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Dear parents and carers,
Term 4 is now moving along smoothly. This week has seen a class based focus, and already some classes are beginning the process of publishing work that they have written this term.
Last week, I was in Canberra for this term’s principal’s meeting and the Director’s Day.
Whilst in Canberra, I received word that we are to receive drought assistance money to assist with various aspects of our school operations. This is terrific news of constructive support for our school community during the challenging times of drought. I would like to acknowledge and thank the staff at CE for their background work to provide this assistance, this support is appreciated.
Yesterday we hosted Mrs McGrath from the Schools Services team in Canberra. She worked with staff in the area of child protection.
We have also hosted Ms Yeo from the Schools Services team this week. She has worked with both staff and class groups.
Discussion around the review of our behaviour management has continued with a particular focus on being safe and being respectful. A respectful approach to resolving points of difference makes that process easier for everyone.
For some, the challenge lies in recognising that responding in a respectful way can mean that a problem is sorted out very quickly, and does not need to be a huge issue.
I encourage the children to listen actively to questions and respond respectfully – this may well take a lot of the angst out of most challenging situations.
At present the cool mornings, windy days and dusty afternoons are causing some problems with hay fever etc. Thank you to those families who are being proactive in reducing the side effects of hay fever and other ailments that present at this time of the year.
Kinder Transition - Orientation mornings for our 2020, Kinder students commenced yesterday. The children had a terrific morning working on a variety of activities in their classroom.
If you are aware of any parents who would like their child to participate in our transition program, please them to make contact with us at school. Everyone is welcome to attend our Transition program.
Grandparents Day – is coming up next week, invitations are coming home this week.
Small schools relay team – good luck to our small schools relay team – William, Hugh, Cooper and Hamish. The team will compete at the NSW PSSA Athletics Carnival in Sydney today. The carnival is being live streamed at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=No5jD16ySTQ
Heats of the small school relay are scheduled for 9:50am with semi-finals scheduled for 2:00pm.
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.
Arriving to school early – please be aware that we have had a number of instances in recent times where children have been arriving to school very early (in some instances before 8am). Please note that children are not supervised until 8:45am. If arriving to school between 8:30 - 8:45am, all students should be seated outside the Yr. 5/6 classroom. This is not a time for playing or running around the school grounds.
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/
Year 5 School Captain Speeches – All Year 5 students are advised to begin preparing for the School Captain speeches. The School Captain Role Description and Essential Criteria was sent home with your child earlier in the term. This should assist your child in preparing for their speech. Speeches are to be a maximum of two minutes.
Year 6 Graduation Mass Presentation Photos – We would like to kindly remind parents that school related photos of your child, depicting a range of activities throughout their schooling, for the end of year school Graduation Mass presentation, are to be submitted to us as soon as is possible. Doing so will allow ample time to compile the presentation.
Sincerely
Last Friday I was able to visit the Grenfell Food Hall and find out a little bit more about how it operates. I was interested to learn that everyone is welcome to register to receive an order of ten items for $10. The food hall provides different items each week including basic food, fresh fruit and vegetables, toiletries such as soap and toothpaste, and even dry and tinned cat and dog food. Morning tea is also provided free to all of the customers. Transport is provided free of charge for those who need assistance getting to and from the Food Hall. The Food Hall is located at the Anglican Church Hall and is open each Friday morning from 9 am until 11 am.
Some of the food that we have collected will be donated to this very worthwhile not for profit organisation. For further information please contact Joan Cations 63431235 or check out Grenfell Food Hall on Facebook.
This term’s fundraising is centred on 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 condiments and sauces. Next week we will be collecting sweet and savoury biscuits. 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!
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.
Current tally of food collected
Tinned food - 65
Pasta and rice – 28
Boxes of cereal -13
Condiments and Sauces- 13
Many Blessings,
The Year 5/6 students have had a great start to Term 4! With many different activities on offer of late, there has been plenty to keep the students busy! We had our first Kindergarten Transition session day yesterday, and the Year 5 students immensely enjoyed being ‘buddies’ with the children. In fact, all of the students did a terrific job making the younger children feel welcome at ‘big’ school!
This term, the students have been continuing to develop their understanding of the Japanese language and culture. The students initially made Kokeshi dolls using origami. They have also been learning about specific adjectives in Japanese, such as ‘ookii’ (big), ‘chiisai’ (small), ‘hayai’ (fast) and ‘osoi’ (slow). They then played a game of “jan-ken-pon” (rock-paper-scissors). The students were divided into two teams. One person from each team played a game of rock-paper-scissors, and whoever won had to correctly say a nominated adjective in Japanese to win a point for their team.
In Religious Education this term, the students are learning to identify and describe many ways in which faith is lived out in the lives of believers, both past and present, including Catholics in a developing Australian nation. They will examine the spiritual and corporal works of mercy. This fits well with regards to our Minnie Vinnies program being run through the school this term. The students will also participate respectfully in a range of personal and communal prayer experiences. Further to this, the students are enjoying going to mass each week, and interacting with our priests.
In Science and Technology this term, the students will develop a design criteria to produce a maze and code a robot to move through their maze. The students will need to apply their knowledge of programming to successfully navigate their robots. The students will also have the opportunity to explore a range of other coding programs and applications, and develop their skillset in this key area.
The students also created artwork for the Little Picasso Art Exhibition for the Grenfell Pre-School and Long Day Care Centre. It was lovely for the students to present their work in a real-life gallery! We thank Sharon and her staff for allowing us to be a part of this event, and hope it was successful!
Next Monday, it is Remembrance Day. All students will be representing our school on this very important day of commemoration.
Kindergarten Transition will continue to see the children who are commencing ‘big’ school next year becoming more familiar with the routines of everyday school life.
On Friday the 29th of November, the renowned SRC Talent Quest will take place. We look forward to watching the students take part in the day to showcase their talents, some known and some hidden!
The teaching of Mathematics at St Joseph’s school follows a framework. The framework consists of 3 areas of teaching and learning. Research suggests that NAPLAN test questions make up 33.33% from each area. As teachers, we aim to provide learning opportunities that have aspects of each area.
Visual: concrete materials, manipulatives, visuals, diagrams, drawings, images and acting out the concept.
Symbolic: Numerals, numbers, symbols, expressions, equations and number sentences.
Language: words and phrases, vocabulary, terms and definitions.
Year 5/6 students investigated the changing nature of sharing with fractions. Three chairs placed in the classroom with images of chocolate cakes provided the setting. One chair had 3 cakes, the second chair had 2 cakes and the third chair had 1 cake. Ten students were asked to leave the room, come in one at a time, and choose a chair to stand behind, this continued until all students had chosen. The fraction of cake changes as each student selects where to stand, without prompting, students were thinking about where to stand so they would get the largest fraction of cake. They soon discovered that the amount of cakes is the numerator and the number of students is the denominator, 3 cakes over 4 students is 3/4 of the cake each.
Kindergarten and year 1 students began their investigation into volume and capacity. We began by exploring the language of capacity by choosing full, empty and half full. Students had a variety of containers and a selection of informal units to use. Each student used the containers and measuring units to show each concept.
Year 2/3/4 students have revisited 2 dimensional space. After choosing 2 pattern blocks each we investigated and sorted the shapes into their angle type, acute, right and obtuse. We then focussed on triangles and why each has internal angles which add up to 180⁰. To prove this idea each student cut out a triangle using coloured paper and cut each corner/angle. By lining up each vertex, students could see that they form a straight angle; a maths story was added to their work.
Proving a triangle has angles that add to 180⁰.
