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Term 1, 2022 Weeks 1 - 3

Welcome to our first newsletter for the 2022 year. We would like to warmly welcome all returning families and new families to the school this year. We hope that you all enjoyed a wonderful summer break and had plenty of moments to create special memories with your children.

It has been an exceptionally busy a start to the year and it has been wonderful to see the teachers and classes welcome some new children into their class groups and a few new teachers also! We are looking forward to our new Class 3/4 teacher, Lorelei, arriving next week.

A seasonal letter will be going out shortly giving a picture of the school thus far this year and coming events. As you know we are going swimming on Friday and having a Shrovetide festival next Tuesday, to which you are all invited. Thank you to the several parents who have offered to assist at both events.

We look forward to sharing the year ahead with you all and bringing more parent engagement to the school this year.

Stephen and Mel

Kindy News

Welcome to all the new kindy families. We have had a wonderful, calm and settled start to 2022. Danielle and I have especially enjoyed meeting our new families and children and watching them settle into the rhythms and routines of kindergarten.

We are learning many songs and verses with a summer focus. We have been exploring boats, sea, beach and oceans at circle time and a popular movement experience is “a sailor went to sea." We love to sing together and do the actions. Our favourite action is definitely the ‘Timbuctoo’ action - it always brings a delighted smile to our faces.

During our daily activities, we are developing our creativity. We especially have enjoyed learning to finger knit and have had great success in learning or consolidating this skill by linking it to our weekly story. The children remember the story and parts of the stories are told as we knit, giving us guidance in remembering the steps required.

We have enjoyed preparing and cooking our morning tea each day and baking our own freshly baked bread was a highlight. This was evident when they exclaimed, “this is the best bread I have ever had!”

Outdoors we have shown a keen interest in collecting many flowers, exploring the fairy gardens, making 'ice cream' sundaes, and finding worms and lizards in our garden beds. Our gardens have been weeded and new seeds and seedlings have been planted. We can hardly wait to harvest our corn, cherry tomatoes, beetroot, peas and black zucchini. We have also been keeping a close eye on the bananas growing in our yard and are very excited to try a sweet and tasty banana when they are ready.

The beginning of kindergarten is a meaningful time in any child’s life, and we have been particularly attuned to making the transition from home to school a smooth and positive experience. It has been a pleasure to watch the children develop a sense of belonging and security. We have also seen some new friendships emerge and blossom and know they will continue to flourish throughout the year.

Jodee

A note to new kindy families - we have not included photos of children without photo permissions. If you would like us to include photos of your child, please return the photo permission form to Leanne so we can include photos of your lovely children in our next newsletter coming out after week 6.

Class 1/2 News

Welcome to the new year. Class 1/2 have spent the first few weeks of school settling into the rhythm of main lesson with form drawing. Class 2 have enjoyed welcoming class 1 students into the class and all have relished getting to know our new class space; especially the book nook.

We have spent some time outside finding the shapes of our form drawing in nature, drawing them in the sand and walking them in the woodchip. Care has been taken in forming a class community with developmental play or board games 2 or 3 afternoons a week. This gives the children the opportunity to get to know one another and form close connections.

A lunch time favourite of playing cafes has seen the children make and ‘sell’ their own mint tea, using leaf currency of course. We have also enjoyed sharing a cup of mint tea or two in the afternoons as a class.

On one afternoon in particular class 1/2 were very lucky to have the opportunity to see a bunya pine up close. We harvested the bunya nuts and enjoyed trying them once they were cooked. A big thank you to Malu and her family for sharing this with us.

Class 3/4 News

Class 3/4 have settled into the year and class rhythms and routines nicely. There has been so much growth over the holidays and it is a pleasure to see how this is playing out in the classroom and playground.

After beginning the year with some dynamic form drawing, we have delved straight into a measurement main lesson. Class 3/4 have so far explored the history of measurement using body measurement through to imperial and metric measurements.

The first week of term, children learned about the original measurements taken from the human body. The inch – from the width of an adult thumb, foot, yard, mile, and they were then were issued with rulers to measure length in inches, followed by centimetres.

The second week we explored weight measurement and have been using scales. The children seem to be loving the ‘hands on’ nature of this main lesson and it is lovely to hear the lively chatter of busy learning.

This week, we have been investigating capacity, using measuring teaspoons, tablespoons, ounces, litres and millilitres - and numerous larger vessels - to gain an understanding of capacity. Next week the class will continue the Journeys of the Hebrew People in a literacy main lesson with their new teacher, Lorelei.

We are currently encouraging students to work on their times table memorisation. Each student now has an individual progress chart for times tables and are encouraged to see either Stephen or Judi during morning tea or lunch to have these checked. Maybe you can ask your child which times table he or she is working on and encourage them to practise at home?

