Weetangera Primary School eNewsletter

From Mel

Dear Families

It's been a very busy fortnight at Weetangera Primary School! One of the absolute highlights has been having our community back in the school for lots of different reasons. It's so nice seeing you all in and around the school.

P&C - get involved!

Our P&C is now up and running for the year, and they have lots of exciting events planned. You can read more about that below in their update. A good way to stay in touch with what's happening is to follow their Facebook page, or even better, come along to the P&C meetings held twice each term. All are welcome! Also, don't forget the disco is on soon (30 March). Tickets are only on sale until the 24th March, so please make sure you pick some up via flexischools. They won't be available at the door.

Spectacular Balloons!

On Tuesday this week, we were extremely lucky to have a visit from Lance the balloon, and his amazing pilot Brendon. Thank you to our very own balloon pilot-in-training, Emma Cottam, for organising this exciting event. I'm not sure who was more excited, the students or the teachers (and quite a few parents and families that popped along to watch too)! As you might have heard, the wind made for some interesting moments, but we all got to see the balloon up close and hear the roar of the burners. It was wonderful for our students to collect the science learning they've been doing with Robyn Trenton and the reality of a big balloon that takes passengers!

The Canberra Ballon Spectacular is on for two more days if you want to go down and see more balloons up close.

Reading Information Session

On Wednesday evening this week, Kate Harvey-Sutton, Izzy Dunn and Nicole Mengel gave a very informative presentation to some of our K-2 families. They explained our approach to the teaching of reading, gave some great tips on supporting reading at home, and most importantly, how to foster the joy of reading at home and at school. Here are a couple of links to resources that we shared on the night:

Literacy Hub has a wealth of information for parents and families, including the information that we shared about the "Big Six" - the components that underpin the teaching of reading.
A resource from the Queensland Government that gives some great tips for supporting students as you listen to them read (we recommend the information on page 11 about "Pause-Prompt-Praise).
This bookmark that can be useful for you when prompting students during reading.

Of course our role as a school is to do the actual teaching of reading, so this information is really just for you if you're interested in knowing more. The most important thing that you can do to support us in bringing joy to the act of reading is to just enjoy books with your child. Read to them, read with them, and show them just how wonderful books can be. And as always, please get in touch if you need more information.

Thanks again to Kate, Izzy and Nicole for your time on Wednesday. And thanks as well to all our teachers, for your passion and dedication to the teaching of reading at Weetangera.

Swimming Carnival

Last week, we held our first swimming carnival for a couple of years. It was a fun day for our 8-12 year olds, with races and fun rotation activities that got everyone involved. Thank you to Tyler Beltrame and Erwin McRae for organising, and to the teachers that supported it in getting students to the carnival, running activities, and supervising everything from changerooms to canteen to noisy and excited house groups. See below for an update from Mr McRae.

One thing that surprised me about the swimming carnival is the high number of students that did not participate in races, and the many that were not so confident in the water. Being able to swim confidently is such an important skill in a country like Australia, where so much of our recreation is based around the water. I think the couple of years of COVID and all the related restrictions have taken us away from the water. Perhaps it's time for all of us to brush up on our skills.

Those of you that were there (it was so nice to see you all!) would have seen my antics. Sorry if you had to listen to my singing, but gee it was fun!

On top of all that, we've had all students view the very entertaining "Wellbeing Show", year 1 presented a fabulous assembly, our school leaders attended the GRIP Leadership Conference with students from all over Canberra, Wheeltangera is going strong and our year 3 and year 5 students are doing their very best in the NAPLAN assessments. Whew!

Next week, it's Harmony Week (Dress orange for Harmony Day is Monday 20 March), School photos are on Tuesday 21st (Preschool is Monday), year 4 are presenting an assembly, and our year 5/6 students are off to Camp Cooba! School is certainly a busy place to be as we motor along to the Easter holidays.

We've loved seeing you in the school for all the various activities and events. Believe me, there are more to come. See you there!

Regards

Mel

Melanie.Bezear@ed.act.edu.au

02-6142 2600

PBL Update - Behaviour Matrix

As outlined in the Weetangera Primary School Safe and Supportive Schools Procedures, PBL is an important component in how we support the wellbeing of students and promote a positive school environment for all members of our community.

