Week 3 Term 3 Newsletter
29/7/17
Dear Parents
Hopefully you've found your way to this location. Every week, there will be a class newsletter to provide a small snapshot of what's happening in the 6A classroom.
The term is absolutely flying, and the students have certainly achieved a lot in the past week. Our new class website has been a real hit with the students, and that's great to see. To give you an idea, different parts of the website have been visited over 1000 times (in total) in the past two weeks with the most popular views being:
1) The Animated Movie Blog
2) The Superhero Blog
3) The Earthquake Web Quest
4) Peer Reading
5) Mr Donaldson's Interview.
Over the past week, students in 6A were given the task of becoming Student Reporters to report on a range of topics for the class website. We now have nine interviews on the website with plenty more to come. Students are also writing a variety of articles to be published. It’s great to see students displaying greater responsibility and initiative.
This week, students wrote a rough copy for the English assessment (Letter to a Future Citizen). I will be providing feedback for the students so that they can improve their work. In Maths, the focus has been on percentages, decimals and fractions as well as factor trees and discounts. There will be a Mathematics test next Thursday based on this work. Unfortunately, only two students (from 6A plus two others) attended Maths tutoring on Thursday morning and four on Friday which was the lowest number all year. Hopefully, more students will attend next week because I feel that these sessions are very beneficial. Both sessions were great this week despite the low numbers.
It was my intention to set tasks on Mathletics this past week, but unfortunately I incorrectly set the tasks. I was very impressed to hear that many students still accessed the site and completed many activities.
I’ve been tinkering with homework recently and setting work which is linked more closely to what we are studying in class. The Earthquake Web Quest is one example of this. There will also be a Cyclone Web Quest in the coming weeks, and students will also be required to read a novel at home (“Don’t Pat the Wombat” by Jackie French) which will lead us into our next English unit.
This week, there will be trials for Interschool sport. Students will be notified of the relevant times on Monday. Interschool Sport will commence on Friday of week 5 and run for four weeks. The cost will be approximately $50. An alternative program will be arranged for students who do not participate in Interschool Sport. The following trials have been organised for interschool sport:
* Basketball- Tuesday morning 8.00-8.30am (with Miss Singleton and Mrs Higginson)
* Volleyball- Tuesday first break (with Miss Jennings)
* Touch Football- Tuesday morning 7.45-8.30am for year 5 students
- Wednesday morning 7.45-8.30am for year 6 students
(with Mr Doherty and Mr Richardson)
Please let me know if you can attend the Sciencentre Excursion in week 6 on Thursday 17th August. The final payment for this excursion is Thursday 10th August. I will notify you by email this week if you haven’t paid for the excursion.
On Friday, Brian Falkner visited the school to inspire the students about books and writing. Unfortunately, the time went so quickly with Brian, but the students loved the session. There are photos and videos on the class website as well as an interview conducted by Sasha.
As you know, the students at Grand Avenue have been participating in the Footsteps program. This program will be assessed using set criteria and go towards their Art mark on report cards.
I have signed the class up for Word Mania. The students will receive passwords on Monday so that they can access the website and participate as much as they like. We are not participating as a whole school, but I’ll be encouraging students to improve their word building by using the program.
Thank you for supporting me with following the dress code at Grand Avenue State School. I know it’s difficult sometimes, but the directive I’ve received is that students should not wear hoodies or jumpers with writing on them. Some students are still asking me to borrow a hat. Please check your child has this covered because they can’t really get by without one. The same goes with basic supplies such as glue, scissors, pencils, rubbers and rulers. It’s amazing how many of these basics, students don’t have. Without these essential items, it makes it very difficult for the students to function in the classroom as you can understand.
Hopefully the information on the website is beneficial to both parents and students. Please let me know if you are experiencing problems accessing parts of the website or have any suggestions.
Please let me know if you have any queries or concerns.
Regards
Geoff
Dear Parents
Hopefully you've found your way to this location. Every week, there will be a class newsletter to provide a small snapshot of what's happening in the 6A classroom.
The term is absolutely flying, and the students have certainly achieved a lot in the past week. Our new class website has been a real hit with the students, and that's great to see. To give you an idea, different parts of the website have been visited over 1000 times (in total) in the past two weeks with the most popular views being:
1) The Animated Movie Blog
2) The Superhero Blog
3) The Earthquake Web Quest
4) Peer Reading
5) Mr Donaldson's Interview.
Over the past week, students in 6A were given the task of becoming Student Reporters to report on a range of topics for the class website. We now have nine interviews on the website with plenty more to come. Students are also writing a variety of articles to be published. It’s great to see students displaying greater responsibility and initiative.
This week, students wrote a rough copy for the English assessment (Letter to a Future Citizen). I will be providing feedback for the students so that they can improve their work. In Maths, the focus has been on percentages, decimals and fractions as well as factor trees and discounts. There will be a Mathematics test next Thursday based on this work. Unfortunately, only two students (from 6A plus two others) attended Maths tutoring on Thursday morning and four on Friday which was the lowest number all year. Hopefully, more students will attend next week because I feel that these sessions are very beneficial. Both sessions were great this week despite the low numbers.
It was my intention to set tasks on Mathletics this past week, but unfortunately I incorrectly set the tasks. I was very impressed to hear that many students still accessed the site and completed many activities.
I’ve been tinkering with homework recently and setting work which is linked more closely to what we are studying in class. The Earthquake Web Quest is one example of this. There will also be a Cyclone Web Quest in the coming weeks, and students will also be required to read a novel at home (“Don’t Pat the Wombat” by Jackie French) which will lead us into our next English unit.
This week, there will be trials for Interschool sport. Students will be notified of the relevant times on Monday. Interschool Sport will commence on Friday of week 5 and run for four weeks. The cost will be approximately $50. An alternative program will be arranged for students who do not participate in Interschool Sport. The following trials have been organised for interschool sport:
* Basketball- Tuesday morning 8.00-8.30am (with Miss Singleton and Mrs Higginson)
* Volleyball- Tuesday first break (with Miss Jennings)
* Touch Football- Tuesday morning 7.45-8.30am for year 5 students
- Wednesday morning 7.45-8.30am for year 6 students
(with Mr Doherty and Mr Richardson)
Please let me know if you can attend the Sciencentre Excursion in week 6 on Thursday 17th August. The final payment for this excursion is Thursday 10th August. I will notify you by email this week if you haven’t paid for the excursion.
On Friday, Brian Falkner visited the school to inspire the students about books and writing. Unfortunately, the time went so quickly with Brian, but the students loved the session. There are photos and videos on the class website as well as an interview conducted by Sasha.
As you know, the students at Grand Avenue have been participating in the Footsteps program. This program will be assessed using set criteria and go towards their Art mark on report cards.
I have signed the class up for Word Mania. The students will receive passwords on Monday so that they can access the website and participate as much as they like. We are not participating as a whole school, but I’ll be encouraging students to improve their word building by using the program.
Thank you for supporting me with following the dress code at Grand Avenue State School. I know it’s difficult sometimes, but the directive I’ve received is that students should not wear hoodies or jumpers with writing on them. Some students are still asking me to borrow a hat. Please check your child has this covered because they can’t really get by without one. The same goes with basic supplies such as glue, scissors, pencils, rubbers and rulers. It’s amazing how many of these basics, students don’t have. Without these essential items, it makes it very difficult for the students to function in the classroom as you can understand.
Hopefully the information on the website is beneficial to both parents and students. Please let me know if you are experiencing problems accessing parts of the website or have any suggestions.
Please let me know if you have any queries or concerns.
Regards
Geoff