Years F-6

Kim Fitzpatrick

Well, what a BIG fortnight it has been. It all began with us having our first play on our playground and, isn’t it wonderful! With my office window right alongside, I have watched our students display a whole lot of determination and resilience, challenging themselves to complete the different sections. The sandpit has been a massive hit, and there is room for so many. Next week promises to be an exciting week, beginning Monday with our Book Week dress up day. An invitation is out for parents to come along to the assembly and then join the F-6 students afterwards to share a story and undertake a joint craft activity. We have different things on, right throughout the week, including a visit from the Kinder kids on Tuesday.

The following week, students will attend a performance by Regional Arts Victoria, titled ‘A little bit of blue’, which Mallee Creatives and Charlton Neighbourhood House have kindly organised for us.

A date for the diary is 5.30pm, Wednesday September 9, when our F-6 Art Exhibit will be officially opened at Mallee Creatives. We hope to have all our families and students in attendance for this special event.

Good luck to our students participating in Finals in the coming weeks.

Calder Athletics

Junior Sports Captains, Tom M and Archie S summed the day up in the following report:

Last Thursday the prep to grade 6 students travelled over to Charlton Park via Start’s Buslines to compete in the Calder Athletics. We competed against 5 other schools throughout the day which meant there were a lot of kids. At the end of the day, we had relay races and we think our school was cheering the loudest. Everyone ran in a relay and we won a lot of them. A big well done to all the Charlton College students for showing sportsmanship throughout the day.

Charlton College came 2nd in the relays, and we won the overall day!!!! Woohoo!! The last time we won the whole day was back in 2023. This was very exciting for all of us.

A big thanks to Mr Peck for marking the grounds. Mr Thompson and Mrs Fitz for organising the day and thankyou to Mum (Mrs Smyth) and her Sport and Rec students for helping run the events on the day.

This week the Year 5 & 6 students had a visit from a special person. Miss Briggs came along and shared some photos from her trip so far with the students.

Reading Awards

Reading Awards

25 nights: Ashton

75 nights: Jon

100 nights: Sophie

125 nights: Audrey

150 nights: Wally

Star Students:

Foundation: Scarlett for consistently giving her best effort in both Literacy and Numeracy.

Years 1 & 2: Tully for displaying a love of reading, especially non-fiction books about sharks.

Years 3 & 4: Nate for showing fantastic recall of morphemes.

Years 5 & 6: Campbell for displaying resilience, by doing his personal best when adding and subtracting fractions.

Book Recommendation:

Harrison recommended the book, ‘A dog called Hero’ by Katy Birchall. Harrison describes this book as an adventure story with mystery. The story takes place in a police station in France. A dog, Hero is a young police dog whose Police Officer had died. Hero is struggling to bond with other officers. Hayley visits the station and Hero likes her. A diamond gets stolen from a safe and Hero helps to find it.

Current Affair:

Alodia reported on the Bird Flu. Australia is currently experiencing it’s first major outbreak of the highly pathogenic H5 bird flu virus strain in the wild bird population.

Three facts that Alodia finds interesting is that the virus has now spread among local resident birds, it will likely stay in Australia permanently, and Australia is the last continent reached by H5. Alodia believes it is a critical event because it threatens Australia’s unique wildlife with extinction. One question Alodia would like to ask the Government, is ‘How are you managing the mental and emotional toll of dealing with mass wildlife deaths while trying to stop the virus from spreading.

Around the Classrooms

Foundation:

Year 1/2:

In Literacy, our Year 1 students have been learning the long vowel oo, ew, ue and u-e spelling patterns, while our Year 2 students have been exploring wr as /r/ and mb as /m/. Students have begun exploring information texts through our model text Planet Zigvol. They enjoyed pretending to be astronauts and landing on Planet Zigvol to explore this mysterious world. Students have also started reading Milli, Jack and the Dancing Cat, making predictions and exploring friendship as an important theme in the story. In Advisory, students have been learning how to make safe and balanced choices when gaming, including recognising how games can encourage long play, spending or sharing personal information. They are also learning strategies to manage common gaming mistakes and enjoy games responsibly.

Year 3/4's:

Year 3/4's have been busy in Digi Tech!