Dear parents and carers,

This week has seen us hard at work in our classrooms. Yesterday we had a visit from our local state MP Steph Cooke. Steph spent some time in K/1 talking with the children about her work and learning from them about how to make a sock puppet. She has asked K/1 to make a puppet for her, and the children are already putting together their ideas for how this puppet might look.

Steph also spent some time speaking with our Yr. 5/6 class about different things that they think might be useful such as recycling, electric cars and our plan to get our chook yard up and running. The other thing that they spoke about was the possibility of having the PCYC truck visiting Grenfell. We hope that this might happen in the not too distant future.

Play Performance - We have been invited to perform our play “The Day the Crayons Quit” at the Grenfell MPS for the residents there. We will be performing the play on Tuesday afternoon (at 2pm) for the residents. As such, I ask that the children bring their costumes to school on Tuesday for this performance.

This is a terrific acknowledgement of the efforts of the children and staff to present a polished performance during the recent Henry Lawson Festival.

During this week, we have hosted Acacia Huxtable from THLHS for her work experience placement. Acacia has spent time in each of our classrooms and we are thankful for all of the different tasks and activities that she has worked on during the week, Acacia your help has been fantastic, thank you. Acacia went to the museum with the K/1 students and Mrs Best.

Good luck to all who are representing our school at sporting events over the coming days – athletics, horse sports, football. I am sure that you will be terrific ambassadors for our school.

Sincerely,

Term 3 will commence for the children on Tuesday July 23. On Monday July 22, all staff will be participating in professional learning related to Privacy Laws, Record Keeping and Well-being with colleagues from across our region. This staff development day will be held in Temora.

As you are aware, teachers have been working on collating reports for the first half of the year. These are being sent home today. There is opportunity for you to discuss these reports with your child’s teacher at the parent teacher conferences set down for next week.

Please use the link below to book your interview time.

https://www.schoolinterviews.com.au/code?code=9rjbh

Be aware that the online booking system will close on Friday June 28 at 2pm.

If you have not made a booking by that time, you will need to contact us and arrange a time from those remaining available slots.

Be aware that the issue of nits continues to be the cause of deep frustration in our community. We have been in contact with Community Health and the best advice available is for outbreaks to be treated at home. Please be aware that it is important to monitor for reoccurrences over the next few weeks after the initial treatment to ensure that all lice/eggs are removed. Further to this, it is useful for everyone to be regularly checking for outbreaks.

Video clips – we are currently looking for video clips that you might have of the children representing the school at any of the various events that we participate in, including sporting, dramatic or other events. Please forward the clips that you are able to share to Therese Clancy as soon as possible. These clips will be used in different activities here at school.

Therese.clancy@cg.catholic.edu.au

Library – now is a great time to have a look around at home and return any extra Library books – these could be under the bed, on the bookshelf, on the kitchen table or even in the “to read” pile. We have received a new batch of books for our library – these include many books that have been short listed for this year’s CBCA books of the year competition, which will be announced in August.

Cooking – thank you to Mrs Metcalfe for coming along to do some cooking with the children last Friday. The pancakes were enjoyed by the children.

Handball – thank you goes to Mr Johnson, who spent time collecting handballs off the roof of our COLA over the weekend. He collected 19 balls as well as hoops and other equipment from the sandpit.

It is fantastic to have this equipment available for use again. I trust that our children will take greater care to ensure that we don’t lose the equipment through rough play or a poor attitude.

Pyjama Day - On Thursday, July 4, the SRC are holding a Pyjama Day. This was one of the events most voted for by students in the SRC fundraiser survey. As such, all students are invited to come to school dressed in their favourite pyjama outfit. Please bear in mind that as the weather is chilly, all students must wear sensible, warm pyjamas. Students are also asked to make a gold coin donation.

Yr. 2/3/4 have been conducting experiments on fruit as part of their learning this term. The snapshot below shows everyone hard at work on one of their recent investigations.

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.

Sacramental News

There will be an important meeting after the 9:30 am mass on the 30^th of June for all parents of this year’s sacramental candidates. Parents must attend this meeting in order for their children to celebrate the sacraments.

