Orange Dragons Class News

Dear Orange Dragon Families,

Welcome to week 4!

The Project Day was a fantastic success! The students were organised into small groups of 5-6 children, working together to design and make a boat that floats. Each group was given a box full of containers, cardboard boxes, bubble wrap, masking tape etc, and they had to test their material to see whether each would float or sink. Next, they had to draw the design for their boat on paper, before the making stage. It was so wonderful to see them all collaborating and carefully planning their designs. During the making stage, they all helped glue and tape their boats together, before testing them to make sure they would float. After this, they moved on to the decorating table, to make their boats look fabulous. It really was a successful day, so thank you Kylie, and to all the staff for making it such a success!

Literacy:
This week the Orange Dragons are learning about the letter ‘Oo’. The sight words this week are: ‘said, all, she’ as well as ‘boat’. The students have been practising writing the letter ‘O’ during rainbow writing and as a class, brainstormed lots of words that begin with O. The picture book that we are studying this week is ‘Owl Babies’ by Martin Wardell. We will use this text as a basis for our writing lessons. On Monday the students made some gorgeous owls. They paper chipped them with brown and black paper and cut them out. They look fabulous! For reading groups so far, the students have read in groups with me, completed their phonics/sight word books, used whiteboards to copy their sight words and did a fine motor beading and lacing activity.

Maths:
This week we are revising Data (graphs) and starting a topic on Volume and Capacity. On Monday the students made a graph representing the animals owed by Orange Dragon families. For Volume and Capacity, the students will be exploring volumes of two piles of material by filling up identical containers, to see which has the greater volume. They will also have the opportunity to compare the capacity of different containers, by filling one up and then pouring the contents into another, as a direct comparison. They will be using the terms: full, empty, half-full, will hold more, will hold less. It should be very hands on!

Science:
For science this week the students will be studying boats. On Tuesday, we read the story ‘Who Sank the Boat’ by Pamela Allen and discussed what happened to the boat as it took on more weight. As a class the Orange Dragons discussed boat designs, and how the design and materials help them to float. They then had a go at making their own boats out of aluminium foil, and tested them to see whether they would float. This was a nice pre-requisite activity to their project day, today.

Child Protection:
This week the children will be learning about feelings. We will discuss ‘Yes’ feelings, such as: happy and excited, as well as ‘no’ feelings, such as; unhappy, scared or anxious etc. We will also explore how our bodies feel when we experience these emotions, through role plays and discussions.

Okay have a wonderful week.

Regards,
Jen Lawson.

Dear Orange Dragon Families,

Welcome to week 3.

Literacy:
This week the students are learning about the letter ‘c’ and are reading ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar’ by Eric Carle. The sight words are; he, up, but and very. In reading groups the students have been playing alphabet and sight word game boards, forming words with lego letters and completing their phonics/sight word booklet (c).

This week we continued our study of ‘Alexander’s Outing’ by Pamela Allen. We discussed what happened in the beginning, middle and end of the story and how most stories have a complication and resolution. The students were asked to write a sentence about a section of the story and illustrate their work. Although a tricky task, the students did a wonderful job!

News presentations are coming along nicely. The students are learning to project their voices, make eye contact with the audience and present their news confidently. This week there is no set topic, as it is free choice news.

Over the last 2 weeks I have been reading with each student and am happy to report that the students are making great progress with their reading. In regards to home reading, I have decided that I will no longer ask parents to fill out the green coloured Home Reading Log. I am now getting each child to swap their home readers by themselves, which means they should be selecting books that they haven’t already read from their levelled boxes. This means that it is no longer necessary for me to check up on the Home Reading Log.

Maths
This week we are continuing to look at Ordinal numbers and area. The students have been using ordinal numbers to show positions in boat and car races. They have also been practising how to write ordinal numbers and read from the calendar using ordinal numbers. Today the students coloured pictures of boats and arrange them (using ordinal numbers) in their books to represent a boat race. This week in area the students are comparing different areas and informally measuring which one is bigger or smaller by covering the area with unifix cubes and other items.

