Happy New Year to all the families from room 16

Just stopping in to share some photos that I thought you might like that I’ve taken while in New York and Washington, D.C. (I have LOTS more, but I can show you those at the start of the school year if you’d like to see them).

Click this link to see a few photos.

The first 4 photos were taken in New York’s Natural History Museum (the dinosaur bones and the statue… if you’ve seen Night at the Museum, you might recognise it!) and the Metropolitan Museum of Art (the Egyptian temple).

The next 2 photos are of the White House (which is where the American President lives). I stayed in a hotel that was only a short walk away so I’ve seen the White House every day for the last 5 days! The next mom the Washington Monument – which is the tallest object in Washington, D.C. You used to be able to go right up to the top (I did that the last time I was in the USA), but it’s been damaged and you can’t go up anymore.

The following 2 photos are from the Lincoln Memorial. Abraham Lincoln was the President a long time ago. His statue is really, really big.

Washington is full of museums and art galleries, all part of an organization called the Smithsonian – the brown building you can see is the Smithsonian Castle. It has lots of information about the museums.

The last photos are some of my favourite. I went out to a special museum called the Steven F Udvar-Hazy Center – which is part of the Air and Space Museum. They have lots and lots of planes (including some of the very first planes invented).

But the 2 really special things I saw there were the space shuttle Discovery – which is a REAL space shuttle that has been to space 39 times!

The second plane is my favourite plane – it’s called the SR-71 Blackbird. It’s the fastest plane that’s ever been built. I was very excited to go and see it in person.

I still have lots of traveling to do (including Disneyland), so keep an eye on the blog and I will try to update with more photos soon.

How are your holidays?

What have you been doing?

From Miss Galvin

It is incredible to think that we have spent a whole year together, and that our time as a class is nearing the end.

This last week of school is one of our most important times together – as we celebrate the friends we’ve made, the things that we’ve learnt and the fun that we’ve had.

Most of your school books have already gone home – with only a few bits and pieces left that will be sent home in the first few days of this week.

We will continue to learn about Holidays Around the World until the end of the week.

Otherwise, we have a very busy itinerary:

MONDAY: Meet the Teacher Morning (students will meet their teacher and class for 2013)

WEDNESDAY: Class Party at the Park. (If there are any parent-helpers available, please contact Miss Galvin ASAP!)

THURSDAY: Movie Day (We need one parent helper for the bus. Please contact Miss Galvin ASAP!)

FRIDAY: Final day of school – Assembly at 1:00pm for a 1:30pm finish.

Parents, if you are available to help on Wednesday or Thursday, please see me on Monday morning, or email me at galvin.stefanie.s@edumail.vic.gov.au. (We definitely need a helper for the bus on Thursday!)

Helpers Needed

This is a special blog post especially for the parents!

Next week we will need 2 parent helpers for the special events planned. If you can help for one of these events, please email Miss Galvin (galvin.stefanie.s@edumail.vic.gov.au) with the event you can help with ASAP.

Helpers will be accepted on a first come/first served basis.

OUR EVENTS

1) Wednesday 19th December (Class Picnic Party in the Park)

2) Thursday 20th December (Movie Day)

Please note: It is preferable if younger siblings do not attend the movie day.

Hello Room 16!

Our weekly forecast is a little late, but nevertheless there is some important information to be read:

A Day in the Life

Is on Tuesday 11th December. All the students in Room 16 will spend time experience a day in the life of Grade 1/2 students. They will visit with the Grade 1/2 teachers who may be teaching them next year.

Note: Students do not find out their class or teachers on this day.

Christmas Expo

Is on Wednesday 12th December. Students need to return their forms by tomorrow or risk missing out on this experience.

Fish and Chips Lunch/Class Party

These forms are DUE by Wednesday 12th December. No late orders will be accepted.

Gelato Day

Is on Thursday 13th December. $2 for a vanilla cone or $2.5o for a rainbow cone – on a first-come, first-served basis. Icypoles will also be on sale for 50c.

Last Day of Swimming

Is on Friday 14th December. Make sure you’re on time, please!

Special Blog Visitor

Finally, our class blog has had a special visitor leaving us comments: Olivia has been leaving us some very lovely comments. Please stop by, read and leave her a reply!

Hello and welcome to Week 9! There’s only 3 weeks of school left for the whole year – where has the time gone?

