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.