2019 Term 1 Week 1

Welcome to all parents. Please find following the Parent Letter that will be sent home today in the homework pouch.
1^st February 2019

Dear Parents/Caregivers,

Welcome back to school. We hope that you and your families have enjoyed the holiday season and are ready to begin the school year. We extend a special welcome to the new families that are joining our St Bernardine’s school community. Following is an overview of what to expect in Term One for 2019.

Curriculum focus

Religion

In Religion, we will focus on the five values at St. Bernardine’s.  They are:  Respect, Unity, Resilience, Contemplation and Service. Focussing on these values is a critical part of setting up our classroom expectations. Students are given an opportunity to contribute their ideas about how our class will work together throughout the year.

English and HASS

In English, students will examine the structure and features of informative texts.  Comprehension of texts is a continued focus as students develop greater fluency and accuracy with reading. When reading with your child each night, we encourage you to ask them meaningful questions related to the text you are engaged in.  Students will write an informative text using information on the First Australians. They will investigate the lives of indigenous Australian cultures before European settlement.

Maths

This year St. Bernardine’s will have a focus on establishing mathematical mindsets.

 

•       Odd and even numbers

•       Read, write and order numbers up to 99 999

•       Addition of whole numbers

•       Fractions

•       Frequency distribution tables and picture graphs 

•       Length

•       Place value to the ten thousands

•       12 – Hour time

•       Addition of monetary values

•       Recall multiplication number facts (0x, 1x, 5x, 10 x, 2x, 4x, 8x)

Science

In Science, students will investigate push/pull and contact/non-contact forces. Students will engage in a variety of hands on investigations to explore how and where force occurs in everyday life.

Health

As part of our Health unit, students will learn how to ‘recognise, react and report’ when they are safe and unsafe.

Specialist lessons
Please note that students will be required to wear their sports uniform on days specified by their classroom teacher. All students must have a library bag in order to borrow books from the Library each week.

Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
Sports Uniform P.E.	Day Uniform	Day Uniform LOTE	Sports Uniform Music	Day Uniform Library

Homework
Homework will be given on Thursday/Thursday, it is to be completed by students each day throughout the week and returned to school on the designated return date. Homework will consist of daily spelling and number facts practise. We emphasise that homework should be short (10 – 15 minutes per day).  We strongly encourage daily reading of texts selected by the students themselves (e.g. from the Library), with lots of discussion after reading to support comprehension.

Class blog and Twitter
Information regarding classroom routines and events as well as student goals and achievements will be communicated via classroom blogs and Twitter pages.

Twitter: @MsCandMrsC                          Blog: https://mscandmrsc.blogspot.com/

This year we have introduced a Behaviour Matrix to St. Bernardine’s, this will be explicitly unpacked with our classes as the year progresses.

This year the students may be exposed to PG rated movies for e.g. “The Bee Movie”, if you would not like your child to participate in this please inform your child’s teacher.

If you have any questions or concerns, please email or call to arrange a meeting before or after school. Thank you for your support and we look forward to working with you and your child this year.

Kind regards,

Margaret Carabetta & Shannon Cullen 4 White

(mcarabetta@bne.catholic.edu.au and sftasker@bne.catholic.edu.au)

Please remember to include both teachers to any email correspondence you may send.