Week 24

Tick, tock, tick, tock! The Big Day is creeping ever closer and the excitement is certainly rising in 1BeM. We had our final session in the auditorium today and we came away feeling really happy with everything and ready to roll next week. Fingers crossed. We hope you can all be there on the day and you might want to wear your dancing shoes because audience participation may well be encouraged!

We are all working very hard to keep the whole experience as positive as possible. This week, we have come across a number of obstacles, such as bits falling off props, sparklers not lighting (!!), music not starting on cue, visual effects not appearing or lighting getting mixed up. This is all part of the process and we have had a number of discussions about the best way to work through these frustrations and learn from them.

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE do not forget to send in your child's black or white clothes on Monday if you have not already done so. We need these for our Tech and Dress Rehearsal early next week.

We have also been busy away from the stage creating wonderfully imaginative individual clay sculptures to form part of the Grade One collective art installation that is beginning to take shape in our Pod. Please watch where you are stepping in and around 1BeM at the moment as we have already had a couple of close shaves!

In Reading Workshop, we are in the middle of looking back over our unit and reflecting on how we have grown as readers. With this particular unit, we are thinking a lot about how much we have been able to transfer the skills and strategies from Reading Workshop to other areas. In Writing Workshop, we are starting to think about publishing our opinion writing pieces, checking and changing our work as we move through the revising and editing stages of the writing cycle. However, we are being mindful not to rush the process as we have so much on at the moment.

In Mathematics, we are beginning to explore the idea of partitioning into equal shares. This is a foundational building block of fractions, which will be extended in future grades. A huge part of understanding in this area is exploring the associated vocabulary in context, such as halves, fourths and quarters, as well as the phrases half of, fourth of and quarter of. We are also practising our addition and subtraction skills all the time and have been focusing on near doubles this week.

Thank you to everyone who has brought in their donations for "The Shoebox Project." If this is something you would like to support, please send in your donation as soon as possible as we will need to start purchasing the gift items very soon.

Reminders and Requests

*Asian Arts and Culture Week-please see elsewhere in this eBrief for more information and details of how you can be involved

*Grade One Arts Festival-Thursday 4th February-9.00am-10.00am-The Auditorium (and then "Meet and Greet" with the cast and crew in 1BeM afterwards!)

*Whole School Dress-Up Day- Friday 5th February-the children are invited to come to school wearing the colours of Cambodia

Have a great weekend