Free Rice Mitcham Style!

Another post - Wendy's class have asked us to play Free Rice to contribute to their social justice campaign. To play and contribute - it is lots of fun! - click on the banner below.

Feeling Great In Week Eight!

What an exciting week coming up!

Monday - we have the full dress rehearsal for Alice The Musical! Year Four will be watching and applauding our Year Five students as they make their stage debut as Reverend Duckworth, a courtier and a troupe of dancers. Break a leg, Year Five!

Tuesday - the opening night for Alice! Reminder that some students will need to arrive early for hair and make-up - if you haven't returned your blue form, please do so as quickly as possible! I do not have any spares so you will need to hit up the office if you need a new one.

Wednesday - District Athletics Carnival. Good luck to those who are representing our school! I am sure you will give it your biggest and best shot in every event you have been selected for.

Thursday - closing night for Alice! Again remember you may be required to arrive early to get fixed up with hair and make-up.

Quick reminder - your child should be logging on to Literacy Planet several times a week. The tasks for the term were allocated in Week One, so they have known what the expectation is since then. The expectation, to state it again, is that they would be finished by the end of Term 3. If they have lost their password, it is their responsibility to ask me for a reprint or to write it in their diary.

We are all looking forward to the timetable (sort of) going back to normal this week ahead of planning week next week and then - lo and behold! - the last week of term! Hard to believe it is so close to the holidays again already.

Hope you all made it outside to enjoy the beautiful weather over the weekend!
-Ang

CAFE Reading - The Downlow!

You may have seen the Superhero CAFE Menu on the bulletin board over our library corner in the classroom. I thought you might like a bit of a quick run-down on how we use the menu in the classroom and what we're doing with it at the moment.

A system of accountability in reading instruction, CAFE was created in tandem with the Daily Five by 'The Two Sisters' - Gail Boushey and Joan Moser. CAFE stands for Comprehension, Accuracy, Fluency and Expanding Vocabulary, and there are strategies under each menu heading to work on these aspects of reading. 46A is currently split into five groups, and they meet with me at least once a week to read aloud and work on the booklet for the novel they are studying. Each group has a focus strategy that they are working on - currently, some are working on inference, some are working on sight word recognition, some are working on taking note of punctuation and others are working on 'backing up and re-reading' when something hasn't made sense the first time they read.

There are times that groups combine or we work together on a strategy, especially if it is practised or explicitly taught using a particularly unusual activity that lots of students want to participate in (for example, our 'fishing expedition' last week!). All practise of the strategies is good practise!

What exactly do we read? This round, all students are reading books from Australian and New Zealand authors from either 3-4 or 5-6 level of the Premier's Reading Challenge. Our current literary fare includes Puppy Place: Pugsley (Ellen Miles), Our Australian Girl: Meet Nellie (Penny Matthews), Weir Do (Anh Do), Mission Fox: Snake Escape (Justin D'ath) and Andy Roid: The Superhuman Secret (Felice Arena). I have had feedback that some students have liked them so much they have finished reading them in their own time and can now read aloud with greater enjoyment the second time around!

Here is a video of the creators of CAFE talking about its benefits. They talk a lot about assessment - in my mind, this dovetails quite well with the Montessori concept of 'observation', as they are mostly talking about embedded tasks to check mastery, without having to implement 'test conditions'.

They have also put out a book which supports the system - I have it on my kindle so I'm really sorry I can't lend it out but if you are interested you can preview it here.

Hope this sheds some light on the process!

Bye for now,
Ang.

A little while between updates!

Hello everyone!

I hope everyone who went to Woorabinda had a great time (and we are all glad Luke got to join us for the excursion on Friday!). We are looking forward to having you back this week, alongside those on holiday who are returning. It was a very quiet week in the classroom without you!

The highlight of last week was, of course, the excursion to IMAX and Melbourne Museum. All three galleries were great - if only we had had more time in them! We could have spent hours more exploring - we got through 600 Million Years in Victoria, the Human Body and Mind, and First Peoples exhibitions, as well as our viewing of Unseen Worlds at IMAX - which was definitely the highlight of the day for many in Cycle Three! We had several compliments from the public about how courteous our students were, which was really pleasing to see and hear. I was really proud of 46A and the way they conducted themselves, while also having a really good time.

Now for the reminders for this week:
Monday - Book Parade. Come as your favourite book character. There will be a parade in the morning for those in costume.
Wednesday - Year 5 have production rehearsal, so be prepared with your words and choreography in your mind, ready to go.

Non-day-specific reminders:
The Path - There is a path outside our building which runs along the end of Wendy's portable. There is a gap of about a metre that is not paved. We have been asked to ensure students and parents are not using this path as it is a) a trip hazard, and b) that metre of unpaved space gets quite muddy in the wet weather.
School shoes - Friday proved that students do own black school shoes! Please make sure your child wears them to and from school. They are allowed to change their shoes for break time and PE once they get here, but it is really important that they are in full school uniform when arriving and departing.
Notes and Money - Year 5 has Summer Sport money due this week. One or two people also have district athletics money still to come in.
Absences and Lateness - We've had a few weeks where many in 46A have not been feeling 100% - if they have been away, please make sure there is a note in the diary or one on paper for me to file to explain their absence. Same goes for lateness - please make sure you have taken your child to the office and then down to the classroom with their late pass signed by you.

On a bright and happy note, I am in the process of updating our flickr photostream! Lots of new work going up this weekend, as well as some photos from the excursion. If you are interested, click here to see what we've been up to! Lots more to upload, so keep checking back!

Enjoy this beautiful weather, and I'm looking forward to a brand new week with you all on Monday!
Ciao for now,
Ang.