Siena is extremely quick to pick up new skills and does so with confidence, whether it’s whipping up a sponge cake or setting herself a reading goal and achieving it. Siena is remarkably creative with impressive craft skills, she tackles new areas of interest independently and successfully.
English
Reading
- Students independently read, view and respond to familiar and challenging texts and justify interpretations of ideas, information and events using a range of skills and strategies.
Siena reads fluently and confidently. Last year she went from strength to strength, moving from early readers to beginning the Box Car Children book set. She is now happily reading her way through these chapter books, excitedly telling us all about the plots and characters.
During the upcoming year the focus will be on encouraging her to continue to nurture her newly discovered love of reading and immersing her in quality literature. She is currently particularly interested in reading series.
We have previously hosted a Book Club a couple of times within our homeschool group and the children absolutely loved it! They totally facilitated the group, the book selections, the questions, the structure, it was all so exciting to see. Siena is keen for us to continue this in the upcoming year.
Spelling
- Students spell familiar and unfamiliar words using knowledge of letter–sound correspondence, regular and irregular spelling patterns, spelling rules and a range of other strategies.
Siena finds spelling words comes easily to her. Last year she completed All About Spelling Level 2 and learnt: how to spell words with blends at the beginning and end, to divide compound words into syllables, how to pluralise words ending in silent e, how to spell words with open and closed syllables. This year she will learn which plural ending to use, how to spell compound words, open and closed syllables, how to spell multisyllable words, to spell Vowel-Consonant-E (VCE) words, to spell words with C+l-e syllables, to spell words with consonant suffixes and vowel suffixes, common contractions and common homophones.
In the upcoming year Siena will complete All About Spelling Level 3 and continue to grow in strength as a confident speller.
Resource: All About Spelling Level 3.
Dictation
- Students explore the structural and grammatical features and purposes for a range of written, visual and multimodal texts.
Siena will begin doing weekly dictation lessons, which will strengthen her spelling, punctuation and listening skills.
Resource: Spelling Wisdom
Handwriting
- Students use increasing fluency when writing, applying NSW Foundation Style as appropriate.
Siena writes neatly, with confidence and fluency. Last year we focused on correct letter and number formation, in the upcoming year we will continue with that and emphasise consistency in letter sizing. We will also introduce cursive writing.
Resource: Startwrite: Creates customised handwriting practice sheets.
Creative Writing
- Students recognise the representation of characters, settings and events in imaginative texts and start to evaluate point of view.
Siena is a keen creative story writer, she has great imagination and loves to weave plots.
In the upcoming year our intent is to write daily, encouraging Siena’s creative writing skills for her to develop into a stronger writer. Her logical sequencing, sentence structure and story plots are good. Our plan is to foster strength and growth in her character development and vocabulary.
Resources include: Writer’s Jungle, Institute for Excellence in English, Writing Prompt Cards, Programmed English – Clare Kinsella, Voyages in English
Grammar
- Students use simple and complex sentences, paragraphing, punctuation and grammatical features characteristic of the various texts to support meaning.
Siena has a good grasp of grammar; sentence structure, correct word usage and tenses. Grammatical infractions are quickly ‘pounced upon’ by siblings so all the children are strong in this area.
Last year we focused on mechanics such as capitals, commas, full stops, question and exclamation marks, correct tenses, nouns, verbs and adjectives.
In the upcoming year we will be cementing these concepts further and introducing other concepts such as abbreviations and contractions.
Resources include: Little Grammar People – Nuri Mass, World of Language – Ruth Heller and Primary Language Lessons – Emma Serl
Narrations
- Students use various listening behaviours to gather general ideas and key points from conversations, reports or spoken presentations.
A retelling of what has been read/watched/learnt into one’s own words, requires a good understanding of the subject matter, it takes concentration and sequencing skills. We consider narrations to be an extremely important skill, a foundation for logic and writing, we will be devoting time to narration regularly for the subjects of; Faith, Geography, History and Science. Narrations can take various forms; oral, written, illustrations, acting, building or creating.
Siena has great narration skills. She sees the overall picture, her sequencing skills are good and she remembers all the details.
Siena will be writing more of her own narrations this year as her mechanical skill level increases, though we will still be asking for lots of oral narrations and other forms of narrations.