Science
This week we are continuing to read Alexander’s Outing and discuss floating and sinking. The students will have the opportunity to select some classroom items and predict and test whether they float or sink. We will record the results and discuss the findings. Next week we will be discussing how boats float. Just a reminder, we are still collecting containers, foam etc for the week 4 Floating and Sinking Project Day next Wednesday.

Child Protection lessons will start this week, thank you for bringing back the permission notes so promptly. This week we will be discussing protection (how we are kept safe) and body parts (private and public).

In your child’s red note bag you will find a letter from Christian’s parents Richelle and Frank. They have kindly provided some information about Christian’s special needs, as well as a letter from Christian that you may like to read with your child. Please come and see me if you did not receive this letter.

A couple of reminders:
Sport will be held this Friday with the Yellow Dragons.
I will be at a teacher training day, next Tuesday.

Okay have a wonderful week.

Regards,
Jen Lawson.

Dear Orange Dragon Families,

This week for literacy the Orange Dragons are learning about the letter ‘Ll’. The sight words this week are ‘big’ and ‘little’ and ‘sink’ and ‘float’. As a class, we read the book ‘Little Humpty’ and wrote some wonderful, descriptive sentences about little and big animals. We also read ‘Alexander’s Outing’ by Pamela Allen, as part as are Science topic on ‘floating and sinking’. The students predicted what the story might have been about, and discussed how the people could save Alexander by floating him up, and out of the hole. We followed this lesson up by watching and participating in an interactive Sesame Street Vodcast on ‘Floating and Sinking’. The students had to predict and test if an item would sink or float.

During reading groups, Orange Dragons have been practising writing their term 1 sight words, by copying flash cards and using them to form short sentences. They have also played sight word bingo, and started their Term 2 Phonics booklet.

For art, the students made ladybirds, which are displayed in our classroom. Today, as part of our ‘floating and sinking’ unit, we looked at Monet’s Water Lilies. The students recreated Monet’s painting by using oil pastels to draw and colour the water lilies and then used water colours to paint water around the lilies. They did a superb job.

This week we have formally begun news presentations. The students have been presenting interesting news about ‘what they like to do when they go to the beach’. They are going to great efforts to bring in photos, drawings and items that they play with at the beach. Well done Orange Dragons keep up the great effort.

For maths, the Orange Dragons are learning about ordinal numbers and area. The students have really enjoyed playing an ordinal number guessing game, whereby someone hides a counter under one of ten cups and the students have to guess which cup it is in, using ordinal numbers. Today the students brainstormed ways to measure area. As a whole class and then in pairs, we measured the areas of different objects by covering them with brennex squares and counting up to see how many were used.

On Monday, the students had their very first drama lesson with Miss Ann. They thoroughly enjoyed pretending they were in different ‘made up’ worlds, such as chocolate world and electricity world. They are really looking forward to their next lesson.

A couple of reminders:
-Assembly will be on Friday at 2.15pm under the COLA, to farewell Mr Cheng.
-Please return the Child Protection note this week if possible. Please see me if you need another note.
-Crunch and Sip must remain in the children’s bags until 9am, when we walk in together.
-Library books are only to be returned during library lessons on a Wednesday, to avoid books being misplaced.
-Sport will be held on Friday this week.

Okay, have a wonderful week!

Kind regards,
Jen Lawson.

Dear Orange Dragon Families,

Welcome to term 2!

I hope you all had a relaxing break. It was great to see the students yesterday and hear all about the exciting things they did in the holidays.

This week the Orange Dragons will be writing short sentences about their holidays, revising number, sounds and sight words, and also continuing on with Literacy groups. Yesterday, the children gave short recounts about their holidays and in the afternoon, painted some wonderful paintings representing their favourite activity that they did in the holidays.

This term, Miss Richardson and I will ask the children to leave their Crunch and Sip in their school bags until 9am, when they walk to class. This is aimed at encouraging the students to play outside of a morning, where a teacher can supervise them. Red Note bags can still be placed in the blue crate outside the classroom.

