Week 5...still alive!

Good afternoon parents,

What a wonderful week we have had with almost all the beautiful children back in class! It has been great to get back to some sort of normality for our class routines and the children have loved seeing their friends and playing in the sunshine last week. 

A big thank you for my lovely bottle of bubbles and chocolates too! I feel very loved and I am so happy that our online learning platforms worked as well as they did. Of course we could not have done it without you all too! 

A few messages for this week: 

Pick up and drop off 

This has been working really well and the children have been coming in settled, ready to learn with the greater independence in the class during gathering time. Thank you for your patience in the pick up lanes, we are trying to get through the line as quick as we can and it has been great to see some of your friendly faces in the cars! As there are still restrictions with parents coming into school grounds, we have the lovely Mrs. Hughes waiting in the top car park waiting to greet children in the morning so please feel free to drive on through the pick up lane (so you don’t even have to get out of your car 🥰). Hopefully we can have you onsite again soon to share our school with you!

Merit award winner 

Congratulations to James D in our class who was the merit award winner for this week. It was lovely to have this award read out for his peers to hear! Keep an eye on next week’s star citizen for Appreciation!

Faction free dress 
Congratulations to NATURALISTE who was this weeks token winners. They have won the privilege of wearing free dress next Friday! 

Homework

Thank you to those parents who are sending in their child's reading folder each day. The lovely Mrs. Hughes is continuing with our book changing days of Monday and Wednesday. If you have any feedback on how your child is reading, please write it in the reading file pages. Our homework grid is also back for this fortnight. We sent home the homework books on Friday with all of the activities already glued in. If you could please ensure your child brings it back by Friday Week 6 (5th of June) I would be very appreciative. 

Our learning in Week 4

I'm sure by now your children have come home with news of a mysterious animal sighted in Dunsborough. We knew little about this animal but did find out that the man - Greg Normandy sighted an animal that was the size of a dog with orange and white stripes. See below the newspaper article from the Margaret River Region News:

The children have been buzzing with excitement and have been keeping watch down the back of the oval for any mysterious moments in the bush. We then discovered that out in the wild, there are a number of hybrid animals and that have been given new names such as: 

- The Liger (Lion/Tiger) 
- The Carma (Camel/Llama) 
- Wholphin (Whale/Dolphin) 

Luckily, I paid for some very important information from National Geographic, which lead to information about a strange animal, called the Trabbit! Have a read of the information below:  This is the start of our Talk for Write unit into information reports! Get ready for some very creative writing...and animals!


In Maths we have been learning about 2D shapes and face families. The children have loved taking part in our math rotations with involve: 

1. Explicit teaching activity with myself 
2. A hand on practise of skills with Mrs Hughes (fact families this week)
3. Online learning activities via Mathletics and Seesaw 

The children have loved showing what they know and putting their learning into practise. 

Within our reading strategy we have been focusing on the skill of visualising. This is when we create mental images in our head as we read and use our background knowledge of things to help us develop these images. The children loved listening to the description of ‘The Bunyip’ from the story The bumpy of Berkeley’s creek. So many different ideas about what this mystery animal looked like allowed us to compare drawings and focus on features and adjectives that were given to us. 

I hope you have a lovely rest of your weekend an stay safe during this crazy storm that's about to hit!

Miss Prowse

Welcome to Week 4

Good evening parents,

Firstly I'd like to say a big thank you for the support we have received over the past three weeks. It has been a strange and unusual time for everyone and I am so blessed to have such supportive and beautiful parents in our community to help deliver and sustain a home learning program. 🤩

We are lucky enough to have everyone back in our class this week and I am certainly looking forward to the routines going back to normal. This week I will be taking lots of photos of our days as I'm sure you will be interested to see what your child is learning in class as we are only using certain aspects of Seesaw. Please have a look through your child's journal when you have a chance as they have been absolute super stars! 🌟 😊

The children's independence since beginning the term has also been such a great thing to see blossom. Gathering time has been quiet, calm and really allows the children to settle into their learning for the day. I have started to set them little challenges each morning and it has been wonderful to see them helping each other with these challenges. One of my favourite quotes from one of the children was 'reading file, sip and crunch and desk mat...ready to rock and roll'. 🥰

A few messages for this week...

Drop off and Pick ups

Unfortunately we still have been directed by the Western Australian Government that parents are not allowed on school ground. As directed by Admin via text last week, all parents must ONLY use pick up lane on Cape Naturaliste Drive (top car park) or via pick up on Sloan Drive. I know there was some confusion last week as it only changed on Thursday but please DO NOT drive in, park, then get out of your car to get your child from the pick up area. This would really help us as we can keep an eye on the children and make sure they stay safe away from cars driving in and out. We really appreciate your support with this. 🚗


Communication

If you require something important to be seen by me when you child arrives at school, I would really appreciate an old hand written note that you child can hand directly to me 📝. Often emails that are sent after 8.30 am might not get to me as I am teaching the children and do not get a chance to check my emails. I know a couple of parents have asked their child to bring home their jumper or reading file but often, the child forgets from the car to the classroom 🤦‍♀️. A quick note to me can alleviate some of the stress while parents are not allowed on school grounds.


