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Dear parents and carers,
This week has seen us working in settled routines and this is fantastic to see – well done everyone!
Our 2019 school photos were taken on Monday. Everyone looked great for their class pictures. We will forward these on to you as soon as they arrive.
We have continued looking at the four focus points or rules for ensuring that our children are developing their ability to respond appropriately in various learning situations. These include
- Be safe
- Be Respectful
- Be your best
- Be Responsible
As with any change, it takes time to embed modified thinking and I ask that you continue to talk with your children using the questions below to check in with how we are progressing as learners and how we can work to resolve challenges when they arise both in class and on the playground.
- Was it safe?
- Was I being respectful?
- Was I making my best effort?
- Was I being responsible?
Finding the answer to these questions can make it very easy to solve a problem.
Yesterday, Fr James said mass for us. We learnt a little about his family and that he likes to sing.
Excursions – we have a number of excursions coming up over the next few weeks; please return any notes relating to these as soon as possible
Armistice Day – remembrance service will be held on Monday November 11 commencing at 10:45am. Everyone is welcome to join us at the service at the Cenotaph.
Kinder Transition - Orientation mornings for our 2020, Kinder students will be held in November. If you are aware of any parents who would like their child to participate in our transition program, please invite them to make contact with us at school.
The dates for this year’s program are as follows: November 6 and 13, 20 and 27. These days are an opportunity for children to come along and learn some more about “big school” routines. Everyone is welcome to join our Transition program.
Thank you to those families who have already returned completed and returned enrolment forms for our new Kinder students.
End of Year events – please be aware that we have now confirmed that our presentation evening will be held on Thursday December 12 and the End of Year Graduation Mass will be held on Tuesday December 17.
Scholastic Book Club – the book club order forms have been distributed. All purchased now need to be made online using Scholastic’s LOOP ordering system. Instructions are on the order forms. If you need assistance setting up an online account, please ask. Book Club orders need to be completed by Friday, 1 November 2019.
Triple P parenting course - The Online Course shown below could be an effective way of gaining some tips to help shape positive behaviours. This course can be completed in the privacy of your own home.
Triple P Parenting Online Course
https://www.triplep-parenting.net.au/au-uken/find-help/triple-p-online/
Good luck to all children participating in the touch football day at Boorowa tomorrow.
Sincerely
This term’s fundraising is centred around collecting food items for community-based Christmas hampers. Each week there will be a new category for the donations. This week we have been collecting pasta and rice, both plain and in premixed packets. Next week, we will be collecting boxes of breakfast cereal. Below is a list of the other items we will be collecting on a week-by-week basis, but we are open to receiving them at any time!
Food for thought… making a donation each week would cost less money than purchasing a cup of barista coffee each week!
For all items, please check that expiry dates extend into 2020. Thanks!
Week 1- tinned food
Week 2- pasta and rice (in plastic packets or boxes, could also be premixes or 2 Minute noodles etc.)
Week 3- breakfast cereal
Week 4- spreads, condiments, dressings, sauces (such as Vegemite, jams, honey, peanut butter, barbecue sauce, tomato sauce, pasta sauce, mayonnaise, salad dressing etc.)
Week 5 – biscuits (in boxes or packets, sweet or savoury)
Week 6- drinks (juice in boxes or plastic, tea, coffee, Milo etc.)
Week 7 – treat foods for Christmas (chips, lollies, Christmas biscuits or puddings, long life custard, cranberry sauce, chocolates, Christmas crackers etc.)
At the end of Week 8, all of the items that we have collected will be delivered to the community groups that will be preparing the Christmas hampers. As this collection coincides with the initiation of a Mini Vinnies group at our school, some of what we collect will be going to St Vincent de Paul in Young. Please be aware that St Vincent de Paul in Young also services clients in Grenfell.
If you know of a family in need of a helping hand of any kind, including a Christmas hamper, please be sure to make them aware that this service is available to them.
Current tally of food collected
Tinned food - 61
Pasta and rice - 20
Clearly, we are big at heart even though we are small in number. Keep up the great work everyone!
Many Blessings,
The K/1 students had a number of opportunities last term to use the scientific process of design, trial and test. The school ‘chooks’ (unbeknownst to them) donated their eggs for the first design task. The students had to use a variety of materials to design a container that would protect their egg from breaking when dropped from a height.
Earlier this year, the K/1 students helped Miss Clancy plant some vegetables. In a real ‘paddock to plate’ style experience, the K/1 students were able to enjoy some of the fruits of their labour before they headed home for the two week break. Those carrots may have been small but they were very tasty!
In Literacy, the K/1 students have been looking at the work of Mo Willems. He has written a series of books about a pigeon. Some of his books include: Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus, Don’t Let the Pigeon Stay Up Late and The Pigeon Needs a Bath. These books provide an easy way to teach younger students about what to say when you are trying to convince someone about something. The students can recognise the methods that the pigeon uses to try and trick us into letting him drive the bus. Each child is in the early stages of writing their own ‘Don’t let the Pigeon’ books.
Mo Willem’s books also inspired the artwork that K/1 sent to the Preschool Art Exhibit. They didn’t let the pigeon drive the bus or stay up late but they gave the pigeon a party instead!
Kindergarten and year 1 students are developing their understanding of the link between sharing and grouping. The students will understand the concept that fair sharing means all shares are equal. They will discover that the process can be reversed. Students will count in multiples using 100 charts and number lines and, make and count equal groups to solve multiplication and division problems. The students are developing their ability to organise their counters into equal groups and arrays.
Students in 2/3/4 are brushing up on their addition strategies. We began by creating a list of these strategies and discussing why sometimes one is better to use than the other. We discovered that the “make a ten’ strategy is better to use if one of the numbers is close to ten.
We are also practicing subtraction with and without trading. Our favourite activity is Lose a Flat. You start with 100 then roll a die to determine what we subtract, then we need to trade the flat for ten longs, then trade one long for 10 ones so we can complete the calculation. Each subtraction is recorded in maths journals; the answer provides the next number to subtract from.
Year 5/6 students have also revised addition and subtraction strategies. We also played Lose a Flat to show that we need to trade in order to subtract correctly.
5/6 students completed a measurement assessment task for our Numeracy consultant Leonie Anstey, this was taken to our numeracy cluster meeting where western region schools come together and learn. I was very pleased with our assessment results compared with other schools.
