4th Class are having lots of fun diving back into Shakespeare rehearsals. As part of homework each night, all students have been reminded to learn their lines as soon as possible. We have limited time each week with Miss Emanuel and rehearsals are interrupted when students are carrying scripts around instead of props. Everyone is doing really well and we hope to have all students with memorised lines within the next 2 weeks.
The past week:
• In writing we have been looking at effective persuasive arguments and using conjunctions and other connective devices to illustrate opposition, reinforcement and cause and effect to strengthen our arguments. In Grammar we have looked at the etymology of words from Latin and Greek and how new words are created all the time; and in comprehension we looked at understanding texts containing direct and reported speech with a focus on historical recounts.
• In my Maths class
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Update from 2nd Class (Year 2)
In Maths this past week, 2nd Class explored multi-digit addition and subtraction, trading (regrouping or borrowing). This requires a good understanding of place value. I was delighted to see the children embrace this with a sense of challenge and enthusiasm. Addition proved interesting and all managed it well, after some practice. Our next challenge was mastering this process, with subtraction. Any interested students might like to watch this video to help master this skill.
Free Writing
The children have been decorating their own ‘Free Writing’ book. There is much excitement about this. Some children have planned their topic to write about and can discuss the purpose and audience they will write for. I will not mark this book and allow the children some scope to develop their skills without concern about punctuation and spelling. We have a ‘Free Writing Area’ with resources and topic/sentence starters for those who need a help to
Deputy Head of School’s Comment
I would like to take the opportunity to comment on the on-going resilience of our students in the current situation. There have been many disappointments as Open Day, Infants Shakespeare live performances and the year 5 and 6 visit to Canberra have all had to be cancelled. The children have met these disappointments with good grace and worked to make the best of the circumstances. I would particularly like to acknowledge our 6th class students who are having a very different final year at John Colet compared to normal. They set a wonderful example to the rest of the School of good humour, acceptance and equanimity.
Di Renshaw
Deputy Headmistress
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On the vegetarian lunch menu for Week 4
Monday Macaroni cheese
Tuesday Chickpea and sweet potato curry
Wednesday Salad rolls
Thursday Vegetable pies
Friday Bean tacos
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6th Class are considering negative numbers in Maths and the question was asked, “How can there be a number less than zero, if zero is equal to nothing?” Is there a quantity less than zero? How can we have less than nothing at all! What a conundrum to debate! We turned to real life problems to answer the question, including looking at negative temperatures and landforms beneath sea level. There is of course an infinite number of integers ‘going left’ on the number line and 6T have been investigating them all week. We will finish up today with our weekly assessment and online Kahoot quiz. It is fascinating listening to the children discuss their Mathematical understanding. Justifying their answers and reasoning with each other is an important part of their learning and is rightly included in the NSW Maths Curriculum under the strand name ‘Working Mathematically’.
Allison Tomicki
Teacher
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6th class make personal keepsakes for Art
Each year 6th class students learn the ancient art of bookbinding. They make their own hand-stitched books under the direction of professional bookbinder and artist Brigitta Gallaher. The books are a beautiful and personal keepsake for the children to collect and display their favourite drawings.
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Illustration sessions online
The NSW Premier’s Reading Challenge is hosting guided illustration sessions online and our school joined in. Here are examples of our students’ takes on the fabulous illustrations by author Mick Eliott’s Squidge Dibley series. Students from Lower 1st to 6th Class took part. The NSW PRC people were very impressed and shared our students’ work on their instagram @nswprc. Our school is in the draw for some great prize packs! Wish us luck!
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3rd class develop Geo skills
Third class are learning mapping skills and using grid references to locate places. They are also learning how to use an atlas and an
to locate the grid references of key natural features in Australia.
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Why do we need evidence and examples to support our opinions? What are the hallmarks of effective persuasive arguments? 4th Class considered this closely this week. In Grammar we learnt about intensifiers and how these boost the feelings or opinions being expressed and add strength to the description; and in comprehension we looked at understanding texts containing direct and reported speech such as discussions and transcripts.
In my Maths class we have focused on revision before taking part in the Australian Maths Competition which we all agreed was rather challenging.
In History, we began to look at post-First Fleet Australia and read some real letters from Australian colonists describing the difficulties of life in the first years of the colony for both convicts and free settlers.
In Geography, we investigated how different people’s ideas about the environment influence how we look after the environment and sustainability. We specifically looked at the Boabs
Back into a busy Third Term for 6th class
Children’s authors Jackie French, Daniela Abela and Andrew Daddo shared creative writing tips with 6th class in a Mini Writing Festival this week. The children were keen to put into practice creating vivid descriptions, building curious characters and developing plot.
In other matters, the busy-ness of school has resumed with buddies (who celebrated 101 days of school dressed as the 101 Dalmations), Shakespeare, French and debating. Congratulations to our debaters who won today’s debate against Ravenswood School for Girls! On Monday we had our Teacher’s Day assembly and the children heard several short readings about the sun, moon, Earth, sky, water and air; and contemplated what they could teach us.
For Romeo and Juliet, ‘costumes’ will be basic blacks – black tights to the ankles and black short-sleeved t-shirts. Features will be added to each child’s clothing to identify their character. 6T will be in Western style costumes for their interpretation of