Tomorrow (Monday, 4th December) is our annual Christmas Carols Night – we hope to see as many people there as possible! Our class will be performing with the 3 Prep classrooms and will feature a fabulous musical solo by our Grade 1s! I hope everyone’s been practising Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and Santa Claus Is Coming To Town! The PFA will be selling sausages/drinks/etc (plus the cake stall!), but families are encouraged to bring along a picnic dinner and enjoy the fun and festivities of the evening. It’s one of the highlights of the school year!

This week (and for the remainder of our year) we will continue to work on our Poetry. Both the Preps and the Grade 1s have been hard at work creating pieces for their poetry folders, which will come home at the end of the year.

In Literacy we will be revising punctuation, grammar and reading strategies, all with a holiday-themed twist!

In Numeracy we will be revising Number concepts, time and measurement, all with a holiday-themed twist!

Don’t forget to get your Movie Day notices in as soon as possible (please send permission notes to Miss Galvin so she can tick off who has returned them and who has not!). Students who do not return the form and payment will remain at school for the morning.

And now… a peak into our creative side!

Last week the students in Room 16 had the opportunity to construct objects using our Magnetix kit. Students explored shape (both two-dimensional and three-dimensional) while designing a range of interesting objects.

Students demonstrated a range of problem-solving skills, particularly when trying to create shapes that could stand up independently without their support.

1. What shapes can you see?

2. What would you build with Magnetix?

3. What are you looking forward to at the Carols Night?

Can you believe that it’s Week 7 already? We only have 25 more (school) days together as a class!

This week we have just one VERY SPECIAL event, happening first thing Monday morning:

Our Buddy Performance with Grade 5/6 P!

I hope that everyone’s been practising our song and the actions because we’ll be performing tomorrow morning at assembly for the whole school. You all did a BRILLIANT job on Friday when we rehearsed and I know we can do even better tomorrow morning.

If you need a last minute practise, you can watch, listen and sing along to the song below:

Our sound of the week this week is oi/oy.

This week we will be reviewing Area and Number Concepts.

We will also resume our Wednesday Number Rotations to reinforce number facts.

1. Make a list of words with ‘oi/oy’ sound?

2. What would you like to do as a class before the end of the year?

Welcome to Week 6 – we’re over half-way through our last term together.

This week is Wellbeing Week and there are many classroom activities that will be taking place to promote this special week.

Tomorrow we will be talking about the importance of Remembrance Day and constructing our red poppy display.

We will also be visited by illustrator Sue deGennaro on Wednesday, who will be speaking to the P-2 classes at 11:10am, and running a special drawing workshop.

On Friday students from P-2 will be participating in Tabloid Sports. Students are required to wear appropriate footwear and clothing. This means there is NO SWIMMING for Room 16 this week.

Sound of the Week: er

We will continue our reading program around our special events this week.

We will be commencing our unit on Poetry during writing sessions this week.

This week we will finalise our Numeracy assessment, covering all major units of work covered this semester.

(Each question is worth 1 small fuzzy!)

1. What question would you like to ask illustrator Sue deGennaro?

2. How many words can you think of with the ‘er’ sound? (Make a list in your comment box.)

If you have read this blog post, you can whisper in Miss Galvin’s ear that you have read the blog post and you can collect 1 small fuzzy!

This week we’ve been very busy learning new things in Room 16.

One way that we really enjoy learning is through music, songs and singing.

This week we’ve been learning 2 new songs for different topics – one for our information books on Bats and one in preparation for Wellbeing Week (which is next week!).

Due to popular request, you can find both songs below to share with your families and to practise at home.

There are also special Fuzzy Questions that you can answer below each video!

 How does echolocation help a bat?

What other adjectives could we include in this song?

(Finish this sentence) What I am is: _________ 

Hello Little Smarties!

I hope that you are all enjoying your long, four-day weekend!

Despite having such a short week, we have lots to fit into 3 days. I hope that you come to school well-rested on Wednesday ready to participate in all the great learning opportunities ahead!

This week we’ll be writing an information text during our Writing sessions. We will focus on explaining important words and identifying key facts.

During Numeracy we will continue our assessment for the end of year reports. Students will be revisiting key concepts from this semester.

Even though we have missed Library this week, students MUST return their library books as soon as possible. We have been collecting a large list of overdue books in Room 16 and I know that everyone would like to see those numbers getting smaller.

Swimming will be at the usual time on Friday morning this week. However, next week there will be NO SWIMMING due to the Tabloid Sports morning.

Describe one activity that you have done over the long weekend.

Did you watch the Melbourne Cup (Tuesday)? What did you think about the race?