Dear Parents and Guardians,
Welcome to Term 1 2023.
This Term the Discovery community will be focused on reading and writing Non-Fiction texts. The students will be exposed to a variety of Non-Fiction texts and will identify the features of the genre. They will explore how to write a Non-Fiction text through writing to recount and writing to persuade. The students will also look at sentence structure and what a sentence needs to have. We will also identify the difference between a simple and compound sentence which they will be encouraged to use in their writing. Through this we will also explore the use of full stops, capital letters and other punctuation. Students will be encouraged to give short presentations that provide an opinion and reasons to a given topic. Through this they will also practise using appropriate tone, volume and pace.
At home you can support your child by:
· exposing them to non-fiction texts of different mediums (magazines, newspapers, documentaries, videos).
· discuss features of Non-Fiction Texts.
· having them explain their opinion on a topic.
In Mathematics this term we will be learning to read, model, recognise, write and order numbers to 100 and 1000. We will also practise counting by 1’s from different starting points and skip counting by twos, threes, fives and tens starting from 0 and other starting points. Later in the term we will explore the use and purpose of graphs. Students will be given opportunities to collect data on a topic and display the results on a graph. We will also explore fractions and identify wholes, halves, quarters and eighths of shapes and collections.
At home you can support your child by:
· practising counting from different starting points.
· Identify 1 more or one less of a given number.
· skip counting by twos, fives and tens from different starting points.
In Investigations this term we will be exploring our emotions and developing our understanding of what makes us happy and healthy. We will investigate what might trigger an emotion and how we can manage our different emotions. We will identify different strategies the students can use to manage their emotions. Students will identify foods which help our brains to function and foods that are not as good for you. Later in the term we will be building our team work skills. This will include turn taking, understanding how to help others and working together to achieve a common goal.
At home you can support your child by:
· asking them what emotion they are feeling.
· identifying what strategies can assist with different emotions.
· discussing food that is good for their lunchbox and what might not be as good.
· at the shops, identifying what might be healthy foods and why.
This Term the Discovery community will understand the importance of prayer in our lives. We will identify that it is a time for us to talk with God and that we can pray to give thanks, ask for support or to look after someone. We will then explore the season of Lent and Easter and what this means for our Catholic community. We will read different scriptures from the Bible that will help us to understand why Easter is an important part of the Churches calendar.
At home you can support your child by:
· discussing the Religious events that your child is a part of.
· discuss your own Religious traditions and events around the Easter season.
If you have any queries or concerns, please contact your child’s teacher. We have provided emails below and will endeavour to respond between 8.30am and 3.30pm on school days.
Discovery 1 (Grace): grace.barrowcliffe@slweirviews.catholic.edu.au
Discovery 2 (Rosina): rosina.pollino@slweirviews.catholic.edu.au
Discovery 3 (Courtney): courtney.daly@slweirviews.catholic.edu.au
Discovery 4 (Melinda): melinda.fraser@slweirviews.catholic.edu.au
Discovery 5 (Kaye): kaye.mackinnon@slweirviews.catholic.edu.au