Literature
- Students explain some ways in which authors and illustrators engage the interests of audiences and achieve a range of purposes.
Nurturing a love of literature within our family is at the core of our family’s learning approach, we immerse our children in quality literature from birth. We read from many genres and delight in living books – a book that makes the subject matter ‘come alive’.
Siena enjoys listening to our daily Read Alouds. She has great comprehension skills and can listen for long periods of time.
Resources include: Our extensive home library and the town library.
Poetry
- Students identify the effect of purpose, audience and culture on spoken texts and shape and present ideas accordingly.
The listening to and memorisation of poetry is part of our family’s culture of nurturing a love of literature.
Siena will continue to be immersed in poetry daily and memorise at least one poem a term, to recite at our family weekly recitation nights.
Resources include: Robert Louis Stevenson’s poetry, Classic Children’s Poetry, Children’s Book of Verse, Australian poetry and more from our extensive poetry collection
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Mathematics
- Students ask questions and use efficient mental and written strategies with increasing fluency to solve problems.
Siena is quick to grasp new concepts and has a great understanding of her maths, working above her grade level.
Last year Siena covered: 2 digit subtraction & addition, Expanded Notation to 9999, measuring in centimeters, millimeters and meters, measuring area, finding volume and the cubic centimeter, measuring mass in kilograms and grams, digital and analog time, axis of symmetry, right angles, grid co-ordinates, 3D objects and column graphs.
In the upcoming year Siena will be covering mental strategies; patterns & splitting, multiplication 3-9x tables, division by 2, 5 & 10, equivalent fractions, place value of decimals and expanding decimals, money & change, measurement, space and geometry, statistics and probability.
Resources include: Maths Online, maths board games and our living maths books collection.
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Science and Technology
- Students engage in the processes of Working Scientifically, and Design and Production by asking questions, predicting outcomes and undertaking guided investigations with increasing independence.
Our desire is to encourage Siena’s knowledge and love of science and technology, to encourage her to foster her questing mind and to continue to support her confidence in tackling technological challenges. We have been owner building since before Siena was born and she has grown up observing, learning and building.
Siena has a particular fascination with science experiments. It is quite common to find her watching a science youtube and then find her undertaking said experiment, her favourite experiments are chemistry ones.
Last year Siena studied various topics including; dinosaurs, chemistry, Australian animals and living things. She watched many youtubes, documentaries and science videos, enjoyed a variety of science experiments, made K’nex models and Kapla designs including the Eiffel Tower, to name a few endeavours.
This year our studies will include; Living Things, Earth & Space and Physics & Digital Technology, as well as always being flexible to follow any further interests that arise. With Siena being so scientifically and technically minded we expect these interests to be many and varied. To meet these studies we will use various mediums and resources, and we’re confident that other areas of scientific and technological interest and knowledge will be sought and pursued.
Resources include: Our home and town libraries, Young Scientist set, DVDs and youtubes, creating a garden, Experiment kits, Snap Circuit Kits, K’nex, Lego, Kapla Blocks, the Drone & Robotic kits; Edison, Boson and the Robobloq Qooper.
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HSIE
History
- Students sequence key events and people in chronological order and identify key dates.
We wish for Siena to have an interest about ‘all things history’ and want her have an awareness of world and Australian history and to understand the significance of certain events.
Last year we studied various topics including Australian history, on a National and local level. Our learning covered topics such as Australia in the 1920s & 30s and the Overland Telegraph and visiting the local Museum at Lawrence. Our World History studies included the Vikings, the Local History, Technology Age and an indepth study of World War One and Two.
This year we will continue our Australian History studies, doing a more indepth study of Bushrangers and the Gold Rush. We will also continue to study what was happening to our First Peoples concurrently. We want Siena to have an awareness of and passion for our nation’s history.
Our World History studies will continue this year to follow a chronological plan, it will move forward to cover: the Korean & Vietnam Wars, the 1960s, refugees and modern Australia.
Resources Include: Wattle Gum Education- as I test run products before release, History of Australia – Meredith Hooper, Story of the World – Susan Wise Bauer and our extensive collection of historical living books, picture as well as chapter books, and the town library.
