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We are now at the start of term three and find ourselves farewelling for the moment our Year 3-5 teacher Hayley Brown who will be going on maternity leave with the impending arrival of her baby. This is an exciting time for Hayley and a big moment for our school as Hayley has been a core member of our staff for some time. Hayley was here in 2016 for one year before going to England for a year in 2017. She had enjoyed being in Hawker and when she arrived back in late 2017 the school took up the opportunity to reappoint her. Her working relationship with our students has been excellent, teaching and caring for our students in a highly differentiated class. Hayley has also taken on key roles at the school, including directing two school productions (The Lion King and The Aristocats), teaching PE to Year 11, coordinating SAPSASA and school sports and organising some big Sports Days over the last two years which have seen the participation of four other schools this year.
Hayley is only going on temporary leave and plans to return to Hawker, here is what she would like to say:
‘I’m looking forward to the next challenge of motherhood, but I still plan on being a part of the school community, and participating in school events while I am on leave. I know I will be thinking of my students that I have had this year, some I have had for the last three years. I will miss the stirring up and the arguments about who the best AFL team is – Port obviously, not Hawthorn, Sydney and definitely not the Crows! It will be weird not having the same routine and sense of control and working relationships with my students and fellow staff, however with COVID restrictions aside I do plan to visit them.’
It is an exciting time for Hayley and we look forward to catching up with her in the future.
We now welcome back Harald Walther to our staff and school community, taking over the teacher responsibilities in the Year 3-5 class. Harald has been at Hawker before as relief teacher and also took on the Foundation to Year 2 class for term four last year in Amanda Hilder's absence. Harald has many years teaching experience through New South Wales and also in the South East of South Australia, teaching at all year levels. To get to Hawker in the past he has driven up from Meningie for his stints as a relief teacher, you would have to enjoy the experience to come that distance again! We look forward to including Harald in our staff for the rest of this year.
It has been a hectic start to the term with a week of lockdown to break up student learning. Teachers in week one had to adjust their programs to accommodate a different mode of teaching and learning, with one days notice. In a challenging situation our staff and students adjusted to remote learning with all it’s variables completing activities both in hard copy and also online through Microsoft Teams. Things worked well with Teams, with students being able to ‘Post’ their teachers and have their own video conferences to catch up with their teachers and fellow students during these catch ups. A highlight for me was watching the students in Penny McCulloch’s Foundation to Year 2 class catch up each morning and get the opportunity to share their home environments by posting pictures up on the Teams page for class members to see. Parent support was fantastic in this challenging time and I thank all the parents who put their efforts in during this interesting and demanding period.
With the start to the term there are now some adjustments that are needing to be made due to the lockdown and ongoing restrictions. Unfortunately our whole school excursion to Wilpena to celebrate NAIDOC was cancelled for the moment, we will be looking into alternative ways to still celebrate this as a school community. In addition the Quorn Area School Sports Day scheduled for Friday August 6th has also been postponed, with the intention to hold this at a later date when restrictions have eased. At this stage we do have plans for this term and the following dates will hopefully go ahead if the restrictions are lifted:
- Thursday September 2nd – Foods and Cultural Celebration Open Night.
- Friday September 3rd – Pupil Free Day, Read Write Inc Training.
- Saturday August 21st to Friday August 27th – Book Week, Dress up Day Wednesday 25th.
- Monday August 30th to Friday 3rd September – Book Fair.
In this newsletter we will see the plans and programs of our teaching staff for term three. It will be as usual a busy term for our staff and students and hopefully free of any further restrictions. Enjoy the newsletter.
As usual 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
Welcome to term 3 at Hawker Area School. I would like to give a special welcome to Emily and Alice who joined our class late last term.
The class still has Mrs Sharon Bates for Health and Physical Education, Mr Daren O’Neill for one Maths lesson, Ailsa Green for Art, Library and Digital Technology, Mrs Lidia Szlezak for language and Ms Kate Retelsdorf for Music.
The school day starts with the students unpacking their bags, calling of the roll and their designated jobs.
Read, write inc. program covers 2 lessons now, with the younger ones doing the program in the first lesson and the older ones in the second lesson. This means I have smaller groups to work with when they are not doing RWI. During this time, writing, grammar, hand writing, reading comprehension and word investigations are taught. We are making a 4 sided diorama describing the beginning, the problem, solution and the ending of a story read.
In Maths, we are leading into multiplication and division, using grouping and sharing strategies. The Foundation students are learning the place values of 11 to 20 and the Year 1 and 2 will continue in this area as well using number to 100 and 1000. The Foundation students are also learning the place values of 11 to 20 and the Year 1 and 2’s will continue in this area as well using numbers to 100 and 1000. Measurement, fractions and data collection will also be a focus this term.
