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Home Reading | Important Updates
As we embark on another enriching term of learning, we'd like to bring your attention to some adjustments in our home reading program that will support your child's literacy journey.
Reading is fundamental to your child's success, and consistent practice is key to building fluency and comprehension skills. Therefore, we encourage 10-15 minutes of daily reading at home, accompanied by a supportive adult, for students in Kindergarten to Year 6.
You may notice a variety of reading materials coming home with your child (Prep to Year 6), including decodable books and other reading material, such as non-decodable texts and readings from class. We also encourage students to explore a variety of reading materials beyond the classroom, including library books, magazines, recipe books, and anything else that captures their interest.
Decodable books are specifically designed with controlled vocabulary to help children practice phonics skills by sounding out words independently, with your assistance. While some of these decodable books may seem simpler compared to previous materials, rest assured that our teachers have carefully assessed each child's instructional level to ensure that the learning taking place in the classroom is reinforced at home.
Additionally, students will receive Connected Texts, which are aligned with our structured literacy program. We encourage children to read and reread these texts aloud to an adult to enhance comprehension and fluency at home.
Should you have any questions or require further clarification, please don't hesitate to reach out to your child's teacher or myself directly at sarah.fielding@decyp.tas.gov.au.
Thank you for your continued support in nurturing a love for reading in our students.
Happy reading!
Warm regards,
Sarah Fielding
Prep Jardine literacy learning is full steam ahead with daily Playberry sessions and a weekly reading program.
Along with Playberry in the morning, we read books together every day. To link with our science learning, we read a book about plant parts and illustrated these for our vocabulary wall. These words get used again and again to maybe create sentences or label scientific drawings.
Also, many of our Prep students have already reached 25 Nights of Reading and some are getting close to 50! This is celebrated through putting their name on the poster and getting a round of applause in the classroom, and further recognised in the Early Years assemblies with a certificate. Congratulations Preps!
National Volunteer Week (April 21st - 27th)
During National Volunteer Week, we celebrate the immense contributions made by individuals of all ages who selflessly give their time to help others. In 1/2B, we watched BTN’s special episode featuring young volunteers who actively support their local communities.
Our class engaged in a thoughtful group discussion around the following inquiry questions:
What is a volunteer and why do people enjoy volunteering?
Who are some volunteers in our school?
How can we take on volunteer roles outside of school?
Here are some wonderful ideas from the students:
Celebrating Our Volunteers
Ms. B is our dedicated literature volunteer who visits our school every Tuesday to assist students with their reading. Ms. B told us that she used to be a music teacher for many years. After she retired, she wants to spend her time helping more kids. We are incredibly grateful for all your hard work, Ms. B. 1/2B feels very fortunate to have your dedicated support.
Student Volunteers Making a Difference
We are proud of a group of students who have taken on volunteer roles within our school. After completing their learning, they have worked diligently on designing posters to promote the message, “No Litter in School.” Keep an eye out for these posters around our school soon. Special thanks to Frankie, Aida, and Ivey for your wonderful initiative and creativity.
Thank you to all our volunteers for making a positive impact on our community!
In 4/5 we have just completed our unit on writing procedural texts. We had been learning about the structure of a good procedural text, focusing on making the instructions detailed and clear to follow. We have written recipes, science experiments, and instructions for how to do important tasks.
In groups, we were given a school routine to create a procedural text for. Some examples of these were our morning jobs routine, how to pack up the classroom, what to do after the recess or lunch bell goes and how to set up our spelling books. We needed to create a clear goal to go in our procedural writing, and create a poster as the final product that we could display in our classroom for others to follow.
Below are some examples of our procedures.
In 5/6B our literacy focus has been on informative texts. We have been reading, analysing and paraphrasing different texts. Our plan by the end of the term is to each research and create an informative book focussed on fungi!
We have also been able to work collaboratively with 5/6A discussing the importance of respectful relationships. Most recently, we brainstormed what a respectful relationship looks like, sounds like and feels like. We discussed the main qualities that we think are important for a person to have to maintain respectful relationships and even chatted about how the relationships might change if one of those qualities is removed. Lastly, we worked in groups to chat about 4 separate scenarios where characters relationships may have changed and came up with some really good ideas around what aspect of the relationship changed and how the people in the scenario were affected. We will continue this topic throughout the term.
This term craft was offered as a Friday Fun Activity. Over the last five weeks students have had fun creating a Vision board. This has provided the students with the opportunity to focus on their goals and aspirations in a fun and creative way. Students were encouraged to imagine and think about their future by considering the question: What do you want to do, be or have? Students then got to work exploring materials and design to express their thoughts through creating a Vison Board. Students have been very engaged in these Friday Fun sessions while enjoying the process and have shown a great sense of accomplishment and pride in their creations.
Students in years 3-5 plus selected year 6's will be participating in the Swimming and Water Safety Program from Monday the 24th of June until Friday the 5th of July at the Doone Kennedy Hobart Aquatic Centre. Swimming and water safety skills are necessary skills for health, fitness, wellness and safety. Participating students may wear goggles and will need to bring bathers, a towel and a plastic bag for wet items.
The 44 students selected into the cross country team will be competing at the interschool cross country carnival on Thursday the 6th of June at Bayview College. They are reminded to bring plenty of food and water and warm clothes. Goodluck to the team!
AusBike gets Aussie kids pedaling into a world of freedom, fun and adventure — and is starting next week with The Y Hobart for Term 2. Our national program teaches essential bike skills to primary schoolers, whether they’re fresh off training wheels or ready for bigger challenges. Designed by experts and aligned with curriculum, AusBike is the perfect way to ignite a lifelong love of cycling.
Details:
Free Trial program:
10:30am - 11:15am - Saturday June 1st
Montrose Foreshore Community Park, Brooker Hwy, Glenorchy TAS 7010
Find out more and register at: ausbike.au