Weekly News: 29th September—3rd October

It has been a busy start to the year already with two major events last week - the first being Let’s Discuss Our Class last Tuesday and Thursday. It was great to meet with so many parents last week and to share our first impressions and thoughts about your child. There are still some parents who were unable to make this event and we are trying to organise meetings this week. Please be patient as we finalise appointment times over the coming days. The second major event was of course the Welcome Back BBQ last Saturday afternoon. It was fantastic to see so many families at the BBQ and to share some food, fun and sun! Thank you for your support and participation in this event.

Reflections 22nd – 26th September
The children are well and truly in the midst of our first unit of inquiry. Last week saw the children work in small groups to help create a timeline of important political events and leaders who helped to shape and influence recent history. During reading groups the children read about important leaders and viewed political posters, discussing the effectiveness of these posters as well as the message conveyed in the posters. The children also did quite a bit of work on constructing good sentences and editing their work for correct punctuation and grammar. Each class also continued working and discussing different political scenarios as part of their role play activities in class.

Weekly News: 29th September —3rd October

Unit of Inquiry
The children have generally developed a good understanding of different types of governance studied in class, particularly democracy, communism and socialism. They have also improved their knowledge of key political leaders over the last 100 years and discovered how such leaders have helped to shape history and society generally. This week will see the children continue to consolidate their understanding of important leaders in history as well as study the impact of fascism and dictatorships on society. The children will also participate in their class role-plays as a way to experience these issues first hand. Ask your child about these role plays and their learning.

Mathematics
This week the children will continue to focus on mental strategies for addition while consolidating the students’ understanding of basic place value and numeration concepts. We also anticipate that Maths Groups will start this week with the support of Mr. Costello and our very talented Year 6 assistant, Ms Isabel. In addition, the children will continue to work on concepts from the Data Handling strand, particularly in conducting surveys and analysing tables and graphs, as they get ready to poll the Year 4 and Year 5 electorate on various issues that will determine their political campaigns in the coming weeks.

English
Students will continue to consolidate their understanding of persuasive texts. We will develop the children’s persuasive speaking and writing skills as they prepare for the upcoming Year 6 Presidential Elections as part of their summative assessment. In particular, we will focus on how to deliver a persuasive and emotive speech to potential voters and how to write convincing and persuasive political texts to influence and convince readers. In our reading groups this week we will continue to practise basic comprehension and reading skills, particularly when it comes to identifying key words in questions and scanning texts for key words and clues.


What can I do to help?
· Make sure your child is doing the required homework each night. Remember the recommended amount of homework is 40 minutes plus leisure reading - children do need time to rest and play.
· Congratulations to all those children who have been working so hard over the last few weeks to complete their homework on time. Many of the children have clearly been spending a lot of their time doing their best work at home. WELL DONE! We would like to encourage all students to put in their best effort when doing their homework. Beginning this week, those students who have clearly rushed their work and not completed their homework to an acceptable standard will not have their work marked. As a reminder, if for any reason your child is unable to complete their homework, please write a note to your child’s teacher in their class diary.

Upcoming Events and Reminders:
· Please let the school know in advance if you wish your child to have a school lunch on a particular day. This helps in organising the lunch for your child.

Library News
Congratulations to all students who are bringing their library bags for borrowing. We do have some overdue books from the summer holidays and would appreciate if those books are returned as soon as possible before costs are charged for the books.

With thanks,
David Barrett, David Gocentas and Ms Isabel Costa Pereira

Weekly News: 22nd —26th September

Thank you to all the parents who are now reading the Newsletter on the blog. We have been receiving good comments from parents on the blog. I am sure you are happy to see so much information and activities for your children available. It can make their research and homework much more interesting and a lot easier. If you have any ideas or feedback to improve your child’s class blog, please pass on your suggestions to your child’s class teacher and don´t forget you can leave comments on the blog at the bottom of each article.

Reflections 15th—19th September
It was a busy week involving lots of discussions and activities as we investigated political leaders and political systems. We continued our investigation of several famous leaders in history, discussing what they are best known for and what impact their actions had on society. At the end of last week class 6G gave a presentation at the weekly assembly at which the students dressed up and told us about some of the more famous political and public leaders. During the week 6G role played the political and economic events of an imaginary country “Graceland” and 6B role played a democratic government with political debates.

Weekly News: 22nd—26th September
Unit of Inquiry: This week we will continue with the role plays in the classroom with debates and discussions changing according to changes in political events. We will continue to look at different political systems, including the Kibbutzim of Israel. We will also continue our discussion of famous political speeches and look at the qualities that made the speeches so effective.

Mathematics
Students will continue to focus on basic number concepts, particularly place value concepts (up to millions) and addition strategies and problem solving. Following some pre-testing last week, we will be starting begin our maths groups this week with the assistance of Mr. Costello and Ms Costa Pereira. In the Data Handling strand the children will continue to apply their thinking skills to analyse political surveys.

English
Students will continue to work this week on persuasive text types. We will look closely at texts from famous speeches in history and the persuasive nature of the language to incite large groups of people into action. In our reading groups this week, we will continue to practise basic comprehension and grammar skills in reading and interpreting texts, particularly when it comes to identifying key words in questions and scanning texts for key words and clues.

What can I do to help?
· Make sure your child is doing the required homework each night. Remember the recommended amount of homework is 40 minutes plus leisure reading. Children need to do the nightly Maths, Spelling and UOI work. All work should be neatly presented.
Remember, children do need time to rest and play.

Upcoming Events and Reminders:
· September 23 and 25 – Let’s Discuss Our Class parent meeting. Meetings start at 3pm.
· September 24 – Introduction to the PYP for new parents.
· September 27 – PTA Welcome BBQ (time to be advised)

With thanks,
David Barrett, David Gocentas and Ms Isabel Costa Pereira

Reflections 8th - 12th September

The children began our first unit of the year in earnest last week. It was a busy week involving lots of discussions and activities designed to introduce the children to the central idea of our first unit. The main focus was on discussing the function of government and the need for organisations to have some kind of hierarchy. The children also participated in a bus stop activity where they moved around various stations (bus stops) in the classroom to look at several images of famous leaders in history, discussing what they are best known for and what impact their actions had on society. At the end of last week the whole school was treated to 6B hosting the first class assembly of the year and their rendition of ‘Yellow Submarine’.