Numeracy weeks 5 & 6

During weeks 5 and 6, some students in the 3/4 neighbourhood  have been further investigating decimal fractions through several visual materials. Other students have moved into operations and specifically prolem solving through addition stories. We have also began to look at the concept of 'relationships' (number can be used to compare and order) through our data collection project.

Decimal Fractions
The two materials we focused on during our investigation on decimal fractions during week 5 and 6 were decimats and deciwire. These were both very hands on materials that allowed students to really see visually the size of the number made up of tenths and hundredths. These materials were specifically used to correct the misconception that longer the number is after the decimal point, the larger the value of the number (misconception that 0.25 < 0.3 because 25 is larger than 3). This is often called longer-is-larger misconception. Students were instructed to create and order decimal fraction numbers using decimats during week 5. In week 6, we consolidated this idea by creating several decimal numbers with straws and string (see photo).

Check out our deciwire on our wall!

This is a very hands on way of looking at decimal fractions.
Here, children discuss the decimal number while creating the deciwire. 

Addition Stories
To begin our investigation into operation, we looked into various word problems in the form of stories. We investigated exactly what the problem was asking us to do, what informations were given, which information was important to the question and which were not and what operation or rule we would use to solve the problem. Children had a lot of fun creating their own addition stories and sharing them with the group to see whether the others could figure them out.

Data Project
As a part of our investigation into the four big ideas of Mathematics, we are beginning our exploration of the concept of 'relationship' through the data project. In this project, students are given the question "What books do children read in our Neighbourhood?" Students plan how they collect and represent the data during the maths investigation sessions. This week we began planning the collection of the data by looking at the three steps; 1. What are we going to find out? 2. What data can we get? and 3. How do we get the data? The students will then look into designing the collection of data and reflect on its efficiency. Finally, they will organize, categorise, analyse and represent the data in a way appropriate to its context.

Home Learning
Decimal fractions - ordering decimal numbers is very important in children's understanding. Here are two games I like playing. 
Balloon Game
Flower Power game

Addition Stories - Creating addition stories is always fun at home. We often find a picture and make up stories to challenge each other. Sometimes we insert unnecessary information to try and trick each other. This website has a huge selection of word problems for you and your children to look at together. It's important to always discuss what the question is asking them to do. Sometimes getting the children to draw a diagram of the problem can help.

Premiere Reading Challenge

The annual Victorian Premier's reading Challenge is upon us again and we are excited at what books children will be reading this year!

To begin with, some parents have been requesting the link to the Premier reading Challenge form so here is the link:
http://www.education.vic.gov.au/Documents/about/events/prc/consentecschools.pdf

I thought it might be nice to recommend a few books during the challenge so here are a few of my selections...


1. THE NAME OF THIS BOOK IS SECRET by Pseudonymous Bosch
This series by the wonderfully named author is written in a witty manner, with a lot of play on words and acrobatics with language. The storyline isn't bad either. There are five books in the series and they are, by all accounts, equally funny and engaging. We found this copy at Readings.


2. WONDER by RJ Palacio
This book was my daughter's favourite for a long time. It is a beautiful story about a 10 year old boy with Treacher Collins syndrome which causes deformities on his face. I like this book as it is written not only through the eyes of the boy, but through many different POVs. Also found at Readings.

3. HOWL'S MOVING CASTLE by Dianne Wynne Jones
Yes, I too, loved this film. But it was a book first. Here is a quote:

"Wizard Howl's castle was rumbling and bumping toward her across the moorland. Black smoke was blowing up in clouds from behind its black battlements. It looked tall and thin and heavy and ugly and very sinister indeed."

Perfect for looking at the setting of a narrative, don't you think? I found this for my Kindle, but I'm sure you can find it in bookshops. If not, The Book Depository is pretty good.

That's my three recommendations for now (I will do some more another time). If you have any recommendations of your own, please add it on the comments below!

Thanks!

ICT User Agreement

 Hello everyone,

As you are aware all students have been signing the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) user agreements across the school. 

The new ICT User Agreement, which has been distributed to the students last week, helps ensure digital technologies (including online, software and hardware) are consistently being used in a safe and responsible way throughout the school to support and extend student learning.

Please find posted here a digital copy of the ICT User Agreement for your reference.

It can be downloaded and printed from here also.

Thank you for your ongoing support


ICT USER agreement.docx

Students Eye View: Book Talk

Every Wednesday for the past term parents have come into read novels to small groups of children. Kids come to school with smiles on their faces, excited to listen to stories.

We have interviewed some people about what they feel/like about book talk.

"How do you feel about Book Talk?"

Emma - "It's nice to listen because it's really calming"

Nic (teacher) - "It's calming, it's nice and it's an opportunity for parents to join in too"

Genevieve - "It's really really wonderful and inspiring, but I still think that children should read to Adults"

Gideon - "I feel like it's a good moment to listen. I like Book Talk."

