Hope you have all had a great weekend, reports cards come home tomorrow!


Let look back the week..................


Grade 5:

During Literacy we started our new unit 'Ancient Civilizations'. In this unit the students learn about various activities of early civilisations around the world, including life in ancient Rome, Egyptian writing, buried treasures, ancient China, the famous city of Troy and the Aztecs. Literacy elements include informational reports, museum information, fantasy story writing, graphic legends and informational explanations.
* reading strategy of prediction
* conventions of brochures
* characteristics of a time line
* staying on topic
* suffixes, word origins, guide words and pronouns

Here are some ways you can support your child during this unit:

* talk about and locate ancient civilisations
* Watch historical programs on TV
* Investigate some interesting innovation such as fireworks to see where and who invented them
* Find some illustrated books about early civilisations

During our lesson on conventions this week we revised commons and proper nouns and related this to the correct placement of capital letters.

In our final lesson of the week the students completed a quiz on chapter 8 of Coraline.



Grade 6:

Like grade 5, grade 6 also began to discuss a new Literacy unit, 'Science Fiction'. In this unit the class will read a variety of thought- provoking  science fiction stories. We will explore traditional science fiction themes such as humans' relationship with artificial intelligence, robots and space travel, the search for life on other planets and our place int he universe. Reading will include graphic stories, poems, back cover of books and a play.
* the characteristics of science fiction
*fixing run-on sentences
*evaluation of book covers
* body language and gestures
* retelling
* possessive apostrophes, semi-colon and verb tenses.


At home you could encourage:

* Read and view a variety of science fiction stories and movies together and talk about the themes
*Talk about science fiction ideas from when you were a child, compare and contrast the ideas and concepts, how have they changed?
*Encourage your child to make predictions about the future
*Talk about issues such as space exploration, extra-terrestrial life and artificial intelligence


 We also reviewed out chapters in 'Mrs Frisby and the Rats of Nimh'



Grade 7:

During this past week our focus has been FABLES, their origin and structure. Each student found and presented a fable of their own choice, we discussed how they follow the narrative structure they also carry embedded learning messages. Later each student collected two pictures of random animals, next week we will use our skills at CHARACTERIZATION through PERSONIFICATION to begin writing our own fable which will be illustrated and then read to the younger grades.

When exploring ANNE FRANK on Friday we discussed Anne's relationship with her mother.


Grade 8:

Grade 8 have been looking at tone of voice and spoken delivery, culminating in the presentation of a MONOLOGUE. Later in the week we further explored NARRATIVE VIEWPOINT in the form of MULTIPLE NARRATIVE writing, looking at a small extract by PETER BENCHLEY.