6 June 2018

Newsletter Articles

From the Principal

Congratulations to all students who participated in our Cross Country last Thursday! It was a wonderful afternoon with many courageous runs all the way from our Kindy and Little Penguin children right through to our upper primary students.

Bicheno Primary School Cross Country Placegetters

I would like to particularly thank the School Association and wonderful helpers that provided such tasty food and drinks for our school community!

Under the new Education Act we now have a mandate to follow through on maximising student attendance. Every day a student does not attend school can have a negative impact on their learning and every Principal across every school in Tasmania have a duty of care to work with families to maximise attendance. Under the new act I will be following up with families by phone and official letter around poor student attendance and unexplained absences.

Grade 1/2: “Best in Show”

Grade 1/2 are learning to write their opinion. To get us started we brought in a collection of items from home and learnt how to judge these fairly. We put our collections in a line, compared the same thing (which has the best fur, eyes for example) and decided which is the best overall. We had to give reasons why, “This is the best because…”

The final step was to write our opinion. Please enjoy some of our reasoning.

I think my winner, winner chicken dinner was my baby bracelet. It was in first place because I like it. It is very special to me because my Mum gave it to me when I was a baby. Also it has lots of detail to it. It has lots of chains on it.

By Grace

Book collection: The winner is the Space book because I love the pictures in it because they are interesting and have lots of detail.

By Elliott

The seahorse won because it is beautiful and it has a nice shape. I think it is beautiful because it has a nice pattern and feels nice on your fingers. Also because it is rare to find.

By Nina

The winner was the box because it has beads and jewels. I think it’s the winner because it can hold special things so you don’t lose them like jewellery and other things.

By Annie

Crystal collection. I choose this crystal in first place because I think it is sparkly. The other crystals aren’t sparkly.

By Darcy

Animal collection. The winner was the humpback whale.

My first reason is because it was the biggest, it was longer than the others.

Also it was the strongest, so strong it could flip a boat upside down.

Also it can swim further than most animals. It can stay underwater for the longest time.

By Rob

Lego collection. The winner in my lego collection is my police car.

I like it because it is fun to play with and it is fast.I have tested it and it is faster than my other cars and vehicles. My robbers can’t bet the policemen so whenever they get caught they cry like babies.

I use my imagination when I play with my police car.

By Lachie

Congratulations to Bay of Fires finalists

Congratulations to the following students who are finalists for the 2018 Bay of Fires YOUTH Art Prize. The exhibition will be open to the public from June 9 at St Helens (see the flyer below)

• Marcel Bermudes
• Lachlan Coelho
• Annie Hunter Marriott
• Leyla O'Neill
• Mille Sparshott
• Tyler Spencer
• Niamh Woolley
• Malaki Patterson
• Charli Pou
• Zali Taylor

Bay of Fires Art Exhibition - 9 June

Every Child who entered from Bicheno Primary will have their work displayed in the Exhibition

Visit to Kinder

For those who didn’t know; the Kindergarten has been home to its very own doctor’s surgery recently. Kindergarten students were given opportunity to investigate the Bicheno’s Ambulance last week when Volunteer Officers John and Sandra brought the Ambulance to school. All the children (including Mrs Spykers) got a chance to lay on the stretcher and explore parts of the ambulance and look at the equipment used to treat patients.

School Association Update

Canteen:

We hope everyone’s children having been enjoying their recent lunch orders. To keep offering a regular canteen service we rely on volunteers from our school community. This is also a great way to be involved with your school and meet new parents without committing a large amount of time.

If you have working with vulnerable people clearance we need you!

1 hour - count and collate the orders.
2 hours – make and pack morning tea and/or lunch

Grants:

We have been successful in our bid for a RACT Community Grant which will be put towards a shade solution for the sensory garden.

The School Association invites any school or community members who would like to assist with the process of sourcing and/or writing grant applications. Please speak to any member of the SA to find out further information. Please share this request through the wider community and your networks.

Alternatively, if you become aware of any grants available to community groups you can email any info you have to megan_coelho@hotmail.com and we will do the rest.

