Happy Sunday and Kaya to all parents of 4K,
What an exciting first week of school we have had! We are very proud of our 4K class team and their efforts this week. They've already shown great determination and resilience, navigating through the first day nerves, settling into the new life of a big Year 4 student and overcoming the busy days and changing routines with swimming during our normal break times. We were incredibly fortunate to have ideal swimming conditions down at the bay, there were no complaints of being cold thanks to it being so hot outside and it looks like it will continue this week. I hope they have had some rest this weekend and are ready for another week full of learning and fun! 🏊
Please settle in for another super long blog post - apologies for another absolute whopper!! There is so much beginning of the year information at the moment but it will ease off once we are all settled in and future ones will be brief and fortnightly.
Week 1 Learning
The first week was all about getting to know each other and feeling comfortable in our Year 4 zone. While swimming seems to be a decent part of our day, it has been a great opportunity to ease into class expectations and develop our team work skills. We have had class meeting to decide on some class team rules, learnt some awesome maths games to develop our place value knowledge and begun our religion unit in anticipation for our upcoming Eucharist sacrament. Check out Love Maths by Michael Minas on his website or you tube for some great games you may want to play at home too.
Week 2 & 3 Learning
Spelling - Spelling Groups will begin this week and the first is the short consonant 'b' sound with the graphemes of /b/ and /bb/. Unit 2 next week with the short vowel a phoneme with the grapheme is 'a - apple'.
Reading - Reading Groups will also start next week with students differentiated for their reading needs and work with a teacher two times a week to develop their reading skills. We are also beginning our class novel study for the text "The Twits" by Roald Dahl with our own copy of the story to read and work on.
Writing - This term, we are launching into exploring and writing narratives. Within the next two weeks we will be creating alluring orientations and developing the complication within their own narrative. We will be using the seven steps method to create interesting stories and paragraphs with sizzling starts. Keep an eye out for our first seesaw post to share with you our current writing skills and see areas we will work on this term in our writing.
Mathematics - We will be starting our term with number concepts, developing place value and understanding number relationships with the four operations + - x = work with odd and even numbers and multiples of ten and how larger numbers can be read, expanded and formed. Recall of multiples and times table recall is an essential important part of Year 4 as it progresses from Year 3 times tables of 2x, 3x, 5x and 10x to Year 4 expectations of knowing and recalling all facts up to 10x10. This will be daily work throughout the year in class and in our homework. Please see us if you would like additional resources to work on with your child at home.
HASS - The students will be learning about civics and citizenship, making laws in Australian and the role of our local government.
Important Information
Class materials
Everyone has come to school ready and prepared to learn with their equipment. Some have kept additional equipment at home for later in the year which is totally fine and others have their stored at school to top up throughout the year. Some students are missing their headphones that should have been retained from last year so we will follow up with those students once laptops are delivered next week. Headphones can be the same as last year with the traditional round microphone/speaker jack point (their new HP laptops will also option for USB C port as well).
Laptops
Laptops for our Year 4 students are being prepared and will be handed out to students after swimming in Week 3. Information about the devices and an electronic copy of the user agreement contract will be emailed out this week for parents to review. Both parents and students will be expected to sign and adhere to the conditions in the user agreement contract before laptops will be issued. We highly recommend that you go through all of the points with your child also also start create your own user agreement for laptop use at home and to discuss family rules for use of these laptops out of school hours such as where they can be safely used and monitored by adults in your home and charging places.
No homework or home tasks will need to be completed on the laptops unless advised by the class teacher via our blog or seqta.
Just to note this is my second year using laptops as a learning tool in class and I have some additional set rules for 4K laptop use as well which I will discuss in detail with the students next week to assist laptops being used safely and purposefully which include only ever used on a flat surface such as a desk not laps or on floor, how to keep in protection carry case and use of handles, carrying with two hands, no water bottles kept on desk for prevention of droppage damage and water damage, any parent approved home downloaded games kept in folder to prevent distraction/misuse during school time and choosing appropriate desktop backgrounds. I also ask that students use the traditional cursor at school, keep it in day mode and no pet cursor extensions as they have proven to distract students and reduce work efficacy. I will discuss these with the students as additional expectations in addition to discussing the OLC contract they will sign with you.
During Tuesday's parent meeting we will discuss laptop use in further detail but if you have any questions after the meeting, please feel free to email me.
Early arrival before 8.30
Early arrival students will need to wait in the courtyard area before 8.30. I will open the doors and collect them from the lining up area at 8.30 and ask students not to wait by the doors to enable smooth and calm morning starts. Feel free to send me an email in the mornings or a note with your child if you want to let me know anything.
Timetable Without Swimming:
Sports uniform all days will continue this week with swimming on until this Friday. Please note on Monday, week 3 we will start out normal timetable without swimming lessons. Please see this timetable below and note days for sport uniform. 4K has physical education on Tuesdays and dance (every 2nd week) on Wednesday, therefore 4K will have to wear their teal sport uniform on Tuesdays and Wednesday and their faction sport uniform on Friday.
