ES1 Newsletter

WOW! What a fabulous time we all had at Thalgarrah. Students learned so much about the environment and why we need to take care of it. Theodore and our teddies, dinosaurs, sharks and other soft creatures certainly played a trick on us when they took our lunch boxes into the bush and set up a picnic. Luckily we followed the clues, solved the riddles and found them waiting for us. Thank you to the parents who helped us and a huge thank you to the students for being such great ambassadors of Ben Venue.

Some photos of our Thalgarrah adventure are attached to this newsletter. We will provide a link via email to your child’s group photos soon.

English

We are learning to:

• identify and understand plurals (cats, dogs, pigs) 
• use the suffix ‘s’ at the end of words to change the meaning (cat = 1 cat, cats = more than one cat) 

We are revising our reading and spelling skills and the sounds we have learnt over the term.

Mathematics

We are learning to:

• identify how many groups and how many in each group
• describe and compare volumes

Personal Development and Health (PDH)

We are learning to:

• identify the safe administration and storage of medicines

A huge thanks to Jason Faint for coming and teaching us about keeping safe on the farm.

Integrated Learning

 We are learning to:

• understand that the way an object moves depends on a variety of factors, including their size or shape
• relate changes in motion to push and pull forces

Art

We are learning to:

• create an artwork using string and the ‘pull’ force

Fun at Thalgarrah Education Centre

Loud Shirt Day - How can we look after our hearing?

As part of Loud Shirt Day, children in Kindergarten learned about their middle ear and how to look after their ears and their hearing.

One thing they learned is that wax is good stuff!

It protects your ear canal and ear drum. That is why the body makes it. Our ears clean themselves, which is why the wax at the opening of the ear is usually brown, dry and crusty. It has done its job of collecting dust and dirt and is making its way out of the ear canal.

The take-home message is NOT to clean your ears with a cotton bud

Your ear canal is about 2.5 centimetres long. The cotton bud is 8 cm long. If you insert a cotton bud into your ear canal, you run the risk of scratching the lining of the ear canal which may cause ear infection. You may even puncture the ear drum, causing a conductive hearing loss. Most of the time, what you end up doing is pushing the wax in further and compacting it against your ear drum. You may then need to see a doctor to help safely remove the wax.

Ways to safely clean your ears

If you want to clean wax from your ear, just use a washcloth. If the wax has built up, you can try putting a few drops of baby oil or an over-the-counter wax softener, into your ear canal. Another good method is to wash your hair under a warm shower. The wax softens and you can then remove it from the end of your ear with a washer or tissue spear.

Happy ears…. Happy days!

Bev Walls

Hearing Itinerant Support Teacher