Week 3

Swimming is Monday and Tuesdays.  

Please remember to bring everything you need; rash shirt, togs, towel, thongs/crocs, goggles and a cap.

Today I lent children 3 swimming caps, one towel and four pairs of thongs.

Reconciliation

In preparation for the First Sacrament of Reconcilation we have been learning about the process of being reconciled. This does not only apply to children participating in the sacrament but all people.

Admit

Say sorry

Make it up

Forgive

Today the class rewrote the ending to a picture book demonstrating their  knowledge of this process.

Science

During our lessons this week we have been looking at floating and sinking which has been a lot of fun and hands on experiments.

Speaking and Listening

The talks are progressing well with most children ready on their allocated day.  Thank you parents for helping them prepare.

Emma told us about an old tin toy police car from her Dad's collection.  It was mostly made of tin but had plastic wheels and steering wheel.  

World Mission Day is on Thursday

Please bring a gold coin to donate and a large map will be made with the funds raised for the Missions.

Day for Daniel is on Friday

Please wear something red on Friday.  (No donation is needed it is just about awareness)

Perhaps you could take this opportunity to remind your children about safe and unsafe situations.  We will discuss in class the danger of strangers and also the much more probable danger from someone you already know.  We will concentrate on the ways your child knows they are feeling worried or unsafe. For example; sweaty hands, shaking, sick in the tummy, a feeling of needing to run away.  We will also list five people your child knows they can talk to about any problem they are having who will listen to them and help them.   Some of these people will be in their families and others will be at school.  The big message will be GO AND TELL. I will concentrate most on the control and the choices your children have to protect themselves.  My aim is not to frighten them but to empower them with strategies to keep themselves safe.  I will send home the hand they make with their five adults who can help them so you can use this as a discussion starter with them to follow up at home.

Week 2

Swimming is Monday and Tuesdays.  
Please remember to bring everything you need; rash shirt, togs, towel, thongs/crocs, goggles and a cap.
Today I lent children 3 swimming caps, one towel and four pairs of thongs.

Reconciliation

In preparation for the First Sacrament of Reconcilation we have been learning about the process of being reconciled. This does not only apply to children participating in the sacrament but all people.

Admit
Say sorry
Make it up
Forgive

Today the class rewrote the ending to a picture book demonstrating their  knowledge of this process.

Science
Fun in Science learning about the forces of push and pull.

Our Speaking and Listening tasks have been going well with most children well prepared on their correct day.  Remember you can only do a topic once i.e. you can't do 2 Mystery Toy Talks.

Some beautiful old toys have been brought in.

 This doll has opening and closing eyes and a speaker in her back that says Ma Ma.

At assembly this week Mrs Hutchins and Mrs Harper were acknowledged for their excellent work supporting Theo in our classroom.  I was so proud to nominate them and was thrilled when they won this prestigious award for teaching with excellence from the Down Syndrome Association of Queensland.  They were the best school officers nominated!  Wow, what an achievement.  Congratulations.

Joshua also very proudly accepted a Shining Light Award from Mrs Thomas.  She only gives one student from the whole school an award each week.  Joshua has grown to be a fantastic reader over the year and has improved so quickly.  Brilliant work Josh!

The Principal from the disadvantaged school also came to thank us for our donations of swimming things.  Thank you to all the families who sent in donations.  

We finished our collages. The children ripped up little pieces of magazines to create them. We tried to copy the techniques of illustrator Lisa Stuart.  Don't they look beautiful?  Please feel welcome to drop into the classroom and take a look at them.

Week 2

This week swimming began.  Our lessons are on Monday and Tuesday.   All children are expected to bring their swimming things.  They need togs, a rash shirt, cap, goggles, thongs, a towel and sunscreen.  Many children were unprepared this week but many others had a great time.

These photos were arranged using Pic Collage.  This free app is available at the App Store.  I had the photos on my IPad and it took about 2 minutes to create these lovely collages.  Kids could easily manage this by themselves and create wonderful memories.

I love learning something new!  This afternoon I investigated how to make a QR Code.  A QR Code is  short for Quick Response.  To see what this code links to you need a phone, or IPod touch or IPad with camera.  Go to the App Store and download the free app called i-nigma.  After downloading the app you launch the app and just aim your camera at the black checkered square below.  Hey presto this app will read the code and send you directly to the website we watched today.  We are learning about the forces of push and pull in science and we launched the unit by investigating this video.