This term the students will begin their Drama lessons in week 2. This will replace Kickstart lessons on a Monday.

In PD/H/PE this term, Kindergarten will be learning about Child Protection. A permission slip will be going home in the next few days. Could you kindly return the slip as soon as you can, so we can begin lessons.

In Science and Technology this term the students will learning about ‘Floating and Sinking’. The students will have the opportunity to investigate items that float and items that sink, through fun class experiments. In week 4, all classes (Preschool, K, 1 & 2) will take part in a ‘Floating and Sinking’ Project Day, whereby they will have to design and make a boat that floats.

At this stage, class timetables are still being decided, so for this week, sport will still be held on Friday, at our usual time. I will notify you if our sport day happens to change.

This week, I will be sending home a note about the Term 2 News Program. Each child will have an assigned news day and they will be required to present a 1-2 minute talk about a topic to do with ‘Floating and Sinking’. The students are allowed to bring in an item from home, if they wish, related to their talk. The item must be small enough to fit in their school bag and should be left there until it is time for them to present their news. Please take a couple of minutes to talk about the weekly topic with your child, in preparation for their news.

Yesterday, I sent home a copy of the term 2 sight words. This can be used alongside the suggested sight word activities list, which was sent home in term 1. Please come and see me if you would like another copy.

This Thursday we will have a special ANZAC day assembly at 2.30pm. There will be no awards given out this week.

I hope you are enjoying your ANZAC day holiday.

Kind regards,
Jen Lawson.

Hello Orange Dragon Families,

Welcome to the last week of term! Wow, it certainly came around quick!

Thank you to all the grand-friends who came to visit the Orange Dragons last Wednesday. The day was a huge success, with fabulous performances, classroom visits, a yummy sausage sizzle and lunchtime Jazz. So, thanks to all the teachers and parent helpers, involved in the organisation of the day.

This week the Orange Dragons are looking at the letter ‘Rr’ and the sight words ‘went’ and ‘for’. We have been studying the picture book ‘Rosie’s Walk’ and using it as inspiration for our writing. The students have used their knowledge of letters and sounds to write the names of the places that Rosie walks. Tomorrow, the students will be doing a ‘Rosie’s Walk’ cut and paste sequencing activity. For art and craft this week, the students made ‘ Rosie’ the hen, by colouring, paper chipping and sticking on yellow feathers. They look wonderful and are up for viewing in the corridor, outside of the Yellow Dragon’s classroom. This week I will be exposing the children to verbal procedures, by discussing the steps involved in tasks such as brushing your teeth or getting ready for school. We will also be talking about verbs and how words describe an action eg. squeeze some toothpaste onto your toothbrush.

This week for literacy groups and whole class literacy groups the students have been completing the ‘Rr’ pages of their phonics books and practising writing their term 1 sight words on whiteboards. They also continue to play Beat the Bear, sight word bingo and Pirate Treasure. On Thursday the children will be assessed on their handwriting and will also practise and copy the letter ‘Rr’ in their handwriting books. As Easter is just around the corner, we have been discussing what Easter means to us and talking about some of the traditions around Easter. We have also been reading Easter books and will do some Easter craft on Wednesday and Thursday.

For maths this week, the Orange Dragons will be revising and continuing their learning around whole number, numeral identification, counting and one to one number matching. We will also be catching up on a little bit of addition, through the Circle Champion game and simple addition worksheets.

On Thursday the Orange and Yellow Dragons will be celebrating their first term of Kindergarten by going over to Camperdown Park for a play on the equipment. A note went home with the students on Monday. Please come and see me if you have any questions.

This week the Orange Dragons will be finishing off their Science topic on Push and Pull forces. They will have the opportunity to make a ‘cup and ball’ toy, to demonstrate their understanding of how forces make things move. The toys will be decorated and sent home with the students on Thursday.

House keeping
Students return to school on Tuesday the 24th April, term 2. Drama classes commence in week 2 and will be run by Robert Jaego, instead of Kickstart lessons. Buddies will also begin next term and will be run by the Year 2 students, with the help of the Year 2 teachers.

