Orange Grove Primary School

Welcome to Term 4. Our wishes  were granted with the glorious sunshine right throughout the holidays.I hope everyone had an opportunity to recharge  their batteries as this term will be extremely busy with swimming lessons,the  Christmas concert and reports .Our initial learning theme this term is "Resources" and all learning areas will be integrated into this theme. For the second half of term, our theme wil be "Christmas in other Lands.'

I encouraged all of the childen to take all of their pencils, etc home at the end of last term so that they could sharpen them and replenish where necessary, ready for the new term.Homework will commence in week one. I will again vary the format so that it does not become tedious. Last term many children visited  the ofice to recieve a Principal's award for  neatly completing their homework and for recording their reading in the diary.Homework should never take more than 10 minutes per day and the children have the whole week to complete it. Many children are already developing time management skills.Well done kids!

Sue Rando

Posted by Mrs Rando at 2:05 PM | Permalink

Hi everyone and welcome back.I spent most of the holidays in Sydney so I am really energised and pleased to be back. I hope that you all had a relaxing and energising holiday too.

This term as a class, we  will brainstorm learning themes of interest and the children can cast a vote for their preference.Literacy, SOSE and other learning areas will be integrated into the theme that gets the most votes.

I would like to thank Miah and her family for looking after Lucy in the holidays and thanks also to Cadence and her family for letting Toffe stay with Sid for the holidays.We are watching Toffee with interest for signs of impending motherhood. 

Reading homework will commence again this week and next week regular homework will be coming home.

By now, you would of have had an opportunity to review your child's report. If you have any queries or concerns I encourage you to make an appointment  and I will be pleased to discuss it with you. I always appreciate your feedback and believe that regular communication between home and school is extremely valuable.

Regards,

Sue Rando

Posted by Mrs Rando at 1:57 PM | Permalink

  On Tuesday, Mrs Sidhu visited the year 1/2 class and talked to the children about the Sikh culture and religion. She showed the children some beautiful Indian hand-made clothing and jewelry such as carmees (tunic top), salwar ( pants) and shawl (shawl). Mrs Sidhu explained that the Sikh religion is based on equality regardless of gender, physical appearance or social/financial standing. We were very interested to see how Gursheer's hair is organised into his "putka" every morning. Sikh people never cut their hair as a symbol of purity. If any other families have links to  other countries or  cultures, we would love to hear from you.

Posted by Mrs Rando at 4:02 PM | Permalink

Posted by Ms Nottle at 1:15 PM | Permalink

This term has just whizzed by. I have been delighted with how conscientiously the children have worked  and how well they have taken responsibility for class routines. We have spent a lot of time building a safe environment whereby the children treat each other with respect, work co-operatively together and value themselves and each other.These positive behaviours have been regularly demonstrated throughout the term.Well done kids! Also, a big thankyou goes to all of the year 1/2 parents. Your regular communication through the diaries, your support of class routines, homework, and  activities has been greatly appreciated.Wishing you all a safe, relaxing and enjoyable Easter holiday.

Posted by Mrs Rando at 6:17 PM | Permalink

Posted by Mrs Rando at 6:29 PM | Permalink

The year 1/2 children have been investigating foods and deciding which foods are GREEN LIGHT (eat plenty), ORANGE LIGHT (eat in moderation) and RED LIGHT ( treats-eat sparingly). They investigated a fruit bar and were very astute in the opinions that they formed.

Fruit bars are not good for you because they do not have much fruit, only 8 percent!!!

 By Lauren

The fruit bar is not fruit full!

By Mathew

Fruit bars isn't healthy. It only has a little bit of apple.

By Cadence

We have a fruit bars chart. They trick you. They say it is fruit full but it isn’t. It isn’t healthy; if you eat too much you will get fat. You would have to get fit again.

By Connor

Sometimes they play tricks on us. Fruit bars are not full of fruit. The ingredients are full of disgusting stuff.

By Chloe

Fruit bars put no good ingredients! It is not good for you! I don’t like it! I hate it! You only have it for a treat. It doesn’t taste good! It is not very good for you.

By Noah

They play a trick on us. Fruit bars has not good ingredients. Don’t buy it too much.

 By Rebecca

Fruit bars is fun food but you would still eat it because it is yum. Well I do, would you? It is very yummy.

By Luke

Fruit bars can be bad for you. I can eat it sometimes. I do like fruit bars! Is it good for you? NO! NO!

By Elicia

Fruit bars are not healthy. It has sugar. I do not want to buy it. Even though it is not healthy, it is fun.

By Hannah

Sometimes they play a trick on us. The fruit bar isn’t good for you. You can have it for a treat.

By Celina

Sometimes they play tricks on us. Fruit bars are bad for you. They put lots of sugar in it! Be healthy, don’t eat too much sugar and don’t drink too much cordial and drink lots of water and fruit.

By Ruby.

Fruit bars is a fruit out! Fruit bars is a NO, NO!

By Grace

They fooled us.

Put your rubbish in the bin.

By Lorien

Fruit bars are not good for you.

By Aaron

We tasted the fruit bar. It was not good.

By Miah

Put your rubbish in the bin. The rubbish should be in the bin.  Don’t leave it on the path. It is bad for the environment.

By Taylor

They played a game on us!

By Gursheer

It did not taste good!

By Shayna

We tasted fruit bars and they were bad.

By Ashlee

Fruit bars are not good for you.

