Years F-6 

Another two weeks have flown by and they have been filled with action. 

Last week we celebrated book week and had a wonderful time in doing so. Having the dress up day on the Monday was a great kickstart to the week. Well done parents on your efforts with the costumes, they were super impressive! Having our parents and special people join us to listen to “The Emperor's Egg’ and co-create a creature that may have come from the egg. 

Tuesday, we joined Josh Pike to create a song, and the kinder kids visited us. The joined us to listen to ‘Frogs are our Friends’, and together with a buddy, made their very own frog. They visited the Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden class, saw the garden, watched a pasta making demonstration and were lucky enough to taste test the food the students had made for them. Year 5 and 6 joined them for lunch, prior to their departure. Congratulations to all our students on displaying wonderful leadership and assisting the kinder kids and showing them our school and what we do here with pride. 

During the week we also had guest readers in. Mary joined us on Tuesday to read, ‘Farm by the Sea’. This book rang true with Mary, she herself had grown up on a farm by the sea. Greg visited Wednesday and read, ‘A frog’s first song’, and he couldn’t resist to bring out his guitar and have a sing along and dance with the students. On Thursday, Deb read ‘My Nonno loves’, and we learnt that Nonno is the Italian word for grandpa. We finished the week with the School Council President, Viv reading ‘Derek’. Boy was it entertaining. We thank all four guests for giving up their time to share a story with us, it was very enjoyable. 

Yesterday, we attended a performance by Regional Arts Victoria titled, ‘A little bit of blue’. Students were completely enthralled with the puppets, and became fully involved with solving the case. At the same time they learnt about the habits of the Satin Bowerbird, and its fascination for the colour blue. A big thankyou to Mallee Creatives and Charlton Neighbourhood House for kindly organising this performance for us, and to St Josephs school for providing the venue. 

Next week we will be busy again, starting Monday being Footy Colours Day, where we are hoping our fathers and special friends can join us for a barbecue lunch. 

East Wimmera Health Services, Charlton Campus, have invited us there on Monday after lunch to see the Melbourne Cup. They have provided us with hobby horses which we have been busily decorating the past couple of days to take along with us. 

Wednesday evening will be an exciting one for us. The artworks the students have been creating based on the theme of ‘Australia’ are being displayed in the Mallee Creatives Gallery, and the official opening take place Wednesday evening at 5.30pm. We are hoping all our students, their families and friends can join us for the opening. The students are all very excited to see their work officially on display. 

The final week of term, on Tuesday the 15th of September, will be Parent/Student-Teacher conferences. The interviews are a great opportunity for your child/ren to share their learning, something they love to do. As it is the mid-way point of the Semester, it is also a chance to check in on your child’s progress with their classroom teachers. Interviews will begin at 3.30pm and conclude at 7pm. We are hoping to see all families present to at least speak to homeroom teachers about Literacy and Numeracy. 

Reading Awards

50 nights: Tilly, Tom & Alodia

75 nights: Scarlett, Archie, Campbell, Eli, Tyson & Ned

100 nights: Harry S, Tully & Alyson

125 nights: Charlie La & Harry C

150 nights: Cody

175 nights: Oli 

And reaching the double century (200 nights): Maisie! 

Star Students:

MacqLit Certificates

Students have completed Level D. Well done to Ryan, Oli, Charlie, Ned and Sophie. 

Book Recommendation: 

Oli recommended the book Dog Man by Dave Pilker. 

Dog Man is a graphic novel. The book has four parts. The things I liked the most about the book is how Petey manages to escape from jail seven times. Petey uses some funny ways to escape, like putting newspaper into the toilet and blocking it. The water overflows and rises higher and higher, letting Petey float up and reach the window to break out. I also liked how dog man used Petey’s vacuum against him to eventually arrest him.  I rate this book five stars. 

Current Affair: 

Tom reported on the Nepal flash floods. Nepal is a country town in Asia. It is known for being the home of the Himalayan range which includes Mount Everest. It is very rough and unstable to live in because of all the mountains. Three interesting facts are:

• The floods were caused by an earthquake which caused an avalanche. 
• People described it like a tsunami, not a flash flood.
• Helicopter surveillance shows the wall of water reached 90 metres. 

This event is important, as many lives have been lost and it has destroyed thousands of houses and buildings. Thousands of people are still missing, including 42 Australians. 

One question Tom would like to ask, is how far away the wave of water was when people started hearing the water?