PREP

We hope that everyone had a safe and relaxing break! We loved seeing everyone back at school again this term.

We have spent this week revising our Little Learners Love Literacy characters, and even got a special invite from Milo Monkey himself this morning! We are looking forward to dressing up as something that starts with the same letter as our first names and having a special surprise party for him!

Today we participated in some NAIDOC week activities in our family groups and also spent the afternoon participating in sports activities.

We asked the Preps what they have loved about coming back to school after being on holidays. This is what 4 of our friends had to say:

“I have loved everything. Seeing my friends is the best!” - Rosie Edwards

“I have loved PE and DDT. Playing with Logan, Theo and Archer O.” - Jude Downard

“I have liked first and second break. Lining up and sitting down.” - Tate Congram

“Playing with my friends and helping them.” - Connie Ackerley

Gemma Blake gblake@smcolac.catholic.edu.au

Meg Knight mknight@smcolac.catholic.edu.au

GRADE 1/2

Welcome back to Term 3! We have loved seeing all of your happy faces back in class and sharing in all of your holiday stories! We have had lots of students away already this week with colds, flus and other illnesses. We hope you are all feeling better and can't wait to see you back at school soon. This a great reminder to stay home when you are feeling unwell to reduce the spread.

Today we had a wonderful day participating in NAIDOC Week activities in mixed groups. As a whole school we shared in a coin circle, raising money and awareness and having a great time as a school community!

On Friday 26th of July we invite all grandparents or special friends into our school community. We will begin our day with a prayer gathering at St Mary's Church at 9am followed by a cup of tea in the library from 9:30am. Grandparents and special friends are then invited to visit our classrooms, finishing up at around 10:30am.

This Term Year 1 students are enjoying a game of 'Where's Judy' while they follow her travels around on a world map! Judy will be on long service leave and we wish her safe and happy travels!

Term 3 welcomed us back with some typical 'term 3 weather'! The cold and wet mornings often find us dressing up and keeping warm in layers and this is a reminder to ensure everything you wear to school is labelled appropriately.

Swimming lessons at school begin on Thursday 8th of August. We will follow the same procedures as previous years and will be sure to give you more information in a timely manner. Please make sure you keep an eye on PAM to give your permission for this activity.

We have had lots of families asking about the dates for your Year 2 sleepover! We are already so excited, but we need to wait until the end of October for this. We will know the exact date when Mission Day has been confirmed on the school calendar.

School Holiday Review

- On the holidays I got a new baby 'Harvey'! - Eli (congratulations Uncle Eli!)

- I had a great time on my school holidays at the snow. I went tobogganing and made snowmen and snow angles! - Levi

Judy Carr jcarr@smcolac.catholic.edu.au

Jodie Hassett jhassett@smcolac.catholic.edu.au

Paula Parish pparish@smcolac.catholic.edu.au

Emma Roberts eroberts@smcolac.catholic.edu.au

Matt O'Dowd modowd@smcolac.catholic.edu.au

Amanda Delorenzo mdelorenzo@smcolac.catholic.edu.au

GRADE 3/4

Welcome back to Term 3!!! We hope everyone is well rested and ready for a busy term ahead. Firstly, we are very lucky to have a new student join Year 3 Elissa. We would like to welcome George and his family to our school community. George has already made lots of friends and has settled in well to our classroom routines.

Upcoming dates

Friday 26th July Year 4 Kascha and Matt Prayer Gathering- ‘World Day for Grandparents’ and the Elderly’’

Friday 26th July World Day for Grandparents’ and the Elderly’- Following the Prayer Gathering, grandparents are welcome to come to the library and enjoy a cuppa and visit their grandchildren in the classroom

Friday 02nd August School Closure Day

Friday 9th August Year 3 Elissa Prayer Gathering

Friday 9th August Year 3/4 Mini Olympics 12pm

Friday 16th August Year 3 Deb Prayer Gathering

This term we have started to learn about the Olympic Games. Part of this is to learn to write information texts. We will be researching a country, an athlete and a sport.

In Mathematics, Year 3 students are learning about Measurement before we begin a unit on Multiplication and Division. In Year 4, children are calculating change, before beginning to learn about Fractions.

We are looking forward to all the wonderful events we have this term.

Elissa Rodger erodger@smcolac.catholic.edu.au

Deb Holland dholland@smcolac.catholic.edu.au

Liza Alexander lalexander@smcolac.catholic.edu.au

Kascha Blair kblair@smcolac.catholic.edu.au

Matt Absalom mabsalom@smcolac.catholic.edu.au

GRADE 5/6

Welcome to Term 3! Everyone has made a great start so far to the second half of the year. We would like to formally welcome Jess Montano to the team as she takes over Maegan’s Grade 6 class officially this term. So far we have been learning about NAIDOC Week, Fractions, Integrity in R.E. and the Olympics.

In Maths, the Grade 5s have been learning about Fractions. Proper, Improper and Mixed fractions are what we have been doing and we have been using maths songs to help teach fractions. Fractions can be hard but it has helped by explaining it in a different way like a Fraction Wall etc. We have also been assigned Fraction games for a fun way to learn. The Grade 6s are still completing their Fractions unit also.

For Inquiry, we are choosing a sport from the 2024 Olympics to do an oral presentation on. When we are finished studying the sport we chose, we will start writing an oral presentation about the sport and present it to the class next week.

Today it was very exciting to be in our family groups doing activities to celebrate NAIDOC week. Each family group had a different Dreamtime story to explore and share with the school. We enjoyed the games the Grade 6s set up for us in the afternoon. Thank you to all those that brought a gold coin in. This money will go to the Colac Gathering Place.

We are also doing Winter Sport every 2nd Friday, where we play sports against other schools. This is a special thing for the grade 5/6s and we are competing against other schools in a different variety of sports. We chose the sports we wanted to play this week against Colac South West, for example: Football, Netball, Tee-ball and Soccer. We will try our best to win but will make sure we have fun.

This week Jade’s class is leading the church in their Prayer Gathering on Friday the 19th. Jade’s Prayer Gathering is about NAIDOC Week and the importance behind it.

Have a great weekend everyone!

By Chris and Will (Grade 5)

Jade LoRicco jloricco@smcolac.catholic.edu.au

Rachel Downard rdownard@smcolac.catholic.edu.au

Leah Martin lmartin@smcolac.catholic.edu.au

Dan Cannon dcannon@smcolac.catholic.edu.au

Maegen Potter mpotter@smcolac.catholic.edu.au

Birthday Wishes