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Dear Parents and Carers,
During this week we have been busy across many different areas of our learning.
During the week many of the children have helped out with planting some vegetables into the garden beds. We’ve planted snow peas, strawberries, spinach, beetroots, rocket, pak choy and carrots. We are hopeful that in the coming weeks we will be calling on you to help with cooking these vegies up into tasty treats once they ripen.
NAPLAN-congratulations to our Yr. 3 and Yr. 5 children who have completed the NAPLAN assessment program during this week. All assessments have been completed online expect for the Yr. 3 writing task. As has been reported in the media, we too experienced some dropouts and delays – this was challenging for both students and staff.
I would like to congratulate the children on the way that they have responded to these trying circumstances – I think you did a marvellous job working under these extra challenging conditions.
We have already provided feedback about these issues to NESA (NSW Education Standards Authority) and Catholic Education Canberra-Goulburn. When more specific feedback comes from NESA, we will forward that on to parents.
School Athletics Carnival - our Athletics Carnival was last Thursday and we were very lucky to have sunny conditions. Congratulations to all competitors on your efforts during the day – you did a great job.
Age champions are as follows:
Our age champions for 2018 are
Junior girl –Genevieve McLelland
Junior boy – Banjo Metcalfe
11yr. girl – Alyssa Heathcote
11 yr. boy – Cooper Biddle
Senior girl – Skye McLelland
Senior boy – William Wilson
Congratulations to everyone for their efforts.
Thank you to everyone who helped out on the day, your support is appreciated.
Thank you to Mrs Best for your efforts in coordinating and organising the carnival.
WR Cross country carnival – good luck to all students representing us at the Western Region cross country carnival set down for tomorrow in Murrumburrah. Reminder notes were sent home on Monday to those children in the team.
Registration renewal process – over the past two weeks we have been completing various aspects of our registration renewal process. This has included both a building review and a finance review. Initial feedback in both cases has been both very positive and constructive. On Monday the teaching and learning review team arrive and they will be at school with us until Wednesday afternoon. The review team comprising staff from our head office and principals/assistant principals/RECs. This review process takes place every five years and allows us to review processes and procedures to ensure that we are compliant with current regulations and practices.
We are looking forward to spending time with the team and showing them what we are doing in our classrooms at St Joseph’s.
As you will be aware, we have been preparing for the various different events that take place during the upcoming Henry Lawson Festival. During this week, we received news about the Henry Lawson Festival Writing Competition
The Henry Lawson Festival Verse and Short Story writing competition was well supported this year, with a large number of entries received from all over Australia.
Special congratulations go to the following students for their award winning entries:
Verse:
Blake Reeves - 'Earth' (2nd)
Annie Nealon - 'The Simple Things' (Highly Commended)
Short Story:
Zi Jie Xia - 'The Worst Pirates' (Highly Commended)
Next Wednesday we will be participating in the National Simultaneous Storytime with children from the preschool – this year, we will be reading
Nits are a sensitive topic – we understand that the incidence of nits is a sensitive one, however, I encourage all families to monitor and take action as necessary.
Be aware that there have been several cases of nits reported. Please check your children’s heads and take the appropriate actions. Remember that shampoos only work if they are used at the right strength. Good ways to prevent nits include:
- Brush hair thoroughly every day
- Tie back long hair
- Check regularly for lice or eggs (nits) – take action as needed
People often say that regular use of conditioner is a very effective way to remove both eggs and lice.
All families are reminded that children whose hair is shoulder length or longer, should be wearing their hair tied back so as to keep the incidence of nits to a minimum.
Changes to routine - Thank you to those families who are keeping us informed when children are absent from school, or there are changes to the regular routine. Please be aware that we are required to keep the rolls up to date and that thorough explanations for absences enable us to do so.
Sincerely,
REC News
Mums….
I was moved by this prayer and I thought that I would share it with you. I hope you had a lovely Mother’s Day.
A Prayer for Mothers
by Heidi Busse
All-loving God, we give you thanks and praise for mothers young and old.
We pray for young mothers, who give life and count toes and tend to our every need; May they be blessed with patience and tenderness to care for their families and themselves with great joy.
We pray for our own mothers who have nurtured and cared for us; May they continue to guide in strong and gentle ways.
We remember mothers who are separated from their children because of war, poverty, or conflict; May they feel the loving embrace of our God who wipes every tear away.
We pray for women who are not mothers but still love and shape us with motherly care and compassion.
We remember mothers, grandmothers, and great-grandmothers who are no longer with us but who live forever in our memory and nourish us with their love.
Amen.
Classroom News 2/3/4
The weeks are going by so quickly, students have been busy beginning new topics and reviewing skills and understandings of concepts learned last term.
In English, we have been learning about strategies that poets use. This is in preparation for our entries into the Henry Lawson Festival Children’s Art competition that has the theme of ‘Ode to Winter’. Year Three and Four need to add an ode to their artwork that encompasses this theme. It has been great fun listening to different types of poems and also to explore the interesting ways in which poets use words and rhythms to convey their message.
We listened to an interesting poem titled ‘An Ode to Blueberries’. We then annotated the different strategies the poet used.
In Religion students are beginning to use the Three Worlds of the Text to explore well-known stories and Parables. The first story we looked at was the Three Little Pigs, using a well-known story helps students understand the concept and the questions.
The students were able to record a number of stories from the Bible; this will become our resource for choosing a story to investigate later in the term.
In Mathematics, revision and review of the four operations has been the focus for the first two weeks. This will continue for some time as all students need to consolidate efficient strategies and the flexibility needed to solve number problems quickly. I encourage all students to continue with their maths pack I sent home last term. Quick recall of tables, addition to 10 and 20 as well as being able to use a range of strategies are vital skills and form the basis for many mathematical concepts. Below is our four operations grid we use each day.
In PDH we are learning about being healthy and that health means different things to different people. Students will develop understandings of the four areas of health, spiritual, mental, physical and social in the next few weeks. In sport we had time with year 5/6 and looked at some athletics training videos in preparation for the athletics carnival, it was great to have the senior students help us with our field events training. We look forward to brushing up on some NRL skills now that we have finished with athletics.
In Science this term we are investigating the Living World. Students investigate how plants and animals are used to satisfy our needs for food and fibre. Students will make observations about living things and investigate the features of the habitats in which these livings things survive.
NUMERACY
Kindergarten and year 1 students have been using story boards to communicate a variety of ways to represent numbers. The story board allows students to draw, write, make the collection and write number sentences.
We have also look at reflective symmetry and symmetry in patterns using pattern blocks. The students created a pattern and made it again using the Pattern Block IPad app and identifying lines of symmetry.
Year 5/6 have reviewed multiplication and division of whole and decimal numbers. We used an activity called Calculator Slido where we x and ÷ by 10, 100 and 1000. Students are beginning to recognise the pattern found when we use these numbers for these operations. Formal setting out and solving of multiplication is a concept that needs to be practised, so I suggest students attempt to solve at least two of these for homework this week.