The class is excited by the new Science topic this term being biology and we started by comparing living and non living things, followed by grouping animals into skin covering types. We will explore the different types of environments in which plants and animals live such as deserts, oceans, rain forests and grass plains. The Foundation and Year 1’s will be a making a habitat diorama and the Year 2’s will choose a life cycle of a plant or animal to investigate.
In HASS, we will be exploring how memories, stories and culture are preserved for this generations and the future.
Library is on Fridays and students can borrow books at this time if they have returned previous books.
I am setting up a different form of communication contact with parents as the communication books are not working at all now. I will let you know when this happens soon.
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.
Ms Penolope McCulloch
Foundation - Yr 2 Teacher
Well, I’m back at Hawker Area School but this time with the Year 3-5 class. We have a fairly full agenda of lessons to work on.
English:
In addition to Read, Write Inc for some students, the class will use short stories that are in their workbooks to develop their skills. These range from comprehension, through writing tasks, to grammar. They will also use an app called “Pobble” to use visual stimuli to write short stories or other responses. Their most recent “Pobble” was a glowing globe of the Earth, which provided a stimulus for a great variety of stories.
Maths:
Members of our class are at various stages of developing their mathematical skills. During this term they will practise several tasks, including using spaceships for multiplication; working out areas to estimate the size of house floors, comparing the size of spaces such as paddocks or national parks and calculating the time in different time zones.
Science:
Science will offer class members a chance to investigate our physical world. For Year 3s that involves looking at the transfer of heat. In daily life that’s relevant to the ironing of clothes and the boiling of water. Meanwhile, Year 4 investigates forces of gravity and friction – including a basic experiment in which a weight is pulled or pushed from one place to another. Light and its properties will be the focus of Year 5’s efforts. One of their experiments included comparing the path of light through aligned holes as opposed to misaligned holes.
HASS:
The HASS focus is on Geography during the second semester. This will include how indigenous societies lived within their environments and will compare this with the effects of European settlement on those environments. Central to this will be Australia and a comparison with societies in Africa and South America.
Health/PE:
Our sports in this semester will venture from lacrosse to basketball and, possibly, some other sports later in the year. At the same time, Health will examine aspects of relationships.
Mr Harald Walther
Year 3-5 Teacher
After a couple days in the class and then a week with students at home I’m thrilled to have everyone back at their desks today.
English 6-10
We have started a new class novel this term, The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, by John Boyne. The story is fictional but set in a WW2 concentration camp and has many factual elements from that period in time. It’s unique in that it tells a perspective of the holocaust from a German child, giving us insight into what the average German family knew about what was happening to the Jews at the time and Hitler’s “Final Solution”. At the moment we are working our way through the book, answering questions along the way and completing character analysis for the main characters. Once we’ve finished, we will view the movie and compare how the story is presented and complete a (yet to be determined) final assessment task.
We will also start looking at digital media, specifically digital texts and reflect on the role they play in our everyday life. The focus will be on how our language has and is changing, and how we can decide if a digital source is reliable. Students will conduct their own research and analyse various web pages, looking at what literary devices are used and why.
HASS 6-10
After focusing on Geography last term, we will move back to history for term 3. This term we have begun to study World War 2, first looking at why and how it started, at the moment we are focusing on the Australian involvement in the Pacific, specifically the fall of Singapore. We will also touch on the bombing of Darwin, Kokoda and prisoners of war in Singapore and Borneo before shifting our focus to Europe, the Nazi’s and holocaust. This ties in with our reading material in English, giving us some good background knowledge for both topics.
HPE 6-10
Having spent quite a bit of time on mental health and wellbeing during health lessons, we are now going to be looking at physical health. Our first topic is sugar, what it does to our bodies, what types of hidden sugars there are, and how much is too much.
For PE we are doing a combination of circuit training and netball. We are doing a strength and agility circuit at the moment, next will be speed and endurance. We have only had one lesson of netball but being the old netball tragic that I am I had a great time. We’ve practiced basic ball skills and movement and had a quick half court game which was enjoyed by everyone. I’ve learned to curb the white line fever and promise not to hurt anyone!
HPE F-2
For Health with the little people, we are talking about our superpowers. Everyone has a superpower, something that we’ve learned to do that we once couldn’t. Students are making a superpower flip book and talking about how we are always learning new things, even when it’s hard.
During PE we are going to be going through a range of basic movements, with each activity focusing on a different area in the curriculum. This week for example, we will be throwing and catching including movement which will cover throwing, catching, running, skipping and hopping.
