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Welcome to Term 2, as always there is a lot happening and also coming up this term. In this Newsletter you will find outlines our teaching programs for term two and other important events.
We have had a busy start to the term with our NAPLAN testing for our students in Year 3, 5, 7 and 9 happening over Tuesday to Thursday, May 11 - 13, with a few extra tests to be done in the week following. Students participating in NAPLAN as in 2019 completed all their tests online, except for the Year 3 students who completed the Writing test on paper, as all Year 3s do across Australia. In all the other tests, students in these year levels worked on iPads (Year 3 and 5) or their laptops (Year 7 and 9) with no bandwith interruptions occurring – all students were able to complete their tests without delays. With the online set up data from NAPLAN tests should be available by the end of term two or the beginning of term 3, a much quicker timeline than in previous years.
As the newsletter comes out our students will have participated in the Athletics coaching program which has been accessed through our School Sports funding program. Our students were divided into three groups based around their classes, F – 2, Year 3 – 5 and Year 6 – 9 for the Athletics coaching program, receiving a 45 minute session each day. Our students from Foundation to Year 5 participated in the program ‘Kids Athletics’, while the Year 6 – 9 students participated in the ‘Active Aths’ program. This will be good preparation for our upcoming sports day set down for Friday June 18th where we have invited once again students from Leigh Creek Area School, Marree Aboriginal School and the School of the Air to participate.
The school crossing on Arkaba Street should be in soon. We are very appreciative of the efforts of the council to get this up and running. Already in the interim parents and students would have noticed the visible ‘Children Crossing’ signs which have been installed down the street. Once up and running the crossing will look like as in the picture, with Crossing Flags to go up each morning and afternoon and go down after these before and end of school timeslots. In addition to this Stop Bars will be installed parallel to the last red and white post for vehicles to stop at when children are present at the crossing and this will be supported by the embankments which can be seen on the photo. Once the signs are up at the beginning and end of the day, by law children are allowed to cross and motorists should obey, but as in previous times this is something which we will continue to monitor.
Term Calendars have gone home to all families to complement our digital calendar which can be found on our school website. This is in response to feedback from our parent survey in 2020, the idea being that this is something which can be readily available at home and can be put in a prominent location such as the fridge in the kitchen. To support this further as school dates come up we will sending out any updates which can be then added to the calendar at home, these being called ‘Date Alerts’ and ‘Sports Alerts’. As information comes in ready for publication these alerts will be used and built upon in more detail later if needed. An example of this is the Athletics Coaching program mentioned above.
This week our students went to the Errappa Blue Light Outdoor Adventure has come out this week. Students got the chance to experience something unique. Errappa is a is a Blue Light Outdoor Adventure Camp and aims to establish positive relationships with police officers, provide recreational opportunities and increase participants self-esteem. Errappa’s Mission Statement is ‘Working in partnerships with young people, the wider community and agencies to promote leadership, team building, self esteem, a sense of responsibility and respect for oneself and others in the community.’
As stated on the Errappa Website the camp programme’s utilise ‘physical and challenging obstacle courses and other positive self improvement activities. The camp was supervised by fully qualified police officers. Errappa’s Supervisors are sworn South Australian Police who are fully qualified Camp Facilitators, accredited in outdoor areas of expertise, continually updating their qualifications to be at the cutting edge in their field.’ If you have any questions in the lead up to the camp please contact the school on 86484003.
As always if parents have any questions I can be contacted at the school on 86484003 or by my email at daren.oneill253@schools.sa.edu.au
Mr Daren O'Neill
Principal
The day starts with the students unpacking their bags, calling of the roll and their designated jobs.
The Read, write inc. is a comprehensive program at the beginning of the day, that provides spelling, sight words, writing and reading at the level each student is learning. Students are divided into small groups and go to different locations to do their learning. They then return to the junior primary class as a whole group and continue learning in areas of genre writing, grammar, handwriting, book studies, word investigations, phonological awareness and oral language.
In Maths, the class will be continuing familiarity with number sequences both backwards and forwards and sequences resulting from skip counting. We will also be exploring addition and subtraction strategies, 2 dimensional shapes, 3 dimensional shapes and time. During the last half of the term the focus will be on measurement.
In Science, we will be investigating the physical forces of motion and energy. This will include exploration of how things move, effects of size and shape and how our senses react to light and sound.
In History, we will be researching the past and present of ourselves, our families and community.
The class also has subjects by other teachers, such as:
Design and Technology with Mr O’Neill
Digital Technology with Mrs Green
Health and Physical Education with Ms Sharon
Polish with Mrs Schlezak
Music with Kate Retelsdorf.
Library is on Fridays and students can borrow books at this time if they have returned previous books.
Each child will have a communication book for communication between you as a parent or care giver and the teacher.
