News from the Classroom
23rd October
My, my, time has just flown since my last instalment!
We are well into Term 4 now, with the associated learning and assessments leading up to the students' final reports. Get Set Go swimming has begun and the children are enjoying water safety and lifesaving classes. Our swimming carnival will be held on the last week of this term.
We have begun discussions with the students on their ideas for next year when the Year 6 and 7 cohorts will both leave St Ita's for high school at the same time. We want the students' final year to be special and are keen to hear their ideas on what they would like to see happen in this special year. Administration are also keen to hear your ideas about how we can best cater for the needs of all graduating students in 2014.
6A are busy with their Media Groups and doing well. Such great dramatic monologues and interesting and important Australian people have been introduced us all. 6A are certainly a very creative group of learners!
Kathy Hammond
21st August
Well, what a busy time we have been having! With the Athletics Carnival, the Ekka, the School Concert, Tournament of Minds etc. the children have been working hard. Miss McLean is well into her teaching internship with Year 6 and enjoying the class immensely.
Today we had another Genius Hour session. It was wonderful watching the progress the students are making with their individual projects. I have also enjoyed following the Genius Hour Blog on our website. We will have another 2 weeks of preparation/creation then we will all be able to share our final product and the learning process in which we participated.
All students presented some wonderful Book Trailers to the class this term. I hope to upload a selection onto the website for your enjoyment. The purpose of this task was to create a multimodal persuasive text. The students were marked on their use of persuasive elements and the structure of their book trailer. The general feedback from the students was that they found this to be an informative and exciting presentation
Just a reminder about the concert this Sunday, 25th October. The students are to arrive at the Sleeman Centre at Chandler around 1:30pm. Just drop your child off at the front of the theatre and there will be St Ita's staff to show them where to assemble. There will then be a short walk-through practice for the students and the 'real' performance will follow. Should be lots of fun!
Good luck to those of our 6A students who will be competing at the Tournament of Minds on Saturday. Mrs Quinn, Mrs Robinson and all the team members have worked very hard in preparation for this event and we are very proud of them. Enjoy yourselves, team!
Don't forget the Book Fair coming up next week (Week 8) beginning on Tuesday. Allow yourselves some time to browse through the selection of books and other items in the Library and maybe pick up a bargain or two. Thanks Mrs P for organising this for us.
In class the students are currently working on completing their Math investigation before they begin a special unit with Miss McLean on Financial Mathematics. In English they are developing their skills with the text structure of the narrative, while in History they will be using this knowledge to write an Historical Narrative related to Vietnamese refugees in the 1970's. Science studies are about earthquakes and their effects on the built and natural environments.
25th July
Well, this week we farewell Silas, our German exchange student. It has been a wonderful cultural exchange for our students and I know Silas has enjoyed his time here. On Wednesday Silas gave the class a short talk, in English, about his life in Germany. His confidence with using the English language really improved over the three weeks he was with us. With only two years of formal English studies at school in Germany he has done remarkably well!
Our History unit on Changes in the Status and Rights of groups in our country throughout the 20th Century is drawing to a close. This week the students gave their big presentations on the topic they have been researching. Their depth of research was wonderful to see! Over the next few days it would be great if you could engage your child in discussion on the Freedom Rides and the fight for indigenous rights, women's rights and particularly the fight to allow Australian women to vote, as well as workers' rights and the introduction of the 8 hour day. I hope that consolidating and extending their knowledge through your conversations together will be an enriching experience for everyone!
Have a great weekend.
23rd July
This week we welcome Ms Aimee McLean to 6A. Miss McLean is a final year education student from the University of Queensland who will be with us for the rest of the term. I am sure Aimee will enjoy teaching your children as much as Mr Morley and I do!
9th July
Welcome to Term 3! This looks like being another busy term full of great learning and activities. We welcome Silas into our class for the first three weeks of this term. Silas is from Germany and will be participating in all our learning activities. We have already been doing some study about the exact location of Germany, where Silas lives in Germany as well as learning some German words. This is bound to be a great cultural experience for 6A and we hope that Silas enjoys his stay with us!
20th May
Thanks to all of you who came up for parent/teacher interviews. It was great to speak to you about your child's progress so far this year. We have a couple of fun things coming up this week and next week. On Wednesday we will be celebrating the National Simultaneous Storytime at St Ita's, and on Friday we have a Crazy Sock Day in exchange for a gold coin donation. Should be great! On Monday we will be having a Tournament of Minds day with Year 7. We will get to work together to solve interesting problems and have fun along the way. Walking Wheeling Wednesday continues this coming Wednesday, with Walk to School Day on Friday. School was never this much fun when we were little!
The new homework project "Nobel Prize" is now up on the site, including the criteria sheet. Students have 4 weeks in which to complete the project with submission due on Friday 14th June.
13th May
New on the site! Spelling words for all groups. See more/curriculum/english/spelling words.
Class Update - 1st May
Submission dates for Term 2 projects have been uploaded onto the site.
Congratulations to all students who participated in the St Ita's Cross Country event. A great time was had by all. Many thanks to teachers and parents who assisted with the running on the day. We couldn't do it without you. A special congratulations to Cormac, Pat, Katie, Constance and Joseph for their selection for the District Cross Country.
We have started the term with some really great Digital Book Review presentations. Our book reviews are such a great way to learn about books we haven't yet read and we can add them to our lists for future borrowing.
We are looking forward to meeting you all for Parent/Teacher interviews next week. Please make sure you get your interview request form in to class asap so you have the best chance of getting your preferred time!
Cheers
Mrs Hammond
26th April, 2013
Term 2 Math topics have been uploaded onto our site! Access via Curriculum - Maths.
Class Update - 19th April
Welcome back to Term 2! Well the term has certainly started off with a bang. Our Tallebudgera Camp was amazing. Many thanks to parents for sending your kids along so well organised. Thanks also to the children for your excellent behaviour, cooperation skills and sense of adventure and fun. I looked after 1B group and my photos are up on this site in our photo gallery for you all to peruse. All other photos are on the school network at this stage.
Next week will see us participating in our first Footsteps Dance session for the Term. We are really looking forward to it. This term also sees Parent/Teacher interviews and we will have a roster going out in the next week or two. Mr Morley and I are looking forward to catching up with you to discuss all the wonderful things about your child. Reports for Semester One will be going home in Week 10 of this term.
Homework for Term 2 will consist of completing the Reading Log nightly and returning to class each Monday. Any unfinished work from the day will also be sent home to be completed if necessary. Other activities are available through Study Ladder and many of the wonderful educational websites e.g. Khan Academy, Maths Online (if you are registered) etc. There are also a number of other sites listed in the Curriculum pages of this website to give you a guide.
Cheers
Mrs Hammond