Parent Information Night:
This Tuesday 6th February, we have our Parent Information evening. The school has split this night into two sessions to accommodate those who have multiple children in different year levels. These sessions are as follows:
5.00 - 5.45pm: PP - 2 in classrooms with class teachers
5.45 - 6.00pm: PP - 6 in the hall with Mrs Hegney and Leadership Team
6.00 - 6.45pm: Yr3 - 6 in classrooms with class teachers
The slides to the presentation will be put on the blog and emailed to be made available after the presentation as a reference and for those that are not able to attend the evening.
We are looking forward to seeing you all in the Year 4 classrooms at 6pm after the parent presentation in the hall at 5.45.
Library:
We will begin our Library borrowing sessions next week (week 3). Please be aware that 4K's borrowing day is on a Monday, which means that ALL students need to bring in their Library bag on this day to borrow books. It would be greatly appreciated if you could support us with this, as we are wanting to place a large focus student's finding something they enjoy reading, whether it be fiction or non-fiction. We will encourage students to put their library bag in their tray this week so they are ready for next Monday.
Parish Mass:
Please note our class will walk to the Church on next Wednesday 14th February (week 3) to take part in the whole school and parish mass with the Dunsborough community. Please ensure your child has a hat and sun cream applied in the morning.
Uniform:
Please check in with the school website for the summer uniform policy and make sure that your child adheres to our guidelines including fashion haircuts. Both boys and girls must have their hair off their face and tied up if it falls below their collar.
Canteen days include Monday, Thursday and Friday, STARTING WEEK 3.
Character Strengths:Parents, this week we are looking at developing the character strength of Appreciation of Beauty and Excellence. St Francis of Assisi saw the beauty in all of God’s creations and in nature itself. His life was one of great respect and mercy for all of God’s creation – people, animals, nature. Do you enjoy the beauty around you? Are you inspired by the goodness of others?
Upcoming Events
- Tuesday 6th February - Parent Information Night 5.45 hall presentation, 6pm Years 3-6
- Wednesday 14th February - Ash Wednesday - Opening School Mass & Celebration of Ash Wednesday
- Saturday 17th February - First Eucharist Commitment Mass
- Sunday 18th February - First Sunday of Lent
- Monday 19th February - Nola Marino Parent Cybersafety Presentation
- Saturday 24th February - P&F Quiz Night
- Monday 4th March - Labour Day Public Holiday
- Sunday 17th March - First Eucharist Sacrament Mass
- Friday 22nd March - Student Free Day - Parent Teacher Meetings
- Sunday 24th March - Palm Sunday
- Thursday 28th March - Last Day of Term 1
Homework
NO HOMEWORK Week 2 - we will be completing Week 2 in class so students understand the parts and expectations for each week. Homework booklets will be due in every second Friday morning of even weeks (Friday Week 4, 6, 8 this term) and we will send home a reminder seqta for the first term the day before to help get used to our fortnightly routine.
Year 4 Homework:
1. Reading - 20 minutes each night with 10min reading aloud to someone - please complete and sign the reading log each night
2. Mental Math's activity sheet
3. Times tables
Thank you so much for such a supportive and smooth start to the year with your child. I look forward to a year of growth, learning and fun. Please see below a parent letter from the CEWA Religion programme to inform you of our learning this term in anticipation for our Eucharist Sacrament later this term.
Kind regards,
Penny
RE: Religious Education Unit 4.4 Eucharist
Dear Parents/Carers
The Bishops of Western Australia have the responsibility of ensuring that Catholic schools teach the Religious Education Program that they have approved.
The purpose of Religious Education is to provide an understanding of the Christian message as it is handed on by the Catholic Church. Your child will be guided to study, research and learn what the Catholic Church teaches.
If your child is not Catholic, you are encouraged to share your religious beliefs with them and support them in understanding how to live according to your faith and when appropriate discuss the similarities and differences that they might experience.
The teaching of Religious Education is compulsory for all students in Catholic schools in Western Australia. Your child will have a thirty minute Religious Education lesson each day. They will also be expected to participate in praying and going to Mass throughout the year as part of the religious life of the school.
This Year 4 unit explores celebrations. Your child will learn the different ways and reasons why people celebrate.
Through the story ‘On Choosing Guests to be Invited,’ Jesus taught that people should not only include friends in their celebrations but also those who are often excluded. Using this story, your child will learn that Jesus teaches that he wants people to do good things without expecting anything in return.
Jesus celebrated with his friends. A special festival which Jesus and his friends celebrated was Passover. Jesus celebrated Passover with his closest friends on the night of the Last Supper. Your child will learn that from the Last Supper event, people remember Jesus in the celebration of the Eucharist.
There are different parts to the Mass. Your child will focus on the Liturgy of the Eucharist, where people receive Holy Communion to grow closer in friendship with Jesus and be more like him in the world.
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