Home Economics 6-10
In keeping with the HPE theme of what makes us physically healthy, this term Home Economics will have a focus on healthy recipes and healthy eating. We will look at traditional recipes and figure out how to make them healthier, in keeping the Australian guide for healthy eating. We will also be looking at healthy breakfast and lunchbox foods and setting goals for ourselves to improve in this area.
SACE English Stage 2
The pressure is starting to build for Stage 2 English. We are aiming to have course work complete by the end of term 3 so that the beginning of term 4 can be spent fine tuning and making sure we are happy with the work before submitting it for moderation. At the moment we are looking at topics to write a persuasive piece and will then tackle the major assessment task of comparing two pieces of literature for the way they handle themes, literary devices and audience.
Mrs Sharon Bates
Year 6-12 Teacher / HPE Coordinator
With Covid-19 still lingering during our cooler winter months, it is vitally important that everyone continues to practise good hygiene. Most importantly if your child is unwell, please keep them at home so infections are not spread to others.
This term the Year 6 and 7 have started the term working hard to develop some basic understanding of the Order of Operation in Mathematics.
"Operations" mean things like add, subtract, multiply, divide, squaring, etc. If it isn't a number it is probably an operation.
But, when you see something like...
7 + (6 × 52 + 3)
... what part should you calculate first?
Start at the left and go to the right?
Or go from right to left?
This is critical that students in Year 6 and 7 develop a good understanding of what needs to be done first in order to be correct and to achieve a stepping stone to algebra. Students also for the first time have worked on mathematical problems involving the unknown variable. Most our Year 6 – 7 students grasped the concept well and successfully completed this topic already.
For the next few weeks students are going to work on collecting and analysing data. They will learn how to create the resultant graphs and learn how to interpret various graphs.
Year 8-10
Statistics are an important part of our life. Most informed decisions are made based on the informed decision associated with statistics. 2021 is a Census year and our students will learn this term how to interpret and use the information provided by the ABS. The Year 8-10s will work on the development of a statistical investigation based on their personal interest. They are going to formulate a statistical question and collect data that is relevant to their investigation. They are then also going to calculate the relevant statistical information needed to answer the statistical question. They will then present the data in the various forms such as tables, graphs and frequency tables.
The topics of the investigations in the Year 8-10 vary. Our students have decided on questions related to the variety of topics linked to their statistical investigations including the consequences of WWII, reasons for mental health issues, Olympic records in swimming, Tourism and the Flinders Ranges and Fatalities on Australian Roads. I am looking forward to the completed statistical investigation reports.
Science Year 6-10
In Term 3 students have started to work on the Rock Cycle and Tectonic Plates, Earth’s Crust, and the 3 types of rocks . Although all students work on the one topic, each year level needs to develop a variety of different examples of scientific knowledge. After the Rock Cycle investigation students will then turn to learning how the different geological changes like Volcanic eruptions can influence the Earth’s landscape.
Science students in Year 6 will learn how changes in the surface of the Earth can operate over time frames from sudden to slow. The will also learn that sudden geological changes like earthquakes and volcanoes, and extreme weather conditions like hurricanes, can cause dramatic changes to the Earth’s surface.
The distinction between renewable and non-renewable resources depends on the time frame considered. In looking at this in Year 7, students will group the Earth’s resources as renewable or non-renewable. For example, students will compare fossil fuels which take millions of years to form with wood that grows in decades and biofuel that grows in months. They will also learn about the water cycle and how and why water is as an important resource.
The Year 8s will investigate how different kinds of rocks are formed when different combinations of heat and kinetic energy act on materials in the Earth’s crust. The students will develop an understanding of the rock cycle and consider the timescale of the processes and formation of igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic rocks and how rocks are made up of minerals.
The theory of plate tectonics explains global patterns of geological activity and continental movement. Our Year 9 students will use the theory of plate tectonics to explain how major continental plate movements can be use to predict areas prone to earthquakes and volcanic activity. They will also identify global patterns of geological activity including the role of heat energy and convection currents in the movement of tectonic plates, relating the extreme age and stability of a large part of the Australian continent to its plate tectonic history.
Systems on the surface of the Earth result from interactions in the atmosphere, hydrosphere, biosphere and lithosphere. Our Year 10 students will look at the connections between the different systems that make up the surface of the Earth. This will include how cycles of carbon and other materials involve interactions in the hydrosphere, lithosphere, atmosphere and biosphere. Students learn the important role of carbon in the greenhouse effect and its effects on biodiversity.
