What’s been happening?

As you may have seen and read in last week’s newsletter, we began the term with activities in celebration of NAIDOC Week! One of these activities involved using our new homemade set of story stones to learn about different Aboriginal symbols. We each picked up 5 or so stones and created imaginative stories based around the drawing on each one. Olivia R-M showed particular interest and even made a story using every single one of the 40 stones!

Another rewarding project we worked on was a collaborative mural of the Rainbow Serpent from the Dreamtime story. OSHC kids decorated their own section (or two!) of the snakes using bright oil pastels, incorporating their favourite colours, patterns and even some of the Aboriginal symbols that we’d learned about. Once every piece was done, we put them back together like a jigsaw, pasted them onto backing, and proudly hung the artwork up on our display wall. Tommy, Mossy, Mac, Lowri and Florence H took great care in their artwork, while Eadie, Daphne and Austin were extremely helpful in connecting everything together. On our Rainbow Serpent mural we included some information about NAIDOC Week that we’d like to share here too:

National Aboriginal and Islanders Day Observance Committee (NAIDOC) Week celebrates the rich history, culture and achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. While NAIDOC Week comes just once each year, we acknowledge and respect First Nations people every day. We encourage all Australians to learn about and appreciate the knowledge, histories and customs of the oldest living cultures on Earth.

This week we set up a new “minibeasts” area, with imaginative play, non-fiction books and bug catching equipment. Along with the books, we have a guide to caring for snails to prepare us for our new OSHC pets! The kids are looking forward to the added responsibilities of caring for the snails (hygienically, of course) and are excited to observe them in their tank over a long period of time. Perhaps we’ll even get them out for snail races every now and then...?!

One last highlight from the term so far has been playing parachute games out on the oval. Whether it was to throw and catch a bunch of balls, or puff up the parachute and encapsulate ourselves under it, good teamwork and communication were key. Azra, Ada, Finn, Lenny and Max O played an important role in keeping the games running smoothly. Well done, everyone!

Pupil Free Day Program

Monday the 31st of July is MAD SCIENCE DAY at Newlands OSHC; a day full of crazy chemical reactions and wacky experiments! Activities will include an exploding lunch bag experiment, a Pringles-ring challenge, make-your-own ping pong catapult and puffy foam painting.

The program will run from 7am until 6pm. All users of the service must be enrolled in the OSHC program and have booked in before Wednesday the 26th. Regular OSHC users can book in now through My Family Lounge, while others can enquire about availability using the details above.

As usual, the OSHC program will provide breakfast and afternoon tea. Please pack a morning snack, lunch, a drink bottle and appropriate clothing for outdoors and messy play.

We’re looking forward to it and hope to see you there!

It's Newlands Read-a-thon time!

Read-a-thon: 31st July - 13th August 2023