teachers, librarians and parents to source. CBCA Children’s Book Week will take place from 18-25 August, 2017.

Don’t forget to keep a log of your books for Premiers Reading Challenge!

Week 5 and 6 in Year 1:

Mathematics- Length, Division and Multiplication. Investigation ‘Number Facts Blast Off’

Writing- We continued on the theme of ‘Aboriginal Australia.’ Students read ‘What We Count, Then and Now’ and ‘Why I love Australia’ by Bronwyn Bancroft.

Grammar- Saying Verbs and Statements

PDHPE- Term 1 unit ‘Staying Healthy’- Fruit and Vegetables

Reading- We completed guided reading activities in class.

Topic Talks- Students shared on workers in the community.

Visual Arts- Year 1 created portraits of themselves as Fire fighters and Police Officers and Mosaic Fruit bowls.

Science- Students discovered how heating or cooling a food can change its properties. We investigated popcorn, chocolate, ice blocks and bread. We researched whether the change could be reversed or not.

HSIE- Term 1 topic ‘Workers in the Community.’ We looked at various workers in our community.

Term 2 Weeks 3 and 4

Term 2 Weeks 3-4

Our mosaic Fruit Bowls

Musica Viva

Year 1 participated in a musical performance by Musica Vuva lead by Adam Hall and his band. The jazz music and singing was enjoyed by all.

A Big Thank You

Thank you all for a great Autumn Fair and Open Day! The weather was beautiful and a great day was enjoyed by all. Thank you for all your amazing support, enthusiasm and time in volunteering at our Year 1 BBQ Stall. The Year 1 stall was a huge success. A big thank you to Mrs Mansour, Mrs Ninic, Mrs Hassan and Mrs Twyman for being our wonderful conveners. Thank you for all your magnificent efforts! It was also wonderful to greet all the parents in our Year 1 classrooms. Your contribution is much valued and appreciated!

Why Mothers Are Important

Mothers are a gift from God and they are an amazing blessing in our lives. By showing their love, compassion and kindness. We would never be the wonderful people we are today. Year 1 would like to share 6 characteristics about mothers and why they are incredibly important in our lives.

Mothers are mentors.

O Mothers are full of optimism.

T Mothers are our teachers.

H Mothers are our heroes.

E Mothers are encouragers.

R Mothers are our role models.

To all the amazing mothers, you are incredibly important to us and we love you very much. We hope you were spoiled with lots of hugs and kisses on Sunday.

The Premier’s Reading Challenge

Year 1 students are into the swing of reading with the Premiers Reading Challenge. We have quite a few students who have already completed the challenge. A big congratulations to those dedicated readers!

Year 1 students need to read 30 books. All but 5 of the books read must be on the PRC booklist. The NSW PRC website has a complete list of books. Up to 5 books can be personal choice books which do not appear on the book list.

The NSW Premier’s Reading Challenge finished on Friday 25^th August 2017.

For younger students, books which are read aloud to students can be included. To experience a book a child can listen to the book, participate in a shared reading of the book, or read part, or all of the book independently.

Enter the books you have read online or bring your completed log to Mrs Jamieson. All students have been issued with Reading Logs as well as User name and Password for entering their reading online.

Mrs Jamieson (Librarian) has the lists of books on display in the library. Danebank girls will have no trouble meeting the requirements of the challenge. Obviously, we don’t have all the books on the lists, but we do have a good number of them.

It gives the children such satisfaction to achieve this goal, and it is a real thrill for them when they are presented with their certificates. Students will receive a signed certificate by the Premier of NSW. Students who have completed the challenge a total of 4 times receive a Gold certificate. Students who have completed the challenge 7 times received a Platinum certificate. Happy Reading!

