A Letter to theCommunity

SCHOOL NEWS No.02 3rd February 2017

“Thought for the Week”

Year 3-6 News

Our class is starting to settle into our routines for this year. With some new students, Keenan and Belleny and 7 new year 3’s coming into the room, it’s been a busy couple of weeks getting used to a new set of work expectations and procedures but everyone is fast becoming familiar with how the classroom works.

In the past two weeks we have begun a new unit in English with Year 3-4 learning about narrative structure and studying the Roald Dahl book, “The Twits”. The Year 5-6 group is studying the way

Rathdowney State Primary School143-155 Mount Lindesay Highway, Rathdowney 4287Phone: (07) 5540 4333 Fax: (07) 5540 4300 Principal: Tina van Bennekom www.rathdownss.eq.edu.au

authors portray characters in their writing and these students are reading the book, “Red Dog”. For writing we are going back to basics. This past week we tried writing interesting 2 word sentences with just a noun and a verb in each sentence. See some examples of the students’ work below. We will be building on this next week. In spelling, we handed out weekly spelling sheets this week for the first time and the students are all required to practice these spelling words every night. This is an individualised spelling program. Students are pretested on a list of 25 words (graded appropriately to their individual skill levels) each Monday. Any misspelt words are then given to the students to practice and learn that week, ready for a post test of the same 25 words at the end of the week. Those students who have 100% or who have improved by 10 words by the end of the week then become super-spellers of the week and are congratulated on parade on Mondays.

This week homework booklets have been handed out to all students who had requested them. If the students are experiencing problems completing the work in the homework booklets, please encourage them to seek help from a teacher at school. All homework booklets should be submitted to the teacher on Fridays to be marked. For those students who don’t have homework booklets, please remember that everyone is still expected to read their home reading books each night and to practice spelling words each night.

We’ve also started on this term’s History units. Years 3-4 will be learning about the celebrations and commemorations of significant events in Australian life and culture. The Year 5-6 are studying Australian secondary settlements after the initial settlement in Australia of those who arrived on the first fleet. We’ll be learning about the reasons for these secondary settlements and doing in-depth

studies of two of them – the settlements at Moreton Bay, Queensland and at Port Arthur in Tasmania.

In Maths, we soon hope to start a daily session of rapid recall number facts each day. All students will start at the same level and then progress at their own individual rates – with Year 3’s doing 20 questions in 3 minutes, Year 4/5 doing 30 questions in 3 minutes and Year 6 doing 100 questions in 3 minutes. The students need to attain 100% on their test to pro-gress to the next skill level. The first level seems easy – subtraction from 10 facts.

Miss Lane will be starting art with our class on Thursday afternoons. Mr Kroll will be starting science and technology with the class in the mornings on Thursdays.

Our Two-word Sentences

Elephants stomp.Dad rocks.

Boys smell.Birds tweet. Bek helps.Snakes bite.Mum snores.Hailie surfs.Baby whinges.Yr 3

Girls stink.Babies crawl.Dakota writes.Girls drool.Yr 4

Lightning cracks.Waves splash.Roosters crow.Leaves flutter.Brooms swish.Wind wooshes.Cats arch.Kids tease.Fish flit.Rain drips.Wind howls.Lightning flashes.Leaves glisten.Yr 5

Cows regurgitate.Sausages sizzle.Boys irritate.Leaves scatter.

Glass shatters.Waves crash.Worms wriggle.Snakes slither.

Yr 6

More from our class next time, Tina and Jenny

School Attendance

The beginning of a new school year seems a good time to stress the importance of students attending school each and every school day. This is especially true for our new Prep students. There has been a worrying trend in past years from some of our preps to have “the odd day off”. However, these ‘odd days’ soon end up being weeks when taken over a whole year and can stall children’s learning as a result. This is especially noticeable in the early years when children’s learning and love of learning really takes off.

We want all students to benefit from learning at school. Please remember:

“Every Day Counts”

School Resource Scheme

A student resource form has been sent out asking parents, if they are participating in the school’s resource scheme, to complete the necessary form and return it to school with $130 per student. Once the form is returned, the school will supply all the student’s books and stationery items for the year, including any replacements as needed.

Our resource scheme is mutually convenient for the school and the parents. The school can make sure that the students have everything they need at the right time and the parents don’t have to worry about finding the right books, or replacing equipment throughout the year and they

also benefit from the lower overall cost.

“Thank you” to all the parents who have so promptly paid their fees already for this year.

