C Block

What a busy term of learning C block has had so far!

Kindergarten got to experience buying gifts at their first Mother’s Day stall, so much excitement and anticipation.

In English, Kindergarten students have been learning about alliteration, onomatopoeia and how to segment and reconstruct sentences. Students have been doing lots of counting and learning to make sense of numbers in Maths.

Recently, we engaged in National Simultaneous Storytime with 2 million students around the country and watched the text ‘Bowerbird Blues’ being read. It was a beautiful story with a connection to ‘Koala Ark’ by Stephen Michael King, which Stage 1 have been focusing on in English. They used the book to write a persuasive text about koalas and to inspire their bushfire artwork.

In Maths, Stage 1 have been learning about quantities and smaller numbers in bigger numbers.

Students are enjoying attending Gamarada and now with the introduction of the Aboriginal Learning Club, learning about Aboriginal culture is open to all students. The Drawing us Together competition is on again this year. Students design a page for a book and compete for the opportunity to have their artwork published in the book.

SISA is always a blast! Students love participating in organised games and fitness activities.

A great start to the term! Well done everyone!

E Block - 5/6BG

Kid’s Helpline

On Thursday 16th May we participated in an incursion on Social Media which was presented online in our classroom from ‘Kid's Helpline’. It was a very informative and engaging session which I’m sure helped our kids realise the importance of safe usage and age limitations.

National Simultaneous Storytime

5/6BG participated in National Simultaneous Storytime last week where over 2 million kids virtually read ‘Bowerbird Blues’ together with the author, Aura Parker. Our students were captivated by the story and the author’s drawing resulting in all copies of the book being borrowed from the library!

We thoroughly enjoyed the session and this was also a great lead into our School ‘Readathon’ which is beginning on June 1 and goes for the whole month.

Gala Day

Last Friday was the beginning of our Winter Gala Day competition which the students absolutely love competing in. We had mixed results across the two sports of soccer and netball but as always our students competed with great enthusiasm and sportsmanship.

Our next Gala day is on Friday 21st June.

‘Buddy Lessons’ - Indigenous Games

Our year 6 students presented an indigenous games lesson across the whole school to celebrate ‘Reconciliation Week’.

The idea behind the lessons was to continue to enlighten our students in regards to our indigenous culture and to teach games that were taught by our ancestors many years ago.

The lessons culminated in a tabloid games session for the whole school which was highly successful.

Student Highlights about 'Kid's Helpline'

Aldrich: Always be aware, understanding and in control. Make sure you know what you’re interacting with. Be understanding and behave with social media. Always limit watching and connecting with social media. Lastly, when having trouble online you should tell someone trustworthy.

Averie: I learned that you can call Kids Helpline 24/7. I also learned that there are three c’s you should follow which are:

- critical: deciding if something is real

- conscience: what it makes you feel like

- control

Chloe: I learnt today that people can hurt other people in all types of ways emotionally and physically online. And once you say something it can't be undone. Think of it this way, once you rip or scrunch up paper you can't fix it.

You think an apology will be enough but it's not. People have feelings and you should respect that. Just because you might be having a hard or rough time does not mean you can take it out on someone else just to make yourself feel better, it doesn't help.

I want you to know that you aren't helping yourself, you're just making other people feel the same because you did something that you don't like.

Emily: Being safe and responsible in social media also consists of being Conscious, Critical, and in Control of what specific website or app you are present in. If there is a problem, cyber bullying as an example, I recommend Kids Help Line or e-safety which are both trustworthy and helpful when using social media. There are multiple popular platforms, with over a billion users on the apps, there could be many of the good and bad. If you are unsure of the unknown problem you are in, contact Kids Help Line or e-safety, as mentioned previously. You can ask/search up how to block the site or user, how to deal with it etc. To sum up, be safe, be responsible, be respectful, be critical, be conscious and be in control.

Eseta: I need to focus on when and what is the right time to go on social media because I need to spend more time on socialising in real life. I have to control my fear of missing out and be conscious of spending time on self-reflecting. I learned that social media pays a toll on my sleep, eyesight and mental health. Social media doesn't affect only me but it affects family members by being addicted to social media instead of being with important people.

Kayan: What I learned from the Kids Helpline is how to be safe from things like malicious malware or cyberbullying. I also learned that social media is fun and we can use any sort. We must remember to avoid online chat. I enjoy my social media, we all do, but we must remember to be safe.

Logan: Kids helpline has taught me that social media is an awesome thing to check out. But on the contrary, you can’t use it too much because it can negatively impact you. Some examples are mood swings, body image and sleep deprivation. But always remember there are positives because if it is in moderation it can also be an awesome way to express yourself, distract from reality and in general have FUN.

Nate: Today we learnt about ways to stay safe online. One of the things we learnt was the three C’s!

Critical: For this we played a game of legs or hotdogs guess what… They were all hotdogs! (L or H is basically a game where you see what is true or fake online)

Conscious: Being conscious online is about being aware of how social media affects us.

Control: Control means to recognise how much time you spend on social media apps or the internet in general.

If you want to learn more about this topic go to esafety.gov.au

Nathaniel: Kids Helpline told me to stop going on my phone as soon as I get home and also to limit my time on Tiktok or instagram. And also learned about how to be conscious on Facebook. Also with E Safety I can see how to block someone and the recommended age for each app and also get some information for apps.

Phinehas: What I took away from this lesson is that there can be positives for screen time and social media and there are places for me to go when I need help. Another thing to know is that however enticing it is, social media can easily capture you in its complex web like a spider’s web. Something others could take away from it is that social media is not always what it seems.

Quentin: What I picked up from the session is how dangerous social media is. And the three C’s and they stand for conscious, critical and in control. We also went on the E Safety website to teach us what ages are recommended for social medias such as Tik tok, Snapchat and instagram. We learned how we can be smart in social media challenges such as when people are bullying you.

Woodland Road PS - Newsletter

Thrive Through Opportunity

Term 2, Week 5 · 31 May 2024

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