Term 3 weeks 5 and 6

Term 3 Weeks 5 and 6

Our excursion to the Chinese Gardens
Some snapshots of our learning experience

Term 1 Weeks 5-6

Dear Year 1 Parents,

Excursion to Chinese Gardens

Year One visited The Chinese Gardens of Friendship at Darling Harbour as part of their Literature Unit on Asian perspectives. Students relaxed in the tranquil environment at the traditional tea house and enjoyed a delicious morning tea of spring rolls, dumplings, pork buns and jasmine tea. They were immersed in the beautiful landscape of waterfalls, lakes and hidden stone pathways. Our girls looked beautiful as they were transformed into princesses. The dresses were based on designs from the Ming and Ching dynasties. Year 1 enjoyed their learning opportunity at the Chinese Gardens.

Public Speaking

Well done to all the girls for delivering such fabulous speeches. Both classes did a great job. Thank you for helping the girls with their preparation, it paid off and allowed them to present more confidently. We were very proud of each and every student. The Year One Semi-Finals will be held in our classrooms on Wednesday afternoon in week 7. We look forward to hearing the Stage 1 girls present a musical item 'Superchef', the Infants Choir performance ''The Ugly Duckling' and the four Year One finalists present their speeches at the Public Speaking finals.

Stage 1 Public Speaking Finals

You are warmly invited to join us for the annual Stage 1 Public Speaking Finals presented by our Stage 1 Kindergarten, Years 1 and 2 finalists on Wednesday 6^th September at 2pm in the Danebank Performing Arts Centre. Stage 1 students and Infants Choir will be presenting a musical item. Students look forward to presenting their speeches to you.

Book Fair and Book Week

The Danebank Book Fair was held on Monday 21^st August. The theme for Book Week 2017 is ‘Escape Everywhere’. Mrs Jamieson has been sharing the shortlisted book with the girls during their library lessons.

The Library hosted a Book Fair as part of the celebration of this year’s Book Week.

Students visited the Fair with their class during the school day and had the opportunity to purchase from a range of books provided by Glee Books. 

Parents were invited to view and purchase books from 3.00 -4.00pm. .

The girls also attended a presentation of 'Gary' by Leila Rudge by Meerkat Productions. This delightful book was enjoyed by Year 1 in the Library lessons.

Shopping at the Book Fair

Premiers Reading Challenge

Congratulations to all Year 1 students who have completed their NSW Premier’s Reading Challenge. We hope you have enjoyed reading all the fabulous books of the PRC list. Well Done! Premier's Reading Challenge concludes this Friday 25 August. 

Woolworths Earn and Learn

The school has registered for the Woolworths Earn and Learn Promotion. For every $10 you spend at Woolworths, you get 1 sticker. The more stickers we collect the more learning resources the school can redeem. Let’s work together, to get as many stickers as we can for the school. This year we will be donating the stickers to ASPECT school, a special school for children with Autism. We have a Collection Box in the Junior School office. Students can either stick their stickers onto the sheet attached, or drop them directly into the box at school. Enjoy collecting.­

Weeks 5 and 6 in Year 1:

Mathematics- 2D shapes and 3D Objects

Writing- We continued work on our unit on Belonging. Students read ‘Masai and I’ by Virginia Kroll and ‘Belonging’ by Jennie Baker.

Grammar- Attitudinal Vocabulary and Morphemes- Sounds, Letters and Words

PDHPE- Term 3 unit ‘Staying Safe’

Reading- We completed guided reading activities in class.

Topic Talks- Students spoke about Shelter. Students participated in the Year One Semi-Finals for the Stage 1 Public Speaking topic.

Visual Arts- Year 1 created African inspired Masai necklaces.

Science- Students are learning about the new unit ‘Up, Down and All Around.’ We are investigating the changes in Plants.

HSIE- Term 1 topic ‘Seasons and Weather'

Term 3 Weeks 3 and 4

Term 3 Weeks 3 and 4

Our beautiful Cherry Blossoms

It has been another fantastic week of learning at Danebank. It is wonderful to walk around the school and see all the amazing things going on: sports lessons in the gymnasium, Literature lessons on Asian Perspectives, Science investigations, HSIE Weather and Seasons discussions, reading groups, Maths lessons and so much more. We always enjoy walking around the school and talking to the students about what they are learning. We like to ask our students what they do when they get stuck with their learning. This week we received two different answers, both of which we thought were wonderful - ‘Breathe’ and ‘you just think, I can do it!’ A positive attitude to learning, seen in this ‘can do’ mentality, mixed with a willingness to take a risk when learning new things is a powerful combination for success. Keep up with the fine work, Year 1.

