Week 6 Blog Post

Kaya,

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend. It was another busy weekend in the Hurst/Schoen household, filled with planning for the weeks ahead, time with friends and our beautiful staff Commissioning Mass at Our Lady of the Southern Cross Parish Church. I felt truly welcomed to the Parish and I am so grateful for all that were in attendance. I would like to also thank you all for such a welcoming and warm start to my first year at Our Lady of the Cape. Now that we have passed the halfway mark in Term 1, we have definitely sowed the most important seeds for strong growth in our learning for our final year at OLC. 

I want to congratulate the wonderful Nina Hutton on receiving our first Star Citizen in the 6H community for continually demonstrating the schools value of compassion. Nina shows compassion in  her thoughts, actions and words. She is a kind and generous soul to others, always ready to give her time, jokes, smiles and friendship. She is always one of the first students in 6H to put your hand up to help others. Congratulations on receiving this award Nina, I am grateful to have a kind-hearted and compassionate soul like you in my class.

March Birthdays: 

Cielo Howard - 6th March

Jeremy Collis - 10th March

Happy Birthday to you both, we hope you have a wonderful March and a fantastic Birthday!

Week 5 Learning

Religion - Lent:

The students of OLC this week, raised a wonderful $75 in the lent project compassion boxes. The boxes will remain in each room in the school until the end of Lent. To find out more on project compassion and where the funds will go to please click the link below. 

More Information on Project Compassion - Click Here

Six Seasons:

In the year ahead the year 6 classes will be focusing on learning the Six Aboriginal Seasons. We will be working with Josh Whiteland from Koomal Dreaming who is the local custodian of the land for the Wadandi People. Together with other Aboriginal groups from an area that stretches from Kalbarri to Esperance, they are also known as Noongar. The Noongar culture is as rich and varied as the countryside itself, and their knowledge of the environment is incredible and fascinating. We will be learning from Josh, utilising beautiful resources drawing on his wealth of knowledge about the Six Seasons. 

Parents did you know that we are in the season of Bunuru?

Ask you child what animals would they see during the season of Bunuru? 

What will they see in the trees? 

What weather will they expect to see? 

Visual Art:

In Art, using the theme of Six Seasons, we have started the creation of a Six Seasons spinner wheel. When this is concluded the students will take their Six Seasons spinner wheel and go to their buddy class (Year 2) and teach them about the Six Seasons using their artwork and information they have learnt over the past weeks. This will allow the students to share their knowledge and also apply their leadership skills in the school. Below you will find some beautiful starting examples: 

Writing:

In writing, we have started our focus on Narratives. The students are very excited to get to showcase their imaginative and creative tales. We will be using the amazing Narnia tale - The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe throughout this writing sequence. We will be listening to the audible book at the end of every day and building the students to create their own Narnia character to insert into the beautiful landscape that exists within The Wardrobe. If you remember this tale please share with your child. If you have not watched the movie version, I would recommend a beautiful family moment of watching the story together as a family sometime over the next few weeks. 

Week 5 Reminders 

PAT Testing:
Firstly, I have to share a sincere apology. Unfortunately, we will need to re-test all the students again on all the PAT tests over the upcoming week. This is due to technical issues where they have completed the wrong year level tests. Whilst this is extremely disappointing we will be utilizing our resilience techniques from the previous health lessons on a quest for the positives. 😎
PAT Tests:
Monday - Grammar and Punctuation

Tuesday - Spelling

Wednesday - Reading

Thursday - Maths

Friday - Vocabulary

Year 6 Camp Note: 

Your child should have brought a note home on Friday about Year 6 Camp. Camp will be held on the first week of Term 2. If you have any questions please do not hesitate to get in touch. Please return these sheets as soon as possible. 

Altar Server's Note:

Your child should have brought a note home last Wednesday asking for volunteers to altar serve at our Parish Masses. In volunteering, your child will display a terrific sense of community and leadership to help Father Francis in this way. ALL children must return a note to indicate if they are interested or not. If you did not find a copy of the note in your child's bag, please let me know and I will send another home.

First Aid: 

The wonderful Mrs Ricciardone has organised for the students of  Year 5 and 6 to complete a First Aid Response course by St John of God. This is a free incursion and each session will run for 45 minutes. The Year 6 classes will have their training on Friday 26th March from 11.15 - 12pm. 

Housekeeping:

1. Headphones - Can you please send the students headphones in with them this week? Can these headphones please remain in the school, as when they are needed for activities there are a few students without them, thank you. 
2. Charging Laptops - Can you also please ensure that the students laptops are on charge every night! We have had quite a few flat laptops this week, and it this causes issues at times with the students learning in class, thank you so much.
3. Library - there will be no library for the Year 6 students over the next two weeks due to swimming lessons. 

Upcoming Events
1. Swimming Lessons commence at the beach on Monday 8th March. 

We will depart the school at 1pm for the beach and return at 2.30pm. 

Please ensure your child has all the items they need for swimming including:

(sunscreen, rashies, googles, bathers, flip flops, towel, spare undies and wear sports uniform every day).

2.  Parent Teacher Interviews week 8 and 9 (timetable to be emailed for booking slots soon, please let me know if these weeks will not be suitable and we can organise a time sooner in the term.)

Homework
Due: Friday, 12th March
Our homework diaries having not arrived as yet. The students will continue using their homework books for now. Thank you to those parents that sign the students work, please ensure you do this especially on a Thursday night before they return to class on a Friday. 
Home Learning Grid includes:
1. Reading 20 minutes each night - write title and amount read into their homework book each night.
2. Spelling Activities - spelling grid to be completed in homework book. 
3. Mathematics - Times Tables - Orally practice (x7 written and timed) 
4. Three well-being tasks from learning grid.

Go n-éiri an bóthár leat (May your journey be successful). 

Miss Hurst