Woy Woy Public School

Park and Blackwall Rds; PO Box 505 Woy Woy NSW 2256 Phone 4341 3555; Fax 4344 3927 Email : [email protected]

STAGE 2

INFORMATION BOOKLET 2017 Semester 2

STAGE 2 STAFF - 2017

Louise Rayner - (3/4R - Stage 2 AP) Paul Betts -3/4B Kathleen Taylor - (3/4T) Renee Rodgers - (3/4C) NECESSARY CLASSROOM EQUIPMENT & SUPPLIES

Stage 2 students require the following equipment this year. Replacement equipment will be required at the beginning of Term 3.  30cm ruler with centimetre and millimetre markings (plastic please, no metal)  At least 2 blue & 2 red ball point pens  4 HB pencils  Eraser  Pencil sharpener  Scissors  Glue stick  Coloured pencils  Highlighters  A box of tissues  Home Reader bag - Available for $8

STUDENT WELFARE

We use a data system called ‘Sentral’ where the staff is responsible for logging welfare incidents electronically. Serious issues will then be followed up by Mr. Betts (WELFARE AP) in consultation with Mrs. Rayner (Stage Manager) and the Principal. It is most important to reinforce the importance of the students informing the teachers if incidents occur in the playground. They will investigate and endeavour to resolve matters as quickly and equitably as possible. This system should lead to improved lines of communication, as parents will be advised of matters relating to their children by phone and/or letter as soon as possible. Please ensure your contact details are accurate to help in this area.

STAR CHARTS

The school is continuing with our behaviour award system - STAR CHARTS. Every Friday you will receive the students’ start chart. Please ensure that it is returned to school the following Monday. It will have a star stamped on it if the behaviour has been acceptable. We will use an ‘I’ if the behaviour needs improvement and a ‘B’ if they have been involved in a reportable incident. Most students have reached their Bronze behaviour level by the end of Semester 1. All students who maintain positive behaviour each week and receive 8 stars for the entire term will receive a thankyou reward at the end of each term. We will be presenting ‘Values’ awards at the K-6 Assembly each fortnight. We will also explicitly teach the school rules every week throughout this semester. (These can be accessed on the school website). During Semester 2 all students will undergo ‘Resilience’ lessons. Our wellbeing committee has identified the need to provide our students with improved knowledge and skills on how to cope with life’s pressures. The lessons will be based on the ‘You Can Do It’ program and other initiatives and will occur weekly in place of values lessons as in Semester 1.

ASSEMBLIES

On Wednesdays of each fortnight (even weeks) at 2:15 pm, we will continue having our K-6 assembly which is to be held under the main cola. A special academic award will be presented to one student from each class. Parents/Carers of award winners will receive an invitation to attend these assemblies. Our Year 6 leaders will be responsible for running these assemblies to develop their leadership skills and experience. In the odd weeks, a 3-6 assembly will be held on Thursdays in the hall at 12:45pm. Merit awards will be presented to two students per class for overall achievement. Students from each class will run these assemblies every fortnight (odd weeks) where their class will perform an item. This will expand opportunities for all students to participate in performance with an audience. CREATIVE ARTS

Unfortunately due to scheduling of various school events and departmental initiatives this year, we have had to postpone the 3-6 performance set down for Semester 2. This 3- 6 Performance will occur next year at a time to be advised in 2018. However, Mrs Rayner is working with the drama and singing group that have already expressed an interest in performance. She will be running a ‘Showcase of Talent’ late in term 4, incorporating music, drama, dance and various other acts. We will also be rotating the students through Music; Visual Arts; Personal Development/ Health and PE groups this term on Tuesday afternoons.

HOMEWORK

The school have decided that homework tasks need to be minimised throughout the school. Research indicates that arduous homework activities do not benefit primary aged children. Therefore, Stage 2 students will complete:  Occasional research and home project work (approx. 1 per term)  Home reading every night; Wushka reading activities; typing practice. (typing .com.au)  Mathletics (If paid for) There may also be additional homework (e.g. speeches, projects etc.), throughout the year, but we do not wish to overburden students with homework tasks. We have our school Aspire Home Reading Scheme where students may borrow books from the classroom. They may also read books from their home library, but must keep a record of what they have read on the sheet provided. This should be kept in their home-reading bag. We would like to encourage parents/carers to listen to, or read with their child for 15-20 minutes each night where possible. Also it would be appreciated if you could sign the log (Yellow card) provided, once per night. We are trialling a typing program called typing.com where the students are encouraged to take lessons in typing. They will be logged in under their user name (their first and surnames joined with no upper case, dots or spaces) with the password 2017. It would be great if they could do a little practice with this program at home.