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Geography
- Students develop geographical questions to investigate and collect and record relevant data and information to answer these questions.
We want Siena to have an awareness of and appreciation for different cultures, customs and environments. To be familiar and confident with maps, to be able to recognise the different continents and many countries.
We will continue to use Mega Maps for our mapwork which continues to be hugely popular with our children, Siena’s skill for tracing lends well to developing mapwork skills. We will also continue to use Shepard Software which is enjoyable and effective.
We will also focus on the Australian environment, our impact upon the environment and ways in which we can best care for our environment.
Much of our geography approach is covered by using our collection of geography living books, we are always flexible to follow any interest areas that arise.
Resources include: Wattle Gum Education- as I test run products before release, our library and town library, DVDs and youtubes, light table, Sheppard Software and Mega Maps
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Creative Arts
Visual Arts
- Students make artworks that represent a variety of subject matter and make choices about the forms and techniques used to best represent the qualities of the subject matter.
We will continue our annual membership with Artventure , we have used this for a few years now and continue to be highly impressed, the work that Siena produces impresses us.
Visual Arts happens daily in our household, there is always some form being undertaken. Siena has a particular passion for craft and is always creating and undertaking complex, new crafts. Whether she is wiping up a circle skirt for her big sister or learning to do longstitch, or making intricate paper models.
Resources include: Artventure, How to Draw & craft books, youtubes, various internet sites and our craft & art supplies.
Music
- Students listen to a range of music, identifying key features and they make some informed judgements about musical preference.
Siena will continue to be exposed to a variety of music genres, with the opportunity for movement and free expression. Siena is always singing with her sisters, she has an impressive recall of lyrics and can identify songs with the names of their artists. Siena is keen to learn the piano, we started lessons last year but lockdowns interrupted, our hope is to begin again.
Various musical instruments are available in our home: piano, drums, guitar and woodwind and percussion instruments which Siena can readily access.
Dance
- Students explore the elements of dance in their own works and how these can be selected and combined to convey meaning.
Siena has a love of and aptitude for dance and is the first to begin dancing. Prior to covid she participated in dance lessons, we are considering going back.
Resources include: Dance Star & Sing Star.
Drama
- Students experience and interpret a range of drama forms and elements by making, performing and appreciating drama.
Siena is often choreographing home grown plays, using props and costumes, roping in siblings, and setting up chairs and organising us, the audience, we arrive with tickets she has designed and given out.
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Personal Development, Health and Physical Education
Health, Wellbeing and Relationships
- Students investigate the skills and qualities that build caring and respectful relationships and ways to improve their health, safety and wellbeing.
Many Personal Development skills learnt are covered by the values we hold as a family which are underpinned by our Catholic Faith. To be confident in their own selves knowing their value and dignity, to understand they must treat their bodies with care, to remove themselves from situations in which may be harmful, to treat others with kindness, consideration and generosity, to extend Christian charity to all regardless of their belief system.
We have many opportunities in our homeschool group to discuss strategies and practice kindness and acceptance. We have a large group of children around Siena’s age that provide opportunities to build caring and respectful relationships. Our local group is set to increase by at least 60% for the coming year and Siena will have many further opportunities for growth.
Faith Studies
Siena is to deepen her personal relationship with God and increase her knowledge of God and His Church.
Resources include: Liturgical Year Resources, saints biographies and the ‘Green’ Catechism.
Movement Skill and Performance and Healthy, Safe and Active Lifestyles
- Students perform physical activities designed to enhance fitness and discuss the relationships between physical activity, health and fitness.
Siena will be continuing with swimming lessons this year, moving up to level 2/3, her last level before moving up to Stroke Development Squad.
Siena has the opportunity to join us weekly in Park Run, she is working towards achieving the 5km course with greater ease.
Siena will also be kayaking regularly, she has great aptitude, confidence and a love for this sport.
Siena will compete in our annual home education Sports Day.
Siena is to further develop an understanding of the importance of an active lifestyle and nutritional health. Siena will continue to deepen her knowledge and understanding of the human body, the need for personal hygiene and an awareness of nutritional health choices and their impact. To be aware of the positive and negative choices that we can make for our bodies and the consequence of our choices.