Aidan - "Happy because ... I don' t really know but I'm excited on Wednesdays!"


                                                                                            Written by Evie


(well done Evie!)

Proofreading, Wordstudy and improving your writing!

Since the beginning of term there has been a veritable explosion of narrative writing in the neighbourhood.  All the students have worked on at least one story, many have written two or more, and some have written one story that is reaching EPIC proportions!  In the past two Friday Feedback sessions, several students have read their drafts aloud to the neighbourhood, and received really useful tips and comments from their peers.  Moving towards publication is a goal with many steps along the way...

The process of conferencing with each student regarding the content, sentence structure, spelling and overall shape of their narrative is on-going. The teachers watch for emerging trends and possibilities for teaching points both to the individual as we conference, and also to larger groups when we see common needs.  These range from structural aspects, such as using paragraphs, to improving word-choices to engage the reader, to learning about punctuation of speech or more complex sentences. 

Every student has taken part in a proofreading and goal-setting workshop which focussed them on aspects of their writing they know they can work on.  For many students this also involves learning to correctly spell words they usually mis-spell.  We are running workshops to develop the students' skills in this regard, as well as specific targets for those students in whom we see a definite need to learn particular patterns or grammatical structures, such as how to deal with plurals! 

You can help at home by asking your child if they would like to let you read their story or read it aloud to you, and give them your perspective on their writing...

• did they capture your attention with an interesting beginning? 
• do you have a picture in your mind of the setting or the main character?
• did you find anything confusing?  (sometimes students don't realise they are switching from first to third to second person point of view, and it can take some time for them to understand what this means for the reader!)
• do they want your suggestions for how to introduce or overcome a tricky problem?

Building a Reading Community

Alongside the ever-popular Book Talk sessions on Wednesday, we are encouraging ongoing reading and sharing of literature in the neighbourhood and at home through the use of a Reading Log.  We have asked the children to record the books they have read/are reading for the month of May on their reading log, which has been pasted inside their reader's/writer's book at school. 

The overall purpose of asking the children to record their books is to facilitate the communication between the children, teachers, and parents regarding exciting, interesting, and wonderful literature.  However, this will not be achieved if all the children do is write down their reading choices on their book log which stays in their bag or locker!  SO, there are several supporting parts within this initiative.

One is creating a means and a method for the children to share information about the books they have read.  Summarising is an essential skill that supports growth in comprehension; we all summarise and re-phrase what we read in order to connect new events or information.  So, we have spent several weeks this term exploring this skill by writing a "Story Line in a Sentence" (or sometimes "two sentences"!) after reading a text.  This is called a "SLIS" and is quite a challenging thing to do; especially for a longer text!  We are asking the students to write one, in their reader's/writer's book, after recording each book they've read in May.  This then makes it possible to communicate effectively, and briefly, about reading possibilities with each other.  We had a very successful "speed sharing" of books this Wednesday, May 21st, after Book Talk... and may have more in the future!

The second way of sharing is less technical and more creative; a response to the book.  The children do not have to create a response to every book they read, unlike the SLIS.  They are expected to create one response to a book they have read in May. (of course they can create more if they wish...) The response may take a variety of forms;

•  artistic (a painting or drawing of a scene that is critical or particularly resonated with them)
• creative (a diorama, collage, construction, model, puppet...relating to a scene/character)
• musical (a soundtrack using Garageband for a scene in the book)
• performative (selecting a scene to read aloud to others in a dramatic manner)

These responses can then be shared in the neighbourhood which will also create more interest, discussion and opportunities for students to discover new reading material together.  There is also a powerful interaction between studying and responding to an author's ability to evoke a setting, scene, character or devise a plot-line, and enlarging one's own ideas an skill-base.  As we explore the idea of narrative in the over-arching inquiry, this aspect of studying and responding to literature feeds the children's awareness and  skills regarding the art of excellent narrative creation, empowering them as they write for others.

Narrative Settings

In our inquiry this term, we are focusing on the concept of change through narratives. This week, we are exploring the "setting" of narratives and supporting the students in creating a detailed setting to base their narratives. As a part of this, we have set up provocations to allow students to engage in many aspect of the creation of setting during learning agreement. Students are invited to watch a short film of a variety of scenery in the performance area and respond to it through a shared poster, create a diorama in the art space, listen to soundscapes in the media room and draw and write what they imagine, and construct a scene using materials provided on the construction area. These provocations will allow students to develop better skills in constructing a setting using their imagination.

Students listen to the soundscapes and respond to it through drawing and writing.

Students will also experience a workshop this week where they will create their own "Choose Your Own Adventure" stories, giving them an opportunity to practice these skills.

Sharing the love of reading!

EDIT - After some parent feedback we realised we had not included the day of BOOK DAY!!

