Jess and Susan’s Class: Term 1 Week 5

Dear parents,

This week, we’ve been busy extending our knowledge of literary devices to include rhetorical questions, direct address (imperative language) and emotive language. The children were very creative in the ways they chose to demonstrate these techniques in their writing. I also showed the children an opinion piece from the Sydney Morning Herald to challenge their beliefs about cat ownership. It was wonderful to see the children on their feet, ready to defend their point of view!

For maths, we looked at bar models for addition and subtraction which required the use of vertical addition and subtraction strategies. We also dug into strategies for addition
to bridge the decade, and we kept practising our times tables.

On Thursday, we revised different types of angles beyond the right angle, using mathematical language such as acute, obtuse, straight and reflex. Students also had explicit instruction and practice with entry and exit flicks as an introduction to cursive handwriting.

The children have been enjoying learning and experimenting with Canva, and we were lucky to have Gustavo, a Canva software engineer and parent in Joanna’s class, visit and
share some of his knowledge. The group are excited to begin designing their PIPs, discuss our upcoming “Travel Convention” (PIP presentations), and explore ways to persuade a target audience. More information about the Travel Convention will be shared soon.

Friday morning was buzzing well before 9:30am. Corrections from the week were completed, maps were drawn, cars and cubbies constructed, songs written and secret plans hatched. As the day unfolded, songs were recorded and animated, the craft room filled with dress-ups and video making, and creative projects continued to grow and evolve. LOVE observing so much self-directed learning at Currambena!

We had a long discussion about escalation in the classroom during break times and we identified clues that would help us know if the behaviour in the classroom was becoming
unreasonable. It was encouraging to hear the children remind each other the next day when things were getting too loud or too physical.

Warm wishes,
Jess and Susan