Key Priorities 1. Reading and 2. Whole School Curriculum I read an interesting research article this week that stated there is a very strong link between spelling and reading and of course spelling and writing. It said that children who struggle to spell will often also struggle to read and write. They stated that the spelling of 84 percent of words is mostly predictable. Many more words could be spelled correctly if other information was taken into account, such as word meaning and word origin. The authors estimated that only four percent of English words were truly irregular. They stated that the spelling of almost any word can be explained if one or more of the following five principles of English spelling is taken into account: 1) Words’ language of origin and history of use can explain their spelling. 2) Words’ meaning and part of speech can determine their spelling. 3) Speech sounds are spelled with single letters and/or combinations of up to four letters. 4) The spelling of a given sound can vary according to its position within a word. 5) The spellings of some sounds are governed by conventions of letter sequences and patterns. Therefore those spelling words that come home are very important. Discuss their meaning with your children. For older children look up their origin in a dictionary. It is also important for children who struggle with spelling to be counting the sounds that are in the word. My suggestion is to write a line for each sound that they can hear. For example cat __ __ __, you would then ask your child to write the letters that make these sounds on the lines. Below you will see the sounds of the English language. We teach the children these as quickly as we can because the more sounds they know the easier reading, writing and spelling will be for them.

For those of you with Prep children they are up to learning the sound ‘oa’ for boat, everyone else knows all of the sounds. Those knew to the school are learning them.

MARLBOROUGH STATE SCHOOL

PRIMARY LINE Phone: 4935 6166

Fax: 4935 6353 Mob: 0477 760 013

E-Mail: the.principal@marlboross.eq.edu.au

Website: http://www.marlboross.eq.edu.au

Term 2, Week 7

31 May 2017

3. Pedagogy Continuing on with my theme of Age Appropriate Pedagogies… The next three characteristics are of age appropriate pedagogies are learner focused, narrative and playful. Learner focused means that we understand that each is an individual. Each child learns in their own way and in their own time. We need to be respectful of these differences and cater for them. A narrative pedagogy respects the importance of personal, written, oral and digital stories and understands the importance of story in all of all lives. It gives the children the opportunity to engage with stories and share their stories in a playful and supportive environment. Often we think of play as something children do outside or with their toys but play is a vital part of the early years. Children need opportunities to engage in play that allows them to share their creativity and imagination. A playful pedagogy allows children to explore alternate worlds and ways of thinking such as when they play shops they are pretending to belong in the grown up world and have the opportunity to think and behave like an adult.

Yours in Education Leanne Jones

Drama Contest Only a week and a half to go before the Drama Contest. Children from St Lawrence will coming down to compete against us. The contest will commence at 2pm and will be followed by afternoon tea, a game of French cricket, dinner and a disco. Last week a flyer was sent home that had an RSVP attached to it. Can you please send in RSVP forms in by Friday for catering purposes.

Under 8’s Day We will be celebrating Under 8’s Day on the last day of term, the 23rd of June. The day will start at 9am and will consist of activities led by the older students. The themes this year is Country to Coast. Activities will include:

• Gem Fossicking

• Kite Making

• Lifesaving Games

• Fishing Game

• Sand Collage

• Story Telling These activities will run until 11am after which we will have a teddy bears picnic. We would like to see everyone bring a picnic lunch and sit and eat with their families. Therefore all parents and siblings are invited to join us for the either the whole morning or just the picnic lunch. There will be a prize for the teddy that is best dressed to suit the theme…Country to Coast.

Head Lice There has been a reported case of head lice at school. Please check your children’s hair and treat if necessary. If you discover head lice and you have treated them with head lice treatment via the instructions on the package there is no need to exclude children from school.

Athletics Training When: Monday afternoon (May 8 – June 5) Where: Marlborough State School Time: 3.00 – 4.30 Needed: 2 more parent helpers required each week.

Save the Date For Your Diary Date Day Event 22 May – 9 June

Student Teacher – Briel Dorr (P-2 classroom)

29 May - 5 June Monday Athletics Training MSS 3.00 – 4.30

9 June Friday 2pm – 8pm

Drama Contest – Marlborough State School

14 June Wednesday School Athletics – Inter-house

16 June Public Holiday

Friday Livingstone Shire Council Rockhampton Show Holiday

19 June

Monday Marlborough District Athletics

23 June Friday Under 8’s Celebration Last Day of school

Mr Holmes Herald

Technology

The year 3-6 class have commenced installing their micro bat sleeping boxes in trees away from the school buildings.

It allows the small bats to find places to sleep during the day before they go out at night to hunt insects. The students

have been asked to assess their designs by checking regularly to see if evidence suggests bats are using the boxes.

The class also commenced investigating how to represent data and how to interpret it. They used excel spreadsheets

to create different graphs that tell a simple story eg. the number is increasing over time.

Our twister game mat was used by the kindy/prep class to develop coding skills. They need to know right from left

and to be able to follow a series of instructions. The students took turns at moving across the mat as instructions

were given. It will take time for them to master this skill. Also they used unifix cubes to make simple code patterns

with colours and numbers of cubes being used modelled by the teachers first.

Geography

Youtube clips have been used to provide basic information for the year 3-6 class

who are researching the places that they will visit on their school camp this year.

The teacher played a short video clip about the Brisbane airport and the students

took notes. Then they were asked to turn their notes into sentences to answer

the question ‘why is this place important to Australians?’ Their tour notes will be

used for assessment.

Science

Our year P-2 students have been investigating aspects of the Earth’s

weather. They used white boards to draw pictures of storms. The year

1 and 2 students went further in their technology lessons by learning

the steps to find and paste a photo of a weather event in a word

document. Then they wrote about the photo in the word document.

Last week the class completed some outstanding efforts. They

understood how to access the school printer so they could make

copies of their learning. Well done for your age group.

Miss Ryes’ Report

Week 7 Wow this term is flying by! The students have all been working really hard on their times tables both in class and at home and I am pleased to say that I can see a marked improvement in their results each week. Let’s keep up that hard work!

We are coming to the crunch time of the term where the students are constantly doing assessment, however they are taking this in their stride and working really hard at all tasks. Unfortunately I can’t send assessment home for catch up work, so anything that is missed will need to be caught up in class time.

Friday afternoons we have drama in the last session from 1:30 – 3:00 we are performing dreamtime plays. Your students would have been sent home with their lines they need to practise if you could help them with this. Also if you have some spare time either whilst waiting for tennis this week or on Friday afternoon and feel like lending a hand to make some props that would be fantastic! I’d really welcome the help as I’m not the most artistic person out there. We are going to keep costumes as simple as we can by getting the students to dress in dark clothing and then add to their outfits with masks or anything else we can create at school. If they could bring these dark clothes in this week we will be having a practice Friday afternoon.

If you have any questions please don’t hesitate to ask

Shannan Rye

Chloe

Tennis Coaching

Group 1 ($2)

3:00pm – 3:20pm

Group 2 ($5)

3:20pm – 3:50pm

Group 3 ($7)

3:50pm - 4:35pm

Group 4 ($7)

4:35pm – 5:20pm

Heidi Sam Amelia Kurt

Liana Beau Ty Lacee

Charlie Riley Polly Sophie

Skye Emma Allie Charli

Sophie Katelyn Bonnie

Mitchell Shelby Justin

Ben

Kayla

Dates: Thursday, 1st

June Thursday, 8th

June

Thursday, 15th

June Thursday, 22nd

June

Can anyone who sending their children to this camp please let the office know so we can mark the roll accordingly.