INFANTS

Infants students and staff are all ready for our Winter break after such a full and fun first semester of learning. We all can’t believe we are half way through our school year and staff and students have been together noticing the learning growth in all our students. This past fortnight, many classes have held their own ‘Feather Celebrations’ as their feather buckets are full due to great learning and safe behaviours being demonstrated. This is fantastic to see and a great way to acknowledge this as a whole class.

Student reports will have been distributed by the end of the term. Please take the time to carefully read through your child’s report and make an appointment for a parent-teacher interview early in term 3 when these open up. We look forward to meeting with as many of you as possible then.

We wish everyone a safe and happy holiday break and hope that you have the chance to relax and recharge with family and friends.

Kindy

Kindergarten students have spent this last week revising all the clever things they have been learning during the first half of the year, and this has included learning what ‘revision’ means. This consolidation of knowledge is very important in making sure that base skills are developed before progressing on to new and harder concepts. Any opportunities for our Kindergarten students to practice counting and number recognition over the holidays, as well as reading and being read to are great ways to help with this at home. Card games, board games and stories in a cosy spot in front of the fire are great ways to spend some time together these holidays!

In Week 1 next term, we are celebrating ‘100 Days of Kindergarten’. We have been counting up all the days we have been at school and are excited to be reaching the 100 mark on Thursday 25 July. To mark the occasion students can come dressed up in an interpretation of ‘100’ – this could be as a 100 year old person, the number 100, 100 things on their clothes, etc. On the day we will be having lots of counting and crafting activities around this big number!

Year 1

Students in Year 1 have been busy wrapping up the term over these last two weeks.

In English, we have been developing poems and information texts about clouds. Students have come up with some beautiful and interesting pieces of writing to be published on our walls alongside artworks of different types of clouds.

In Mathematics, students have been exploring Mathematical stories, and considering a start, change and total amount in a problem. This is helping us to find the missing number in an equation. Students have been also working on learning their 2 times tables through practicing almost every day and recording the time they took to complete the table. All students have made progress, and we will move to harder numbers next term.

In Week 9, Year 1 engaged in our class Feather Celebration by wearing mufti to school and bringing a soft toy to class. We enjoyed a picnic together for our lunch with our teddies. Well done Year 1 for filling that feather bucket! On the same day, many students in Year 1 attended the Merit Event, and had a fabulous time. Congratulations to those students for demonstrating consistent academic effort and achievement.

A note from Miss Wood (Science and STEM lessons this semester)-

This term, Year 1 students have taken on the role of change detectives, engaging in a series of experiments exploring physical and chemical transformations, including reversible and irreversible changes affecting various foods and liquids.

Our investigations began with the melting of icy poles, prompting lively debates on whether they could be restored to their original state. We created ‘spaghetti bathtub’ artworks using cooked spaghetti, discovering the irreversible nature of this change (and confirming that spaghetti is less than ideal for baths!). We honed our observational skills by contrasting the properties of uncooked and cooked popcorn using our keen 5 senses (I am certain that the ‘taste’ sense was Year 1’s favourite).

Further experiments included crafting water bottle volcanoes with vinegar, baking soda, and dish soap, and learning the importance of formulating hypotheses in scientific inquiry. We also enjoyed creating bubble wands by mixing water and dish soap. In our latest endeavor, we explored the effects of vinegar, salt water, baking soda water, and plain water on gummy bears, observing fascinating irreversible physical changes, and creating some very large gummy bears!

Primary

It has been a very full term for the Primary kids at Boorowa Central School. We had our BCS, Cowra District and Western Region Cross-Country Carnivals, Mortimer Shield, Soccer Gala Day, Do It For Dolly week, Transition Day, Y7 Information Night and Merit Event. Phew! Combine all that with a brand new curriculum for English & Mathematics and it has been a very busy first semester.

Well done to those children who continually make the most of their time at school both socially and academically. Unfortunately, there are a small number of our primary peers that have regularly made poor choices inside and outside the classroom this semester, and this is something our whole school is working hard to improve. It’s important that all kids understand that their good choices are well and truly appreciated by the staff, and these are celebrated with our feather class celebrations, merit events and fortnightly assemblies.

There is plenty to look forward to in the coming terms, including Y3/4 Trent Barrett Gala Day in Harden on August 13, SMArt & Drama Night on September 18, Education Week and Book Week 5-9 August and District Athletics on August 16. Busy times!

I trust that all parents have read and thought carefully about the feedback provided in the semester one student reports. All teachers put hours and hours of work into these, and they are an accurate reflection of what your child can do both academically and socially – and more importantly, where improvements can be made. I look forward to seeing many parents during Parent/Teacher interviews early in term two.

I wish all families a happy, safe and healthy holiday break.

If you require any additional information or have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact me via email: jason.stuart3@det.nsw.edu.au

Jason Stuart

Assistant Principal Primary (Relieving)

5/6 Classroom

The year 5/6 class has begun new units in English and Mathematics this fortnight. In English, we have been researching Macquarie Island and written an information report on it. In Mathematics, we have begun a unit on fractions, angles and time. In Science, we have finished our unit on Natural Disasters with an assessment power-point on a natural disaster from recent history.

We have had the focus of ‘use appropriate language’ in our room over the past two weeks. It’s very unfortunate that a small number of our peers think it’s ok to use swearing and offensive language here at school. This simply won’t be tolerated. We are asking parents to support us with this, as support from home with using appropriate language is essential for this to carry on at school.

As always, please get in touch if you require any further information: Jason.stuart3@det.nsw.edu.au

Jason Stuart

5/6 Class Teacher

Assistant Principal Primary (Relieving)

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