Term 1 Weeks 5 and 6

Year 1 Communicative Activities in Grammar lessons

Celebrating Founders Day with Cake!

Term 1 Weeks 5-6

What’s happening in Year 1?

Dear Year 1 Parents,

It’s been a very busy and exciting start to Year 1! Our ‘Thinking and Learning’ focus for the term so far has been ‘Responsibility’ and we have explored this concept in our classroom interactions. At the beginning of the term, we enjoyed reading ‘Rose meets Mr Wintergarden’ by Bob Graham. We have also been identifying ways in which we can be responsible in our own lives and why responsibility is such an important skill to have and to continue to develop.

We have all been working extremely hard to grow our knowledge in a range of other subject areas too!

In Science, we have been exploring Ladybirds and Ants. We are amazed by all the work they perform for the colony, including searching for food, nursing the young, constructing the nest and defending the colony. We have also been fascinated by the beautiful Ladybirds and enjoyed researching how ladybirds move, feed and protect themselves.

In Mathematics, we have continued to develop our number sense and our knowledge of place value by modelling, reading and writing two-digit numbers. We have used MAB blocks to model different numbers and to practise reading and recording them. We have also practised bundling paddle pop sticks into bundles of ten and ones to show various two-digit numbers.

Students have challenged themselves by identifying numbers one more, one less, ten more and ten less than a given number. Their goal is to be confident reading, recording and modelling numbers up to a thousand by the end of the year!

During Literacy Groups, we have been focusing on the reading strategy of “predicting”. Predicting requires students to activate their prior knowledge about a topic, so they begin to combine what they know with the new material in the text. Students have been challenged to justify the source of their predictions and to adjust and refine their predictions as new information is gathered. Students have been shown how they can use predicting as a strategy for identifying unknown words.

Phew! And that’s just a few of the areas we have been learning about! We’re very proud of the way the Year 1 students have been interacting with each other, asking intelligent and interesting questions, focusing on their work, challenging themselves, reflecting on their learning and doing everything they can to help Year 1 continue to be the best grade in the school!

Wow, what a great start to the year! We look forward to the remainder of the term and year with a group of students who show commitment, independence, responsibility and enthusiasm every day.

Have a great week!

Mrs Lena Cooper and Mrs Alison Larkin

Parent Reading Workshop

On Wednesday morning, over 30 parents filled our 1C classroom for our annual ‘Infants Reading Seminar’. During this workshop, we spent time discussing the reading process and strategies good readers use to gain the meaning from a text. We talked about the influence parents have on their child’s reading and how parents can help read with their child after school. There were a lot of practical tips for parents to use when their child cannot read a difficult or unfamiliar word, or when their child makes a mistake whilst reading. We also spent time emphasising the importance of developing each child’s comprehension, using both literal and inferential interpretations. We want to thank all the parents who attended and for their interest in supporting the wonderful work the teachers are doing within the classrooms. Our staff appreciate the time you spend reading with your child, as we believe in home and school working together in partnership to help support each child’s development.

Stage 1 Infants Assembly

You are warmly invited to join us for the annual Stage 1 Assembly presented by our Stage 1 Kindergarten, Years 1 and 2 students.

Stage 1 students will be presenting various items to showcase some of the units of work they have been studying this term. This is will be held on Wednesday 29^th March at 2pm at the Danebank Performing Arts Centre

The children look forward to performing for you! 

Kiss & Ride

We have sought and received from Hurstville Council the exact rules for using the Kiss and Ride zone. Please follow these both morning and afternoon. They are listed below.

Kiss and Ride Rules:

Driver must remain in or within 3 metres of vehicle.

Driver can stop to drop off or pick up children for a maximum of 2 minutes.

Kiss ‘n Ride zone applies only during hours of operation.

For example:

A parent is permitted to leave the vehicle to assist their children for the purpose of ensuring they are sufficiently strapped in but no longer than two minutes.

The council has also asked us to remind parents of the following:

• To assist with traffic flow, parents should only leave the vehicle if absolutely necessary. School bags should be stored in the car rather than the boot.

• If a child does not get in or out of the vehicle within two minutes, the driver must leave and re-enter the zone.

• Drivers shall stay in sequence and drop off or pick up children at the front of the zone to allow vehicles following to enter in an orderly manner.

• Children should get in or out of the vehicle on the kerb side with the back seat being the safest to travel in.

• Officers will have no tolerance of drivers who park illegally such as blocking driveways, double parking and over staying.

• Do not block the Senior School car park entrance that is at the beginning of the school property.

• Please do not abuse or disobey the Parking Officers. Their primary purpose is to ensure the safety of YOUR children and to ensure an efficient system of picking up and dropping off.

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 food 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.