I hope you all have a wonderful and relaxing Easter break!

Warm regards,
Jen Lawson.

Dear Orange Dragon Families,

Welcome to week 10!

This week the Orange Dragons have been reading books about Grandparents, in preparation for Gran-Friend’s day on Wednesday. The students are very excited about performing their ‘Questing’ song with Miss Carton, and can’t wait to use the props they have made. As the performance is all about questing and discovering, the students will be making a pirate flag with their Grand-friends and reading some picture books about pirates. It should be a wonderful day.

Our letter of the week this week is ‘Dd’. The students have been brainstorming words that begin with ‘Dd’ as well as tracing ‘Dd’ and identifying pictures that start with ‘Dd’. On Monday the students made colourful dragons, by painting with watercolours and then gluing on wings. They look wonderful and will be on display for Gran-friends Day. The sight words this week are; ‘if’, ‘on’ and ‘me’.

This week we are reading the big book, ‘Dan the Flying Man’. The students did a wonderful job identifying and filling in missing words in a cloze activity. They also drew their favourite part of the book. Later on in the week the students will be making their own mini ‘Dan the Flying Man’ book, that they might like to take home and read.

For reading groups this week, I introduced a new game called ‘Beat the Bear’. It is a sounds recognition game similar to bingo, where by the students are shown a picture card and if the child has the matching sound on their game board they get to keep it. Otherwise the bear gets to place a card on their card. The idea is to cover all the sounds before the bear. The students really enjoy this game. Additionally each group has practised their syllable clapping in the game Spiky Mikey and completed the ‘Dd’ phonics pages in their workbook. The students continue to read with me and complete short activities after reading, such as making sight words with magnetic letters, reading flash cards or completing short comprehension sheets.

For maths we are continuing to look at addition. They have practised making combinations of both 5 and ten, with ten frames and counters and are beginning to get the hang of writing number sentences to match combinations of 5. We continue to consolidate their addition skills with the game ‘Circle Champion’ and other dice games.

This week in Kickstart the students were taught soccer skills with Tim. They practised dribbling with the inside and outside of their feet and practised big kicks across the playground. They thoroughly enjoyed the lesson.

For science this week, we will be reading another book about forces and motion and the students will then be asked to complete a worksheet, where they need to identify which picture shows a ‘push’ or a ‘pull’, as well as draw other push and pull pictures.

On Friday 30th March and Monday 2nd April I will be in Noosa for my oldest sister’s wedding. I have bridesmaid duties and will be there for general sisterly support. The Orange Dragon’s will be in safe hands and will follow their usual lessons and routines, however on these two days we will not be having reading groups, instead the Lyn Kluewer will be teaching whole-class literacy. So just to reiterate, parent helpers are not required this Friday 30th March or Monday 2nd April.

Okay I hope you all have a wonderful week!

Kind regards,
Jen Lawson.

Dear Orange Dragon Families,

Welcome to week 9!

This week the students are learning about the ‘Ff’ sound. They have been practising writing ‘f’ during Rainbow Writing, and are looking at the sound it makes by brainstorming lots of words that begin with ‘Ff’. The sight words this week are ‘at’, ‘in’ and ‘a’. The students have been reading many sentences with these words and will use them in their story writing later this week.

For art and craft, the students made a cut and paste frog. Later this week they will colour, cut and assemble a fruit man, as well as create finger painted flowers, which are all related to our sound of the week.

This week we have been reading a factual text ‘Frogs’. The students are learning that factual texts give us information about topics that is true, whereas fictional texts are stories that are made up. For writing we have been composing and writing short descriptions about frogs. The students are getting good at recognising the initial sounds of words and are showing tremendous improvement in their writing.

During reading groups the students have been playing a new game ‘Pirate Treasure’. This is a sight word memory game that allows students to practise recognising and reading term 1 sight words. The game has a special twist, if a student finds the treasure (a counter hidden under one of the sight words) and is able to find and read match, they get an extra go. The students had a lot of fun playing this game. Additionally, the students have been reading in groups with me and have made a ‘Ff’ booklet, and practised their fine motor skills with peg boards and picture threading.

