Dear Parents/Caregivers

As part of our literacy genre writing, students have written a procedure on ‘how to make a sandwich’.  They were asked to write the recipe as if explaining it to an alien from another planet.  Students could choose from ‘ham, cheese, lettuce, tomato and cucumber’ to add to their sandwich.

On Friday 29 July, in celebration of their first week of successful writing, students will be making their sandwich between recess and lunch to eat at lunchtime. 

You therefore, may not wish to pack as much food on this day! 

Please let me know if you do not wish your child to participate – they will be required to watch or help if not making a sandwich. Please also let me know if your child has any dietary requirement, e.g. coeliac, gluten or lactose intolerant, etc.

Val Crozier

Flashlight Friday - this week

Wow!!!

Your fabulous children have now reached over 3000 points on Class Dojo.

As a reward, Room 31 will be having "Flashlight Friday" this week on Friday 20 May.  Students may bring in a torch/flashlight and we will turn off the lights, sit in a dark corner or sit under the desk and read our library books for half an hour or so.  Students will be reminded on Wednesday as I will be away Thursday afternoon.

Term 2 Week 3

I am pleased that we have survived NAPLAN.  I am so proud of how the students handled themselves.  Again NAPLAN is a snapshot of their learning on that particular day.  Reports are completed based on written work, observations, discussions and formative and summative assessments.

I decided to check each child's Chromebook history today and was surprised to see a couple of students had spent nearly 6 hours on YouTube or playing online games. However, there were many who completed their Geography homework and caught up with their Term 1 Studyladder work (which I have told students must be up to date by the beginning of Week 6).

As part of our Digital Technology lessons, we are discussing digital safety and currently students are working at receiving their "Digital Licence".

Steve Whitehead posted the information below to the Google Community reminding everyone of the age restrictions for social media platforms.  We restrict access to these sites while students are at school and  discuss the potential dangers associated with digital learning.  Some students have indicated they have had Facebook for a number of years - this means their "age" will now show over 16.  It might be pertinent to check your child's accounts and make necessary amendments to age/date of birth and who their "friends" are.  Some admit they accept any friend request - even from males they do not know!!

If you need help in checking your child's accounts, please let me know and I can arrange for you or a small group of parents to come in after school to go through their access.

Happy Holidays

Wow!  We are already half way through our holidays.  It is inspiring to see so many students completing NAPLAN practise activities on   Studyladder.  I hope you are all managing to have some time to relax and have fun with you family.  Enjoy the rest of the holidays.

Arbury Park Camp

Reminder that all camp consent forms, health forms and specific dietary needs must be returned tomorrow Friday 11 March 2016.

I am aware you have had a lot of expense at the beginning of this year due to Chromebooks.  Payment arrangements can be made with Michelle Kraniac in finance.  You will need to contact her by 3pm tomorrow (Friday 11 March 2016) to either pay or make arrangements to pay.   (There are 35 weeks left this year.  Therefore $5 per week would have camp paid for by the middle of Term 4, $10 per week would have the camp paid for by the end of Term 2).

Unfortunately I must confirm definite numbers on Friday so I can not accept late payments/arrangements.

Questions answered (hopefully)

I am so proud of how all students have taken to working between books and their Chromebooks.  As we all learn more, I am sure we will all see amazing things happening with our learning and teaching.

I have been asked about the microphone I wear in the classroom.  I use a microphone/speaker for two reasons:

1. I lost my voice for nearly 9 weeks in 2015 and following over 6 months of speech therapy was advised to use a microphone/speaker system both in and out of the classroom to reduce voice strain.
2. Room 31 has two students with hearing difficulties. The microphone/speaker provides the amplification needed to help them hear instructions.

Students are asked not to speak or make background noise whilst either I or another student is talking to enable these students to hear instructions and answers. The school behaviour procedure will start occurring for repeat offenders who have been constantly reminded not to talk while another person is speaking.

A couple of students have started forgetting to charge/bring in their Chromebooks.  I ask that Chromebooks have at least 6 hours of charge on them at the beginning of the day.  Students must also bring their Chromebook to school each day.  If forgotton/left at home, it will be the students responsibility to catch up any work completed in class on the Chromebook by the next lesson.  Students will make hand written notes during the lesson to use at home.

Unfortunately, I have had to remind a couple of students of email etiquette and will make this a focus of future Chromebook lessons.

Don't forget, you, as parents, can log on to your child's Chromebook using your ardps.com account to see what work they are doing.  Homework/classwork is shown on Google Classroom and also on the class blog.

Have a look at the typing app they are using - it is free to sign up!  Practice your touch typing skills too and challenge your child to be better than you!

 I will notify you via the class blog as more and more apps are introduced.

Please let me know if you need any help with Chromebooks, etc.

Why Reading Matters