Dear Parents,

Yesterday each Kindy child was given an olive tree sapling as a symbol of their beginning at the College. Our hope is that as the saplings grow and flourish, so too will the children. In the years ahead, we pray each child will discover their God-given gifts and talents through the opportunities offered in their homes and here at John XXIII College. We hope they will learn to care for the olive tree, as they grow in appreciation of the Christian promise to care for each other and the environment.

We look forward to seeing your children (and their olive trees) thrive and develop. We would love to receive some photos of the trees planted in their new home gardens.

Special thanks to Miss Monastra and Year 2B for their creative assembly item all about the water cycle and water conservation. There were many ‘wows’ as parents and children entered Roncalli Hall to see the terrific twos on the stage in their amazing costumes and with such happy and excited faces.

Parent Teacher Interviews begin next week. These interviews are a core part of our reporting process and enable both teachers and parents to work in partnership for the benefit of the child. Thank you to all parents who have so far booked an interview time with teachers.

Please click on the link below to take you to the login screen to book an interview.

http://www.johnxxiii.edu.au/view/events-online-bookings/events-online

Our Year 3 students and their teachers are preparing our Holy Week Reflections. These prayerful reflections will take place on Wednesday 5 April and Thursday 6 April. Please join us at 9:15am on either day at the labyrinth (lawned area at front of College) to walk through the Easter story with us.

Just a reminder, all students finish term one on Thursday 6 April.

Kind regards

Antoinette De Pinto

Head of Primary

Well done to our talented students that performed in the Twilight Recital on Sunday night.

Emmeline Bosnich – Year 6B

(Violin)

Ben Mignacca – Year 6B

(Saxophone and Piano)

Nicholas Skerratt – Year 3G

(Piano and Violin)

Olivia Polini – Year 4

(Voice)

Congratulations to our Merit Award Recipients

1B

Hudson Grabham

Scarlett Melbin

1G

Samuel Jukic

Zara Zidar

2B

Samuel Dale

William Bahen

Bella Watson

2G

Amelia Watson

William Blaxell

3B

Cate Thomasz

Lucy Soares

Christopher Cesare

3G

Taj Dorrington

Bridget Lilleyman

4B

Caitlin Seery

Hannah Lim

4G

Rosario Patterson (Sari)

5B

Geordie Stickland

Arabelle Peirce

Caitlin Jackson

Myles Lawrence

5G

Attending Zoo Camp

6B

Amelia Gellard

Levi Lawson

Emmeline Bosnich

6G

Summer Burton

Amerie Chai

Harry Court

Lux Quinlan

Zoo Camp

Last week Year 5B attended the ‘Roar and Snore’ Camp at Perth Zoo. We hope you enjoyed reading their recount of the ‘Zootastic Experience’.

Last Thursday afternoon the Year 5B children eagerly gathered outside the Perth Zoo for the Roar and Snore Sleepover. As we shuffled inside, the gates closed behind us and we met our two guides, Judy and Emma. We formed a line, and this we turned into a human sandwich filled with bacon, cheese and ham. The teachers became the bread, and we formed the filling. This would be how we would walk throughout the zoo for the remainder of our trip.

Unfortunately, as our cheese was melted, we lost some out of the sides, and had to add honey to keep us altogether. Carrying all of our belongings, we made our way to the homestead where we would spend the night.

Following that, we put our belongings on one side of the homestead and made our way back out to the amphitheatre where we would be instructed of the rules of camp. These included:

- Don’t be too loud as this will scare the animals.

- Stay together in your group, with your adult, and make sure you are always listening to them.

- If you get lost, stay where you are and someone will come to find you.

- If there is an animal in a tank, do not tap or bang it.

- Make sure you go up the amphitheatre stairs, not under the railing.

- Teachers, always take a walkie talkie with you when travelling around the zoo.

- Make sure you clean up after yourself.

After the rules had been explained, we were taught a new game, Race to Save. In this game we had to find different endangered animals in the zoo and complete a crossword with specific words. We broke off into four groups and off we went! We visited the elephants, tigers, cassowaries, painted dogs, lemurs and Simmo the crocodile. We only had half an hour to find these clues, and the team which filled in the most words was Miss Dernie’s and Mr Fromm’s group (obviously). We were now ravenous for dinner!

Next, right before our eyes, was Ms De Pinto walking towards us with a large cardboard box in hand. Dinner had arrived! We raced to wash our hands and gulped down our delicious dinner. Everyone started goofing around while we waited for the teachers to finish their dinner. Mr Fromm devoured 3 whole boxes of chicken and chips! We were now fuelled for our night time adventures.

Our night time adventures began with two different activities, the discovery room and the enrichment activity. We loved seeing and feeling Tripod, the three legged Inland Bearded Dragon in the discovery room. She felt spiky like a rose bush and we could sense that she was feeling slightly scared. As we patted her, she slowly started to fall asleep. In the enrichment activity we were shown a range of toys that the keepers use to keep the animal’s minds busy. We were beginning to feel tired but were so eager to go on the night walk.

The night walk was an exhilarating experience and we saw some interesting nocturnal animals. We saw Memphis the rhino up close, and a MASSIVE orb spider that almost landed on Finn M’s head! We also saw the baboons glowing red bottoms and Trisha the elephant. This was one of the most memorable experiences from our zoo camp. Our night walk finished at 10:30 and we were well and truely ready for bed!

When it was finally time for bed we separated into groups of boys and girls. The girls went to brush their teeth while the boys got changed. We then swapped over, and once we were all changed and snug in our sleeping bags Miss Joyce did a reflection which put us all to sleep! (Hopefully no dancing possums on the roof tonight!)

As the snore ended, at 6am the day began. unfortunately Gemma was still asleep and needed a solid shake to wake her up. During the girls’ relaxing eating time, the boys were using their muscles to lift all the mattress, and were then kindly rewarded with double breakfast and not long after they were completely stuffed. After the delicious breakfast of cereal, toast, juice and (Red Rooster for Mr Fromm), we set of to clean our teeth. While the girls got changed into their school uniform the boys were cheekily going around and around on the merry-go-round with the $2 that Finn M had found in a vending machine.

As we came back to the barn the boys boasted to the girls that they went on the merry-go-round. We all then gathered back in the amphitheatre and our guides instructed us we had to split into our two groups. Then, we went around the zoo with one of the guides to the South-West aviary and we saw Trisha the elephant beginning her morning walk. Also, we fed the birds the stuffed pinecones we had made the night before. The guides put the pinecones up and we hoped that the birds would eat them. After that, the keepers of the birds had worms we could feed. Thaddeus found a worm that was dropped and named it Jeff (it was still alive) and released it into the wild.

Then, the guides left us and we split into our five groups to complete our tour around the zoo. The penguins were so cute they raced each other and dived into their little kelp forest some were even on the rock staring at the groups.

Mr Fromm’s group saw every animal including the animals that weren’t on the map and then we had to go to lunch. While the teachers were getting the lunch, the boys and girls played on the main grass. For lunch we had healthy sandwiches from Subway stuffed with fresh vegetables. Some of the boys didn’t like their tomato and fed it to the ibises. They tried to eat it whole but they couldn’t because of their long and thin beaks and they had to break it down into little bits.

After lunch we had one final chance to see any animals we hadn't already seen. Some groups visited the penguins, and others revisited their favourite animals. At 1:30, we hopped on the bus back to school. During the ride home we had a quiz, and the teachers gave us their left over chocolates from the trip. We were absolutely exhausted after such a fun camp and were looking forward to seeing our parents back at school. We hope 5G enjoys the experience as much as we did!

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