20 June 2018

Newsletter Articles

From the Principal

I would like to thank everyone for their flexibility and also apologise for the late notification regarding the Cross Country cancellation last week. The decision was made correctly around minimising the impact of bad weather on student wellbeing. However, schools have provided feedback around earlier notification to key people in each school in future to maximise the time to inform families and staff. It’s all go for this Wednesday and if it is anything like our cross country I’m sure our courageous students will do their best in the events!

Just a reminder about some key dates as our term nears the end:

• Reports go home on 29th June,
• Parent interviews are being held on Monday 2nd, Tuesday 3rd and Wednesday 4th (booking sheets will go home with the reports)

I would also like to reaffirm the importance of accessing newsletters, notes home, and notifying our office regarding student absences online with Schoolzine. It is our major way of communicating with parents! If you are not sure how to access Schoolzine please don’t hesitate to drop in to the office to find out how gain access by phone, tablet, iPad or computer.

As you are aware our students have been working closely with the Bicheno Community and Men’s Shed this term. Timber frames for our Recycling Stations in the school grounds are now under construction and we hope to have these installed in Term 3. Special thanks to Dougie, Phil, Pam and the Bendigo Bank for sharing their resources, skills and knowledge in an activity that is a win-win for all involved! Pam Troode Men’s Shed Committee member has witnessed new grandparents trying out in the Men’s Shed after being encouraged by our students which is a great outcome also.

Educational research is absolutely conclusive around the importance of student attendance at school. Please ensure all parents encourage children to attend school every day and if they are sick please get a medical certificate. As a school we know that it can be hard for a student to get to school on some days. If there are other reasons why students are not at school, please contact us and we can talk about the absences and support if required. Staff at the school are here to help and work with families in partnership.

Finally I would like to thank our volunteers, parents, guardians and School Association members who work tirelessly to help our students with their learning support, extra resources, fundraising and canteen offerings. Our school highly values these partnerships and most of all our students benefit immensely!

Have a great week and stay warm!

School Association Disco and update

What’s happening in our classrooms?

Prep/1 Marvellous Science

In Prep/1 we have been learning to:

• Use our senses to observe how material can be changed in a variety of ways, with a focus on chemical changes.
• Pose questions and predict what may happen and observe and record the changes

After reading out class novel ‘George’s Marvellous Medicine’ by Roald Dahl we decided to make our own ‘Marvellous Medicine’

We conducted many different experiments to make our medicine (but we decided not to drink it!). Our first job was to predict what we thought might happen when we combined ingredients such as bicarb, lemon juice, dishwashing liquid and vinegar.

Our predictions:

‘I think it will explode’ Bayliss
‘I think the bicarb will turn yellow’ Sam
‘I think it will bubble and froth’ Bernie
‘I think it will go slimy’ Sahara
‘It will smell really bad’ Ben
‘I think the lemon juice will fizz’ Lilla

What did happen (our observations from using our senses):

‘Wow, it bubbled over’ Noah
‘It did explode’ Ruby
‘I saw bubbles on the top of the dishwashing liquid’ Leyla
‘It went really bubbly and soft’ Jamie
‘The lemon juice made it bubble up and explode’ Sophie
‘It smelled like candy. It made a mess!’ Sofia
‘It was a stupendous explosion’ Niamh

Prep Science experiment

English

Continuing to learn about writing narratives and how authors create characters using language and images.

Grade 1’s – the ‘ee’ sound and revising different ways to make the ‘a’ sounds e.g ai, ay.

Preps – revising letter sounds and learning about the w, x and y sounds.

Maths

• Place value
• Doubles facts (2 and 2 make 4, 8 and 8 make 16 etc).

Science:

We are learning different ways to record our predictions and observations e.g. labelled diagrams, bar graphs.

Social focus:

We are using our strategies from the class list we have developed about what helps us to feel calm and self-regulate so we are ready for learning.

Grade 1/2

English:

We are learning different ways to spell the “c” sound (c, k, ck)

We are learning how to self-monitor our understanding of what we are reading.

Maths:

Skip counting by 2,3, 5 and 10.

Place value of numbers: thousands, hundreds, tens and ones.

Writing directions and then programming a bee-bot robot to follow them.

Science:

We have been learning about reflections in our Light and Sound unit of work.

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 learning about, and constructing 3D shapes and identifying their related 2D shape. We have also been learning about different types of data and developing effective questions for data collection. In English we have working on our independent writing projects. 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

Kinder are continuing to participate in the ELLA program.

Prep/1 and 1/2 will be looking at beginning weather vocabulary.

Class 3/4 will be beginning the creation of a Barong mask with a language focus on colours and parts of the face.

Class 5/6 will be expanding on weather vocabulary including asking about today, yesterday and tomorrow.

kemarin/yesterday, besok/tomorrow

Park Rangers visit Grade 3/4 and 5/6

Two weeks ago Ranger Riss and Tas/Trowanna came to the school to teach us about natural and human impacts on our enviroment such as erosion.

We went down to Waubs Beach. Grade 3/4 went with Tas and Grade 5/6 with with Riss and talked about how humans cause erosion and how natural erosion happens.

The Grade 3/4’s focused on what animals and plant were found at Waubs Beach and how humans have changed the environments.

On day two we took this information back to the classroom and discussed how we could make some signs. We created some art about what we saw on the beach. We also did a dance that represents what humans are doing to our ecosystem. The dance had lots of different characters; devils, wallabies, penguins, trees and wind, shore birds , dogs, good guys and bad guys.

By Connar and Ocean

Ranger Riss and Tas/Trowanna working our students

School Association Art Competition

Merit Certificate winners

Bravehearts Parent Information Session

July Lego Workshops

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.

Aboriginal interpretative talk and workshop

Last Tuesday Mick Quilliam visited the 3/4 class. He shared some stories and knowledge from the Tasmanian Aborigines and the first nation people.

He showed us how to make rope out of grass and how cutting grass could be used to cut meat (or boots).

He explained that, traditionally, oca was only collected by the women. If men wanted to use it they had to trade something.

Mick also showed us how to make fire. At the end he showed us some of his artwork and we got to try some ‘bush pepper’. He also showed us how you can eat the bottom part of the bulrush grass.

Learning about the First Nation

School Association Footy tipping margins update

Round 13 winner was Michelle Barker.

Premiers Reading Challenge

This has now finished. Please return all the Student Reading Logs to class room teachers.

Needed: Ice cream containers

Grade 5/6 need some ice cream containers for a science experiment for the last week of term.

Please drop off at the classroom.

Important dates

Information for parents

A friendly reminder that the school has a duty of care for student from 8:15am, extending to 3:15pm. Students on the school grounds outside of these operating hours must be under parental supervision. The school toilets and classrooms are closed at 2:45pm. There are public toilets located next to Little Penguins Child Centre.

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