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Dear Franklin Families,
As we head towards the end of the term, I would like to take a moment to acknowledge the important work teachers and support staff do in ensuring that learning literacy skills is a high priority across the school. Reading, writing, listening, and speaking are important literacy skills for children to have in their schooling and in everyday life. They allow us to communicate and understand the world.
At Franklin our support staff work with teachers in classrooms and with individual students to improve and strengthen literacy skills. Prep students are supported through the Early Literacy Foundation program and individually Year 1 to 5 students are helped through a Bridges reading program. Mrs Leaman co-ordinates the Peer Reading program and Lexia. Lexia is delivered online site and provides differentiated literacy instruction for students of all abilities. Home reading programs are in place to help students to practice fluency and build confidence and class teachers plan together with our Literacy Coach, Mrs Leaman, to improve writing skills. All these interventions ensure that students are provided with the best opportunities to develop important literacy skills.
Parents and carers also play a key role in developing literacy skills. Literacy at home can always be fun or engaging and in the early years includes a range of different activities like music, dance, storytelling, visual arts and drama. Providing opportunities to engage in reading, writing, speaking and listening at home will encourage children to value these important skills, to become more confident, to discover new ideas and allow imaginations and curiosity to grow.
Some opportunities to encourage reading at home include:
- Words on toys and games
- Children’s picture books
- Birthday cards and invitations
- Using apps or devices
- Letters or emails
- Street names or signs
- Games with letters and words e.g I Spy or Scrabble
- Share books for information as well as reading stories
- Visit the local Library
- Read aloud and make time to share a book.
- Continue reading together even if your child reads independently.
Most importantly read yourself. One of the most important ways to get your child reading is to model reading. Encourage your child to read and to see reading as a normal part of the day.
Have a great week
Linda Heerey
At Gumnuts the children have been enjoying playing with the playdough, drawing, and painting. The children had a great time filling the empty bottle with coloured rice and someone even stayed back after LiL had finished and helped clean up."
Regards,
Bryn
We have been exploring plants and how they help us and what we use them for.
Conor: We water them and they grow. We can chop them up for the fire.
Mason: We can get juice from them. Some plants we can use for soup!
Mrs Stagg: Do you think bread is made from a plant.
NOOOOO!!! They all chorused.
This developed into a wonderful conversation about wheat and windmills.
The children were asked to draw their thinking around how they thought bread was made.
Jett: I think bread was made from windmills in the olden days. From wheat, that turns to flour. Roll it and shape it like bread, let the air go in and it gets big and then you put it in see-through plastic bags.
We then embarked on a bread making day, so that the children could experience the whole process. They especially loved shaping their roll and eating it warm with butter and jam.
A Winter poem – (this is a collaboration of the Prep’s thinking about what the weather is like during the winter months where we live)
In winter it is cold and freezing.
In winter it’s a little bit wet.
It can be windy in winter.
You need warm clothes, like a beanie.
In winter it’s very cold, wet and rainy.
In winter it smells like fog.
It might snow in winter.
The clouds are everywhere.
In winter it’s cold and freezing.
In winter it’s a little bit cloudy.
It is snowy and cold in winter.
The trees blow and lose their leaves.
In winter there’s clouds and it’s rainy.
In winter it’s is very cold.
It’s cold and rainy in winter.
It’s rainy and there’s lots of cloud.
In winter it rains and it snows.
In winter it’s a little bit sunny.
It’s very freezing in winter
But there’s a little bit if sun.
Our Science Inquiry- ‘Why are bees important to us and our natural environment?’- is in full swing. We have listened to various documentaries, recorded key words and then worked together to collect what we think are the most important words. We then sorted them into groups and put them into our classroom word bank to refer to later and further our understanding. We also learned how to design a Bee Friendly Garden by putting the shorter plants first then planting the taller plants at the back. We collaborated in groups to measure each plant to find out their current height and what their height and width would be when fully grown. We finished planting them in our ‘Bee Friendly’ Garden bed and our sign has been finished too. Now we are ready to each put our Bee/Bug Hotels together with glue, a hammer and nails as well as collect natural materials to put into each of them. As we have been learning, we have displayed our learning journey on the board in our classroom. We look forward to our excursion coming up in Week 10 to Our Mate’s Farm and The Honey Pot. Stay tuned…
Students have been working hard on their diorama homework projects and the ones that are finished are brilliant, well done! We can’t wait to see the rest of them. They will be due in class by the end of week 10.
Grade 4/5 have just completed the swimming and water safety program. They demonstrated great courage, persistence and effort at the pool. We’re very proud of them and their efforts.
In Numeracy, we have started an automatic response program to build students’ mental computation skills. In English, students have been reflecting on their information reports and determining how they can improve their reports in the future.
Students have a deeper understanding of adaptations and how animals survive in their environments. They are now creating fictional creatures with the best features and adaptations to survive and thrive in a particular environment. We have even done collaborative drawings of blended animals with our buddies and we have started building models.
We’re looking forward to our excursion to Woodbridge Marine Discovery Centre on Tuesday June 15th.
Just a few reminders:
- Student home reading logs must be returned each Monday.
- Students doing the Oxford word lists should be working through their spelling lists at home and bringing their spelling book into class when they need a new one.