Stephen and Judi

School Messages and Notices

Class 1/2 Recorders
Pentatonic recorders have been ordered for class 1/2 children through Orpheus Music. We were able to purchase these at a reduced price of $65 each. This cost wont be invoiced separately but rather will be added to the term 2 invoices for ease of payment.

Class 3/4 Violin
Our violin tutor, Victoria will be starting back with Violin lessons for class 3/4 children in the coming weeks.

A request from our neighbour
A friendly neighbour had his car damaged (side swiped) last Wednesday afternoon whilst it was parked on Table street near our school. He has asked the school to put a notice out to see if anyone saw anything. If you have any information, can you please let the school office know.

Shared Produce or Plants
If you have any produce or plants that you would like to share with the school community, please feel free to bring some along to the school. These can be left at the gate for sharing.

Upcoming Events

Wednesday, 23rd February Class 1/2 Parent meeting at school with Kate and Stephen. Please see your emails for more information.

Friday, 25th February Class 1/2 and 3/4 excursion to Wauchope Pool. Note and permission slip went home in your child's bag on Tuesday, 22 February. Please see your emails for more information.

Monday, 28th February We welcome Lorelei Wainiquolo as Class 3/4 teacher.

Tuesday, 1st of March is Shrovetide or Pancake Day. We will be having a pancake day celebration at school on this day with old fashioned games and pancakes. Please see your emails for more information.

Parent Reminders

Roadside Safety at School Pick Up

We would like to remind parents to please be aware of the need to ensure the safety of your children at pick up time. This is typically a busy time in the street.
We understand that parents often like to use this time to catch up however we kindly request that once your children have been released to you from their teacher, they remain safely with you.
We encourage parents to use pick up time as an opportunity to practice roadside safety of walking hand in hand near the road, entering and exiting the car on the curb side, and watching and waiting for cars at driveways.

Bushwalking
This term, Class 1/2 and 3/4 will be bushwalking on Wednesday afternoons. Please send your child to school with a drink bottle, particularly on bushwalking days as the school does not have many spares. Kindy will be bushwalking later in the year.

The School Shop

The School Shop
As you may have noticed, our school shop has been moved from the foyer area into the glass cabinet in the office. There is no longer shop opening times as there was last year. If you would like to purchase something, please see Leanne in the office.

After a busy time for the school shop over Christmas, we only have a few bead baby gnomes, angels, peg gnomes and crochet baskets left! We are looking to replenish supplies for upcoming fundraising events. Supplies for our school shop are made by the craft group. If you are interested in being a part of the craft group, please see Bianca (Matilda's mum) or join the telegram group for craft on the link below.

https://t.me/+yA1QXFxmK8szOTI1

Washing Rosters

Term 1, 2022
Week	Kindy	Class 1/2 and 3/4
Week 1	Lilah’s family
Week 2	Lilah’s family
Week 3	Nico’s family
Week 4	Alek’s family	Rosie’s family
Week 5	Aurielle’s family	Chris’ family
Week 6	Maya’s family (Kindy)	Felix’s family
Week 7	Nico’s family	Maya’s family (Class 2)
Week 8	Suki’s family	Sid’ family
Week 9	Zayley’s family	Zach’s family
Week 10

The term 2 washing roster will be out in a later newsletter this term.

Parent Education Opportunities

EduCareDo is pleased to sponsor the Developing the Self Developing the World Annual Conference for educators, parents, homeschool parents, and caregivers: Spirit-led Education, Spirit-led Life.

The conference is comprised of 3 keynotes and offers 12 workshops, as well as facilitated open spaces for participants to meet upon the conference theme and develop worldwide connections.

A number of EduCareDo authors and tutors are contributing to the conference. Please join us on the last weekend in February -

Sydney Australia February 26 & 27 from 8am with keynote and workshops, then closing with a 6am keynote on Monday February 28

https://www.developingtheself.org/upcoming-events/2022/annual-conference

TERM DATES 2022

Term 1: Wednesday 2 February - Wednesday 6th April
Term 2: Wednesday 27th April - Wednesday 29th June
Term 3: Wednesday 20th July - Wednesday 21st September
Term 4: Wednesday 12th October - Wednesday 7th December

LAST DAY OF EACH TERM IS A HALF DAY FINISHING AT 12.30

We would love to connect and hear from you!

We have Parent Chat Groups on Telegram, to share all things school and community-related. There is a group for each class and a whole school parent group also.
You are invited to meet more of our school community here on a very safe and secure platform, where we can freely share thoughts, ideas or ask questions.

Link for whole school parent group
https://t.me/joinchat/U0lU42IPY8Bv2VOH

Link for Kindy parent group
https://t.me/+eQIyT8zka9I4NWE1

Link for Class 1/2 parent group
https://t.me/+BoSyWnX5ja01YjNl

Link for Class 3/4 parent group
https://t.me/+R3oO_sifkPuTyUt-