This week in Maths we are looking at Mass. The students watched a Sesame Street podcast, where Ernie and Bert discussed heavy and light objects. We then drew pictures of heavy and light items. We are discussing why we might measure mass and also what things we might measure. Later this week we will heft objects to compare the mass and use the equal arm balance to check our predictions.

For Kickstart, Mitch taught the students basketball skills of bouncing a ball to a partner, dribbling with one and two hands, shoulder passes, chest passes and hoop shooting (into a hula hoop). As usual they had fun and learnt a lot.

For Science this week, the students will have the opportunity to draw and design a moving toy. With help, they will be asked to label the moving parts and discuss their design with a partner. I can’t wait to see what they come up with.

Lastly, a few reminders, I am off class tomorrow (Wedneday), as I am attending a teacher course. Kristen Crabbe will be teaching the Orange Dragons and follow our normal Wednesday routine.

Gran-friend’s Day is on next Wednesday 28th March. On the day there will be a special assembly, open classrooms and a book sale. The day will commence at 11am with an assembly featuring student performances. During lunch time, there will be a sausage sizzle and book sale. Sausages sizzle orders can be made with Ms Heather in the front office before Friday 23rd March.

One very last thing; I am aware that some of the students are getting a little upset in the mornings, when dropped off to our classroom. I believe this could be solved by asking all parents to wave goodbye to their child at the big green doors (near Miss Richardson’s class). I think this should hopefully solve the issue and allow the Orange Dragon’s to settle into morning routines with ease. Please come and see me if you have any concerns about this.

Okay, have a wonderful week!

Warm regards,
Jen.

Dear Orange Dragon Families,

Wow, is it really week 8 already? How quickly term 1 is coming to an end!

This week we have been looking at the letter ‘Ii’, we have been brainstorming words that begin with ‘Ii’ and learning to correctly trace and write the letter. In reading groups, the students made an ‘Ii’ booklet, where they had to match pictures to words, as well as write a sentence: I am an insect. On Friday the students will listen to a Sesame Street Podcast about ‘insects’ and will be asked to copy a sentence about insects.

Yesterday we read the book ‘Where is the Green Sheep’, as it contains our sight words for the week: ‘here’ and ‘on’. We read lots of sentences from the book and then composed our own. It read ‘Here is the ________ sheep.’ Instead of all the students writing the same sentences, they picked their own sheep picture from a lucky dip and had to try and sound out the associated word. Eg. Swinging sheep. They did a fabulous job! On Monday, for craft, we paper-chipped a outline of a sheep to make our own Green Sheep. The sheep look superb and are already up for viewing in our classroom.

On Monday we continued with verbal recounts. For something different, the students presented news about their weekend to a small group of children. Finn Meisner brought in a long snake’s skin that he found at his grandpa’s house. The students were amazed to learn that snakes shed their skin! On Wednesday we will begin to learn about descriptions. The students will be asked to verbally describe a picture of an animal, using adjectives.

For maths this week we are learning about ‘length’. On Monday the students formed four groups and were asked to get into height order, from shortest to tallest. They had fun comparing heights and used length vocabulary such as: tall, short, tallest, shortest, longest, smallest to describe their group members. In our maths books we continued arranging different sized rectangles, from shortest to tallest.

For science this week, the students will continue to investigate how different toys move with push and pull forces. As a class, they will classify how each toy moves, eg. Roll, bounce, spin and jump. Furthermore, they will be asked to draw their moving toy (that they brought in last week) and complete the sentence about how their toy moves eg. Spins, rolls, bounces, jumps, flies.

A couple of reminders, Tabloid Sports Day is on this Thursday. Please send your child to school with a labelled hat and a labelled water bottle. It should be a lot of fun. Assembly has been rescheduled for Friday afternoon. Also, next Wednesday I will be attending a teacher course, so I won’t be at school during the day.

