Year Two Inquiry Celebration Day Photos and Thank you

Good Evening all,

THANK YOU to everyone who joined us today for our Inquiry Celebration to share our learning regarding how we can positively impact our culture.

It was such a special morning for us as a neighbourhood of teachers, students, parents, grandparents and other family members. The vibe was wonderful and we appreciate all of your support and encouragement today and over the past two and a half terms.

We thanked many of the parents who collaborated with us during this Inquiry, but we would also like to say thank you to our fourth team member, Janette, who is invaluable to our team and who is a constant source of inspiration. Thank you Janette for joining us today on your day off to show your support. It was also very special to have Esme join us for the morning to share in our celebration.

Here is a slideshow of photos taken by our student teacher, Georgia Rose, who kindly captured some special moments today.

CALL FOR ANY VIDEO FOOTAGE: If you happened to capture any really fantastic shots of the morning and any video, particularly of the songs, we would love to have a copy. Simone is happy to quickly whip a file off a USB and give it straight back to you any morning or afternoon or via the children. THANKS!

If you weren't able to make it today, we understand and hope you get a sense of the celebration through these photos.

BOOK WEEK PARADE

Here are some photos from this morning's book week parade

A celebration of Year 2 Inquiry Learning Program Tuesday August 27th 2013.

9am Year 2 Neighbourhood Assembly sharing our inquiry questions,  featuring 3 songs including an original composition and short trailers. Gym

Coffee cart

10am Official ceremonies including Book Launch, Inauguration of Divercity.  Gym.

10.30am Premier of the documentary, cooking demonstration, art exhibition, presentation of our country Divercity. Year 2 Neighbourhood.

Lunch with the children optional.

Book Talk and Assembly

Please note that Book Talk remains at the normal time of 9 to 10am on Wednesday mornings.

Our Year 2 assembly is on Tuesday 27th August at 9am in the gym followed by a presentation by the children at 10am.

Looking forward to seeing you all there.

Lateness

Lateness

The teaching staff has raised some concern that many students are arriving late for school on a fairly regular basis. Unfortunately this is a situation that can have a negative effect on the education of not only those students who are late, but also the other students in the class.

 

What impact does being late have on the student?

Students who are late miss a lot of instructions and information about what is happening, not to mention important learning sessions. They also miss out on catching up with their friends in the playground before school. Students can feel unsettled, disorganized and unhappy for the rest of the day and it can take them some time to complete and understand the work that they have missed. It’s similar to being late to see a movie and not being able to understand what’s happening because you have missed out on who the characters are and what the plot is.

 

How does it affect the other students in the class?

Students who are late have an unsettling effect on the rest of the class. Because not all late students arrive at once, the interruptions go on until the last student is settled. Students who are late often have things that need to be done prior to them joining the class and this causes even more disruption. Sometimes other students have to wait to get the teachers attention and important issues can be forgotten.

 

Why does student lateness cause difficulties for the teacher?

The teacher has a certain amount of material and activities to cover each lesson. Also, organizational issues are usually dealt with at the beginning of the day. Teachers can become increasingly frustrated when late students continually and repeatedly interrupt their planned routines, as they have to stop teaching to deal with the issues involved.

 

We are all human. Cars can break down and unexpected situations can occur. We know that family morning routines are not always straightforward. If you are experiencing problems, speak to us, as we may be able to offer suggestions to help.

We are happy to accept that students will be late on the odd occasion because of unforeseen circumstances. However, arriving late on a regular basis is not acceptable

 

Remember

A student who is half an hour late each day misses the equivalent of 16.6 days of learning each year

Action Required Junior School Library

Helpers Needed to Support the Introduction of the Junior School Library  Circulation System

Could you give 10-20 min. one morning or afternoon each week to help Prep, Year 1 and Year 2 students borrow from the Junior School Library?

We are ready to roll out the Junior School library so we can track student borrowing habits, their reading choices and to ensure resources are maintained.