Our class is well into their project work on animal communities with some very creative and sophisticated responses. In maths we have been working to refine our skills calculating area and perimeter along with our daily maths rotations and Automatic Response. We have also been working to complete our Jurassic Maths challenge with a focus on creating dino-inspired menus for a hypothetical theme park. Our next step is to work collaboratively to create maps of our theme park and populate them with our selected dinosaurs, attractions and employees.
On Monday 31st of May, Eleanor (Ellie) and Sofia went to an event for Ad Astra their coding program, which is an event held for gifted online workshop participants and was held at Blundstone Arena.
“We did a S.T.E.M challenge with toothpicks and packet peanuts. There were also 3 different speakers. My favourite one was the person who talked about studying insects.” - Eleanor
Students have been working incredibly hard in our Peer Reading sessions. These sessions happen twice a week and see a Year 5 or 6 Peer Tutor work one on one with younger students across our school to assist in developing reading skills. This program sees friendships form, our young leaders stepping up and allows a regular opportunity to read. Peer Reading develops students understanding of our values of Aspiration, Respect, Courage and Growth. We are so lucky to have the time and space to offer such a valuable program,
Emily Leaman
In Art we have been learning about the history of silk production and the amazing properties of this natural fibre. We investigated some of the principles around designing for painting on silk and then worked very hard to produce our own hand painted silk masterpieces.
FRANKLIN PRIMARY SCHOOL ASSOCIATION
“Who are your Franklin Primary School Association Representatives for 2021”
Mark Newcombe - Deputy Chairperson
Hi, my name is Mark and I have my daughter Emily with Susie Best in Grade One this year.
My wife and I have both tried to be hands-on within our communities, so with Emily joining Franklin Primary School last year it seemed a good idea to put our hands up for the Franklin Primary School Association.
I have a background in Information Systems and Remote Area Management, though nowadays I'm a Full Time Dad which has been an adventure.
I'm sure there's a really good Dad Joke about managing a Teenage Daughter from a very Remote Area in there somewhere.
On a more serious note, the FPSA is here to serve the broader FPS community as best it can.
If you would like something raised, have some good ideas then I'm always happy to advocate for those that can't attend the FPSA meetings.
Kind regards Mark
ENTERTAINMENT BOOK
The Franklin Primary School Association is fundraising with the Entertainment Book!
Our school receives 20% of every membership sold - which is a great fundraiser!
There are loads of discounts available with the membership - including 4% off Woolworths gift cards (so you can save on everyday grocery shopping!), Big W, JB-Hi Fi, Wish Cards, Rebel Sports, Supercheap Auto. There are also heaps of discounts on activities and dining/take away places including Village Cinemas, Banjos Bakery and lots more!
You can see offers available on this link https://www.entertainment.com.au/offers#offers.
Memberships can also be purchased for interstate areas - so why not buy one for your family or friends, or send them the link to support our school :)
To order your membership just click this link;
which will take you to the join now page. Select Franklin Primary School membership page.
Contact Heidi on 0411 965 767 if you have any questions - Thankyou!
Franklin Primary School Association update:
The next school association meeting is being held on Monday at 28TH June 3:15pm. Parents and guardians are strongly encouraged to attend to talk about what they would like to see happen within the school for 2021 and beyond!
Alternatively you can email your agenda item to the Associations secretary Heidi at hvanderreest@huonaqua.com.au and we can raise it on your behalf and provide feedback.
The School Association is a great way to be involved with your child’s life at school and to bring about positive change and improvements.
Keep up to date with things that are happening via the Facebook group: “school family and friends- Franklin”.
WIN AN IPAD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The Franklin Primary School Association is running a competition to win an IPAD!
Would you like to win an Apple iPad 8th Generation 128GB- WiFi Space Grey ?
Then all you have to do is select a number from 1-100 for $10.00 its that simple.
Rules: it is $10.00 per number.
Deposit the money as follows:
BSB: 633 000
Account Number: 154861447
Account Name: Franklin Primary School Association
Reference: NAME & Number chosen
It is important that you put your name and number chosen in the reference.
Alternatively, you can see the lovely staff at the front office to pay cash.
Please note that it’s a “first in best dressed” scenario with numbers. Numbers cannot be guaranteed. An alternative number will be chosen at random for you.
Please email: Amanda_neil86@bigpond.com if you have any questions.
Competition closes on Monday 28th June 2021 at 9am with the winner being drawn at the entire school meeting.
All monies raised will go towards purchasing equipment for the Kindergarten outdoor space.
Franklin Primary School Association
END OF TERM BBQ!
The Franklin School Association will be holding a whole school BBQ lunch on Thursday 1st July 2021 to say thanks for the students and staff on a wonderful Term 2. More details will be sent home shortly.
Monday 14th June | Public Holiday |
Monday 28th June | School Association Meeting 3:15pm |
Tuesday 15th June | Year 4-5 Excursion Marine Discovery |
Thursday 1st July | School Association Whole School BBQ |
Friday 2nd July | Last Day on Term 2 - School Reports Home |
Monday 19th July | Professional Learning Day for Teachers |
Tuesday 2oth July | Start of Term3 |