It's this Wednesday the 21st of May!

Students will be sharing their books among themselves which will help spread the love of reading and different books to read.

Hello everyone!

This coming week we will be asking the students to bring a book from home - this can be a book which is currently being read or an old favourite! 

We will be sharing our books and ideas and talking about why we love certain books.

In addition to Book Talk, this is a lovely way for the students to engage with reading.

Please support your child in remember to select a book and bring it in.

Numeracy weeks 3 & 4

Recently, we have been exploring the concept of place value through representing and renaming  large numbers during our numeracy sessions.

Using MAB blocks, the students built large structures and and towers. MAB blocks, sometimes referred to as base-ten blocks, are a classroom manipulative that help children visualize and better understand concepts of mathematics such as the base-ten number system, renaming of numbers and operations. As each block has a value of 1, 10, 100 or a 1000, the students were able to work out the 'value' of their tower or structure.

Some of the assessments derived from this activity include the students' ability to rename numbers (10 of these is one of this), trusting the count, naming and recording large numbers, and calculations through use of different operations.

Here are some photos of the activity.

Students begin to create their structures.

This is clearly an enjoyable and engaging activity.

Some challenge themselves to build extremely high towers.

Others are more intricate.

The students are then asked to demolish their tower and work out it's 'value'.
Here you  can see students grouping different units into groups to accurately record the value.

Students are able to demonstrate how many by arranging the blocks in groups of ones, tens, hundreds and thousands.
Here, you can clearly see that these students have 6864.

HOME LEARNING
Students may want to go to this website to explore large numbers some more. Here, they are able to create their own large numbers, and see if they can name it correctly before checking it. 

I also quite like this game where students must either identify which numeral is in which place value, or write a number according to the words (there is a bit of shooting involved, but it's for the sake of mathematics).

Basketball Club

There is a Basketball Club available for the 3/4 Neighbourhood during lunchtime.

All are welcome. 

Come and join in the fun! 

We will be developing ball handling skills, shooting and learning team strategies for half the session then playing some matches.

When: Thursday lunchtimes

Where: GYM

Time: 11.15 – 12.00

What to bring: Water bottle, appropriate footwear

Kind regards,

Maddy

Some of the action at Basketball Club

Premiers Reading Challenge MASCOT: Lachlan the Reading Dog!

Hey everyone,

We have just posted about the Premiers Reading Challenge and thought we would follow that post up with the PRC's Mascot 'Lachlan the Reading Dog'!

Lachlan the Reading Dog is our 2014 Victorian Premiers’ Reading Challenge mascot. He is a loveable smooth collie, a bit like the movie star Lassie, but without the fluffy coat. Lachlan has a very important job; he listens to children read at Diamond Valley Library with his owner Marlies, a children’s librarian. Luckily for us, Lachlan is taking time out of his busy schedule to join the Premiers’ Reading Challenge. He is very excited about this because he loves nothing better than cuddling up to hear a good story!

You can find out more about Lachlan HERE

Premiers Reading Challenge

Dear Parents,

 

Premier's Reading Challenge is starting up again for 2014. Children in years Prep-Two must read 30 books in total with at least 20 from the Challenge book list and students in Years 3-6 must read 15 books with 10 or more from the Challenge Book List.

 

Students will be registered online by their neighbourhood teachers once the consent form has been returned. Parents can then assist their child to submit completed book titles to the online system. All reading and information must be completed online before 12 September 2014.

 

If your child is interested in participating this year, please read, sign and return the attached consent form to your child's Roll Group teacher who will then register your child and give them their login. 

 

Please visit the VPRC website for more information  http://www.education.vic.gov.au/about/events/prc/Pages/students.aspx

 

Happy Reading!

 

Warm Regards,

Simone Kentley (year 1) and Robert Vandahl (year 5/6)

Speech Writing

Last week we started writing speeches as a way of exploring persuasive text. All the speeches were fantastic. We will continue to develop new and exciting ways to explore writing conventions.

 

Year 3's showing great confidence

 The students were a respectful audience and povided positive and constructive feedback.

Book Talk

As most of the community around the 34 neighbouhood are aware Book Talk happens in the first hour of Wednesday and has continued from Term 1.

Book Talk has been such a delightful experience for all involved as it grows and devekops into not just reading to the kids, but readin with them, allowing time for them to respond and reflect and generally spark interest. Recently we attempted to summarise what had been read into a Headline which would give an idea of the book but without in depth description or details.

The response was amazing!

Again, Book Talk is a wonderful time during the week and if anyone would like to get involved please come and see one of the 34 teachers.

We would also like to remind everyone that as parent helpers we do not expect you to take on al the responsibilities of a classroom teacher so don't hesitate to seek help from any of the 34 teaching team at any stage before, during or after the session.

See you Wednesday!

The 34 Team.