Playgroup

Our school invites any parents of very young children to take advantage of our school facilities and join in our play-group which operates at the school one day each week in the old preschool building. There are lots of games, blocks, toys, puzzles, books and a sand-pit and playground to enjoy. It gives parents a chance to meet with other parents, have a cup of tea (we have a kitchen for you to use) and share par-enting ideas or just have a chat while your children are playing.

Our playgroup meets on Wed-nesday mornings from 9.30am to 11.30am

What you need to bring:Morning tea

Enthusiasm for loads of fun activities.

For enquires phone the school on (07) 55 404 333

Swimming

Swimming has started for this term. Our school swimming days for this term are Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Mrs Masen, our school cleaner also doubles as our swim coach and will be teaching swimming to all students on Monday and Friday afternoons and helping Mr Kroll on Wednesdays in term 1 and term 4 this year. All students will need to bring their swimmers, rashies, towels and/or sunscreen on these days. Girls with long hair are advised to have their hair tied up on swimming days and/or bring swimming caps.

Mr Kroll and Mrs Masen tested our students this week to see if any students were able to make the qualifying times for the up-coming District swimming trails at Chandler.

Unfortunately, none of our swimmers are swimming fast enough to qualify this year. We’ll now work hard to get ready for our own school carnival at the end of this term.

We are hoping to secure another federal government sporting grant this term and will continue to offer extra swimming coaching by a qualified swim coach after school to any students who want to improve their swim stroking and technique to make them more competitive swimmers. These classes will be held three times per week for an hour after school – Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. To enrol in these after school classes, students must be able to swim 25metres. The cost is $2 pool entry per lesson. The grant will cover the cost of coaching.

If you are interested in signing your children up for these extra after-school swim lessons, please contact the school office.

Cricket Clinic

On Wednesday afternoon this week, our school was treated to a special cricket clinic by Queensland cricket team, the Brisbane Heat. There was no cost involved and the students enjoyed the opportunity to learn about a sport we don’t play much at school. It was a very hot afternoon but the Preps to Year 3’s revelled in the activity as did most of the Year 3-6 class. It is such a privilege for our students to be visited by these high profile sports people and for the students to be able to learn from them. We thank Mr Kroll for organising this clinic. It’s not an offer Rath-downey State School often gets and we are so grateful to The Heat for giving us the benefit of their skills. Please see some photos of the clinic attached to this newsletter.

Thank You, Jason!

One of our trees lost a large branch at the end of lunch hour on Wednesday. The school only recently, last term, had our playground inspected and a number of our trees lopped. The arborists were scheduled to come again sometime this term. However, thanks to one of our great new Dads, Jason, and his chainsaw, the branch has been removed from our playground that same after-noon and no longer poses a po-tential risk to students.

Book Club

Book Club order forms have been sent home with the students this week. If any stu-dents wish to purchase any of the books, the order forms and money need to be returned to the school by next Thursday, 9 February.

Prep – 3 News.

This week the Preps have learnt 2 new letters of the alphabet ('t' and 'i'). They made Indian headbands and ninja turtle plastic plates to coincide with these letters. In Maths, the Preps have been sorting objects as well as continuing on with recognising and writing num-bers to 10.

The Year 1s have been working with informative and fictional texts as well as working on their comprehension skills. In Maths, they have been working on addition strategies and learning about 2D shapes and their properties. In History, we have been learning about family trees and who we are related to.

The Year 2s and 3s have also been working with informative and fictional texts as well as working on their comprehension skills. In Maths, they have been experimenting with symmetry and working with number patterns to 100. In History, the Years 2 and 3s have

been learning about how things in the past affect what happens in the future.

All the students in my room have been working extremely hard. I am very proud of them!

More from us next week.

Kasey, Cathy and Kay

Library

A reminder for parents that Tuesday is Library day. Please ensure that you child brings their library books to school that day so they can exchange them for new ones. Children cannot borrow new books without returning their already borrowed books.

Rathdowney Soccer.If you would like to be part of an enthusiastic, fun

and friendly soccer club, Rathdowney Soccer Club would love to have you as a member of

their team/s. All ages and players welcome. Sign up date to be advised at a later date. For further

information please contact Hans Masen on 0427 095 713 or see the Rathdowney

Soccer Club Facebook page.

Watermelons For Sale.If you would like to purchase locally grown fresh watermelon, there are

some for sale at the Rathdowney In-formation centre. Champagne and long red melons available. Perfect

snack in this hot weather!

Dates to Remem-ber – January/Feb-

Monda

Tuesda

Wed-ne

Thursd

FridayW

K 3

6 7 8NoTuck-shop

9 10

W K 4

13 14Vis-ion Scre

15 16 17Na-tional RiW

K 5

20 21P&CAGM

22 23 24

W K 6

27 28 1 2 3