The Axolotls: Term 2 Week 9

23 June, 2026

Dear families,

It has been an exciting week in the Axolotl class.

We now have our class pet, Candy the Axolotl. The children voted on her name, and made agreements to care for her and be respectful around the tank. Feel free to come and visit!

Here is a summary of our learning this week:

  • Tuesday Sport – Tennis at Lane Cove Tennis club. Coach Juan practised racket and ball skills with the children and introduced simple coordination games. The children are making great progress and they are all participating so well.
  • Social skill focus – discussing the big responsibility of caring for a pet. Developing empathy by taking responsibility to take good care of Candy the Axolotl.
  • Responding to the book ‘The Owl who was afraid of the dark’ by Jill Tomlinson. Describing how the characters feel and hot-seating main characters in the story.
  • Exploring the 5 senses in Science and Technology. Learning about ears and how the eardrum works. Can you hear it? Experimenting with marbles.
  • Craft with Crafty Chris – tie-dye t-shirts.
  • Sustaining on Friday, helping to care for our school.
  • Singing ‘Ratlin’ Bog’ with the school at School Meeting on Friday, it was lots of fun!
  • Spanish on Wednesday – soccer world cup.
  • Music with Kim on Monday.
  • Lane Cove Library on Monday.
  • Voting on a name for our pet axolotl. Voting for what sport we would like to learn in Term 3.
  • Some incredibly intricate ‘creations’ that the children made collaboratively with construction toys and magnet tiles.

Juniors (Early Stage 1)

  • Soundwaves: l, j.Special words: look, he, she.
  • Mathematics – exploring and comparing the area of objects. Measuring area using informal units and counting the total.
  • Literacy stations – group reading with Joanna, Soundwaves books, writing/tracing.

Elders (Stage 1)

  • Soundwaves: i_e, y, igh.
  • Mathematics – exploring and comparing the area of objects. Measuring area using informal units and counting the total.
  • Literacy stations – group reading and comprehension/ extension, Soundwaves books, sight word writing and sentences.

Below are some parent resources that support our Protective Behaviours unit of work so far. We hope that you find them useful and we welcome your feedback. Protective Behaviours and Conflict Resolution will continue to be a focus for the rest of this term, and Term 3.

The children in our class love to bring in their toys from home, they are responsible with their toys and often choose to share them with others. Please encourage your child to only bring in one toy per day, I will also remind the children of this. I have also spoken to the children about our school rules for not trading toys, toys are to always be returned to their owner by the end of the day. Thank you for your support.

Next week, on Thursday morning, I will be taking the children to ‘The children’s Voices for Reconciliation’ at Lane Cove Canopy. The children unanimously voted that they wish to attend this event. It will be lovely to see other children perform.

Have a lovely weekend,
Joanna

PROTECTIVE BEHAVIOURS

Understanding Feelings

  • Feelings are a way our bodies can tell our brain whether something is good or bad.
  • When something happens, feelings can act as a clue to whether we may be safe or unsafe at that time.
  • Understanding our feelings and talking about how we feel can help us problem solve and regulate emotions
  • Sometimes children have such strong feelings they cannot regulate themselves and these can be expressed as challenging behaviours
  • Understanding that children need help managing their feelings and their reactions is one way parents and caregivers can build a child’s resilience.

Early Warning Signs

  • ‘Early warning signs’ refer to our body’s responses to situations where we feel scared, worried or uncomfortable. Examples include feeling butterflies or sickness in the tummy, wobbly knees, tears, headaches, a lump in the throat, goose bumps, sweating, racing heart, needing to use the toilet, feeling frozen or wanting to run away.
  • Lots of situations may trigger any or all of our early warning signs. Some of these situations are safe and okay. Other times our early warning signs are our body’s way of giving us a clue that we may not be safe.
  • Situations that make us feel nervous or scared, like going to the dentist or riding on Ferris wheel, are safe things to do, but children may still need the help of a safe grown up to overcome fear and feel okay again.
  • If children feel their early warning signs they should say NO, GO away from the situation and TELL a trusted adult.
  • NO, GO, TELL

Identifying Safe Adults

  • Help your child identify a ‘safety network’ of adults with whom they can talk.
  • These safe adults can be the adults they can tell if they feel their early warning signs or have an unsafe secret that they need to tell someone.
  • Children may need to keep on asking for help until someone listens and believes them and they feel safe again.
  • TELL, TELL AND TELL AGAIN.
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