LITERACY

Writing Literacy lessons will be incorporated into all aspects of the Key Learning Areas of the curriculum. Writing is embedded throughout the new National Curriculum. The various text types (Exposition, Recount etc.) are now called ‘Types of Texts and are taught in conjunction with ‘Writing & Representing’ involving grammar, spelling and specific language features. In Semester 2, writing lessons will be centred around persuasive and informative texts. We are implementing a program called the ‘7 Steps to Writing’ which will encourage the teaching and learning of explicit skills to improve writing outcomes. It incorporates learning specific skills like ‘Sizzling Starts’ which captures the reader’s attention and encourages students to write more interesting During Semester 2 all students will be also experiencing an LMG (Local Management Group-joint committee of local primary and secondary schools) initiative to improve writing outcomes. All LMG schools will be developing new knowledge about teaching students to structure their paragraphs. It is called TEEEC which stands for: Topic sentence; Expand on what it is; Examples- give examples of it occurring; Expand and give further information; Conclude-end with an overall statement. This paragraph building structure will allow the students a scaffold to use whenever they write a persuasive or informative text to improve text structure and provide meaning to the student’s writing. Reading All classes will continue ‘Focus on Reading’ teaching and learning activities. Student learning is based around the ‘Super Six’ Comprehension Strategies of: predicting; summarising; making connections; visualising, monitoring and questioning. The focus will be on explicit instruction of these skills which revolve around modelled, guided and independent learning experiences. This semester the focus will be on improving the teaching and learning of explicit texts, including multimodal texts, vocabulary development and language usage. Please take the time to read to your kids as much as possible and take an interest in their learning. Most classes have incorporated explicit teaching groups into daily practice. This is where we focus on a lesson intention and teach it to all students in small groups.

Spelling This year we are implementing a new spelling approach called ‘Personalised Spelling’. Spelling has become a school focus and has been identified as an improvement target area as part of our school plan. Words are gathered from the student’s individual writing and reading. There is a base list of words that all students will be pre and post tested on each fortnight. Then the student’s individual words that have been taken from their reading and writing experiences will be added to the lists for revision. We will concentrate on teaching formal grammar, punctuation and language in relation to the National Curriculum guidelines. We will also use the Macquarie and Senna Spelling Programs to assist some students needing remediation in basic spelling knowledge and skills.

MATHEMATICS Maths groups will operate in the mid-session From Monday to Wednesday each week. On Thursdays and Fridays, the students will remain in their home class and work on measurement based outcomes (Signified in yellow below). The remaining units will be covered in maths groups. Emphasis will be placed on developing deep knowledge through working with practical, hands on materials to improve student understandings of concepts introduced. Also, it is essential for students to learn their multiplication tables at this stage of development. Your help in this area would be appreciated. In term 3 the following units of work will be covered in groups 1-4:

Stage 2 Term 3 Year 3 Year 4

MA2- Un Regist 1WM Key Ideas Outcomes Key Ideas er it uses appropr MA2-5NA uses mental and Select, use and record a range Use the formal written iate written strategies for addition of mental strategies for algorithm for addition and 1 termino and subtraction involving two-, addition and subtraction of subtraction calculations for logy to three-, four- and five-digit two-, three- and four-digit numbers up to five-digits describ numbers numbers e, and MA2-15MG Manipulates, Manipulate, compare and Use transformations to symbols identifies and sketches two- describe the features of two- create and describe to dimensional shapes, including dimensional shapes symmetrical designs, 2 represe special quadrilaterals, and Identify and name the special patterns, pictures and nt, describes their features. quadrilaterals shapes mathe ‘Regular’ and ‘irregular’ matical shapes ideas MA2-9MG measures, records, Recognise need for a formal Recognise need for formal MA2- compares and estimates lengths, unit smaller than the cm to units to measure 2WM distances and perimeters in measure length temperature 3 selects metres, centimetres and Recognise 10 mm equals 1 cm Record temperatures using and millimetres and measures, Estimate and check lengths to the symbol for degrees uses compares and records nearest millimetre ( ° ) appropr temperatures 4 iate MA2-6NA uses mental and Select, use and record a range Use and record a range of mental informal written strategies for of mental strategies for mental and informal or multiplication and division multiplication of two single- written strategies for written digit numbers multiplication and division strategi of two-digit numbers by a es, or one-digit operator technol Record and interpret ogy, to remainders to division solve problems in the context of a word problem MA2-19SP describes and Identify and describe possible Identify everyday events compares chance events in ‘outcomes’ of chance where one occurring social and experimental contexts experiments cannot happen if the other Predict and record all possible happens 5 combinations in a chance Identify events where the situation chance of one occurring Conduct chance experiments will not be affected by the and compare predicted with occurrence of the other actual results MA2-7NA represents, models Represent fractions on number Represent decimals on and compares commonly used lines, including number lines number lines fractions and decimals that extend beyond 1 Round numbers with up to 6 Compare unit fractions using two decimal places to the diagrams and number lines nearest whole number and by referring to the denominator MA2-12MG measures, records, Recognise the need for formal Recognise that 1000 compares and estimates the units to measure mass grams equals 1 kilogram masses of objects using Use hefting to compare Use kilograms and grams problem kilograms and grams masses to measure and compare s Use kilograms to measure, masses using a scaled MA2- compare, order and estimate instrument 3WM 7 masses Interpret and relate checks Record masses using the fractions of a kilogram, ½, the abbreviation kg ¼ and ¾, to the number of accurac grams y of a Record masses using kg stateme and g nt and explains MA2-16MG identifies, describes, Identify and describe angles as Recognise angles as ‘less the compares and classifies angles measures of turn than’, ‘equal to’, ‘about the reasoni Identify the ‘arms’ and ‘vertex’ same as’ or ‘greater than’ ng used of an angle a right angle Compare angle sizes directly Draw and classify angles 8 in everyday situations as acute, obtuse, straight, Identify ‘perpendicular’ lines reflex or a revolution and ‘right angles’ Identify the arms and vertex of the angle of openings, slopes and turns

PD/H/PE + Sport Term 3 During term 3 sport sessions will focus on reinforcing: throwing and catching, kicking and striking. This skill development will lead up to developing knowledge and skills for the students to participate successfully in Gala Day competitions against other schools. Stage 2 Gala Day is scheduled for Friday 11th August. Sports to be offered will be Girls Soccer; Boys’ Soccer; Mixed Netball and League Tag. Also in term 3 we will offer the students a chance to participate in the swim school. We will be only taking students that cannot swim 50m of the pool, as we have reduced placements this year. These lessons will occur in weeks 9 & 10. Mrs Taylor will coordinate the swim school for stage 2 this year. In Term 4 all students will be choosing their elective sports that will run for 8 weeks. Mrs Taylor is coordinating this and further information will available late term 3.

HEALTH & PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT

PD and Health programs will include: Interpersonal relationships: child protection; trust; changing body parts; safe living; road, sun and bus safety; Healthy Lifestyle- drug education, health and nutrition. We will also develop basic skills in PE and fitness sessions throughout the year. Health lessons will also include; eating healthily at school; creating menus; healthy eating pyramid tracking; oral hygiene program for healthy teeth. We will also be subsidising the ‘Life Education’ program during Semester 2 where Stage 2 students will visit the Healthy Harold van and learn about healthy choices.

PDHPE Term 3 We have some exciting new PDHPE units coming next term.  P-4 will be participating in the Tooth Defenders program where they will be learning about oral health.  We’re participating in “Get Loud for Fruit & Veg!’ month from the 28th August- 22nd of September, where students from P-6 will be improving their knowledge and behaviour towards eating more fruit and vegetables.  Stage 2- Mrs Taylor and Miss Rodgers have been implementing the ‘Moving in Mathematics’ program. This program is used to improve fitness levels as well as Mathematical skills. We look forward to sharing this with the rest of the school.

GEOGRAPHY In Semester 2 our focus will be on introducing the new Geography syllabus and teaching the following unit of work. We are excited to begin our new adventure into geography, using new tools to discover the world around us. Our Rumbalara incursion will assist the students in developing short movies about biodiversity.

STAGE 2 GEOGRAPHY: Natural environments

Focus area: The Earth’s environment

Content  Different environments  Significance of environments

Key inquiry questions  How does the environment support the lives of people and other living things?  How can people use places and environments more sustainably?

Content focus Students:  explore the climate, natural vegetation and native animals of places in Australia  examine the importance of natural vegetation and natural resources to the environment, animals and people learn about the ways people value environments, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples.

Outcomes A student: examines features and characteristics of places and environments GE21 describes the ways people, places and environments interact GE22 acquires and communicates geographical information using geographical tools for inquiry GE24

Overview The geographical inquiry process will locate the natural vegetation types of Australia, investigate the ways vegetation is used by animals in the environment and the ways people use natural resources. This learning is shaped by four inquiries, which vary in length. These inquiries may be undertaken by individuals, pairs or groups, or as a whole class.