 We need helpers to scan books in (returns) and to scan books out (Issue/loans). Many Prep-2 students borrow daily. Talk to your Neighbourhood Teachers to express your interest in helping with our literacy programs and getting the circulation system up and running.

Green Team

 

 Rinsed clean 2Litre plastic milk bottles wanted.

Please bring in any  milk bottles for the make Do Green Team project. Leave them in the box at Julie's office.

Thank you.

 

 

Music Residency (exciting lunchtime choir opportunity)

Hi Everyone,

Artist in Residence - Music Residency:

On Thursday 22^nd August at 11.10, students are invited to join Deborah Kayser and Nicola Lester for a 4 week lunchtime Music Residency. Students will have the opportunity to develop a repertoire of songs over four Thursday lunch-times and then perform these as a part of a choir at the final Assembly of the term (Tuesday 17^th September).  If you have students/children who are in interested in joining this choir, and that are prepared to commit to four Thursday lunch times from 11.10- 11.50, can you please remind them next Thursday to come to the stage in the gym for the first rehearsal and get together? This Music Residency is open to all students at all year levels at the school. If you have any queries, please feel free to contact Hannah.

Thank you

Book Week 2013

The theme for Book Week this year is ‘Read across the Universe’. Book Week takes places between the 17^th – 23^rd August (Week 6). To celebrate the Prep-2 Neighbourhoods will be attending the performance Space Jump at school on Thursday 15^th August and having a Book Week Parade and Book Sharing Day on Thursday 22^nd August. 

Book Week Parade and Sharing Day

Children are invited to dress up as their favourite book character for the parade and to bring the book to share with other children in the junior school. Parents are welcome to come and watch the parade and join in with the shared reading. After lunch the children will be placed in mixed aged groups and take part in two workshops related to this year’s Short Listed Books for the Book of the Year.

Action Required

Our Book week performance is tomorrow Thursday 13 August.
Some children have not returned their signed cream forms.
Please return signed forms tomorrow so that all children can attend.

CHANGE TO YEAR TWO ASSEMBLY DATE - 27TH AUGUST

Hi everyone,

You will be receiving an invitation home from your child this week regarding our upcoming Year Two Assembly on 27th August. There was a mix up with the assembly dates so it is no longer 13th August.

You are invited to come to share in our learning on this day, from 9am at Assembly and then join us in the Year Two Neighbourhood to explore our Inquiry further until 11am.

The three strands of our Inquiry have engaged the children in exploring how we can have a positive impact on our culture. The Sustainability Group has explored the impact we can have on our personal and community culture by making sustainable living choices, particularly in the area of food consumption; The Create a Country Group has explored the decision-making processes in creating a new country and how these choices impact on culture (including creating their own flag, currency and constitution); and the Family Stories Group have explored diversity and the impact we can have through awareness and appreciation of culture in our community.

We would love for you to join us if you can. The morning will involve healthy and not-so-healthy treats related to our Inquiry, dramatic presentation of the country 'Divercity', presentation of the Sustainability Group Cookbook, screening of the 'Sydney Road' documentary (if technical issues subside), performance of three songs, display of artwork and clay models and of course explanations of the learning by the children.

Please speak to your child or a Neighbourhood teacher for more information.

Warm Regards,
The Year Two Neighbourhood Team.

Fibonacci Day

Hello everyone,

I just wanted to share a special discovery by Hugo from our Year Two Neighbourhood today.

In one of our targeted maths sessions, one activity offered to the children was to investigate the Fibonacci Sequence.

The first part of the sequence goes like this:

0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34....

Some of the children got really involved in finding the subsequent numbers in the sequence. Can you see the pattern?

One of our lovely students, Hugo, is away sick today but emailed us especially to let us know that today at 11.23am it was 'Fibonacci Day'... as it was 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13!

I love this somewhat abstract yet logical application of a mathematical concept to a new context!

We will continue to investigate interesting concepts like number sequences and hopefully you will be challenged by some of the mathematics that the children come up with!

Great work Hugo!