Merit Awards

Merit Awards will begin this week and as we are not allowed to have school assemblies, Mr. Lee and Mr. Torrese will be coming around to each of the classes to present the merit awards🥇. I will be recording the presentation and popping it onto the blog later this week.

Friendology - URStrong

This is the wonderful friendship and social emotional program that we will be starting this term to support the children in helping them make better friends and strengthen and foster healthy relationships. Within the program the children may be starting to use the language of UR Strong: Friendology including: 'Friendship fire', 'Talk it out', 'Quick comebacks' and the 'Friend-o-cycle'. We will be providing some information to parents on the blog as we complete the lessons of the program.

On Friday we will be using our stuffies (stuffed toys/ beanie boos/ teddies) 🧸 to help us be brave and act out different scenarios that we could be faced with in the playground. If you could please make sure your child brings in their stuffy on Friday 22nd on May to participate in this activity, that would be greatly appreciated. Please note that we only require a stuffy that is no more than 30 cm big.

Thank you for your ongoing support, 

Miss Prowse 

Week 3 Information

Good afternoon parents,

I hope you have all had a wonderful full week back at school. I can definitely say I will sleep well tonight 🥱

Thank you to all those parents who have advised the school on whether their child will be attending next week. If your child is attending school next week, can you please ensure that you notify your child's classroom teacher. If you are sending your child back to school, please bring back all workbooks, exercise, scrapbooks and homework folders, as we will be using them at school. A suggestion is to bring it back in a reusable bag so it is easier for your child to carry in on their own from your car. 

Please be aware that parents are still not permitted on school grounds. Please refer to previous email from the school outlining the pick up procedure.

We will be following a similar structure to the sequence of the days as outlined in the Week 3 Learning sequence with some adaptations for increased face to face teaching and support. Please note that due to the increased numbers of children at school, we are not able to provide as many instructional videos via Seesaw. However, we have ensured that many activities were completed in Week 1 and 2 so should seem familiar to your child. Please encourage to read the instructions on worksheets carefully.

Please remember we are available for any extra support you may need via email or the school phone, taking into consideration some times we may not be available immediately due to providing support to children at school.

Below is an electronic copy of the Term 2 Week 3 Learning Schedule. If your child is not attending school, we have been busy making up home learning packs for Week 3, ready to pick up over the weekend. We will send a text to parents who have not notified the school yet that their child is returning on Monday.

Please remember that this is a suggested timetable and is flexible to how your day runs. Even though we have named each activity with a day, it is flexible for when you complete them, however all activities will be removed Friday afternoon to reset new activities for the following week.

Year 1 Week 3 Learning Sequence


We wish you all a Happy Mother's Day 💐

Thanks for your ongoing support,

Miss Prowse

Term 2, Week 2 Learning Sequence

Good afternoon parents,

I hope you enjoyed the first week back to school. I have loved seeing how the children at home are going and have enjoyed seeing some of the children’s faces back at school last week! We thank you for your ongoing support for those of you who are online learning from home and hope you have been enjoying all the teaching videos we have made. I don’t think I’ll be wanting a career in tv anytime soon!

Thank you to all those parents who have advised the school on whether their child will be attending this week.

If you are sending your child back to school, please bring everything that was picked up from school for Week 1 as it also includes all of our week 2 work. 

We have a similar structure for the children’s learning this week and please be assured the children at school are learning the same as the children at home, so no one is disadvantaged in any way.

Please remember we are available for any extra support you may need via email or the school phone, taking into consideration some times we may not be available immediately due to providing support to children at school.

Here is an electronic copy of the Term 2 Week 2 Learning Schedule that you would have found in your home learning packs. Please remember that this is a suggested timetable and is flexible to how your day runs. Even though we have named each activity with a day, it is flexible for when you complete them, however all activities will be removed Friday afternoon to reset new activities for the following week.


Year One, Week 2, Term 2 Learning Sequence

Thanks for your ongoing support.

Miss Prowse

Term 2 Week 1 Learning Sequence

Good afternoon parents,

Thank you to all those parents who have advised the school on whether their child will be attending. We have been busy over the holidays and today planning the next two weeks of learning to ensure your child receives the same education whether they be at school or at home. Please remember we are available for any extra support you may need via email or the school phone, taking into consideration some times we may not be available immediately due to providing support to children at school.

Here is an electronic copy of the Term 2 Week 1 Learning Schedule that you would have found in your home learning packs. These home learning packs are still available to be collected if you have not had a chance. Please remember that this is a suggested timetable and is flexible to how your day runs. Even though we have named each activity with a day, it is flexible for when you complete them, however all activities will be removed Friday afternoon to reset new activities for the following week.

Year One Week 1 Learning Sequence

Thanks for your ongoing support.

Miss Prowse

Welcome back to Term 2

Good afternoon parents,

I can't believe that we are at the beginning of Term 2! I am so thankful to have such beautiful supportive parents such as yourselves during the past month. It has certainly been a roller coaster of emotions but we are so looking forward to seeing the children back at school or in an online capacity.

