PREP

We loved being blessed by our buddies today, and would like to say thank-you to all of our friends who came to share in our beginning of the year Mass.

Next Wednesday is our last Prep rest day. March 13th will be our first Wednesday back at school. It is VERY IMPORTANT that all Preps are here in their full summer school uniform, in readiness for school photos.

Here is what some of our Preps had to say about their highlights this week!

Harriet Laird - Milo monkey animals, the big red slide and the monkey bars.

Vada Leersen - my buddies, playing in the playground and learning.

Ilarh Leech-Alty - making friends, the toys, playing in the playground, and Hegarty.

Fred Hickey - playing in the playground, drawing, sport and the milo monkey book.

Gemma Blake gblake@smcolac.catholic.edu.au

Meg Knight mknight@smcolac.catholic.edu.au

GRADE 1/2

Can you believe that we are already heading into Week 6 of Term 1! We are so proud of the way that all students have transitioned into their new classrooms and routines. Below are a couple of reminders for students in Years 1 and 2.

Please make sure that you send the blue reading/homework folder to school each Monday. We understand that sometimes completing the tasks at home may not always be possible, but sending the folder to school on a Monday ensures your child has new reading materials each week and that you can stay up to date with their counting goals and writing topics.

All students in Year 2 need a set of labeled headphones for classroom use.

Please make sure your child is bringing a drink bottle to school each day!

Student Review

"Today (Thursday) we went to the 'Beginning of Year' Mass, It was great. I loved when Father Michael put a blindfold on a Grade 6 student. He did this to show us that we need to see with our hearts. I also loved when Father Michael told Mr Mahoney that all the students should get free ice-creams for being so good!" - Thea Downard.

Special Dates:

Beginning of year BBQ at 6pm - March 7th

Public Holiday - March 11th

School Photos - Wednesday 13th March

School Sports - Friday 15th

End of Term (2:15 finish) - Thursday 28th March

Judy Carr jcarr@smcolac.catholic.edu.au

Jodie Hassett jhassett@smcolac.catholic.edu.au

Paula Parish pparish@smcolac.catholic.edu.au

Emma Roberts eroberts@smcolac.catholic.edu.au

Matt O'Dowd modowd@smcolac.catholic.edu.au

Amanda Delorenzo mdelorenzo@smcolac.catholic.edu.au

GRADE 3/4

Here we are at the halfway point of Term 1. What a BIG term it has been so far!

We have been learning a lot about our physical health, and health messages in the media during our Inquiry lessons. Why not ask your child to tell you how the media influences their health choices?

In Religion we have engaged in a lot of discussion about how our choices affect others and the world around us. We thoroughly enjoyed having the CHOICE to go to Matt, Elissa, Kascha or Deb for our Religion lesson this afternoon.

Today we celebrated our Beginning of Year Mass as a whole school. It was great to see so many of our families there!

Our Beginning of Year Mass- by Finn Hay and Tom McCarthy.

First we went to the gigantic church.

Then we followed our teachers and we sat down quietly.

We listened to Father Michael. We also listened to some songs, and people lined up

for the bread.

They played a song for the buddy blessing.

Father Michael talked to us some more, then he said that all of the kids can have Bulla Ice Cream and we went wild!

Reminders:

Thank you so much to the grown ups who have taken care of all their PAM forms, and camp notes. If you haven’t yet returned your child’s Excursion Consent and Medical Information note, please do so as soon as possible.

Elissa Rodger erodger@smcolac.catholic.edu.au

Deb Holland dholland@smcolac.catholic.edu.au

Liza Alexander lalexander@smcolac.catholic.edu.au

Kascha Blair kblair@smcolac.catholic.edu.au

Matt Absalom mabsalom@smcolac.catholic.edu.au

GRADE 5/6

In the past two weeks in year five we have had an exciting time learning.

This past two weeks us year 5s had athletics trials at the Central Reserve, we enjoyed pancakes on Shrove Tuesday. Dan took many year six students to the Inter- school tennis tournament. Charlotte Boyd and Rachael Richardson were lucky enough to go to the tournament with the year sixes because they are strong at tennis. Rachael came runners up and is going to the next stage in Ballarat. Charlotte came third or fourth and is unfortunately not going to the next round but it was still a great opportunity for her to go to tennis.

We have had an amazing two weeks and are looking forward to our first kindergarten

visit on Friday. Jade's class is going to Apex and Rachel’s to Winifred Nance and next week we’re going to different kinders on Wednesday and Thursday.

- Charlotte, Tessa and Taya

This week in year 6, Rachel Bailey's snake had a visit and its name was Firefly. It’s species is Stimson's Python and Firefly is three months old.

Year six prayer gathering is this Friday at 9am and with that we have a leadership announcement and those students will receive their badges from Mr Mahoney.

Buddy blessing was today. Buddy blessing is when the Year 6s welcome the new Preps into our school community. We do it at the start of the year Mass, everyone is invited.

In Writing, we are doing big writes and cold writes, our latest big write was a persuasive text on What would be the best class pet?

In Math, we are learning about column graphs and collecting data.

Finally, Rachael Richardson got into the grand final of the tennis tournament but sadly she lost. Still a great effort Rachael!

- Izzy, Ursula, Evelyn and Vinh

Jade LoRicco jloricco@smcolac.catholic.edu.au

Rachel Downard rdownard@smcolac.catholic.edu.au

Leah Martin lmartin@smcolac.catholic.edu.au

Dan Cannon dcannon@smcolac.catholic.edu.au

Maegen Potter mpotter@smcolac.catholic.edu.au

Miscellanous