If you have any questions, please come and see me.
Have a fabulous week!!

Jen Lawson.

Dear Orange Dragon Families,

Welcome to week 7!

This week in literacy, the students have been learning all about the ‘Tt’ sound and studying the words: ‘it, to, and, want’. They have been reading and composing wonderful sight word sentences and it is lovely to see both their writing and reading coming along nicely!

Yesterday we read the picture book ‘Where’s my Teddy’ and used a sentence from the book as inspiration for writing. The sentence read: ‘Eddie’s off to find his teddy’. The students used their own names in their sentences, as well as their favourite toy. Eg. Christian’s off to find his lego, Luke is off to find his toy train. They did a great job.

For maths this week, we are looking at addition. The students have been learning how to combine two groups and work out the total, with lots of visual and concrete examples. They have been playing the game ‘circle champion’, which involves rolling two big dice and adding up the dots as quickly as possible. The students are getting quicker at subitising (recognising the number of dots instantly) and are able to recognise different combinations of 5.

On Monday, the students were taught tennis skills for Kickstart. They practised hitting a ball with a racquet both forward and back hand. Like usual, they had a lot of fun.

For visual arts this week, we read a book about turtles and then the students drew and coloured their own turtle with oil pastels, and painted a blue sea. They look fabulous.

This week we are continuing our science topic on ‘Push and Pull Forces’. I have asked the students to bring in a moving toy from home, so we can examine and discuss how they move. In pairs, they will discuss how the toys move and identify what parts of the toys help them move. The students will be asked to report to the class about their toy on Thursday and Friday. I will be sending home a reminder note on Wednesday.

Okay have a fabulous week!

Come and see me if you have any questions.

Jen Lawson.

Dear Orange Dragon Families,

This week in Literacy we are concentrating on the ‘Aa’ sound and learning our sight words: ‘this, is, can’. On Tuesday we read the picture book ‘Annie’s Chair’, which is about Annie’s favourite thing in the world, her chair. Annie is not pleased when she discovers her dog sleeping on it, however, she learns to share her chair with her dog in the end. As a class, the Orange Dragons discussed their favourite things or places and then constructed a sentence, together on the board.   After this, the students wrote their own sentences in their writing books. The sentences read, ‘This is my ____________.’  The students did a fabulous job and I was so impressed with the improvement in their writing! Later in the week the students will write about what they ‘can’ do with their favourite thing. Eg. I can ride fast with my scooter.

On Monday the Orange Dragons started talking about what a recount is, and the children each gave a verbal recount about what they did on the weekend. We will continue informal news recounts on a Monday and later on, the students will start writing short sentences about their weekend.

In Maths this week, we are learning all about patterns. We have been identifying what a pattern is, describing patterns and making patterns with different objects and colours. The students are able to recognise a two pattern and describe what elements repeat in the pattern. On Wednesday the students made their own two part pattern, by using watercolours to colour an eight scoop ice-cream cone. They really enjoyed this activity. I must say, the Orange Dragons are exceptionally clever at recognising and continuing patterns!

In Kickstart this week, Mitch taught the students some cricket skills. The students practised their batting, catching and bowling skills and like usual, had a wonderful time.

For visual arts this week, the students made some wonderful alligators, which they coloured with oil pastels. Later this week we will be making some literacy book covers, using candle wax and dye.

This week we are starting our science topic ‘Push and Pull Forces’. The students will learn what a scientist is and will be introduced to the concept of ‘force’ and discover that all things require a force to make them move. To understand forces, we will play some games that involve moving and being still, this will develop their understanding of push and pulls. Next week, I will ask the students to bring in a moving toy from home. In pairs, they will then discuss how our toys move and identify what parts of the toys help them move. The students will then be asked to report to the class about their toy. Could you please send your child to school on Monday with a moving toy (one that can stay in our classroom for the week, without being missed too much!) We will endeavour to investigate and report on the toys and have them back home by Friday. It’s going to be a fun week!

Okay, have a fabulous week!
Jen Lawson.