Please see below the PBL Behaviour Matrix, developed by our school staff. The matrix sets the expectations for behaviour in a range of settings. We will explicitly teach these behaviours, and acknolwedge them when students get it right.

An important part of the successful implementation of PBL is that all members of our community understand the expectations. Please take the opportunity to discuss these expectations with your child/ren and how it looks for them.

Behaviour_Matrix_WTG.pdf

Harmony Day - Wear Orange

Next week (20-26 March) is Harmony Week. Harmony Week is the celebration that recognises our diversity and brings together Australians from all different backgrounds. It’s about inclusiveness, respect and a sense of belonging for everyone.

Louise Tominich and Teagan Lovett are organising an action packed week of celebrating our cultural diversity. To show your support, please encourage your child to wear orange on Monday 20 March.

School Photos: 20-21 March

Given below are the dates for upcoming School Photography Day for 2023

Monday, 20 March 2023 (T1/W9) - Preschool Photography Day 2 (day 1 photos were taken today) - Beginning of Week Preschool (Sibling photos will be taken between 1:00pm and 1:30pm Location - Preschool)

Tuesday, 21 March 2023 (T1/W9) - Main School Photo Day (Sibling photos will be taken between 8:30am and 9:00am Location – New Hall Unit 7).

Students will not receive individual envelopes this year. Parents are encouraged to use the online order code to order student photos.

Online Payments - We encourage parents to pay online before the School Photography Day. An online order code is located on the flyer - www.theschoolphotographer.com.au. This year there are no individual student order codes

Sibling Photos – In order for The School Photographer to provide the school with a list of sibling orders, the online ordering of sibling photos will be temporarily disabled one working day prior to photo day and re-open after all photo days are finalised. All students & families (if presented) will be photographed regardless of payment.
Sibling Photos are taken of siblings who attend the school only. Time and location for sibling photos are given above.
Cash Orders – via envelope. Please see Front Office
ALL STUDENT PHOTO ENQUIRIES – Parents to contact The School Photographer.

Email enquiries@theschoolphotographer.com.au or call: 02 9674 9824

Weetangera_School_Elite_FLYER_A5.pdf

Ride 2 School Day - 31 March

Ride2School Day for term 1 is Friday week 9 – the 31^st of March.

We are encouraging students to get active on the way to school. This can be riding, scooting, skating or walking to school on the day.

Following on from the high number of students participating in ‘Wheeltangera’, Ride2School day is great way to encourage our students to get active.

Senior students will be collecting data from each class about how they got to school. A certificate will be presented to the class with the highest percentage of students who used active travel to get to school.

We will also be running a Colouring-in Contest with junior and senior students selected as winners.

Colouring competition sheets will be provided to students on Tuesday of week 8 and students will have a week to complete the sheet and hand it back to their teacher.

Sheets will be collected on Tuesday week 9 – the 28^th of March.

Swimming Carnival

Swimming Carnival

Last Friday our swimming carnival was held at Dickson Pool. Congratulations are extended to our students for their team spirit shown by dressing up in house colours and for their loud and enthusiastic cheering! This year we had eighty-five students take part in the competitive races (50m and 100m) while we had fifty students entering the 20m participation race which was the most we have ever had for this event. Well done to all students who entered these events for your enthusiastic participation! After the races concluded students took part in a series of water safety rotations and all children were able to take part in a mix of relays, modified games in the water as well as some land activities such as beach volleyball. In these events students had the opportunity to gain points for their house in a non-competitive environment.

Thank you to the large number of parents that volunteered to help on the day, we had such a great response to our call for help that we couldn’t use everyone, but I would like to express my thanks to all those that were called upon to volunteer for helping the event run as smoothly as possible.

The following students recorded qualifying times to be able to compete at the Belconnen Swimming Championships in week 9:

8 Year Girls-Alexa BW, Ebony C

9G- Madeleine B, Ruby K

10G- Poppy P, Lucy D, Mika S

11G- Perrin F, Zalie G, Anokhi G

12 GCarla B, Harriet O

9 Year Boys- Jensen I, Kevin C, Steven Q

10B- Henry M, Jack D, Charlie J

11B- Alex B, Henry B, Lincoln C

12B- Elliot R and Ian M

Well done and best wishes for a successful and enjoyable competition!