Little Blue Sports:

Launched last week in the grade 5 and 6 class, we are excited to support this great after school activity. We hope to grow this initiative and involve other grades throughout the year.

Grade 5 and 6 activities start Tuesday 12th 2.45-4pm.

Your voice:

The School Association is a voice to represent the entire school community. We value your feedback and input. Please speak to any member of the School Association if you would like us to add any particular topic to our meeting agenda.

What’s happening in our classrooms?

Prep/1

English

Writing our own stories and learning about what makes a great story e.g. something has to happen in a story to make it interesting to the reader.

Grade 1’s are learning the different ways to make the ‘a’ sounds e.g. a-e, ai, ay.

Preps are revising letter sounds and learning about the h and b sounds.

Maths

• Place value
• Collecting date and drawing date displays

Science

Making predictions and observing changes in science investigations and recording the results.

Social focus

Making our own lists of what helps us to feel calm and self-regulate so we are ready for learning.

Grade 1/2

English: Learning to write about our opinions and the best way to convince our reader to agree with us. We are making connections from books we read.

Maths: Understanding the place value of numbers up to 100 and beyond. We are learning to follow directions and using directional language (left, right, clockwise, through etc.)

Science: We are learning about light and sound.

Art: We are expressing our feelings about the world through art.

Grade 3/4

In Literacy we are learning to improve our writing by editing. We are also learning how to give feedback to our peers so they can improve their writing as well.

In Numeracy we are continuing our ‘applied mathematics’ as part of our Kitchen creations group, using our number knowledge to calculate money and using measurement to work out the correct amount of ingredients. We are also learning different strategies for subtraction.

In Science we are continuing our work on Living and Non-living things and food webs of Antarctica.

In HASS we are looking at early exploration of Antarctica. We have chosen our own area of interest: some have chosen transport and how it’s changed, others are looking at the history of women on Antarctica, whilst some others are researching some of the first people to reach the South Pole.

Our social focus this week is to understand the importance of finishing what you start and to show resilience when things get tough.

Grade 5/6

In Maths we have been using our written and mental strategies for problem solving to answer questions related to data. In English we have learning about the different types of sentences and how to make our writing more interesting by using a combination of simple, complex and compound sentences. In Science we have been identifying the physical and behavioural adaptions that animals and plants have developed [over time] to survive in a harsh environment. In HASS we have been applying what we have learnt about Federation to create a timeline of events that led to Federation in 1901.

Indonesian

In Kinder we are using the ELLA apps.

In Prep/1 and 1/2 we are investigating vocabulary around food items and what we like and don't like to eat and drink.

In 3/4 and 5/6 we are adding to our vocabulary of food items and requesting what we would like to buy or to eat.

Saya mau membeli sekilo pisang/ I want to buy a kilo of bananas.

2018 STEAM Challenge – MOUSE TRAP CAR

This year’s FAMILY STEAM CHALLENGE requires you and your child to work together to create a MOUSETRAP CAR.

There will be 3 categories:

1. Fastest car over 3 metres
2. Farthest distance travelled in a straight line
3. Most artistic design AND/OR best creative piece of writing about your car.

Getting Chilly?

There are some softshell jackets in various sizes available from the school office $55.00

When is “too sick”?

This guide from the Pharmacy Association may help.

School Association Footy tipping margins update

Round 10 winner was Kylie Peardon.
Round 11 winner was Nicole Pou.

Important dates

Information for parents

A friendly reminder that the school has a duty of care for students from 8:15am, extending to 3:15pm. Students on the school grounds outside of these operating hours must be under parental supervision.

Rob Presswell

School Information

Phone: 63751222
Email: bicheno.primary@education.tas.gov.au
Principal: Robert Presswell
School Business Manager: Sandra Silberberg

Teachers

Kinder and LiL: Eliza Spykers
Prep/One: Emily McCormack and Jen Sliskovic
Grade 1/2: Bron Pierce and Ali Jones
Grade 3/4: Matt Woolley
Grade 5/6: Jill Bosua
Support Teacher: Robert Presswell

School Calendar