A Great Picture Book

A book that has been nominated for the Picture Book of the Year award is “My Two Blankets” (Kobald). With the Picture Book award, the illustrator receives the prize for his/her illustrations. This book is illustrated by Freya Blackwood, a prolific illustrator of children’s books. It tells of a little girl from Africa, a new migrant to Australia, who is feeling alone and afraid. She wraps a blanket around herself to feel safe and loved, but after a while she weaves a new blanket with the words she is learning from her new friend, who has reached out to her and helped her. A beautiful story, with exquisite illustrations.

Healthy Food

It has been pleasing to see that many children are eating a healthy recess snack and lunch. Thank you to all the parents who go into much effort to ensure that they provide healthy foods for their daughter. Remember to ‘eat the colours of the rainbow!’

We seek your help with packaged Recess snacks

We have noticed that quite a lot of the younger children are having difficulty opening the food they brought from home when out on the playground at recess.

They are finding it hard to:

• ·    peel their bananas/mandarins
•      open their yoghurt twist tops, muesli bar wrappers and
•      open packets of biscuits/chips.

It would be appreciated, if parents could pre-snip the top of the packets or bananas and unscrew/rescrew the yoghurt lids it would be very helpful. Thank you for your assistance with this matter.

  

The Middle of Term

Time flies, where is the term going? In many ways we are heading to the ‘business end’ of Term 2. This is a particularly busy time for all teachers as we complete the student reports. As the next few weeks roll by, we will soon be half way through the year… what a scary thought.

   

Mega Manners Month of May

Last week, the children were reminded to show manners by not interrupting, waiting patiently and politely and saying ‘excuse me please’. We hope that they do this at home as well as at school.

Next week the children will be reminded of the importance of a friendly greeting such as ‘good morning’ or ‘good afternoon’, that comes packaged with a smile. These simple manners and common courtesies make the world a happier place.

Focus Reward Cards

One of the goals for year 1 is to be focused and concentrate on the activity and lesson at hand. We have been rewarding ‘Focus Cards’ to students. Well Done to the students who have received a Focus Card!

Winter Uniform

Please remember that every child must be well presented in full school uniform at all times. I would remind parents that girls’ winter tunics should come to the bottom of the knee. It is not acceptable if they are above the knee. It is also important that blazer sleeves have been altered correctly. Sleeves cannot be rolled up or turned under. The full school sports tracksuit must be worn to and from school on Wednesday and Friday during this time of winter uniform. All parts of the uniform must be clearly named and worn correctly. We seek parents’ support in ensuring that a high standard of uniform is maintained at all times.

Sports Shoes

Our policy of wearing white or predominantly white sports shoes is still our expectation at all sporting events. If your child has sports shoes for a particular sport they may wear these only if they wear their white shoes to and from events or training sessions. Having said this, we do not encourage parents to go out and buy special sports shoes for every event in which your child participates. White or predominantly white sports shoes only, are to be worn to all school PE and Sports lessons.

Fidget Toys versus Fidget Tools

Apparently Westfield Miranda has had a recent sale of Fidget Toys, such as the ones pictured here,

resulting in a rise in the number of students who are bringing these to school, for use in both the classroom and on the playground.

Whilst Danebank strongly promotes the use of sensory tools, and we have quite a number currently in use, we need to have some clarity around who is accessing them, why a particular student needs a sensory tool and what sort of sensory tools are being used.

As a school we prefer to promote fidget tools that have been endorsed through educational organisations – such as Autism Australia or Sue Larkey [https://suelarkey.com.au/]

Figure 1: Some examples of the tools we currently supply to students

SO WHAT ARE FIDGET TOOLS?

Fidget tools are items that a child will hold in their hand, that generally, but not always has a moving part, or is made of a sensory material. Holding an object in their hands can often enhance learning. For example, if given a sensory tool to hold at ‘mat time’ a child can sit for longer, concentrate better, be less disruptive to peers, is calmer and has reduced anxiety levels. Sensory tools can also replace inappropriate behaviours. Many children with ASD (Autism) or ADHD seek movement to calm and process, by allowing the child to actually move their fingers using a “fidget tool” it actually increases learning.

