A message from Margie

Sustainability Fair

Last weekend we joined with the community to promote environmental sustainability by participating in the Sustainability Fair. Our students learned how to create artworks and functional items with recycled and donated items in Art lessons with Suzie Tume, and then became experts at one of the skills, in order to teach others. At the stall the students were in charge; they taught others cardboard circle weaving, origami, finger knitting, keychain knotting, decorating a jar and how to make a potpourri bag.

We received some wonderful feedback from the 'Sus Fair' committee about our school stall and students working at the stall and those helping out at the Sus Fair generally:

I'm emailing you in a Sus Fair capacity to first of all thank Suzie for all her hard work in

setting up the UPS stall and running it all day. It contributed to such a lively children's area and we really couldn't have created such a wonderful vibe without her work.

Also, we would like to pass on our thanks to Benji, Finn and Innes for joining our orange shirted volunteers for the day. All three boys were there at 7am. Benji and Finn were on the gates, welcoming in and directing our stall holders to their unloading gates. They were courteous, professional and we received so much stallholder feedback on how amazing they were. Innes greeted stallholders, took them to their sites and helped 31 of them to unpack and set up, of which the stall holders couldn't believe. Please see below the comment from one of our stallholders to pass onto the school:

It was a great event and so good to see how you involved the young boys at the entrance - they were fantastic. I also really appreciated the help of your team with setting up my marquee [this refers to Innes]. I have never seen or received that kind of help at any other event so was truly grateful, especially as one of my volunteers couldn't make it for set up as he had the flu.

Even though he was finished for the day, Finn continued to ask us how he could help. We appreciated his initiative and willingness to be involved. Benji manned the corn stall, which raised money for the Sus Fair for almost the entire day. He wasn't asked to do this, and again, we were appreciative of his help.

Some lovely news to share and I hope the boys know how appreciative we were. We hope they continue to help us in future years (and they get more friends involved!)

Are you interested in sustainability? Would you like to help us grow sustainable practices at school? We have a small but active Green Team and we'd love more parent involvement! If you would like to join us or hear more about what this involves, please let me know by emailing margie.sarre187@schools.sa.edu.au .

Harmony Day

This week we celebrated Harmony Day with the theme Everyone Belongs. Students have been working together with buddy classes to create and display multicultural masks from different cultures. They also 'took a walk in one another's shoes' by asking other students about their interests and writing these on a shoe template, displayed in the school hallway. Harmony Day is always a happy day for everyone at school and a great way to understand other perspectives.

Communicating

Our learning about communicating continues, with a focus this past fortnight on how to communicate when we disagree with others, or when we don't like how they are treating us.

One skill you might like to ask your children about at home is how to use an 'I message'.

When we are frustrated or upset because of something someone else has said or done, we can use an ‘I message’. ‘I messages’ can be used to help us express our feeling in a positive way using these 3 sentences starters:

I feel … When … Because…

For example:

I feel sad and left out when you play cricket because I don't know the rules and I can't join in.

I feel hurt when you tease me about my hair because everyone gives me funny looks.

It doesn't always solve the problem right away, but when we communicate our feelings, others often feel empathy and will change their behaviour towards us, especially if we speak calmly and in private.