I hope the holidays was a time to reconnect with your families and spend time doing things we wouldn't normally do. I know my dog Pav has enjoyed all the extra walks he has been getting!

Information about Term 2

As we head back into the structure of Term 2, we aim to provide a safe place for children to come to school.

- All of out tasks, communication and videos will be available through Seesaw. We will release daily announcements (through the inbox function 💬). This will be our daily check in as we can see who has viewed them. Please let us know if you are having issues accessing this.

- The light bulb 💡 activity section of Seesaw is where you will find your child's learning activities and our teaching videos to accompany them.

- We have printed out every activity ready to use for the first two weeks to help families without printers and to reduce work load for parents.

- We have made many videos to support the children's learning. As we cannot interact live with children via seesaw (and cannot use Zoom/Skype due to CEWA privacy regulations), we have recorded teaching videos for nearly every task to help alleviate the support required from parents.  This should give you a break for at least 10 mins each task - yay! Please be aware that your child can watch the video as many times as they like to help them with their understanding.

- We have provided you with an empty daily schedule as our timetable that we have given may not fit in with your families needs. Please use this to change and adapt any tasks within the home learning grid for the week.

- If your child is attending school on any day (in weeks 1 and 2) it is very important that they bring to school ALL the home learning pack resources including worksheets and any books handed out. We suggest you put these in their homework folder for ease of transport or organisation.

- All work will be viewed and marked with feedback via the Seesaw app and we will continue to monitor activities completed at the end of each week.

- Mathletics, Reading Eggs and Study Ladder continue to be additional learning platforms that we have utilised to teach our weekly learning concepts. These results will be checked by us at the end of each week.

- Our previous blog post has links on how to access and use all these online platforms.

- Your child's named pack is available to be collected from TODAY until Wednesday morning outside of Mrs. King's classroom (near the ECC doors). They include:

• My Friend Jesus (Religion book)
• Home learning Scrap book
• Desk plate with handwriting and 120 grid
• Home Learning Writing book
• Handwriting book 
• Weekly Learning sequence overview (Week 1 and 2)
• All activity sheets referred to in Seesaw Activities 

Please feel free to contact us via email during this time or you can ring the school during school hours.

We will be putting the Learning Sequence (for week 1) on the blog AND in the announcements section in Seesaw for your reference - in addition to the hard copy which is included in your child's learning pack.

If you have any questions, please let us know.

Take care and stay safe,

Miss Prowse

Happy holidays and end of Term information

Dear Parents,

I can't believe we are already at the end of Term 1, it has definitely been a term we won't forget! Hopefully your past two weeks have not be too stressful and you have been able to enjoy some extra time with your children. 

I wanted to say a big thank you to all of you for your support during these uncharted times. I have loved receiving different videos and voice messages from your child through Seesaw and it has been a great way to maintain positive relationships with each and every one of your children.  

We have begun next term's planning with the decision that Seesaw will become our main communication and learning platform for the early years classes so we would appreciate a little of your time sometime over the holidays to become aware of the inbox and announcements section tab on the right hand side and as we will be posting messages each morning as a check-in or roll as it allows us to see who has viewed these. 

Tasks to do will be in the lightbulb activities section and we are working on trying to merge all of the tasks into Seesaw to help reduce confusion of where to go and what to do.  We will repost our introduction videos at the bottom of this blog for you to click on if you haven't yet become familiar with any of these learning platforms yet.  Please note that all of these digital platforms can work from desktop computers, laptops, tablets, i Phones and iPad although older generation ipads seem to have a few limitations.  Please let us know if you do not have access to any of these devices for your child.    

Taking into mind some parent feedback, the Year 1 and 2 team have been busily planning our learning to start next term recording lots of lessons for your child to watch instead of heavy reliance on parent reading. We have decided to print out some of the the resources that you may like to have hard copies for Week 1 to reduce screen time requirements and hopefully some more independent based activities. 

We have organised a scrapbook and an exercise book for you to collate online learning. You can use these books to glue in any activity sheets your child has completed and to complete any writing activities on the dotted thirds lined paper. You will also find that we have made up a smaller version of their desk mat with your child's name written within dotted thirds, alphabet letters, a number line and on the back a 120 number grid and some sentence writing prompts.  

We are going to 'magpie' copy Mrs Murphy's idea and have their new books ready to be hand delivered by us for you collect from your cars through the school's Cape Nat pick up lane area on the last weekend of the holidays on Sunday 26th April between 9 and 10am and we will send out a text message closer to the date as a reminder. If you are unable to come at that time or would prefer not to, then please let me know, keeping in mind we will also leave them in our class boxes outside the ECC doors next to Mrs King's 1/2 classroom for collection for the rest of the day on Sunday before Monday 27th April.   

Please feel free to email if you have any questions at all. 

We wish you all a very happy Easter and an enjoyable holiday and please know how much I miss seeing your beautiful children each day!

Take care of each other.

Miss Prowse 

Please click here for How to access and use Reading Eggs Library

Please click here for A little introduction to using Seesaw Class at home

Please click here for How to use Mathletics and Rainforest Maths


Please click here for A little introduction how to use Study Ladder for learning