Primary News

Assistant Principal Report

Winter has certainly arrived with a vengeance and it is wonderful to see so many of our students wearing the new winter uniform. Could I please ask parents to support us in ensuring students are wearing the uniform correctly. The jumper is compulsory, the jacket optional to be worn over the jumper. Leggings are not part of the uniform (old or new) and should not be worn to school. For students wearing the winter pinafore, PSW, the uniform supplier, is happy to alter the pinafore for you so you can adjust the bib or remove it completely so your daughter can wear just the skirt. If you wish to have the alteration done, please take the pinafore to the main office, in a plastic bag, with your name and contact details pinned to the item by Thursday 28th June.

Breakfast club has gone from strength to strength this year and is now operating in the canteen area. I'd like to thank Bec Birchfield and Garrie and Sue Rushby for their hard work and dedication in organising the breakfast club each morning. As our numbers continue to grow we are looking for more volunteer helpers to support this program. If you are able to help, at least for one morning a week, please let Donna Azzzopardi know.

Teachers have been busy writing semester reports over the last couple off weeks. The reports will go live on Friday 29th June and can be accessed via the parent portal on COMPASS. I encourage you to read them carefully and discuss them with your child, noting strengths and areas for improvement.

There have been many events for students this term, including the Fun Run taking place on Wednesday 20th June at 2.10 pm on the College Oval. We would love to see family members come along and support, or participate in, this event.

Term 2 ends at 2.30 pm on Friday 29th June and term 3 begins on July 16th. I'd like to thank staff and students for their hard work this semester and to parents for your support of our College and programs. I wish everyone a happy holiday and look forward to seeing you all in the new term.

National Simultaneous Storytime at Carwatha College P-12

The Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA) hold national Simultaneous Storytime (NSS) annually. Every year a picture book, written and illustrated by an Australian author and illustrator, is read simultaneously in libraries, schools, pre-schools, childcare centres, family homes, bookshops and many other places around the country. Now in its 18th successful year, it is a colourful, vibrant, fun event that aims to promote the value of reading and literacy, using an Australian children's book that explores age-appropriate themes, and addresses key learning areas of the National Curriculum for Foundation to Year 6

The group reading was followed by class activities with parents and guardians joining students in the classroom.

Prep L & Prep/1A Report

We are so proud of all the achievements we have made in our reading and writing, as you can see with all of our fantastic ‘Magic Words´ certificates. We love showing the whole school just how smart we are!

Prep L and Prep/1 A have been learning to add descriptive words in our writing so we played with some bubbles and brainstormed some fabulous words like translucent and transparent. We then came up with some terrific sentences about our experience.

In Maths we were learning about our left and right, so we did some hand painting and made a poster to help us remember which side of our body is which. We played some games like the Hokey Pokey and gave our friends some directions to move around the classroom.

We cannot wait to see what the next few weeks bring.

Ms Levy & Mrs Abraham

1/2L Report

This term, grade 1/2L have conducted interviews of their older relatives to find out about their past. These were put onto a USB so that the class could view them at school during our Integration Studies.

We have discovered that some things are very similar to today and some are a bit different, like some of the games and books that they enjoyed.

We are looking forward to Grandparents’ Day next week with Preps and grade ones, where we hope that we will be able to hear more stories about their past school days as well as play some games. We will then celebrate together with afternoon an afternoon tea before home time.

1/2L has also been working on improving their maths addition and subtraction strategies as well as creating simple maps. We looked at Google earth to see our school and locate neighbouring landmarks. Many students have been practising maths and other activities at home and have been awarded study ladder certificates.

Everyone who borrows books and reads nightly have shown great improvement in their reading has this term.

Keep up the great work everyone!

Mrs Lilburne

3/4m & 4s Class Report

Coal Creek Excursion Grades 3 and 4

On Thursday 14th June the grade 3 and 4 students went to Coal Creek Historical Town. As part of our Integrated studies unit this term we have been focussing on what life was like in Australia in the 1800’s. The students dressed in olden day clothing and were involved in activities that reflected the era.

Students made damper on the open fire, they made their own toys decorating wooden pegs and experienced a day in the life of a school student. In the school room the children practised handwriting skills on slate boards with a slate pen.

Everyone enjoyed the experience and learnt a lot about how hard life was and how cold they must have been.

Thanks to Donna Azzopardi, Janet Binder and the parent helpers, we could not have done it without you!

Mrs McPhie & Ms Di Petta

4/5N Report

We have had an action packed term 2 in Grade 4/5N! We have enjoyed learning about electricity in science and have worked as a team to make electrical circuits using wires, batteries and a light globe. We celebrated Mother’s Day with the special women in our lives. We had a special afternoon with chocolate biscuits, hand and back massages and colouring in. It was lovely to see so many smiling visitors join the students in our classroom! Gala Day was a highlight, with all students demonstrating their very best sportsmanship as we took on the other schools in football, netball, rounders and basketball.