Sick Children

With the winter months approaching, please support the staff and other children by NOT sending your child to school if you know that she is potentially unwell or sick. If your child displays any of the typical flu symptoms (including coughing, sneezing, high temperatures, aches and pains or gastric) please see your doctor and keep her at home so that she has the best chance of fully recovering. It is particularly unfair that staff and other children have to endure and share the germs of those who knowingly attend school having been sick either during the previous night or prior to coming to school in the morning.

Please Advise Us!

If you make arrangements for your child to be collected by another adult, even if this is another parent from the school, we must be informed in writing. However, if there is a last minute emergency, the office staff will take a phone message and will advise the child and/or the staff members on gate duty or at Aftercare.

Week 5 and 6 in Year 1:

Mathematics- Place Value, Grouping Numbers into Place Value, One More and One Less and Addition

Writing- We wrote information reports and discovered interesting facts on Ladybirds and Ants.

Grammar- Nouns and Opposite Vocabulary

PDHPE- Term 1 unit ‘Getting Along with Others’

Reading- We completed guided reading activities in class.

Topic Talks- Students shared their information on the groups they belong and 5 school rules.

Visual Arts- Year 1 completed Minibeasts artworks.

Science- We went on a schoolyard safari and discovered all the insects and bugs living in our school playground. We researched the features and behaviours of Snails.

HSIE- Term 1 topic ‘Belonging-Identifying Us.’ We discovered we belong to Danebank and Australia and researched what identifies students as part of a school community.

Term 1 Weeks 3 and 4

Year 1 Drama Toolbox Incursion

Year 1 students thoroughly enjoyed their recent Drama Toolbox incursion. Students were engaged through drama, story telling and dance through exploring the wonderful world of Minibeasts. Year 1 loved dressing up in beautiful costumes as insects such as Spiders, Butterflies, Caterpillars and Ladybirds to explore the way minibeasts moved depending on their size, shape and features in the garden environments.

Year 1 playing Grammar Communicative Games

Term 1 Weeks 3-4

Dear Year 1 Parents,

What has been happening in Year 1 this term?

The sounds and sights of daily life in Year 1 energises us each and every day. It is a wonderful privilege to be part of such a dynamic environment filled constantly with a myriad of emotions, encounters and experiences. We are only four weeks into the school year, but the girls are hard at work and we are pleased they have settled into their new routines.

We have had a fantastic start to the term in Year 1 and there have been lots of exciting new things happening. In Mathematics, we have been learning about Numbers and counting by 2s, 5s and 10s. We have also been identifying two digit numerals and identifying numbers around our school.

We have been developing our artistic skills through the use of oil pastels, glitter and paper techniques. Our students have created some butterfly spectacles and snail collage artworks.

In English, we began the term by reflecting on our holidays and many students composed some interesting recounts of their adventures! We have been busy investigating Minibeasts and writing Information Reports and Descriptions on Snails and Earthworms. 

In Grammar, we have been studying the purpose of Nouns and Synonyms. We have worked on using synonyms to improve our sentences.

Reading has also been high on the agenda and we have explored different narrative styles in reading lessons and have been trying to predict the ending of a story. We have also loved reading to our Parent Helpers in the mornings!

We have had a busy week of learning.

We hope you have a wonderful week! 

Kind regards,

Mrs Lena Cooper and Mrs Alison Larkin

Children’s Story Books

I read an interesting article concerning children’s reading. There were comments from authors Jackie French (Australian Children’s Laureate) and Andy Griffiths as well as the thoughts of Gail Erskine, President of the Children’s Book Council of Australia.

What I found insightful was the comment made by Emeritus Professor of Children’s Literature at the University of Canberra, Dr Belle Alderman, who said that educators should look at why children do not read. “All kids love stories. Rather than saying they are reluctant readers, what is it we aren’t giving them to make them want to read and enjoy it?” Andy Griffiths, a former high school English teacher was inspired to start writing children’s stories after he became aware of how many of his students did not read. What a life-changing decision that was for him!

As an aside....this is why we, at Danebank, go to great pains to ensure that children will be matched to “the right book”. One of our Core Values says it like this; “Engaging learning through quality teaching across the curriculum with innovation and creativity”. It is such a gift to be engaged in your learning by falling in love with a good book, and our Library is certainly full of so many of them. One of the joys of being a teacher is to find that perfect match. Please never hesitate to contact Mrs Jamieson (Librarian) or drop into the library, should you ever need help to match your child up with books that she might fall in love with.

On this topic, Jackie French offered her suggested reading list:

Books for 2-6 year olds:

Rudie Nudie” (Emma Quay)

 “The Pros and Cons of Being a Frog” (Sue deGennaro)

(These last two were short-listed last year).

 “Greetings From Sandy Beach” (Bob Graham)

 “Irresistible books for younger readers”

 “Tashi” (Anna Fienberg)

 “The 13 -storey (and 26-Storey and 39-Storey) Treehouse (Andy Griffiths)

 “The Terrible Underpants” (Kaz Cooke)

You may have noticed she modestly did not list any of her own books. I will say that anything written by Jackie French is a sure winner!

