How time flies! We have made it halfway through the year. Report cards will be out, and the holidays are just a few days away.

Our ‘Books of the Week’ Koala’s Big Day Out, The Enormous Turnip and Room on the Broom have brought lots of joy to the students. Our versions included ‘Green Tree Frog’s Big Day Out’, ‘The Enormous Orange Carrot’ and ‘Seat on the Jeep’. Students once again decided on the characters in the stories and played a big part in the events experienced by the characters. Their little faces light up when they see their new book come to life, knowing that they played an important part of in its creation. They become part authors. All versions of the books will be sent how this week. Enjoy sharing these books with your child.

Numbers have played an important part of our Mathematics’ lessons once again. Students have enjoyed drawing pictures by ordering numbers on their dot-to-dot sheets. They have begun to add small quantities of numbers together and looking at numbers up to 20 by playing Number Bingo.

Science is always fun. We have continued to use the forces of push and pull in our cooking journey and devoured pancakes and pizza. Flipping a big pancake was very exciting. The discovery of magnets and its magical force was ever so popular. We played with paperclips and magnets to see how many paperclips the force of our magnets could hold. Then we went fishing with out magnetic fishing lines and caught lots of fish. This was a very popular activity. Students were also engaged with their pom-pom launchers. The pull action of the balloon pushed the pom-pom out of the cut, sending it flying across the room. Students had to aim for a target, and it took a few trials before they perfected their aim. Lots of fun!

The Athletics Sports’ Carnival was a lot of fun. All students ran in the 50m race with some also participating in the 150m race. Great sportsmanship was shown as they cheered each other on. Thank you, Coach Tim, for teaching us.

We have had our last horse-riding lesson on Wednesday. We have truly enjoyed the opportunity and kindly thank all the volunteers who make this event possible.

Using Bingo games to teach phonics has also been lots of fun. We have used the rime of ‘at’ and ‘it’ so far with great success and have added ‘ot’ and ‘an’ as we progress. Sounding out the beginning, middle and end sounds is at times challenging but fun. The students have also made great progress in being able to count the number of syllables in words.

To help with our social skills we have been playing. During that time the train tracks and trains come out, the cars and dolls appear, and the blocks are scattered all over the classroom floor. Teaching students to play together encourages all kinds of dialogue, negotiating, turn taking and sharing. There was lots of pretend play, action and problems to solve. Play is key to children’s learning, development, confidence and wellbeing.

To all the parents and carers, from the Team here in EY5, THANK YOU for all that you do, day to day, for our precious students. Your continued support, communication and dedication is valued and so very much appreciated.  

"At the end of the day, the most overwhelming key to a child's success is the positive involvement of parents." - Jane D. Hull.

Cheers from Miss Gaelle and Miss Codie