A good indicator of whether a child needs a fidget tool/toy is “WHAT HAPPENS IF YOU REMOVE THEM?” If you remove the tool/toy and you see other behaviours emerge this indicates the child actually “seeks” this and “needs” it.

For example; the behaviours you will see could include:

Will they pick their fingers?

Will they chew their collar or hat string?

Will they start moving their legs, body?

Will they be easily distracted by other children?

Currently at Danebank we use fidget tools, for some students, during classwork, when sitting for periods of time listening to instructions and other learning times. We also use wobble chairs, stimulus mats, chew toys and many other tools for students who have been identified as needing support to maintain attention or whose learning is improved when accessing a sensory tool.

These tools do not work for all children and it is important to note that they can be highly distractive for many students, which is why we are clarifying – who, why and what tools are being used.

WHY DOES IT MATTER WHAT STUDENTS USE, AND WHO USES THEM?

Some sensory tools are designed for a specific purpose, for specific children AND more importantly, designed not to distract other students (used in the pocket, out of sight, quietly in lap). If used by students who don’t need them, or students who are not being monitored, they will have the opposite effect and distract not only the learners with the tool in their hand but the learners around them.

If you have sent your child to school with a fidget tool, please take the time to either meet or email Mrs Cooper or Mrs Larkin its purpose for your child, so we can support its correct use. If we have not had communication from home, we may assume it is just a toy and will therefore not be used in the classroom. We have been chatting to students explaining why some students may be asked not to use fidget toys/tools in class, so it is important that we have all available information from home.

IMPORTANT: We are definitely NOT saying children cannot use fidget tools as we currently provide these sensory tools to a number of students at Danebank.

What we are saying is, we are monitoring who, why and what tools are used during learning.

If your child chooses to take it outside, it will be seen as a toy and not a tool. It is also very important that all teachers (including specialists and learning support teachers) know why your child has been provided with a sensory tool, so we can support their proper and appropriate use. This will mean that if a student has been ‘authorised’ to use a fidget tool (either the parent/s have communicated its use or the school have provided the tool), then there is less chance that this tools is used inappropriately or confiscated by teachers. However, misuse of any teaching tool may result in temporary removal of the tool and re-training for the student, in how to use it for its correct purpose. Students do need to learn to use them, and it will take some students longer than others to use them effectively.

You are welcome come and chat to Mrs Cooper and Mrs Larkin if you want to know more about these types of sensory tools.

Sustainability at Danebank

During these colder months, put on a warm woolly jumper and ugg boots instead of switching on the heater. This will help you to save money on your electricity bill as well as care for the environment.

Week 3 and 4 in Year 1:

Mathematics- Data, Length

Writing- We continued on the theme of ‘Adventures’. Students read ‘Lester and Clyde” and wrote narratives as well as a character study on this story. We began a new unit on ‘Aboriginal Australia”. Students were introduced to the topic through Bronwyn Bancroft’s beautiful book ‘Why I Love Australia’ and completed Visible Thinking skills on this story.

Grammar- Verbs

PDHPE- Term 1 unit ‘Staying Healthy’- Healthy Diet: Eating balanced diet of Proteins, Carbohydrates, Calcium and Protein.

Reading- We completed guided reading activities in class.

Topic Talks- Students shared their talks on workers in the community and what they do.

Visual Arts- Year 1 created Mosaic Fruit Bowls.

Science- We continued with our Science unit ‘Spot the Difference.’ This unit seeks to build on students’ natural curiosity and knowledge of how the world around them works. Students observed change through the context of food. We looked at the changing state of cooked and uncooked spaghetti and participated in a spaghetti tower challenge using marshmallows. Students also investigated various foods such as eggs, bread, chocolate and popcorn and looked at the changing states of these foods, before heating, after heating and after cooling.

HSIE- Term 1 topic ‘Workers in the Community.’ We studied the role of Police Officers and Fire Fighters in our community. We also studied the role of Volunteers in our community.