News From Around The School ~
Early Years ~ Foundation
It's been an incredible term of learning down in the Prep suite with our little blossoms! We are so proud of each and every child's mammoth growth this term and love for learning.
Our writers are now composing non-fiction books, writing 1 sometimes 2 clear sentences about familiar topics and illustrated beautifully . We have had a big focus on becoming brave spellers as our students now are able to hear our new tricky sounds in words like, th,sh,ch,ng and ee. Our readers have been flying along and we have been practicing reading with our friends to practice our 'fluency'- the ability to read smoothly.
Our mathematicians have been exploring early addition concepts this term. They've made many funny stories about adding donuts and unicorns, can write number sentences to go with their story and have become pros at number bonds eg. 3 and 2 make 5 as well as 4 and 1 also make 5.
Our inquiry about 'How do we care about our beautiful world' has taken our students on a journey to many places. We had Hilary from the Council discuss waste management and the importance of recycling, to planting our very own vegetable and flower garden outside the classroom. We polished off with the trip to the Kyabram Fauna Park.
Please enjoy a mere snapshot of the Prep's amazing term of learning.. Or as we call it our 'learning party'!
Early Years ~ 1/2
Thursday 14th September ~ Footy/Sports Colours Day
Staff vs. Students Annual Netball Game
Come dressed in your sporting team's colours! Football, soccer, netball, tennis, gymnastics you name it!!!
We will have a Footy Coin Line for Catholic Missions - bring along your loose change. Which AFL footy team will have the longest coin line? Which AFL footy team will raise the most money? Your team might have their club song played over the PA!
Families are more than welcome to stay after drop-off for our coin line & our annual Staff vs. Year 6 Students Netball Game.
Coin line before school & Netball game ~ 9.30 am
Free sausage sizzle to end the term!
Normal Finish Thursday ~ 3.20 pm.
Pupil Free Day - Friday 15th Sept leading into the holidays.
Japanese Speech Competiton ~
On Sunday 27th August, 8 students from Years 3, 5 and 6 at St Mel’s participated in the Japanese Speech Competition held at Hawthorn Town Hall in Melbourne.
Both Evie McNamara and Arya Banning from Year 3 entered the Individual Division. They devised their own script, memorised the entire speech and performed it in front of three judges and close to a hundred in the audience.
Kai Henry and Indi Emanuelli from Year 6 entered the Individual Division for their age group. They needed to learn a set speech as well as their own one-minute speech by heart. The competition was very tough with 11 other outstanding competitors from all over Victoria however, Indi brought home a medal for winning the 3rd place in her division. What a remarkable achievement!
Finally, Hayley Austen and Lily McNamara as well as Oliver Kealey and Lara Tedesco entered the Pair Division for their age group, another tough competition with 4 other pairs performing their speeches exceptionally well. Hayley, Lily, Oliver and Lara performed their speeches fluently with good pronunciation, intonation and tempo. Their performances were, by far, the best I've heard!
Congratulations to all 8 students for their hard work and courageous efforts to compete in another language. You should all be very proud of your achievement. Well done.
Demi Wood
Japanese Teacher
*Congratulations to Demi also for all her hard work & commitment to preparing our students for this great event.
ASHEdaya ~ Monday 28th August
What an amazing day celebrating and learning about our connection to culture and the land. Our students enjoyed learning traditional Indigenous games, learning about culture & artefacts, and of course, getting their faces painted.
A huge thank you to the ASHE Students who led our day, with Seldon Andrews & Neil Cooper teachers from ASHE.
Sean ~ Indigenous Dancer
We were blessed at St. Mel's to enjoy the talents of Sean C, an Indigenous dancer, who has danced all over the world and is the voice of one of the characters in the famous cartoon Bluey. Sean oozed charisma & joy and was so engaging. Through dance, Sean was able to teach us so much about the Indigenous culture & land.
Can't wait to have you back Sean!
Water Week ~ 14 - 18th August
Congratulations to our school winners of the Water Week 'Door Hangers' competition. Jasmeet, Christian & will now go into the running for the major prize across all schools in the Goulburn Valley area.
Furphy Writing Competition participants
Congratulations to Connor, Ava & Ayra!
St. Mel's Athletics Day ~ Friday 10th Nov - new date
