Juniors @ KPS

• What do I want to learn?
• How best will I learn it?
• How will I know when I have learned it?

• Students may be directed to focus on a particular reading strategy, but to make the choice of the reading material to practise that strategy.
• Students may choose which equipment to use when working on their own learning goal.
• Students may choose their own questions to investigate in a Unit of Inquiry, but be directed to find out a particular skill or attitude. 

• Help students identify what they want to learn/be able to do.
• Help students figure out where they are now, where they want to be and how they will know if get there.
• Help student figure out and acquire the knowledge and skills needed along the way to achieve their goal.
• Help students reflect on and celebrate their learning journey.
• Learner-centered… learner-driven… teacher supported.

The Junior Blog is a great place to keep up to date with what your child is learning in their classroom. As we finalise all our formal assessments, the students are delving into all areas of learning, developing their Learner Agency and unpacking what it means to be a great learner in Juniors.

Literacy

In READING students are beginning to unpack the 12 Reading Strategies. When we read we are THINKING:

Thinking Within the Text (Solving Words, Monitoring & Correcting, Searching for & Using Information, Summarising, Maintaining Fluency, and Adjusting.

Thinking Beyond the Text (Predicting, Making Connections, Synthesising, and Inferring)

Thinking About the Text (Analysing and Critiquing).

In WRITING, students are developing the understanding that we write for a wide range of purposes, and that writing is a way to communicate. We are exploring 4 categories of writing:

Narrative, Informational, Functional and Poetic. 

Soon the students will be developing the understanding that a Personal Narrative is a great way to share stories about who you are.

Maths

This year in Maths, we have refined and updated the Maths Continuums. Rather than teaching Numeration, Problem Solving, Money and Fractions as separate units, we have combined all these areas into one Number Continuum. The students have been unpacking how “number systems provide a common language we can use to make sense of the world”.

There are a number of outcomes on the new continuum that were not present in previous years, and as such we need to ensure students are achieving these outcomes before they move on.

Unit of Inquiry

Our current Unit of Inquiry is exploring the theme of “Who We Are“. The students are inquiring into relationships, the social skills we use to maintain relationships, and how our behaviour can have an impact on other people. 

We encourage you to talk to your child about the range of relationships they have in their life, and what actions they can take to keep them as positive relationships.

We look forward to getting some input in this area when we have our Open Classroom afternoon on Friday 24th February.

We would like to extend a warm welcome to all our Junior Families at Kunyung this year! An extra special warm welcome to all the new families to our school in 2017!

By now the students are in full swing of delving into Learning at Kunyung! Over the last week we have been setting the culture of how we learn at Kunyung, focussing on our Three Pillars:

1. Learner Agency
2. Personalised Learning
3. Inquiry Learning

The Junior Blog will act as a space to find out not only about what your child is learning at school, but also how they are learning. We will aim to update the Blog regularly with information on all areas, so that you can support your child’s growth in Juniors!

With warm wishes,

The Junior Team

Hello to our lovely Junior Parents and Students,

Just a few reminders about the upcoming weeks:

SWIMMING:

• Swimming starts Monday 28^th November and runs daily until Friday 2^nd December inclusive.
• Each day your child will need to wear their bathers to school (under their school uniform) and bring underwear to put on afterwards. Students will need a named towel (goggles are optional); a swimming cap will be provided.
• All swimming items should be placed in a separate bag/small backpack to be carried by your child on the bus.
• Please be prompt to school as the first swimming group leaves at 9am sharp!

CHRISTMAS CONCERT

• The Christmas Concert will take place on Wednesday 7th December, 6-8pm.
• The children have been asked to wear any Christmas themed clothes for the evening.
• Please ensure your child is back at school promptly, and ready to perform!

TRANSITION

• The final transition session will be held on Wednesday 14th December.
• This students will go to their 2017 classes with their 2017 teacher on this day.

Thanks to all our families who were able to join us on Monday evening to share in our learning. It was a wonderful evening, and lovely to see the students proudly share the things they have been working so hard on throughout the year.

We hope you enjoyed coming in to our classrooms as well!

The Junior School at Kunyung Primary School kindly invites all parents to Share in our Learning!

WHEN: Monday 21st November, 5-6pm

WHERE: Your child’s classroom.

We are excited to show you our biggest achievements for the year and our new classrooms too!

Term 4 in Juniors has been incredibly busy already! 6 of our classes are all settled in to their new rooms! We really appreciate all the help we had to move, and also all parents understanding and support during this time!

So… whats happening in Juniors for the rest of the term?

Unit of Inquiry – Sharing the Planet

We have just begun our last Unit of Inquiry for the year. Our Sharing the Planet theme is encouraging our students to think about who and what we share this world with and what we can do to make sure it is a good place to be!

With the key concepts of Responsibility, Connection and related concept of Initiative, we are encouraging students to explore how “Humans benefit from, and contribute to their communities“.

Our students have begun to explore what it means to take initiative and the different communities they belong to. To support this at home you could discuss what things they are responsible for at home and in their out of school communities. How could they take initiative to support that responsibility? Who does it benefit when they take initiative?

Swimming Program

Just a reminder that the Levy for the Swimming Program is due by the 14th November. It is essential that payments are made by this date so that we can organise buses for the program. Swimming will run every day in Week 9 this term.

Sharing our Learning

Save the date! We will be having an open-evening on Monday 21st November, from 5pm-6pm to Share our Learning with you! It will also be a great opportunity to see our new classrooms. Watch this space for more information!

Wow! What a blast!

We all had the best time at the Walkathon on Friday! The weather was very kind to us and the costumes were spectacular!

Thanks to Annie Reinhardt and her team of amazing parents for all their organisation to ensure the day was a huge success. Don’t forget you can still bring in your Walkathon Sponsor money to your class teacher.

• Moving Rooms!
  • At this stage we have been given the date of Thursday 20th October to move in to the new classrooms.
  • If you are able to assist with the move on this day, please see your classroom teacher as soon as possible.
• Swimming Program
  • The Swimming Program will be running in Week 6 of this term (28th Nov – 2nd October).
  • A note in regards to the levy will go home soon. Please be aware the levy for swimming is estimated to be around $70-75. We hope this will assist you with budgeting for this very important program.
• Unit of Inquiry
  • How We Organise Ourselves: An inquiry into the interconnectedness of human-made systems and communities; the structure and function of organisations; societal decision-making; economic activities and their impact on humankind and the environment.
  • Students are exploring systems and processes to develop the understanding that everything has a purpose, a role or a way of behaving that can be investigated.
• Maths
  • Money – students are exploring identifying the features and the value of Australian coins and notes
  • Measurement – students are exploring Length, Mass and Capacity/Volume
• Literacy
  • Writing Genre – students are developing an understanding of writing Information Reports.
• Transdisciplinary Skills
  • Time Management and Organisation – students are working on their Time Management & Organisational skills, and developing an understanding of how improving these skills has a flow on effect on their learning.

We would like to welcome all our students back for Term 4 at Kunyung and an especially warm welcome to all the new students joining us!

There has been lots of work happening over the holidays and our classrooms are so close to being ready!

We look forward to an exciting term. Please keep an eye on this blog as we update you with details about moving, as well as  learning in and out of the classroom.

Thanks,

The Junior Team