Year 6 Big Brekky!!!

Graduation Diploma Letter and Design Brief

Just a quick note to the lovely and amazing Year 6 students...

As you know tomorrow your design brief and letter to Mrs Bennett are due to be handed in.  Those of you who have shown me your design brief in your homework, or sent me a digital copy will have received an email of feedback this afternoon from me.  I will provide some time in class tomorrow to finalise these documents as it seems some students will be in need of this.  Some do not and their briefs and letters are looking great.

I am writing this to reassure you not to stress, and know that you will get time to finalise these documents in class tomorrow.  However, for this to be effective you will need to bring a digital copy of your design brief and letter that you can access at school, and that can be printed once finalised for submission.

I am inspired by many of your project ideas and am excited to see these ideas begin to come to fruition as the process begins in Terms 2 and 3.

See you all tomorrow.

Mrs Cutmore.

Our iMovie on Compassion

Over the coming two weeks we will be focusing on the restorative learning disposition of Compassion.  Year 6 helped me give a presentation on Compassion in Assembly today.  Bravo to Tess, Harry and Marley for pulling off an incredibly well performed skit.  Thank you.  And well done to all of Year 6 for their help with the iMovie that we showed.  I have embedded it below for your enjoyment.

Being compassionate is powerful!  It can change a person’s whole world.  So be compassionate and change the world.

Sharing our Learning

Year 6 shared their learning with Year 1 this week about matter.  The students' ability to distill their learning into simple manageable concepts that they could then teach to the Year 1 students who are also looking at matter in their science unit, was very impressive.  Even Mrs Duffy and Mrs Batten made comment on how much the Year 1 students had retained from their time with Year 6 when discussing the session later in the day.  Bravo Year 6 for a job well done!

Inspirational Visitors

We have been lucky enough to have two very inspirational visits this week. The first was Angela Michael, a Pakistani woman who co-founded the Miracle School to educate the children of families working in the Brick Kilns of Pakistan. This inspirational woman talked to the Year 5 and 6 students about poverty, education and how Christians in Pakistan are helping to break the poverty cycle.





Our second visit this week was from author, Kate Forsyth and illustrator, Lorena Carrington. These amazing women talked to Year 5 and 6 students about fairytales, depictions of girls in stories and all about the writing and illustrating process.

Division /Multiplication Game

Stage 3 Sphero Robotics club

Our Stage 3 (Year 5 &6) Sphero Robotics club has been meeting each Thursday for most of the term.

Today, some of our Year 6's had a chariot race (a design and make challenge using a Sphero robot as both the motor and wheel for a chariot), while the Year 5's worked through the robot track - needing to carefully control their Sphero so that it does not touch the red lines - no easy feat!

We finished with a game of 'King of the Hill' - a survival of the fittest Sphero operator.

Year 6 Car Wash

An enormous thank you for the incredible hard work washing cars by everyone involved in last Saturday's Year 6 Car Wash at Flower Power Warriewood.  The generosity of time, effort and energy was unbelievable.  Not only that, but many students and their parents contributed delicious baked creations for our cake stall, which was a great success!

The total made on the day was $1,770.  A special mention must be made of the efforts of Cameron Johnston, Nick Kelly, Hugh Coates, Simeon Haddad - these Dad’s went solidly from 10am-2pm! They were the engine of the car wash. 

Thank you to all students and families who contributed to the day.  Your efforts are truly appreciated.

Well Done Year 6 - Chemistry Assessment Done and Dusted!

Year 6 demonstrated their learning from our Chemistry unit on Friday through submitting their informative Chemistry Matters iMovies. They will be presenting their movies to a younger student next week and spend some time explaining what they had learn't about matter. The students were so engaged and absorbed in their learning, I have attached some photos of them finishing off their assignments.

This is our first assignment scaffolded and completed at school.  Students were able to touch base with me throughout the process, and were encouraged to check back to their assignment sheets and the rubric provided to guide them as they went.  I am very proud of how the students worked throughout the process.

What do we need to know about the Thrass chart?

Over the next few weeks I am running a 'Thrass Catch-up Workshop' for students who are new to the school. 
Some points for parents to understand regarding the Thrass tool are:

English words are produced using 44 sounds.
The THRASSCHART has 44 boxes. The function of these boxes is to give a physical reference for each sound in English.

English is made up of two distinct groups of sounds.
The THRASSCHART has two distinct parts. One part groups the sounds that are the consonant phonemes of English, the other groups the sounds that are the vowel phonemes of English.