Let me know by your comments if this works for you.  

Term 4 Week 1 Author Visit

Today we were very lucky to have author, Kerry Brown, visit us.  She is an author of children's books and a brilliant presenter. These are two of her picture books.

Poppy Wash was about a girl, named Poppy, who loved her job because she got to wash dragons.  By Imogen

In Poppy Wash one of the dragons got a set of traffic lights stuck in his mouth because he was flying too fast.  By Hannah S

Poppy loved washing the dragons everyday because she had always wanted one.  By Elizabeth

The illustrations in Poppy Wash were great because the bubbles were really good.  By Niamh and Maya

Can I Cuddle the Moon is a very good story because it has lots of rhymes.  It is a good children's book because it is a very nice story and the illustrations are made of collage.  By Nicholas

I like the pictures and the drawings of the bird in the bird bath when it splashes around.  By Callum

I like Cuddle the Moon because it rhymes and it has lots of detailed collages.  By Claudia

I loved the illustrations on the snake because it looks like bubble wrap.  By Geordan

Kerry Brown was telling us about how she became an author.  She wrote Can I Cuddle the Moon because her son liked to cuddle everything and he gave her the idea.  By Conner

I liked Kerry Brown's stories and how she used her imagination.  She showed us a picture about her imagination where a person's shadow was a knight and the bird was a dragon.  By Ethan

She gave away bookmarks for people who answered questions and people who went up to make up new sentences.  By Luka

We had to write a funny answer for our own story.  The question was "Can I kiss Ms Taylor on the toes?"  We made up - "First you have to give her a rose."  By Claudia

"Can I kiss Miss Lavan up a tree?"  "First you have to count to three."  By Hannah L

This is the link to Kerry's webpage if you would like more information.

  Kerry Brown Website

Imagination!

Term 4

Wow Term Four is upon us already. It is a shorter term only 9 weeks left! This term will go quickly so I hope you are all ready to buckle in and get going straight away. During the first half we will have a student teacher from QUT with us. I hope she will feel very welcome and enjoy being with us. 

Religion  We will begin the term preparing some children for the sacrament of Reconciliation.  Not all children are participating in the sacrament but all will learn about what it means to be sorry for choices that they make which hurt others and how they can make it up to have peaceful relationships.  It would be useful if your child is not making their Reconciliation to explain to them why your family has not chosen this.  After this unit we will move on to the seasons of Advent (a time of waiting before Christmas) and Christmas. Most of our class still enjoy the magic and wonder of Santa,  the reindeers and the elves.  I believe this is still totally age appropriate and their anticipation and excitement is encouraged.   Some families may need to remind their children of the need to be respectful of this age of wonder.

Maths  We will mostly be concentrating on number skills to 1000,  the fast recall and application of basic addition and subtraction facts and the concepts of multiplication and division.

English  New spelling lists to match your child's developmental stage based on testing during the last week of Term 3 will come home on Monday in their homework books and I will upload them onto the blog for easy reference under the spelling tab.  The children will write descriptions of characters and settings from the Toy Story books and movies. The children will be assessed on their Speaking and Listening with talks about toys.  This roster of times and instructions will also come home in the homework book. Toward the end of the term we will look at different forms of media persuade us to make consumer choices and the role of stereotyping in advertising.

History During History lessons we will look at how toys have changed over time.

Science In science we will again carry on the toy theme and investigate how toys move and how the force of push and pull affect inanimate objects and what roll friction plays.

Physical Education Swimming begins again at the same times as the first term with two lessons per week.  One lesson will be lead by Mr Hunter and myself and the other from the Get Set Go teachers. Children need; togs, rash shirts, towels, caps, googles and thongs or crocs.  Board shorts are unsuitable for boys to learn to swim in so please ensure they have speedo type swimmer or lycra, tight swimming pants if you prefer they cover up from the sun. I encourage your children to apply sunscreen if they bring it along. The lessons are all 30 minutes.

Swimming items for the disadvantaged.  I will make one last drop of donations for the disadvantaged school I was collecting for last term so if you have any old swimming things your family no longer uses please send them in in the first week.  Remember all sizes are accepted right up to adults as many of their students wear these sizes too.  Thank you to the families that have already sent in donations they are really appreciated.

See you all on Monday!