Faith’s Class: Term 2 Week 4
Happy Week Four!
This week, The Chatterboxes continued exploring onomatopoeia in English through a hands-on sound investigation around the playground. We listened carefully to the different sounds we could hear outdoors and experimented with how these sounds could be represented phonetically through words. We had a range of sounds like, our feet brushing the ground, a basketball being bounced and leaves rubbing together. We then used a chosen sound to inspire a short story using onomatopoeia. It was fantastic to see so much creativity and imagination in their writing!
In Maths, we continued building our understanding of whole numbers. We explored odd and even numbers using our new SmartScreen to sort and identify numbers together as a class. To apply our learning creatively, everyone designed a picture using chosen odd or even numbers, these included monsters with many eyes, flowers with odd numbers of petals and birthday cakes with even numbers of candles, even some rockets in odd numbers saving a planet.
Although the wet weather meant a change to our usual sports program, The Chatterboxes adapted wonderfully. We brought our activities indoors and enjoyed games such as Silent Ball and Magnatile Bowling, which helped us continue to develop our hand-eye coordination, teamwork and communication skills.
On Friday the Chatterboxes also had their turn chairing our school meeting. I was incredibly proud of how well they ran the meeting. Our chair people were a great team and it was wonderful to see their confidence shine.
A major focus this week was our Conflict Resolution unit. We revisited important strategies and language that help students navigate friendships and social situations positively and respectfully. Students explored our “Anger Iceberg,” discussing how feelings such as sadness, embarrassment, frustration or worry can sometimes present as anger. Understanding these emotions helps students communicate more clearly and problem-solve more effectively.
We also explicitly practised using “I-Statements” to express feelings assertively and respectfully, as well as discussing the importance of genuine apologies. Genuine apologies include eye contact, acknowledging actions and explaining how we can make better choices moving forward. Everyone enthusiastically role-played conflict scenarios, wrote their own examples and have already begun independently applying these strategies throughout the classroom and playground.
The Chatterboxes continue to make me incredibly proud with the kindness, resilience and empathy they are showing each day. Building positive relationships and strong communication skills is something we work on consistently as a class, and it is wonderful to see students growing in confidence when solving problems together. Families can really support this learning at home by encouraging children to talk through friendship
situations calmly, practise “I-Statements” and reflect on how their actions may impact others. Please feel free to stop by and have a look at our classroom posters and workbooks that support this learning!
Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!
From,
Faith x