Please make sure your child’s hat is clearly labelled so it is easily identified by your child and not mistaken by another child.
All parents or carers are welcome to discussions with me about their child if needed, as working together works best for you, the child and us as teachers.
Mrs Penolope McCulloch
Foundation - Yr 2 Teacher
Welcome to term 2! We have another jam packed term ahead of us with NAPLAN, Sports Day, Simultaneous Story Time, Athletics training and of course the whole school camp.
In English this term, the 3-5 class will continue working though the different writing styles including narratives and expositions. They will also be focusing on handwriting as well as typing. We are doing a lot of reading comprehension tasks to further that skill as well.
In HASS this term we are focusing on the topic ‘Australia’s first people’. We will cover subjects such as How Australia’s First People Lived, language groups, creation stories and why colonies where established. Students will be working on their reading, writing and research skills.
PE lessons will be largely based on getting ready for sports day. In week 4 we had a coach visiting to further enhance students’ techniques at various athletic events. In health we will begin covering the child protection curriculum. ‘The Keeping Safe: Child Protection Curriculum (KS:CPC) is a world class, evidence-based child safety curriculum that teaches children and young people to recognise abuse, tell a trusted adult, understand what is appropriate and inappropriate touching and ways of keeping themselves safe. The KS:CPC is delivered to students by educators that have completed a comprehensive training course. The curriculum is based on two main themes: · We all have the right to be safe · We can help ourselves to be safe by talking to people we trust.’
With so much on, this term is sure to fly by!
Miss Hayley Brown
Year 3-5 Teacher
Welcome to term 2! Here is the update on what the 6-9’s, 12’s and F-2’s are getting up to when they are with me…
6-9 English
The 6-9 class are looking at the poem “Still I Rise” by Maya Angelou. Not only is this an extremely well written poem with its metaphors, similes, personification, and descriptive language, it’s also a great poem detailing one lady’s refusal to be brought down by her circumstances. It teaches resilience, gratitude, and belief in yourself which are important lessons for us all. We are still in the analysis phase of the poem right now, which we are doing in an in-depth way. Next task for the students will be to compare it to the song by rapper Tupac of the same name, or to Katy Perry’s song “Rise”, the unit will finish with the students writing their own “rise” poem.
6-9 History
This term we are studying the Mongolians, and how they managed to secure the largest contiguous land empire in all of history – a record that they still hold. We are studying and comparing the leadership styles of Genghis Khan and his grandson Kublai Khan, and the students are particularly enjoying taking a close look at the sometimes brutal, and always innovative war methods of the Mongols. Fun fact: did you know that the Mongols were the first to implement biological warfare? They catapulted plague infested bodies (dead ones obviously) over the wall at the Chinese. Gruesome. But clever!
6-9 HPE
During health lessons this term we are looking at overcoming obstacles. Students have read and analysed stories of famous people who have had to overcome difficulties to gain success and are in the process of relating that to their own experiences.
For PE we have been playing Spikeball (a bit like volleyball, only you bounce the ball into a round net), and touch footy. There is a definite preference of touch football here, but we will persist with Spikeball and learn the new skills. This week we were joined by the F-2 class at the end of the lesson, the 6-9’s did a great job of teaching the younger ones how to play touch football and everyone had a great time.
Mrs Sharon Bates
Year 6-12 Teacher / HPE Coordinator
We have been enjoying some different Investigative Plays this term. Last week we followed procedures and made fairy bread. This week we are following procedures to set up a dinosaur sand play…what will we get up to after that! We use lots of visuals to communicate together and picture boards can help us know what comes next simply by looking and noticing.
Our gorgeous new dolls are helping us to practise role playing. We can look after our dolls by brushing their teeth and hair. We changed their clothes and nappies too. Sometimes we carry them around with us and sometimes we read to them.
The book you see in between the dolls is our PODD and we use it to listen to our teachers. There are hundreds of visuals in our PODD that we will learn over time. We hope you have noticed the new communication sign in the playground. CHALLENGE! Perhaps you could try communicating with your child one day…remember you can only use the visuals on the sign, gestures or any sign language you both know. GOOD LUCK
Mrs Amanda Hilder
Special Needs and Intervention Teacher
Polish lessons are full of fun, we draw, we solve puzzles and we learn about the Seasons of the Year in Australia and in Poland. During Polish lessons we watched the YouTube videos about the Polish country side in different seasons and now students are able to recognise the differences between seasons.
This term students started to learn about the days of the week and most of the students are able to pronounce the names of the days in Polish correctly including the very difficult words like : Poniedzialek – Monday or Czwartek -Thursday.