Assessment Many of the activities require students to demonstrate their learning. These activities can be used to assess student progress at various stages throughout the inquiry process.

HSIE - Stage 2 topics for 2017 The Year 4 Bathurst / Jenolan Caves excursion occurs on 24th & 25th August. We will be highlighting the following topics (already covered in Semester 1) just prior to this excursion. This will reinforce the importance of the travels of Blaxland, Wentworth and Lawson, the early explorers that crossed the Blue Mountains and enabled the expansion of the colonies of the Early Settlement. It will also emphasise the significance of the roles that Aboriginal trackers played in the discovery and the impact the expansion had on Aboriginal communities.

 Revision of Australian geography- States & Territories, Capital Cities, Oceans, Main Rivers.  British Colonisation  Australia- States & Territories, Capital Cities, Regional towns of NSW, Waterways including oceans, seas, rivers, dams, irrigation areas of NSW.  Early Exploration; Expansion of the colonies over ‘The Great Divide’- Aboriginal perspectives.  State and National Parks- Rumbalara Field Studies incursion/excursion dates to be advised.  History focus- Journeys of exploration * Key inquiry question-‘Why did the great journeys of exploration occur? * Key Inquiry Question- ‘What do we know about the first Australian’?

OUTCOME: A student:  HT2-3 describes people, events and actions related to world exploration and its effects  HT2-5 applies skills of historical inquiry and communication

Overview- Students undertake an historical inquiry into the early Dutch explorers who were the first Europeans to chart the Australian coast. Focusing on Willem Janszoon and Abel Tasman, students use original 1600s maps and journal entries to obtain information on the voyages and their impacts. Students demonstrate their understanding by recreating a journal entry from a day at sea exploring the Australian coast.

In History units studied, a student:  HT2-3 describes people, events and actions related to world exploration and its effects  HT2-5 applies skills of historical inquiry and communication Content - The journey(s) of at least ONE world navigator, explorer or trader up to the late eighteenth century, including their contacts with other societies and any impacts. The students:

 discuss the significance of opening of world trade routes by early explorers such as Vasco da Gama, Columbus, Magellan  outline the voyages of ONE early explorer, eg Zheng He, Torres, Jansz, Tasman, Captain Cook or La Perouse, and explain the impact of their voyages  discuss the question: 'Who discovered Australia?'

SCIENCE Units to be covered in Science during Semester 2 are highlighted in yellow:

Living World Information Earth and Space Products ST2-10LW ST2-15I ST2-8ES ST2-16P ST2-11LW ST2-9ES Resource: Resource: Resource: Resource: Year 4/ Plants in Action Hic, Hic, Hiccups Night and Day Package it Better Odd year ST2-4WS ST2-4WS ST2-10LW ST2-15I ST2-9ES ST2-4WS ST2-11LW ST2-4WS or ST2-16P or Among the Gum Trees ST2-5WT Beneath Our Feet ST2-4WS ST2-4WS ST2-10LW ST2-8ES ST2-11LW

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (COMPUTERS)

Computers and use of technology will be taken by class teachers in the computer room. We will be developing; Typing and word processing skills- formatting, using spelling and grammar check, creating and saving files etc.; researching using the internet; creating power point presentations; Excel graphs; Emailing; Wushka; etc. Technology will also be used in the classroom through the use of smart board and computer devices when appropriate. ‘Study ladder’ and ‘Mathletics’ accounts will also be available through the classroom teachers and students may complete activities at home as well.

EXCURSIONS

Students in both Years 3 and 4 will have the opportunity to attend an excursion with their respective grade. More information will be sent home closer to the date.  Year 3 students may be going to ‘Tree Tops Adventure Park’ in early Term 4, as part of our Geography studies on our environment and biodiversity. More information will be provided soon.  Year 4 students will have the opportunity to participate in an overnight excursion to Bathurst. This excursion has been booked for (week 6 Term 3) Thursday/Friday 24th & 25th August, 2017. The final cost is $220. This amount needs to be paid by Friday 11th August. Medical forms and the official permission note need to be handed in by this date. If your child has any health concerns or specific dietary requirements, please see the class teacher ASAP.

Finally, please ensure that the classroom teacher is your first ‘port of call’ when you require further information on school issues. Please make arrangements to meet with them through the school office or by sending in a note. They will then promptly reply by phone and arrange an appointment. When we develop and maintain clear lines of communication between students, staff and parents we can build a successful team and create an atmosphere where the students and their education is of the upmost priority.