Erwin McRae

Chief Minister's Reading Challenge

What's Happening in the Kinder Crayons?

We have been very busy writers in kindergarten!

Each kindergarten class has started their interactive writing program, which supports students in developing an understanding of what good writers do, and the skills and strategies used by writers.

Last week, while learning about the letter Aa, we focussed on our ‘schema’, or the facts we already know about alligators. First, we collected the students’ existing thoughts and knowledge on sticky notes to add to the schema file, and then we read books and watched learning videos to find out more about them. Each week, as we learn new facts about our chosen topic of interest, we record our new learning on sticky notes and add them to our schema files too! This provides us with lots of writing ideas to inspire us. Next, during the interactive writing process, the teacher shares the pen with students to write some interesting facts that they have learned. While the teacher works with a student to model the writing process, each child in the class writes the co-constructed sentence on a whiteboard and then returns to their desk to copy the sentence in their writing book. As soon as the children are ready, they are encouraged to have-a-go at writing their own sentences about the topic of interest.

Interactive writing is a very supportive and encouraging way to support children as they develop their confidence as writers.

Leanne Oxley

What's Happening in the Kookaburras?

Hello and Welcome to the Kookaburras class,

Wow! We can’t believe that it is already week 7. Time is flying.

By now the Kookaburras class have settled in to a solid routine and are working hard in all areas to get smarter.

Our morning sessions look fairly similar each day. We begin each day with a work work activity where students are segmenting, blending and manipulating sounds in different ways. Then we break with a story and a snack. After that we complete a reading activity, throughout the week we focus on building comprehension, accuracy and fluency skills. Our last activity for the morning session is writing. We move through the writing process as the week goes by – first draw, then write, then share and edit, and finally publish.

The middle session is all about building out independent reading stamina, followed by a maths activity and finished with a PE or health – at the moment year 1 is focusing on building on the fundamental motor skills introduced to them in Kindergarten, and our Zones of Regulation.

The afternoon session begins with mindfulness. In the Kookaburras class we know that the key to mindfulness is silence, and this unlocks our relaxation. After mindfulness is either an Art activity, STEAM or Geography.

On Friday afternoons we complete community service around the school. This might be emptying the bins, cleaning up the playground, sharpening pencils or tidying the classroom.

Our routine gives us predictability and consistency and it helps our week run smoothly!!

Izzy and the Kookaburras

What's Happening in the Dragons?

Hello and welcome to the Year 2 Dragons,

As we start to approach the end of term 1, we have happily settled into the well-structured routine necessary to work on skills in PE, literacy, numeracy, inquiry and social-emotional learning. We spend a large part of the day focusing on reading and understanding texts. This is especially true for our Julia Donaldson book study. Each fortnight, we read and study a new text from Julia Donaldson. Currently, we are examining The Gruffalo.

The Gruffalo is a rhyming and describing story that looks at the world from the perspective of a little mouse that is trying not to be eaten. As he journeys through the 'deep dark wood' he finds a fox, owl and snake that would all like to have the mouse for lunch. To avoid this fate, the mouse describes an imaginary monster that he will be meeting soon. However, the monster is not imaginary and is a Gruffalo.

Year 2 Dragons have created their descriptions of the Gruffalo using poem and rhyme. Together, we came up with:

"A gruffalo? What's a gruffalo?" "A gruffalo! Why didn't you know?
"His breath stinks, he never smells like a rose.
"He has the odour of cheesy toes."

Harvey:

"He smells like blue cheese; he has knobbly knees that bump into trees.
"And if you stumble on him, his claws are good with saws."

Chiara:

"The gruffalo has his eyes on the prize, and he lies about his pies sometimes.
"The pies are the prize he tries to lie about his pies."

Alex C:

"Gruffalos are very small things that live in houses of fleas. And all of them smell stinky just like cheese and they like to tease what they sees. But you can't break their knees because they're made of rock, and they sneeze out keys from their snout.
"And he spits out husks with terrible tusks and he gets them to make Elon Musks. But he only makes them do it at dusk. And all the Musks only say the words 'cusks' and 'busks', and when it's night they're called Sleepy Musk and while they are asleep, they say 'nusk, nusk, nusk, nusk...'"