It has been exciting to see the progress all students have made in their learning as the semester has gone on. Students are flourishing in Reading and Maths Groups, and have produced some high-quality work in Writing. Recently we have been learning about writing information reports. The students have enjoyed researching a topic of their choice and writing an information report. We have had some interesting topics, including wolves, baboons, lyrebirds and even Einstein.

As Semester 1 draws to a close, we are looking forward to our second Gala Day next week, as well as the Fun Run on Wednesday. Many students have signed up and have been excited to be raising money for our school! It has been a pleasure teaching 4/5N so far, and I am very proud of everything we have accomplished together so far this year. As the holidays approach, I wish everyone a very safe, happy and restful break!

Ms Naylor

5B Report

It has been an exciting term in grade 5 B with lots of learning and Inquiry. Students have taken a step back in time to learn about the early settlers of Australia. They learnt about the First Fleet and how the colony of Australia began. Students worked together to create role plays depicting the struggles that early settlers encountered such as shortages of food and problems creating shelter.

Science has sparked students interest in our ‘It’s Electrifying’ unit where they have discovered how battery-operated appliances work and work collaboratively to complete an experiment to create a circuit to light up a light bulb.

Reading Scaffolding groups have been a great success and we are very proud of our students’ progress. Next term we will be focusing on ‘Making Connections’ with the texts students are reading and other texts, their own experiences and current events and issues that are happening around the world. Please encourage your child to read daily, discuss what they have read and also discuss current issues that they may make connections with the themes and ideas in the texts they are reading. We are still filling up our classroom libraries so if you have any books you have finished with at home please send them to school with your child so we can share them with Carwatha Kids.

Next term in Numeracy Scaffolding groups students will be focusing on Addition and Subtraction and concepts involving shapes. We encourage students to keep practising their number facts to improve their automatic recall as this will assist them with our next unit of work.

Next term we are also looking forward to more Gala Days and we are eagerly awaiting grade 5/6 camp to DOXA Malmsbury.

I am very proud of all of the students in our grade and look forward to an inspiring second half of the year with lots of fun and learning.

Ms Bishop

5/6Z Report

What an exciting and busy term we have had! Between competing against other schools on Gala Day and celebrating our mums at our special Mother’s Day afternoon, it’s a miracle we had time to fit in any learning – but we have!

Students in 5/6Z have been busy researching, planning and writing an information report, working in groups to research and create posters in Integrated Studies and conducting experiments to find out about changes to liquids, gases and solids in Science. In 5/6 Sport, students have been practising their sports in preparation for Gala Day 2 on Friday 22nd June.

We can’t wait for Term 3!

Mrs Zelazo

6E Report

The past month has been a very busy month for students in 6E. In writing we have been learning about writing information reports. This has involved students completing research about a natural disaster and culminated in students writing a report about a disaster of their choice.

In Maths the focus has been on Location and Money. Students have been learning about mapping concepts, including how to plot points on a cartesian plane.

They have also been learning about the images on our notes and coins, how to round money amounts and how to calculate the percentage off different amounts. In Integrated Studies students have been learning about the First Fleet. They have shown a lot of interest in the types of crimes the convicts had committed prior to being sentenced to transportation and also great interest in the impact of European settlement on the Indigenous people of Australia.

In Science the focus has been on what causes substances to change, and whether the change is reversible or not.

We have also had the opportunity to go to Gala Day and have had students representing our school at District Cross Country and were lucky enough to have had two students who progressed to the Division Cross Country and they will also represent our school at the Regional Cross Country. We wish Brayden and Nurija great success in their event.

Mrs Elias

Art - 4/5N

Students in Grade 4/5N have been learning about the kinetic artist Heather Hansen.

They had so much fun creating large body movements with both hands, resulting in a symmetrical piece of art.

Mrs McAleer

Art - African Maasai Tribes

Students in 3M have been learning about the African Maasai tribe. They looked carefully at the colours, textures, lines and patterns of the clothing, jewellery and their environment. Students drew their own picture on Calico and painted using water colour paints.

Mrs McAleer

Art - Grade 5 and 6 Dragon’s Eye

Students wanted to learn how to draw images that were more realistic. We started by studying how artists draw 2D images that look 3D by using light or dark tones of a colour. Thinking about where the light hits the picture. Where would the shadow be? Which parts of the image would appear closer? Larger?

We then put our creativity to the test by drawing a range of different dragon’s eyes. Using tonal variation, we coloured using watercolour pencils to create implied form. Then turned our pencils into paint using water to blend different tones.

Mad On Music

Congratulations go to Declan Vishniakov for being awarded the Mad On Music Signature Chart Award for Term 2, 2018.

Well done, Declan!