Dunsborough ANZAC Service

Hope everyone had a lovely long weekend. 

It was amazing being at the Dunsborough ANZAC service on Saturday the 25th,down at the foreshore. It was truly wonderful to see so many OLC families there. What a wonderful and supportive community we live in. 

THE largest crowd to date gathered at Lions Park in Dunsborough to pay their respects to the servicemen who lost their lives at Gallipoli 100 years ago.  

Almost 2000 Dunsborough residents and visitors attended the memorial service after watching the parade march down Dunn Bay Road towards the foreshore. ( Dunsborough Busselton times) 

:) Katie Horrocks 

It's not easy as ABC anymore!

Pronouncing the alphabet sounds

Published by Diana Rigg on April 10, 2015

Students require alphabet knowledge in order to embark on the process of learning to read and spell. However, rather than letter naming ability, letter sound knowledge is the more important skill for entry into formalized literacy learning.

For example:

• In order to spell the basic word ‘dog’ a child must first “sound-out” (or phonemically segment) “d”, “oh”, “g” and then the child must recall and apply in correct order the alphabet letter sounds.
• In order to read the word ‘dog’ a child must recognize each letter symbol and convert each symbol into the correct sound “d”, “oh”, “g” and then the child must blend the sounds together (phonemic blending ability).

In neither of the above early spelling and reading processes did alphabet letter naming come into the equation.

Many years of experience working with students has revealed a pattern. It is alphabet letter sound ability that is the more difficult of the two areas for students to acquire and it is alphabet letter sound ability that parents have difficulty pronouncing.

This video clip provides a model of the pronunciation of each of the alphabet sounds with an Australian accent. The viewing of the clip aims to assist those working with children to articulate the best model of the common sound linked to each alphabetic symbol and thereby assist the transition to early reading, spelling and writing.

Welcome back to Term Two!

 "If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales. If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more fairy tales." Albert Einstein

Once upon a time in a nursery rhyme...Welcome to Term Two full of Fairytales, magical stories and classic children's literature. 

It was wonderful seeing the children settle in back from the holidays with their friends again. 

This week we are reading the story " Goldilocks and the Three Bears". Learning with Fairytales help young children develop a sense of story structure,  understand concepts about print, boost their imagination and wonder and many more important literacy skills. When sharing stories as a class, wonderful discussions evolve from taking about the settings, the different characters and the plot. Most of all, fairytales make listening to and responding to stories enjoyable and exciting!  

A few important reminders: 

Firstly, Parent Teacher Interviews will be held next week, beginning Tuesday the 28th. If you haven't put your name down in a time slot that suits you, please find the timetable on the parent notice board in PPH. Interviews will be approximately ten minutes. If more time is required, another meeting can be rescheduled at another time. 

The parent roster is up on the board. Again we encourage at least one parent to come in and join in our morning program. This term we only require your wonderful help Monday through to Wednesday due to speciality classes. If the only day you can come in is a Thursday or Friday, just let me know and we can arrange it. 

Your child's show and tell roster remains the same until second Semester. Library day is still on Tuesdays. 

In literacy we have covered the first two sets of sounds s a t p i n  and m r e c k d h. I expect by this stage of the year the children can recognise the symbols and give the sounds. 

Our next set of sounds are f l o u g b. 

Mother's Day is approaching and PPH would like to invite all our Mums to a Green Room day spa on the 8th of May. An invitation was sent home in your child's bag. Please let me know if your available to come. The children would love to treat you to a day of pampering! You all deserve it! 

Thank you for your continued support,

Katie Horrocks and the PPH team. 

Easter Week 4/4/15

Celebrations that are apart of our school religious calendar make learning fun in Pre-Primary.

Easter week in PPH is very exciting! We love talking about all the happy things associated with Easter. We love Easter eggs, bunny rabbits, chocolates, hot cross buns and baby chickens, however, we also focus on the true meaning of Easter. Jesus died for us and rose into heaven to show that he loves us.
During the week, each class at OLC will be involved in a liturgy to share the events of Holy Week. PPH and PPB are making Easter bonnets to celebrate new life.

 

After reading the Easter story, the children illustrated and painted their own pictures of  the Last Supper. In Pre-Primary we call it Jesus' special meal with his friends. They had to make sure they had 12 friends sitting at the table. They all wanted to include Judas who wasn't kind to Jesus. 

We had Easter fun outside. The children had hopping races, egg and spoon relays and I even spotted a bunny rabbit in a burrow ( our adorable Priya). 

We had fun Easter egg counting and sorting in maths. When the children found the eggs that Easter bunny left them, the children worked out that the orange basket had the most eggs and the purple basket had the least amount. I was very impressed with their counting and sharing. 

I hope all the parents enjoy their Easter cards and Easter baskets made by the children. I hope the children share their eggs that they found on our Easter hunt. They were very Lucky to have a vist from the Easter bunny on Thursday. 

Cannot forget funky hair Friday... The children looked like mini rock stars with their hair creations. 

The Easter hat parade was a success. The children did a great job at making their hats ( thank you to our wonderful mums and dads who helped us). They all looked very grown up on stage. Well done
Pre-Primaries!!!

Happy Easter and have a very safe Holiday. See you all back for Term Two. 

Love the Green Team.