Polish
Year F-2
Numbers are very important to know in any language. There are many language rules in Polish when it comes to numbers, counting and related topics. In Term 3 students in F-2 are going to learn how to count and read numbers in Polish. They will also learn about Polish culture and the Polish legends and stories.
Year 3-5 and 7-8
During Term 3 students are going to learn formal and informal greetings in Polish. Students will also continue to explore the Polish culture and learn more about things like the traditional dresses, cultural behaviour and importance of food to the Polish cultural identity.
Mrs Lidia Szelzak
Mathematics Science & Language Teacher
THEME – Old Worlds, New Worlds, Other Worlds
Book Week is being held in Week 6 of this term. Our annual Book Week Parade will be held on Wednesday August 25th. Further information about this will come out later in the term, but in the meantime, get your thinking caps on and start working out how you can dress up either as a book character or in a style that reflects this year’s theme.
Author Visitor
Rosanne Hawke is a writer, teacher, writing workshop facilitator, and on occasions, a storyteller for children. She is coming to Hawker Area School on Wednesday August 18 to share with all our students about her life, being an author and the process of writing.Rosanne says about herself…Even when I was little I would run around with a jotter and a pencil, trying to write a story but not knowing how to spell anything except Dick, Dora and cat. My mother used to get me to tell stories. A lot of my stories were just in my head, for being the youngest and living in the country didn't bring many opportunities for an audience. I was born in Penola, in South Australia. We had a sheep farm there until I was six, then we moved to a property in Central Queensland. I went to school at a one teacher school in Banana, a little country town named after a bullock. If a friend came to visit, we would write clues for treasure hunts or pretend we were characters from films.
My first short story was published in the Moura State School magazine in 1967. At 14, I moved back to South Australia and attended Gawler High School where I won an Arts Scholarship to complete Years 11 & 12. I started a romantic novel when I was 17 but I burnt it later.
I loved teacher's college, studying education, art, music, literature & history. But it wasn't until I was working (for ten years) in the Middle East and Pakistan, teaching ESL, bringing up kids, when I started to write seriously. My kids loved the stories I told and one night after telling a story, my daughter asked me to write it down.
Scholastic Book fair
Our annual Scholastic Book Fair will be held from Tuesday August 31 – Thursday September 1. On Tuesday, the students will be able to view the books and write out a wish list. The fair will be open for sales on Wednesday and Thursday, including during Open Night. Students will be able to use their book vouchers during this time.
Media Arts
This semester, the students will be working in Media Arts. Media arts involves creating representations of the world and telling stories through communications technologies such as television, film, video, newspapers, radio, video games, the internet, and mobile media.
Throughout Term 3, the F-9 students will be focussing creating a video using Stop Motion Animation software. Think Shaun the Sheep, Lego Movie and Morph and you will have some understanding of what stop motion animation is. Already, we have discovered that a 20-minute cartoon takes around 26,000 frames (photos) to create. To get the effect of an inanimate object to appear to be moving seamlessly, you need to have at least 12-15 frames (photos) per second of video, with each frame having one slight change in movement of the inanimate object. It takes a lot of time and effort to create these kinds of videos but it’s a lot of fun.
Digital Literacy
Scratch Jr is a free app for iPads/tablets, that allows the user to program their own interactive stories and games. Learning about the needs of pets and designing their own pet is leading the F-2 students on designing a game about their pet this term.Did you know there are only around 3,900 tigers in the wild, a huge drop in the 100,000 tigers there were at the beginning of the 20th century. In their lead up to using Scratch Jr, the 3-5 students are researching information about tigers.
Children and Teens author, Rosanne Hawke, will be spending time with the students on Wednesday August 18, sharing about writing and the stories she has written.
Book Week, Week 6 Term 3 (August 21-27)
Theme: Old Worlds, New Worlds, Other Worlds.
Book Week Parade will be held on Wednesday August 25.
Book Fair will be held in Week 7, Term 3 (Tuesday August 31- Thursday September 2)
Mrs Ailsa Green Teacher Librarian and Ms Rosie Luckraft CLA
Things are ticking along well in the area of Special Education. We continue to work on our major goals in communication with lots of effort and enthusiasm.
Two new things, amongst others, that we are trying this term are;
A 3D Construction Box: All of the required materials and tools are in a box along with the making page from the PODD and photos of a finished item to aid in sequencing. So far we have worked through making a head and also a boat.
A Music Box: Different instruments along with the appropriate PODD page plus some pictorial music bars to learn about beats and volume.
In Term 3 we will be working under fortnightly themes. At the moment we are working on the theme of Animals. After that we have Colours, Body Parts and Food to round out the term.
Mrs Amanda Hilder
Special Needs and Intervention Teacher
NOTICEBOARD