Curriculum News by Suzette Holm

Term 1 Learning

 We are excited that learning has already begun this year. In English students will be reading fairy tales, picture books and novels as they prepare to write their own recounts, persuasive letters and short stories. In Maths students have begun exploring numbers and patterns with hands-on materials as well as beginning to calculate and solve a range of problems. This term students in Years 3 to 6 will also begin their new Science units and all students will begin work on their Visual Arts units. Further information can be found in the Term 1 Curriculum Overview or by contacting Class and Specialist teachers. We look forward to a term full of learning!

Borrowing from the Hub

It has been very exciting this week to see lots of students eager to borrow. Don’t forget that it is a great idea to have a library bag to ‘care for the environment’ including caring for our precious books. The library bag can be a special Mango Hill one purchased from the uniform shop or any other kind of cloth or plastic bag.

All students are welcome to borrow one book at a time and can return this weekly to choose another book. For those students on AR, they may borrow 2 books at a time.

As well as Class and AR borrowing times, students are also welcome to visit the Hub before school (from 8.15am) or after school (until 3pm). We also have lunch time clubs for visiting and borrowing: Monday for Year 3 Club; Tuesday for Years 4, 5, 6 Club; Wednesday for 1, 2, 3 borrowing; Thursday for 4, 5, 6 borrowing; Friday for Years 1 and 2 Club. We look forward to seeing everyone soon!

Accelerated Reader (AR)

Our 2022 AR database is up and ready to go. Students who were already on AR should begin where they finished at the end of 2021. For example, if they had completed 3.7 they should start the year at 3.8. For students new to AR, Class teachers will organise for a STAR test to identify the beginning levels. This will happen in the next week or so as we get everything ready for AR.

AR is a great way for students to read books at their specific reading level while also building their comprehension abilities as they complete the quizzes after each book. Don’t forget that to pass, students need to achieve 85% or more and should always use the books to help them locate the answers to the comprehension questions. AR is also a great way to build resilience – sometimes we have to choose books that are slightly thicker than we would like and sometimes we have to read about subjects that we don’t yet know anything about… but practice and persistence will help with both these things. Perhaps you and your children could set some AR goals for the term ahead… How many quizzes might you complete? How many books could you read? How many thick books might you read?