By Ronan

Fruit bars are trying to trick us.

By Jake

We all ate some fruit bars.

By Jakob

Fruit bars ingredients don’t taste good. Eat it for a treat.

By Travis

Posted by Mrs Rando at 7:23 PM | Permalink

Hello everybody and welcome to year 1/2. I am delighted to be teaching the year 1/2 class and I am looking forward to meeting you all and guiding your children to achieve their full potential. I value your input and  firmly believe that regular communication is the key to a successful relationship. On Friday I will be sending home a letter outlining classroom policies, plus I will be having a class parent meeting in week 2, to explain classroom practices and answer any questions that you might have. In the meantime please feel free to speak to me if you have any queries or concerns. Thankyou.

Posted by Mrs Rando at 11:49 AM | Permalink

Hello everyone! We hope you have all had a fantastic holiday and are ready for the final 8 weeks of Year 1 and 2.
It will be a busy term with all the usual schoolwork plus swimming and preparations for the end of year concert.
This week is National Water Week and we are going to investigate the ‘Hidden Messages in Water’. It should be fun.
We are also going to be looking at how simple machines work, culminating in us making our own simple Christmas toy.

Posted by Mrs Dickens at 2:37 PM | Permalink

On Friday 1st September the Year 1/2s performed an exciting and educational assembly item.

We chose an environmental theme which we have been studying this term. The children have been looking at how important water conservation is to our lives. In a number of skits they acted out different ways we can easily conserve water around the home: from taking shorter showers, to fixing leaky taps and washing the car over the lawn. We got a lot of our information from the Water Corporation's web site and urge everyone to log on and take a look for yourselves. Go to www.watercorporation.com.au.

Posted by Mrs Dickens at 1:26 PM | Permalink

Hi everybody and welcome to term 3. The weather was exceptional for the school holidays, a perfect opportunity to recharge batteries and relax. We trust you had time to sit and discuss your child's report with them. If you have any concerns or comments please let us know and if the interview box was ticked please make an appointment to see us. We always appreciate your feedback.

This term our learning theme in Society and Environment is Aboriginal Culture. In Science we will focus on 'Water'.
These themes are integrated into all learning areas.

We will continue to develop the use of learning centres in our reading programme. These enable the children to participate in activities which promote different learning styles.

It will be a busy term with the faction carnival towards the end of the term. We appreciate regular communication in the diaries as this is the basis of 'us' working together as a team to the benefit of the children. We are looking forward to another fun and productive term of learning.

Regards from Jean, Sue and Claire.

Posted by Mrs Rando at 1:26 PM | Permalink

Year 1/2, Term 2

Dear Year 1 / 2 Families,

Welcome to term 2. We trust that you all had an enjoyable Easter break and had a chance to “recharge your batteries.’ It was great to see the children return to school, looking so cheerful and enthusiastic!

• This term, our theme for all learning areas, is Flight. The year 2/3 class is working on the same theme, and will again be combining with us for some activities including weekly Science activities. This theme is broad enough to include a large range of topics including all manner of flying animals and objects, space, travel. If anybody has any particular interest, or items related to this topic, we would LOVE to hear from you.

• In spelling, reading and phonics we will continue with word identification skills and decoding words, moving on to include digraphs such as er, ow .

• The home reading books are grouped into different reading boxes and sometimes children take home a book from the “wrong box”. Many books are getting longer and more challenging , so can be read over several nights but if your child ever selects a book which is too difficult and frustrating, please just read the book to them and then swap it for another one. Conversely, sometimes children may choose books from the wrong box that are far too easy, so please remind them to find one that is “just right”.

• In maths number, we will be exploring number patterns to 50 or 100, looking at practical word and number stories, plus many will be learning about place value ( tens and ones).The majority of learning is still” hands on” activity based, using concrete objects and pictures. This ensures complete understanding of number concepts.

• Our main goal for our year 1/2 children is for them to enjoy coming to school, to feel confident and proud of their achievement and to be working at the appropriate level in order to achieve their true potential .We want them to feel emotionally and physically “safe”, encouraged and valued at all times. In every learning area, we strive to provide activities to match individual children’s abilities and interests. This means extension work for some, more revision and consolidation for others plus “open ended activities” in which all children can work to their own particular level.

• A few parents were unable to make interview appointments last term, so it would be great if they could schedule an appointment early this term.

We always appreciate your input and feedback, so please feel free to drop us a line in the student diary or pop in and speak to us if you or your child ever has any queries or concerns. It is always easier to “nip potential problems in the bud”.

Thank you all again for your support,
Sue Rando, Jean Dickend and Claire Veen.

Posted by Mrs Rando at 2:31 PM | Permalink

Every Thursday afternoon from 1-2pm the Year 1 / 2 class has a maths activity session. During this time they participate in a variety of ‘hands-on’ activities such as:

• sand play (measurement),
• structured water play (measurement)
• board games and teacher made games (number)
• construction materials and blocks (spatial awareness)
• Dominoes, card games, etc.

The children rotate around all activities in groups. We have a couple of ‘mums’ who come in to help but would welcome anyone else who can spare an hour on a Thursday.

Posted by Ms Nottle at 9:28 AM | Permalink

The children are all off to a good start with regards to organising their diaries and reading homework routines. As the reading books are becoming insreasingly more challenging, it is important to renmember that the key focus should be on enjoyment.

Posted by at 8:34 AM | Permalink