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Dear Parents and Carers,
As we come to the midpoint of the term, we have been very busy working on both class based activities as well as our preparations for the coming Henry Lawson Festival.
For some children this busy period of term is very challenging. Unfortunately, some are using the busyness of both school and home as justification for poor choices in how they speak with others around school, or how they are responding when games are not going their way.
I encourage you to have a conversation with your children about using appropriate language – “paddock” language is not appropriate for school.
During busy times, it is difficult to make right choices, and congratulations go to those children who are working very hard to be doing the right thing.
Making right choices can be difficult and it takes a brave person to do so.
Henry Lawson Festival – Please be aware that the Play Day is scheduled to take place on Thursday June 6, in the THLHS auditorium.
The Concert will be held on Friday June 7 at 7:00pm at THLHS. Those singing will wear their winter uniform.
The procession is set for on Saturday June 8 beginning at 1:30pm. The Yr. 6 girls have been putting together the concept for the float for the festival parade. The theme for this year is an ode to winter. Our float will reflect an aspect of this theme.
Please fill in and return the attached note, so that we are aware of who will be participating in the concert and the procession.
The children have been putting the final additions on their play for the upcoming play day, as well as preparing for both the concert and the festival parade.
It is terrific to see people choosing the growth mindset of I’ll give that a go or I can try this out, or I can learn new dance steps for a performance shows a positive approach to learning new ideas or concepts. The satisfaction of achieving or learning a new skill is enormous.
NAPLAN- on Tuesday, we completed the re-sit of the Yr. 5 writing and reading papers. Congratulations to our Yr. 5 students for completing this process in a professional manner, thank you.
Semester Reports - Our staff have also been undertaking the process of preparing semester reports for the first half of this year. These will be sent home at the end of week nine. Parent teacher conferences will take place during week ten.
Uniform – thank you to those families who have clear labels on uniforms items, this makes it easy for us to return jumpers etc.
Facebook page - We have been working on developing a Facebook page to share more with the community about the teaching and learning that is happening at school. The page is under construction, but will not be launched until we have completed working through various steps with IT and media staff from head office.
A separate note will be sent home relating to permissions for including pictures of your child on the page.
Please be aware that this page is only for promoting teaching and learning at school, it will not be used as a general communications page.
This week is National Reconciliation Week and this affords us the opportunity to reflect on two notable events, one being the 1967 referendum and the other being the Mabo Decision. Did you know that National Reconciliation Week started as the Week of Prayer for Reconciliation in 1993 (the International Year of the World’s Indigenous People) and was supported by Australia’s major faith communities?
In 1996, the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation launched Australia’s first ‘National Reconciliation Week’.
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 explanation for absences enable us to do so.
Sincerely,
Classroom News – Year 5/6
Our week in pics…
LITERACY
Supporting Readers
Give your child lots of opportunities to read aloud. Inspire your young reader to practice every day! The tips below offer some fun ways you can help your child become a happy and confident reader. Try a new tip each week.
See what works best for your child.
• Read from day one - Start a reading routine in those very first days with a newborn. Even very young babies respond to the warmth of a lap and the soothing sound of a book being read aloud.
• Share books every day - Read with your child every day, even after he becomes an independent reader.
• Reread favourites - Most children love to hear their favourite stories over and over again. Rereading books provides an opportunity to hear or see something that may have been missed the first time, and provides another chance to hear a favourite part.
NUMERACY
Students in year 5/6 were given a collection of dice to solve a variety of problems. The first was to count the total number of dots on top; it was interesting watching the counting strategies. The next problem was to find the total number of dots on the bottom without turning them over. This encouraged students to think about their knowledge of a die and that the opposite sides always add to 7.
Students in 2/3/4 are looking at time this week. We began this week by recording all we know about time, after that, students were asked to draw a clock. For homework this week, I encourage all students to practise telling the time using an analogue clock. We played clock patience using the numbers for the hour; we will add minute numbers, in 5-minute increments, next then cards with ‘past’ and ‘to’ times.
Kindergarten and year 1 students are learning about the mass of a variety of everyday objects. They are very good at ‘hefting’ and estimating how many informal units might weigh the same as an everyday item. After estimating, students use the balance scales to check their estimations. A suggested activity for home might be to talk to you child/children when and where you use scales and why we need to weight things.
REC News
The impact of words can either be positive and build people up or negative and tear people down. Sometimes we don’t realise the impact our words can have on others or we don’t stop to think about what it might sound like if we were on the receiving end. This is something that we need to instil in our children…that sense of empathy and looking at things from a different perspective. This is especially important with social media being the preferred means of communication. Our words can be misconstrued even more easily as we flippantly use social media as an instant reaction to something. Social media has its own set of social rules and language. However, the instant nature of social media can result in less respectful interactions than face-to-face communication.
T… Is it the truth?
H… Is it helpful?
I… Is it inspiring?
N… Is it necessary?
K… Is it kind?
Teaching our children to stop and THINK before they speak to someone will mean that they communicate in ways that bring affirmation, hope, joy and kindness into other people’s lives. It will build friendships and relationships instead of blocking them or causing them to break down.
This, of course, means that that we, ourselves, need to stop and THINK about how we communicate with others so that we can model the right kind of behaviours. We all know that children learn what they live but sometimes we forget what the implications of that statement might be in our daily lives.
Retrieved and adapted from https://www.vinnies.org.au