NSW Premier’s Reading Challenge

Mrs Jamieson will soon be handing students their Premier's Reading Challenge username, password and Reading Log.

We encourage every student to keep reading and to keep your book lists, as you will be able to use these books for the NSW Premier’s Reading Challenge. If you are having trouble finding books for PRC, Mrs Jamieson is happy to help you. We don’t have all of the books from the PRC in our School Library, but we do have many of them.

Year 1 students need to read 25 books from the PRC list and 5 personal choice books. The PRC begins on 1 March and students are expected to read the 30 books by 24 August. Happy Reading!

You can find the PRC book lists at the following web address:https://products.schools.nsw.edu.au/ prc/booklist/home.html

PM Home readers

Thank you to all the wonderful parents who so kindly volunteered to cover our 650 new Home Readers! We were overwhelmed with offers. The books have now been distributed as evenly as possible across the K-2 classes based on receipt of the forms. If you did not get books to cover this time, do not worry! There will be a next time! We will keep your name on file for the next round. Thank you once again to all those who wanted to help. We really appreciate it.

Parent Reading workshop

There is  Parent Reading workshop run by Mrs Sharon Williams (Learning Support teacher). This is a great opportunity to hear about strategies to assist you with helping your daughters to learn to read. The Reading Helper Information Morning will be held on Wednesday 8 March at 8am in KB classroom. This workshop is essential for parents assisting with the Year 1 Parent Reading program. A flyer will also be sent home promoting this information morning soon. 

Pencil Grips

The Pencil Grips have arrived at the Junior School Office. If you would like to purchase a pencil grip for your child, please encourage your child bring $3.50 in a marked envelope. The Cross Over pencil grips have been recommended by Occupational Therapists and encourage correct pencil grip and reduce writing fatigue.

Sun Safe 
Students are not allowed to play outdoors at recess and lunch unless they are wearing their ‘red hats’. Please make sure that your daughter has her ‘red hat’ with her each day for sun protection. Please also ensure your daughter's red hat is labelled.


Junior School Photos 
Our school photos were taken this week. There were many wonderful hairstyles and smiling faces for the occasion. The photos will be delivered to the school soon and we will send them home with the girls.


Move More, Sit Less, Every day!

Does your child get up to 60 minutes of physical activity every day? The guidelines recommended by the Department of Health encourage children to sit less and be more active and the use of electronic media for entertainment should be limited to less than 2 hours per day.

Being physically active is good for kids’ health, as well as being a great way for them to make friends and to develop physical and social skills.

Children are individuals – they grow and develop physical skills and abilities at different rates. Providing opportunities for active play, will allow your child to continue to grow and develop at their own pace. It is important to promote healthy bodies and minds, and to limit children’s sedentary behaviour, regardless of how much physical activity they do.

What are the benefits?

Social Benefits

·Creates opportunities for fun with friends.

·Reduces anti-social behaviour, including aggressive and disruptive actions.

·Develops skills such as cooperation and teamwork

Emotional and Intellectual Benefits

·Improves self-esteem and confidence.

·Improves concentration and management of anxiety and stress.

Health Benefits

·Reduces the risk of developing type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

·Improves physical fitness, including coordination and movement skills.

·Reduces the risk of unhealthy weight gain.

·Builds strong muscles and bones.

·Promotes healthy growth and development.

Children’s daily physical activity does not have to be done all in one go. The 60 minutes can be accumulated throughout the day.

Remember, even if your child doesn’t play sport, there are lots of activities they can do. Being active in a variety of ways will help children get all the benefits.

So…10 minutes before school, 20 minutes walking or riding to and from school and 30 minutes of active play after school = 60 minutes.

Help children to grow strong bones and muscles by encouraging them to:

·Skip, run, hop and jump.

·Climb or swing on monkey bars and climbing frames.

·Play games like tug-o-war and hopscotch.

·Do structured activities like dance, gymnastics and martial arts.

Be active every day in as many ways as you can!

More information about healthy living, including references to other Australian Government guidelines concerning healthy weight and healthy eating, can be found at www.health.gov.au.

Does your daughter get enough sleep?

It is important that children receive a minimum of 10 hours of sleep a night. Children who do not get enough sleep have a reduced capacity for learning. They become tired and irritable during the day and also have a reduced threshold for coping with friendship and peer problems. Research also correlates a lack of sleep to childhood and adolescent depression, obesity and anxiety. Please do not accept your child’s complaints that “all the other kids go to bed much later than me”. TV and computer use prior to bed-time can also stop children from settling and disrupt sleep cycles. If your child complains about going to bed at a decent hour, tell them “Mrs Cooper and Mrs Larkin said!”… We are happy to have a little chat with her because we want your daughter to learn well and be happy at school.