Teaching and Learning Coordinator

Dear Sirius College Community,

It has been an absolute pleasure to welcome you and your children to the 2021 school year. Term one has been a busy and enjoyable term filled with exciting learning opportunities within all areas of the curriculum.

SEQTA Update

Our teaching Scope and Sequence is now available on the SEQTA Learn platform. You can access this by selecting COURSES from the drop-down menu in SEQTA. Please spare some time to browse through these documents as it will ensure we achieve a strong home/school partnership.

10 Ways for Parents to Help Teachers

Here are 10 simple yet powerful things that parents can do at home to support teachers in their daily work of teaching our young children.

1. Create a smooth takeoff each day. Give your child a hug before she ventures out the door and you head to work. Look her in the eye, and tell her how proud you are of her. Your child’s self-confidence and security will help her do well both in school and in life.
2. Prepare for a happy landing at the end of the day when you reconvene. Create a predictable ritual such as 10-20 minutes listening to your child talk about his day – before you check phone messages, read the mail, or begin dinner. That way you are fully present to listen, and your child has a touchstone he can count on between school and home.
3. Fill your child’s lunchbox with healthy snacks and lunches. Have dinner at a reasonable hour. A well-balanced diet maximizes your child’s learning potential.
4. Include calm, peaceful times in your children’s afternoons and evenings. Maintain a schedule that allows them to go to school rested, and if they are sick, have a system in place so they are able to stay home.
5. Remember, it’s your children’s homework, not yours. Create a specific homework space that’s clutter-free and quiet. Encourage editing and double-checking work, but allow your kids to make mistakes, as it’s the only way teachers can gauge if they understand the material. It’s also how children learn responsibility for the quality of their work.
6. Fill your child’s life with a love for learning by showing them your own curiosity, respecting their questions, and encouraging their effort.
7. Fill your home with books to read, books to simply look at, and books that provide answers to life’s many questions. The public or school library is an excellent resource.
8. Be a partner with your child’s teacher. When you need to speak to him/her in reference to a specific issue with your child, do it privately, not in front of the child. Make a point never to criticize your child’s teacher in front of your child.
9. Set up a system where routine items are easily located – such as backpacks, shoes, and signed notices. Create a central calendar for upcoming events to avoid the unexpected.
10. Tuck a “love note” in your child’s lunch bag to let them know how special they are. Knowing they are loved makes it easier for children to be kind to others.

Source: https://www.readingrockets.org/reading-topics/parent-engagement

Mathematics at Sirius College

We love talking about mathematics at Sirius College! Using the photo of Mary the bubble wrap sheep have a chat about bubble wrap - a most marvelous invention. There are some maths questions below for you to work through together.

Bubble wrap can be the best toy at times. It’s that packing material that comes in clear plastic sheets, with rows and rows of little air-filled bumps. They’re lined up in a hexagon pattern, each bubble surrounded by 6 more, like a bee’s honeycomb. When you pinch a bubble, it makes a perfect popping sound…so you can’t help but pop the bubble next to it, and the next. If you have a really big sheet, you can lay it on the floor and jump on it to pop lots of bubbles at once. Kids love it, grown-ups love it and even animals love it … so find some bubble wrap and get popping!

Can you solve these problems?

Level A

A bubble-wrap bubble is about the size of your fingertip. See if you can spot 3 things that size in your room.

Level B

If Mary the Lamb pops bubbles 1, 2 and 3, what numbers are the next 4 bubbles she pops? Bonus: If a row has 16 bubbles and you pop 1, how many bubbles are left to pop?

Level C.

If a piece of bubble wrap has a row of 5 bubbles, then 6 bubbles, then 5, then 6, and you pop half of them, how many bubbles are left for Mary to pop?

Level D

If on a 20-row sheet, half the rows have 11 bubbles each and half the rows have 10 each, how many bubbles do you have? See if you can find a shortcut to add it up!

Source: http://bedtimemath.org/fun-math-bubble-wrap/