A Parent's Prayer

Loving God,

You are the giver of all we possess, the source of all of our blessings. We thank and praise you.

Thank you for the gift of our children. Help us to set boundaries for them, and yet encourage them to explore. Give us the strength and courage to treat each day as a fresh start.

May our children come to know you, the one true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.

May your Holy Spirit help them to grow in faith, hope, and love, so they may know peace, truth, and goodness.

May their ears hear your voice.

May their eyes see your presence in all things.

May their lips proclaim your word.

May their hearts be your dwelling place.

May their hands do works of charity.

May their feet walk in the way of Jesus Christ, your Son and our Lord.

Amen.

The term has continued at a fast pace, with plenty of activities to keep the Year 5/6 students busy. The lead up to the June long weekend was especially busy, with preparations for the Henry Lawson Festival. The students were also very fortunate to meet with author Tim Harris to learn about the craft of writing and his ever-popular books, of which we possess many of in our school. In addition, the students who visit the elderly at the Grenfell Multi-Purpose Service have valued continuing this!

In Creative Arts, the students worked on their Henry Lawson Festival Children’s Art Competition entries. The theme of their visual artwork, as set by the Henry Lawson Festival organisers, was ‘Ode to Winter’. As a result, they explored and appreciated that colour and different artistic techniques and tools can change the mood of artworks. They looked at the artworks of others and reflected on each artists’ work to consider how they can use different colour and artistic techniques and tools in their own artwork, by mixing and exploring the way colour and artistic techniques are used to create moods and designs. The students also took part in preparing for and performing the play ‘The Day the Crayons Quit’ for the Henry Lawson Festival School Play Day. All students had a part to play, requiring them to work in group situations, while using their skills to express themselves creatively. The students performed for children from the Grenfell Preschool, before performing at the Henry Lawson Festival School Play Day to an impressed audience! They can be most proud of their efforts!

This term, in Personal Development and Health (PDH), the students are coming to understand the need to accept responsibility for the health choices that they make in terms of their personal health. They have initially learnt to distinguish the difference between infectious diseases and lifestyle diseases. The students have since been examining what lifestyle diseases are, conducting some research on a chosen disease to find out more about it, and identifying some ways to prevent them.

In Physical Education (PE), all students began the term by practising for and taking part in our school’s Athletics Carnival. Since then, the students have been continuing to increase their awareness of the need to keep fit and the different ways in which we can improve our fitness. They looked at the different components of fitness and answered a questionnaire about fitness. The students then participated in a fitness test, which involved completing an endurance run, arm hangs, sit-ups and arm reaches. They have since been participating in a different activity each week aimed at increasing their fitness levels. These activities have and will include participating in an obstacle course, circuit activities, vigorous games, skipping and a health hustle. The students will then do the fitness test again and see if there have been any improvements in their fitness levels over the term. 

Please remember it is Mufti Day at school this Friday. This is also the day of the Western Region Athletics Carnival in Cootamundra. We wish all students who will be representing our school at this all the best! The SRC are also looking forward to a Pyjama Day fundraiser on Thursday the 4^th of July. Thank you also for taking the time to keep up to date with the latest goings on for the Year 5/6 class!

NUMERACY 

Kindergarten and year 1 students making ’10 sticks’ as a measuring tool to measure our gingerbread man paper chain.

Wow, it is going to take a lot of ’10 sticks’ to get to the end.

We discovered it took 223 unifix cubes to go from one end to the other. We also discovered it was easier to count the ’10 sticks’ because we made each group of ten the same colour.

Year2/3/4 have been continuing their work on developing efficient strategies for the four operations. This week we have been subtracting with trading. We used MAB blocks to help us to trade.

Year 5 and 6 have completed their unit on volume and capacity with another investigation. We investigated the size of bags of popcorn available at the movies. Students had to construct nets to make the popcorn bags to discover which size was the best value for money.

What is a trip to the movies without popcorn and of course a coffee? Fergus brought in the different size cups available at his Dad’s coffee shop. We filled each cup to measure their capacity and compared the cost of each to gauge value for money.