Our Financial Literacy incursion

Financial Literacy incursion

Year 1 and 2 enjoyed participating in a Financial Literacy workshop last week. This was presented by the Start Smart Commonwealth Bank Primary program. Students learnt about financial concepts such as the Australian monetary system, the difference between needs and wants and using money to buys goods and services. Students enjoyed learning tips about using their money wisely.

Parent Notes

Parents can access excursion notes as well as other handouts through the Parent Portal. The Junior School office encourages all parents to access the Parent portal in the first instance of extra copies of excursion notes. You can access this by logging onto Edumate, click on ‘Home’ then ‘My Dashboard’ and selecting the ‘Notes’ link.

Premiers Reading Challenge

The Challenge finishes on 25th August, 2017.

Please enter all reading on the PRC website, or return the reading log to Mrs Jamieson.

All students entering the Premier's Reading Challenge will receive a PRC certificate signed by the Premier of NSW. These certificates will arrive in Term 4.

See the NSW Premier’s Reading Challenge website or contact Mrs Jamieson for further information.       

News from the Library

A short listed book that is a great favourite with the Year 1 children is ‘Chip’ by Kylie Howarth.

Chip, like most other gulls, is wild about chips. He likes fat chips, skinny chips, sandy or crunchy or soggy chips. But, most of all, he loves Joe’s chips from Joe’s Chip Van beside the sea.

Chip, like most other gulls, can be a little intrusive on his search for chips. So, one day, Joe erects a sign near his van warning people not to feed the seagulls. Chip is devastated, so he plans a way to get back into Joe’s good books, thus gaining access once more to his favourite food.

Will Chip succeed, or has he gone too far this time? 

      

Our beautiful Dragon puppets

Book Week Book Fair

Year 1 look forward to the Book Fair on Monday 21^st August in week 6. Books will be on sale from $20 to $50. Students may purchase books during class time. Notes will be sent home closer to the date.

Stage 1 Public Speaking

Year 1 students have been given the opportunity to have a ‘practise go’ of their speech on their usual Topic Talk day this past fortnight. It has been a wonderful experience for children to listen to their classmates topics on various interesting topics.

We encourage students to use palm cards and speeches should run for 2 minutes. Feel free to discuss the ideas with your daughters but the speech should reflect the ideas of the students themselves. Please encourage your daughter to practise aloud, to help them in the presentation of their speech.

Helping Your Child Prepare:

·         Stand still

·         Speak clearly

·         Make eye contact with the audience

·         Engage the audience with your topic

·         Use palm cards as a cue. Know your speech. Don’t read it.

·         Speeches need to have a clear beginning, middle and end.

Teachers will then choose up to 5 students from each class to progress through the Year 1 Grade competition in week 6. Teachers will then ask selected students to represent Year 1 in the Stage One Public Speaking Assembly.  All parents and friends are invited to attend out K-2 Public Speaking Assembly in the PAC on Wednesday 6^th September at 2pm. K-2 Students will be performing a song for parents.

We are looking forward to hearing the girl’s speeches.

Healthy Bones Action Week 7^th to 13^th August 2017

Healthy Bones Action Week encourages children of all ages to protect their bones.

Take the following actions to build and maintain healthy bones:

1. Increase daily serves of calcium through milk, cheese or yoghurt

2. Go for a walk or commit to some form of regular exercise

3. Spend time outdoors to get more vitamin D.

To find out how much dairy your child should consume each day, click here: http://www. healthybones.com.au/why-strongbones/kids

Weeks 3 and 4 in Year 1:

Mathematics- 2D shapes, Data, Graphs and reading information on Tables.

Writing- We continued work on our unit on Asian Perspectives and started our new unit on Shelter. This unit is linked with our HSIE unit on Shelter. Students read ‘Speak Chinese, Fang Fang!’ By Sally Rippin and ‘Come Over To My House’ By Dr Seuss.

Grammar- Adverbs, Questions and Grammar Review

PDHPE- Term 3 unit ‘Stranger Danger’

Reading- We completed guided reading activities in class.

Topic Talks- Students had a trial run of their Stage 1 Public Speaking topic.

Visual Arts- Year 1 created Asian inspired artworks.

Science- Students are learning about the new unit ‘Up, Down and All Around.’ We are investigating the changes to the Built and Natural Environments and how changes to the Earth affect us.

HSIE- Term 1 topic ‘Seasons.’ Students are investigating changes in Seasons and Indigenous Australian Seasonal Calendars.