INTERNATIONAL CLEANERS DAY

On Monday, 15th June we celebrated International Cleaners Day. The children all wrote a card and an appreciation message to our cleaners. We are so very fortunate to have great cleaners here at Wattle Grove who work tirelessly to ensure we have a safe, clean and hygienic school. On behalf of Room 18, thank you for all that you do.

AWARDS

Congratulations to our most recent Merit Certificate recipients who have all done an outstanding job of late. You should be proud of the way in which you match challenge with effort. Keep it up and well done.

BIG WRITE

We love writing in Room 18. So far this term we have written many different texts, from poems to reviews, narratives, letters and persuasive texts. The music goes on and the candles come out. The children are creating some fantastic pieces of writing. We will be working on creating animations in ICT to go with a poem in the coming weeks.

SPELLING BEE

Well done to all of the children who have accepted the challenge to participate in the first ever Year 5 Spelling Bee. Room 18 had a lot of children who participated, these were: Aadidev, Lucy, Leila, Krissy, Chris, Canaan, Isabel, Ashwath, Sarah T, Roseleen, Nelia, Oliver, Alyssa, Danny, Chelsea, Charlotte, Neve, Kiara, Daniel, Sarah P. Furthermore, William, Luqman and Yusuf will be trying out next week. 

So far we have six finalists. Congratulations to Aadidev, Roseleen, Oliver, Charlotte, Daniel and Sarah P.

The Semi-Final will take place on Thursday of Week 8 (next week), followed by the Grand Final on Tuesday in Week 9. Good luck to all involved.

HISTORY PROJECT

All students have a history project to work on. They have chosen either a famous/important person or a major event from Colonial Australia history. Children will need to present their project to the class in Week 10 (29th June - 3rd July) as either a powerpoint presentation, book or poster. The important inclusions for the project will be:

* Introduction - an overview and introduction of the event/person.
* What? - What happened? Events to be organised chronologically.
               - What caused the event?
               - What was the reason for the person/event being such an important part of Australia's history?
              - What economic impacts did it/he/she have?
              - What social impacts did it/she/he have?
* Where? - Where did it all take place? Location to be given and maps to be included.
* Who? - Who was involved? Specific people or groups to be named with relevant background information. 
* When?
* Why?
* How?
* Additional important information and detail.
The presentation will need to be between 3-5 minutes and may include props etc.

I have been very impressed with the scope of topics so far. From Vegemite, Fremantle Prison, Goldrush, David Unaipon, AFL, Eureka Stockade, Sir John Forrest, The Federation, Sugar farming, CY O'Connor and many, many more. We are sure to be very entertained in Week 10. 

AWARDS

Congratulations to all of the children who have received an award so far this term. Some Merit Awards were given out for an excellent standard of writing; all of which were submitted to a poetry competition. Well done to Chelsea, Luqman and Nelia.

It is also wonderful to see a lot of children doing very well with their Literacy Pro. As you can see we have a number of children who have achieved their Red Certificate, and one more student who has achieved her Bronze Certificate. 
It is also great to report that Room 18 were acknowledged for their awesome reading and recently won the 'Champion Class' for their reading efforts. We are over 8,000,000 words with a pass rate of 89% - an outstanding record. Keep up the wonderful work with your reading, everyone. 

WELCOME BACK - TERM 2

Hi everyone,

School will resume from Wednesday, 29th April for Term 2. If you are staying at home, the Online Work Packages can be accessed through Connect or through the school website. Information on how to access these sites will also be sent home. For those that require a hard copy Work Package, please contact the office to arrange a pickup time. In the meantime, stay safe and I'm looking forward to seeing or hearing from you all as soon as possible.

PR1ME MATHEMATICS

Dear Parents,

Thank you for collecting your child’s PR1ME Books today. Please don’t start any activities in those books just yet. We will include the page numbers and activities in our Weekly Work Packages.

As information from the school is currently being distributed via email, please ensure that you check your email ‘spam’ or ‘junk’ folder for any correspondence.

Thank you

DOROTHEA MACKELLAR POETRY 

The children have been working very hard on their poetry to submit to the Dorothea MacKellar Poetry Competition. The optional theme was 'We Used to Live There.' Here are a selection of the poems that have been submitted so far: Nelia, Chelsea, Tessa, Daniel, Luqman, Isabel, Neve, Charlotte, Danny and Yusuf.

If you would like yours to be submitted too, please email it to the school and I will get it in for you.

'LEARNING AT HOME' SITE

In wake of the recent events, the Education Department has set up an online site called 'Learning at Home,' for those at home during these times. Resources are available across all Year Levels and many Learning Areas. Please click on the image below to be directed to the website.

Furthermore, I encourage all children to log onto Literacy Pro Library where you will find a number of books that I have assigned to you all. Keep up with the reading; as much as possible.

Please also log into Prodigy Mathematics and Typing Club - all of these links can be found on our blog. I have set a number of different mini assignments on Prodigy Mathematics. There is one assignment for each day of the week, ranging from 30 - 50 questions, and you have a week to complete them. Your class code is: 61A9FF. Check in everyday to access your new assignment. Your first assignment will be all about Division, with a total of 33 questions. The assignments are masked as a game, you can't select an assignment, the questions will be fed to you as you play the game. You'll be completing them without even knowing. If you are working through the sums that are set, you're on the right path. You won't be asked to select an assignment, these will take effect as soon as you log in. The concepts covered this week are: division, factors, multiplication, order of operations and place value.

Study Ladder - I have set up a Study Ladder account for you all. Follow the link here and sign in using your username and password (these were emailed to your parents) to complete the set tasks. Once you have logged in, click on the 'My Individual Program' link where you will find a number of set tasks.

 Check in regularly at the WGPS blog also. There are a lot of links that will direct you to a number of educational sites.

Writing activities can be fun also. I encourage you all to write for an extended period of time at least once or twice per week. You may choose a narrative, persuasive, information report, poetry, diary/journal, newspaper article etc.

Dorothea MacKellar Poetry Competition is on. We have been working on poems in the class. The optional theme is "We Used to Live There," but you can create a poem of whatever you wish. Remember, you will need to draft out your work a number of times before you get to a good copy. Once you are happy with your poem, send it to me and I can have a look at it and submit it for you.

You can also practise the spelling words for the Year 5 Spelling Bee. Set yourself the challenge of learning a few words everyday. Perhaps you could even put these words into sentences, find dictionary definitions of the words you are unsure about, find synonyms/antonyms, use these words in your writing etc.

Take care and best wishes to all of the children, and families, learning from home at this time.

MERIT AWARDS

Congratulations to the children who received a Merit Certificate at Friday's assembly. The effort that you have all applied so far this year, in and out of the classroom, has been outstanding. Keep up the wonderful work.

GARLIC BREAD

We have had quite a few helpers in the canteen of late, helping Mrs Forrest out with preparing some garlic bread. Thank you to Mrs Forrest for working with the children - they certainly enjoy their visits to the canteen.