Students of the 3-5 class worked on the Country Report - I get to know Poland. They explore not only language but geography, climate, population, food, animals and much more. Students learn about sounds of the Polish alphabet including letters that are unique to Polish language. They also learn basic language words including Dzien Dobry - the way of greeting , similar to – Good morning.
Students of the 6-10 class explore in detail Poland, the country. They are preparing a report about Polish government, the geography of Poland, landmarks, interesting facts, animals unique to Poland, currency and more. They learn about Polish food and Polish culture. This week during Polish lesson year 6-9 cooked Polish food – Kopytka that are similar to Italian potato gnocchi.
Mrs Lidia Szelzak
Mathematics Science & Language Teacher
Library
Why children and parents (or grandparents, aunties, uncles, carers, etc.) should read together.
Doctors at the Cleveland Clinic recommend that parents read with their children beginning as early as infancy and continuing through primary school years.Reading with your children builds warm and happy associations with books, increasing the likelihood that kids will find reading enjoyable in the future.
Reading at home boosts school performance later on. It also increases vocabulary, raises self-esteem, builds good communication skills, and strengthens the prediction engine that is the human brain.
CLICK HERE - to read
HEALTH BENEFITS OF READING BOOKS
Hawker School Community Library is part of the One Card Network of the Public Libraries of South Australia, allowing us access to thousands of books throughout the state. We are happy to put books on hold for you child through the One Card Network. Please see us if you would like support in this way.
Library Information Week May 17-23
Theme - Adventures in Space and Time
Libraries and information services are places of adventure. People who connect with them take a journey, whether it's in search of specific information, serendipitous browsing through vast collections, or coming together with others to learn something new.
They can be an adventures in space, from sending actual books to a space station and hearing an astronaut read to over a million children in Australia, to exploring and meeting in new, innovative and inspiring building spaces and learning about other places around the world (and beyond). They are also online spaces, where we can interact virtually to stay connected to information and each other at times when we need to stay physically distant.
They can also be adventures in time, where we revisit the past, connecting with stories and memories of those who came before us, or imagine the future, exploring new ideas for making a better society to live in, creating new knowledge for future generations, and making plans for your own personal or professional future.
So, this week, connect with your libraries, and take an adventure - in space and time!
CLICK HERE - for more Info
On Wednesday, May 19, the students participated in the National Simultaneous Storytime, which took place from the International Space Station. This year, the picture book, Give Me Some Space! By Philip Bunting, was read by NASA Astronaut Shannon Walker from the International Space Station. National Simultaneous Storytime (NSS) is held annually by the Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA). Every year a picture book, written and illustrated by an Australian author and illustrator, is read simultaneously in libraries, schools, pre-schools, childcare centres, family homes, bookshops and many other places around the country. Now in its 21st successful year, it is a colourful, vibrant, fun event that aims to promote the value of reading and literacy, using an Australian children's book that explores age-appropriate themes, and addresses key learning areas of the National Curriculum for Foundation to Year 6.
By facilitating NSS we aim to:
- promote the value of reading and literacy,
- promote the value and fun of books,
- promote an Australian writer and publisher,
- promote storytime activities in libraries and communities around the country,
- and provide opportunities to involve parents, grandparents, the media and others to participate in and enjoy the occasion.
NSS receives positive media coverage, generates a great deal of community interest and is held annually as part of Library and Information Week. 2020 was our biggest and most successful NSS to date with over 1,297,000 participants at over 14,469 locations, including participants from New Zealand, Thailand, UK, Canada, Singapore, Vietnam and Hong Kong.
CLICK HERE for further Info - ALIA.org.au
Digital Literacy
The 3-5 students are completing their 3D models for the Space to Dream competition. Following on from this, they will be involved in the Premier’s Reading Challenge STEM Design Challenge. This will involve them in planning an invention (description and drawing) inspired by a STEM book (with a space theme) that we will read from the PRC list.
The F-2 students will also be involved in this challenge. They will be creating an artwork based on the STEM book that we read, which will also have a space theme.
It seemed rather appropriate to continue developing the space theme after our involvement in the National Simultaneous Storytime and Library and Information Week in May.
Visual Arts
At the end of last term and early this term, Suzanne Lowe spent time with the students focussing on Still Life and Life Drawing using charcoal. It was definitely an interesting experience for us all, not only learning to draw with charcoal, which has an interesting texture, but also to draw fellow classmates.
We are now focussing on creating an artwork in mixed media to enter a nationwide art competition. Currently, we are experimenting with some different kinds of media so that we can choose which media to use for our artwork. The theme for the competition is
Our Celebration of Australia.
Mixed media art refers to a visual art form that combines a variety of media in a single artwork. For example, if you draw with ink, then paint over it with watercolors, then add some highlights in coloured pencil - that's mixed media!Mrs Ailsa Green Teacher Librarian and Ms Rosie Luckraft CLA
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