English words are written using letters, Capitals and Lower-Case. 
The Alphabet is placed at the top of the THRASSCHART showing both the Capitals and Lower-Case versions of each letter. Letters are used to represent sounds in written words. Learners need to be able to name and identify them. Alphabetic knowledge is important as this code is used as an indexing reference system in books, electronically etc.

Pictures can be named and described using words. We use words to write a story. 
The THRASSCHART has a picture (120) for each word on the chart. Learners learn to read by associating with a picture. Oral and written language skills can be developed by using the pictures on the chart for identification, classification and story telling.

WHY HAVE A THRASSCHART?
Sounds in English words can be represented with different letter combinations. 
Each of the 44 boxes on the chart contains the most common spelling choices for that sound. It also has a word for each spelling choice. The THRASSCHART allows the learner to quickly identify a group of letters as depicting an associated sound in a word. When we read we have to identify grapheme groups and associate them with a sound. The sounds are then blended together to make words. When we write we have to identify sounds we can hear and choose a spelling choice for that sound.

Sounds have common written patterns. 
Each word on the THRASSCHART contains only spelling choices that are on the chart. This analogous cross-reference allows the learner to start to visualise common spelling patterns thereby building an understanding of spelling. Each word on the THRASSCHART can be spelt using patterns from other chart words. e.g. bird is made up of bird, shirt, dog.

Classwork - Division

Watch the video below on short division, then follow the steps below...

Maths Dictionary: 

Step 1: Under the heading 'Division - Symbols', record all of the terms and symbols that are used to demonstrate division.

Step 2: Watch the video below on Long Division

Maths Dictionary:

Step 3: Now record how to work through a basic division question - recording it horizontally first and then vertically (therefore using both division symbols) as well as a longer, more challenging question (using the examples in the video).

Now tackle this question (in your maths book): 4250 divided by 3 (note: you will have a fractional remainder)

Once you have your answer - you are ready for the activity sheet! 

If you are having trouble working out the answer; join the small group.

Library Lovers Month - Mystery Reads!

We have been challenging students to try new books

and launched Library Lovers Month.

All students were given the opportunity to pick a Mystery Read from reading only the first sentence of a ‘hidden’ book

- no title, no cover picture, no author details ..... tricky!

Students got a Library Lovers Book Mark and were invited to write their name, the title of the book and tell us what they thought of their ‘mystery’ read.

Congratulations to everyone who took the challenge – very brave!  

  Keep Reading!

Premiers Reading Challenge 2018!

It is exciting to launch the Premier's Reading Challenge for 2018. The aims of the Challenge are to encourage a love of reading for leisure and pleasure in students, and to enable them to experience quality literature. It is not a competition but a challenge to each student to read, to read more and to read more widely.

If your child attended St Luke’s Grammar in 2017 they are already enrolled in the Challenge for 2018. Their existing PRC username and password are the same as last year and access is at PRC site: https://online.det.nsw.edu.au/prc/home.html from Monday 5 March.

Mrs Duffy will send home a Personal Reading Record along with student log-in details on Monday or Tuesday this week and the students will then be able to access the PRC site and record books read.

By entering this challenge, your child is declaring that they have read the books entered in accordance with their school year rules.

 

K-2 students – can read the books on their own, read them with someone, or someone can read to them. If your child is reading simple chapter books they can attempt the 3-4 challenge – please let Mrs Duffy know if this is your child so that she can change the record?

3-6 students – must read the books on their own, but someone can help choosing them.

Book lists are found here: https://online.det.nsw.edu.au/prc/booklist/home.html 

Complete rules are found here: https://online.det.nsw.edu.au/prc/rules.html

The Learning Hub team has gathered a selection of PRC books for each stage that are now on display in the Hub. Students will need to visit your local library to access other interesting titles.

Don’t forget - we are launching the event with a Scholastic Book Fair and the cabinets are due to arrive in the morning of 6 March we will open for sales on Tuesday after school. Come along to the Learning Hub from 2.35 to find an exciting range of PRC and other book titles.   

Book Fair opening hours:

Tuesday 6 March from 2.35

Wednesday and Thursday 7 & 8 March from 8.00-830 and 2.35-3.00

Monday 12 March 8.00-8.30 and 2.35-3.00

             

The students have until the 31 August 2018 (11.59) to complete the Challenge.