Home Learning Opportunities: Readers’/Writers’ Notebooks & Mathletics

Readers’/Writers’ Notebooks

This week, students will be taking home their Readers’ and Writers’ Notebooks. This will replace the Reading Log sheet that currently is stored in the plastic document wallet containing students Home Reading books.

The Readers’ Notebook provides an opportunity for students to respond to the text they read. They can represent this visually or complete a written response using the sentence starters on the first page of their notebooks. Responses could relate to connections to other text they read, their own lives, what the text reminded them of or responding to aspects of the texts such as character, themes or plot. If the task is too laborious, it is important that students continue to log the books that they read inside these journals and to participate in a range of reading practices at home including reading aloud, independently and being read to, while also discussing the meaning and content they take away from each reading experience.  

The Writers’ Notebook begins in the middle or at the back of the exercise book. In this section, students can paste stimuli for writing such as momentums of their weekends away from school (ticket stubs, stamps, cartoons and other “found objects”, etc. that may stimulate their curiosity and desire to write). The format can be in the form of a story or narrative, poem, journal entry or recount, recipe, lists, information they found out – the purpose is to demonstrate the many facets of writing whether purposeful or creative!

On some occasions, teachers will paste an activity for them to complete at home during the week relating to their reading or inquiry topic on Change this term. The first of these will be students having a conversation with their grandparents about changes their grandparents’ have seen or noticed from when they were children to how things are today. Our hope is that these experiences can be brought back to the classroom and shared with others in the neighbourhood.   

Mathletics

This year we are providing PHPS students from Grade 1-6 an opportunity to be a member of the Mathletics website. Mathletics is an interactive e-Learing resource being used by over 2,000 schools. 

Students will be able to use the website at home for additional mathematics practise.

Originating in Australia, Mathletics is now being used in over ten countries.
Over the past two weeks, students have been shown the website and been given an opportunity to log on to the site and complete an initial exploration during their library time. As this is a new experience for some students, children may need assistance with accessing the site and logging on using the “shift” key. Some students may also  need help reading questions to complete their answers.  

Students’ Username and Password has been pasted into the inside front cover of the Readers’ and Writers’ Notebook.

The web address is: http://www.mathletics.com.au/