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