Term 3, Week 5 - 12th August, 2021
From the Principal
Dear parents and carers,
Welcome to Week 5! It’s hard to believe that we have reached the halfway mark this term. This week we have been working very hard on our mid-term reading testing. Week 5 and 6 are my favourite weeks of the school term as it is a chance to celebrate the hard work that has been happening across the school in the area of reading.
Long Service Award 2021
On behalf of Toowoomba Catholic Schools office and our school community, I would like to acknowledge Mrs Anne Anderson, our wonderful teacher librarian, for 20 years’ service. Thank you for all that you do for our school and our learners!
Book Week Dress Up
Book Week 2021 runs from 21-27 August and this year asks your children to embrace the theme “Old Worlds, New Worlds, Other Worlds”. This exciting invitation opens a world full of possibilities when it comes to kids book week theme ideas. This is an opportunity to escape into another world where your child can be anything they want to be! On Thursday the 26th of August, our students are invited to dress up for the Book Character Parade which will be held during assembly.
Do the 5!
This term, our teachers and school staff have been working with students on building resilience and dealing positively and effectively with bullying in their Health lessons.
They’ve explored the traits of bullying, learnt how to recognise a ‘small’ and a ‘big’ problem and are building their resilience tool kit.
Over the next few weeks, we are going to introduce the ‘Do the 5’ strategy – a strategy that helps children deal with challenging behaviours at school and gives them steps that they must take when responding to low level situations (small problems). Each finger on our hand represents the five steps that we need to take when navigating challenging situations:
Step 1 – We ‘Ignore’ the behaviour of the other person.
Step 2 – We ‘Talk Friendly’- at this step, we encourage children to be polite. For example : ‘I don’t like when you (call me that) and I’d really like it if you would now stop.’
Step 3 – We ‘Walk Away’ - at this step of the process, we walk away from the person or people that are annoying or worrying us.
Step 4 – We ‘Talk Firmly’ – similar to ‘Step 2’ but at this stage, we are firmer with our words. For example: ‘I don’t like the way you are not stopping that. If you don’t stop it now, I’ll see the teacher.’
Step 5 – We ‘Report’ to a teacher. When your child is at this step, they must tell the teacher the steps they have gone through.
If the behaviour involves foul language, use of technology to communicate inappropriately, is abusive or aggressive or involves physical contact, children must skip to Step 5 straight away and report to a teacher. These are big problems.
With your support, we are encouraging the children to understand that we do not go through the four steps again if the situation is occurring regularly with the same child/children, we ‘report’ straight away when we are talking about the same children. Bullying is not acceptable at our school and must be reported.
If your child is reluctant to report situations like those mentioned above, please contact your child’s teacher and let them know of your child’s concerns as soon as possible. This will open the conversation with your child and build confidence in them that they can report this for themselves next time.
Math Chat – try this at home!
Pepperoni Pizza
Task Instructions:
- Ask child to roll a dice twice.
- The first roll tells them how many pizzas to draw.
- The second roll tells them how many pepperonis to put on EACH pizza.
- Then they write the number sentence that will help them answer the question, “How many pepperonis in all?”
- For example, I roll a dice and get 4 so I draw 4 big pizzas. I roll again and I get 3 so I put three pepperonis on each pizza. Then I write 4 x 3 = 12 and that tells me that there are 12 pepperonis in all.
Cold & Flu Symptoms
Flu and the common cold are both respiratory illnesses but they are caused by different viruses. Because these two types of illnesses have similar symptoms, it can be difficult to tell the difference between them based on symptoms alone. In general, flu is worse than the common cold, and symptoms are more intense.
If your child has cold or flu-like symptoms, the following is advised:
- Keep your child home from school;
- Ensure your child washes their hands regularly with soap and water or sanitiser gel;
- Encourage your children when coughing or sneezing, to cover their mouth and nose with disposable tissues which should be disposed of immediately;
- Ensure they drink plenty of fluids and get lots of rest;
- Consult your doctor if you are concerned about their symptoms.
- Queensland Health Guidelines advise that individuals displaying flu like symptoms should stay at home until such symptoms have passed (normally 5-7 days).
Pathway to Prep Transition
To support the Kindy students who will be beginning Prep in 2022, our transition to school process will begin next Friday (20th) from 9-11am with the first Pathway to Prep Open Morning this term. It is important for the Kindy students to become familiar with key staff members and the Prep-2 students from St Maria Goretti to encourage a smooth transition. We will hold another Pathway to Prep Open Morning this term on Friday the 17th of September from 9-11am. Our Term 4 transition days will be communicated to parents in the next few weeks.
Have a great weekend.
Yours in education,
Casey Robinson
Principal
“May St Joseph obtain many graces for us all, and chief among these a great love for our Vocation – a grateful love.” (Mary MacKillop, 1899)
Students of the Week
Congratulations to Will and Beau on receiving Student of the Week awards last week
Well done to both Celeste and Jaxon on receiving Student of the Week this week.
P-2 Classroom News
In P-2 we have been looking at writing some exciting stories using picture prompts. Each day a new picture is displayed, and we come up with creative stories to match the photo. The picture prompts we have used have included a young boy flying in a balloon basket, a door to the unknown and a friendly vampire walking with an umbrella. The stories we have made saw people meeting and becoming friends with dragons, flying to Africa in our balloon basket and walking through a magical door to the land of candy. Our work is improving every time we write, and we are starting to use some amazing WOW words. We will continue to practice and improve our writing so we can create some more amazing stories.
- Mr Zahner (P-2 teacher)
Sight Word Certificates
Life and Learning in the Library
Mrs Smith has done an amazing job of bringing the Book Week theme OLD WORLDS, NEW WORLDS, OTHER WORLDS to life with our library displays.
Year 3 – 6 students are applying the information they have located to create their response to the inquiry question, “What have new worlds learnt from the old worlds of ancient nations and peoples?”
Their learning will be shared during assembly in Week 7 when we celebrate Book Week
Book Week dress-up parade: What world will you belong to, Old, new or other?
The simplest ideas and home made costumes are the best. The Vinnies store has advised that they will have fresh costume items in stock next week if you need help!
Come and join the audience for the parade on Thursday 26th August (Week 7) at Assembly.
DATES FOR THIS TERM
Book Week dress-up parade: Thursday 26th August (Week 7) at Assembly.
2021 Scholastic Book Fair: Wednesday 8th - Tuesday 14th September (Week 9)
Happy reading everyone!
Anne Anderson
Happy Birthday!
Child Protection Week (5 - 11 September)
Parent Partnership Forum
Chairperson: Christine Apted
Secretary: Jade Johnson
Next meeting: Wednesday 18th August at 3:30pm in the Prep-2 classroom.
Please see Casey, Christine or Jade if you would like anything added to the agenda.
Tuckshop Roster
Tuckshop Menu
Pathway to Prep
Notices
