What a quick term that seemed to be. Term three began with a unit on Winter. We brainstormed "Winter" words, talked generally about seasons, reflected on our thoughts about Winter and wrote some Winter verses which are displayed on the cupboards outside our classroom in the corridor.

In Writing this term we have studied picture story books. We have read many and discussed their format. We have all completed two picture story books on "Flight". The children were to think about their audience and the genre (picture story) when drafting their story. They also had to choose their method of publishing, including text and illustrations.

In Maths we have just finished a 5 week unit on Multiplication. Some children have worked on this unit in Miss Hudson's 2/3 classroom while the rest of us have worked in our room learning about arrays and groups of which make up the foundation of Multiplication. Next term we ill be studying Division along with some Measurement areas.

Production was exciting and reading and listening to the children's reflections, they all seemed to enjoy it. The children learnt their lines and the songs well and the dance was very cute. The children were even singing the songs on the Friday after production was over.

Jamielee Black (our first year teaching student) has just completed her two week teaching round with us and will be back again for the first four Thursdays in term 4. It would be nice for her to see the ICT presentations as she has been here during the production of their powerpoints. Jamielee (or Miss Black) has an excellent rapport with the students, communicates well with both staff and students and displays a willingness to learn. She has definately been a welcome addition to our classroom.

Thank-you to all of our parent reading helpers. We are always appreciative of your time. If you have not been able to help in the past, but may be able to now, please come and see me. We are needing some assistance on Wednesdays this term if anyone is able to fill this spot.

Have a safe, relaxing and enjoyable break.

See you all again on Monday 5th October.

This term we have been busy learning about Space. This is what the children recall about their busy term.   

We all did projects about Space. We chose our topic and researched it using books and websites. We are going to present them to the class when we are finished.

At the start of the term we made a wondering galaxy with all the things we wanted to learn. We are going to answer all of the questions next week.

We've been making Solar Systems with balls, hoops, fishing wire and paints. They are hanging in our classroom.

In our Space unit we have made a fun game using letters called the Rocket Game. We laminated them. We also made astronauts by taking photos of ourselves and pasting them on to an astronaut body. 

We made space pictures out of  play-doh. We moved our play-doh around and took photos of our play-doh pictures. We put the photos into "Moviemaker" on the computer and we added some space music. We added a title and credits and we watched them on our Interactive Whiteboard.

We wrote a space story. Then we drew pictures to go with our story. We took photos of our pictures and put them into "Photo Story 3". We recorded our narration and made music to play over the top of the story. We have been watching them as we finish. We have also published a space story each. They are on our bookshelf. 

We had an excursion to IMAX and Scienceworks. At IMAX we saw a movie called "Fly Me To The Moon". At Scienceworks we saw a  movie called "Spinning Out" and then we saw the constellations. We saw the Southern Cross. Some of us felt scared and dizzy (when they spun the sky around) but it was extremely fun and exciting. Mitch liked the bus trip because he saw Etihad Stadium.

We've been making Solar Systems with balls, hoops, fishing wire and paints. They are hanging in our classroom.

We went into a dome place and Simon showed us around the solar system. When we went into the tunnel, we thought it was going to be very dark but it was really fun.

We have been visiting Space websites with cool and interesting games and activities. These are some of the websites that we like:

http://starchild.gsfc.nasa.gov

http://www.abc.net.au/children/space/

http://spaceplace.jpl.nasa.gov/en/kids/

http://www.kidsastronomy.com/

http://amazing-space.stsci.edu/

I hope you have all had a good start to the term and are enjoying this beautiful autumnal weather.

During term 1, we were learning about ourselves, each other and working together. We will continue to use all these skills throughout our learning.

This term, we are studying Space.  This is an inquiry unit. This means that I gave them the topic of "Space" and they discussed and came up with what they wanted to learn. The children have come up with many questions that they will endeavour to answer over the term. These questions are displayed in our classroom on the doors and make up our "Galaxy Wonderings". We have astronauts hanging from the string, a space art display and each child has made up their own pneumonic to remember the order of the planets from the sun.

During term 2 and 3 we have the pleasure of welcoming Jamielee Black to our grade. She is a first year student and is fitting in beautifully with our grade. Miss Black has already taken the roll, listened to reading and conducted small group activities with the children during Literacy rotations. She is here for three more Thursdays and a two week block in term 3.

I would also like to welcome Emily Smallwood to our grade. She is studying teaching at University and is assisting with our Literacy rotations on Wednesday mornings. She made a guest appearance in an ICT session this week where the children are making a short movie using the "Windows Moviemaker" program. Your assistance Emily, is greatly appreciated.

Students worked really hard to develop their communication and co-operative skills last term and will continue in this vein throughout the year.

The timetable has changed this term.

Thanks for all your assistance and support. 

This term is fast drawing to a close. We have been busy at work and play and have learned much about ourselves along the way.

Over the last couple of weeks we have been learning about cooperation. We have discussed what we think it means, made posters about what cooperation looks like, role played cooperative learning situations and participated in activities requiring cooperative learning skills. The children are using attentive listening skills, showing mutual respect and are allowing others to participate. These are all terms we use in class which fits nicely with our TRIBES agreements. Our latest task was completed in groups of 4 and involved a farmer, a chicken, a fox and some corn. You might like to ask your children about this activity.

In Literacy, we are at various stages in the story writing process. Some children are in the writing stage, some editing, some conferencing and others publishing. The children are participating in fine motor activities as part of our literacy rotations, along with comprehension activities, handwriting tasks and guided reading activities.

In Numeracy, the children are working on Place Value, looking at ones/units, tens and even hundreds. Most activities so far have been on the Interactive Whiteboard, the laptops or in groups on the floor with Base 10 materials or flash cards.

You may like to visit some of the websites we have been using in class. These include:

www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/maths/interactive/numbers

www.amphi.com/teachers/rbeck/placevalue.html

http://www.funbrain.com/tens/index.html

I look forward to seeing you all at Parent/Teacher interviews next week.

Rebecca Bowen

Welcome again to Grade 1/2B. I look forward to getting to know you and your children over the year.

We have begun our topic of 'Learning to Learn About Me' and have looked at what our classroom might look like, sound like and feel like if it was to help us learn. We have looked at what makes a good friend and what Care, Create, Cooperate means to us. We have unpacked the TRIBES agreements and discussed their importance  and we have looked at what makes us special and reflected on the special qualities that we have and share. The children have worked cooperatively to gain an understanding of all these concepts.

In Literacy, we have begun story writing and journal writing and looked at what makes us a good writer. We are reading "The Giraffe, the Pelly and Me" by Roald Dahl as our serial, which the children are enjoying and we have shared many other stories already.

In Maths, we are working on Number, specifically addition and will move onto Place Value later in the term.

We have used our Interactive Whiteboard as a lesson starter and as an early finisher task and as a whole class learning tool which we have been very excited about.

I'm looking forward to seeing you all at the up and coming swimming sports in Sunbury. Please come and see me at school if you have any questions.

Cheers, 

Rebecca Bowen