Using the book Stickman by Julia Donaldson the students recounted the story first through the pictures, next using their memory and last they recalled Stickman’s journey and wrote a postcard to his Stick-Lady Love and Stick-Children Three.

In reading groups, the students have read their texts with me, to each other and individually. During the activity stage, they predict what their text will be about. They find focus on the words, currently, we are finding rhyming words in the book and then adding to the lists with our own rhyming words. They are making connections to the texts, 1. with themselves and 2. with other texts. We are working toward summarising the texts.

We have also started to complete 'Draw, Talk, Write' lessons that focus on improving writing. The students are given ample time to draw and talk about a topic - the topic for weeks 6 and 7 was Hot Air Balloons. Once they understand and get all their ideas out, they write about the topic and publish their work.

During numeracy, we have been looking at mapping, the students have enjoyed finding animals and places on maps using coordinates. They have learnt that when reading and writing coordinates you must use the x-axis first then the y-axis.

During PE we have been focusing on fundamental movement skills. So far, we have perfected our catching and ball bounce. They would love to show you and practice their new skills at home.

Inquiry has had us focusing on connections to place. As we delve deeper into this topic, we see why Indigenous people value their counties and have such a profound connection with them. We are also looking at how we can show our respect and appreciation to the traditional landowners of this beautiful land.

We have been talking about our emotions and how we feel in SEL. We have looked at the Zones of Regulation and what they mean for students (Ask your child what they know about their Zones of Regulation). We are learning how to find our way back to the 'green zone' if we happen to go to the 'red, yellow or blue zones' temporarily.

Celeste Tunnecliffe

What's Happening in the Brain Breakers?

The Brain Breakers' science topic for term 1 is “Under the Sea”. Each week we have studied and learned about a specific sea creature and what makes it unique. We have explored what they eat, how they defend themselves, the specific environment they live in and their individual unique traits. Some of the creatures we have studied are seahorses, coral, sharks, crabs and sea turtles. In addition, we have been learning about food chains in the ocean and the transfer of energy. We can identify who is a primary consumer, producer, and predator in our oceans. Our writing each day has been centred around our learning of oceans and we have had fun creating our sea themed wall in our classroom.

Nicole Terry

What's Happening in the Falcons?

Year 3 have been super busy the last few weeks. We have been practising for the NAPLAN assessments by having a go at previous papers so that we all know what to expect when we do the actual assessment. We have focussed on reading the questions carefully and making sure we understand what it is we are being asked to do.

In Humanities and Social Science we have been exploring celebrations and commemorations around the world. We worked together on Lunar New Year and Holi as we discovered how to take notes, how to judge if a source is reliable and how to formulate questions to research. We made lanterns and money envelopes for Lunar New Year and colourful pinwheels for Holi. Children are now doing their own research, having chosen from ANZAC Day, Hanukkah, Easter, Ramadan, Diwali and Harmony Week. Once they have gathered their information, children will create a poster about their chosen event. We look forward to seeing some great work!

In Maths, we have finished our work on place value and probability. Year 3 children are now very good at deciding if an event is impossible, unlikely, even chance, likely or certain. We had a go at putting numbers to probabilities, such as 7 chances out of 10 is likely and four chances out of 8 is an even chance or 50:50. We are now investigating number patterns that can be made with addition and subtraction. We are working out the rule and applying it to complete the pattern. For example, in the pattern 10, 20, ____, ____, ____, the rule is add 10 and the missing numbers are 30, 40 and 50. We are also looking at the concept of symmetry.

In writing, students have been analysing the structure and contents of a persuasive text. Students in 3JL Falcons had very strong views about whether school holidays should be banned and came up with persuasive reasons against the proposal. We have experimented with including rhetorical questions and choosing language that expresses firm opinions as ways to further persuade our readers.

Joanne Lawson

What's Happening in the Wonka Bars?

The Wonka Bars have had an exciting term of learning so far. In our writing lessons, we have been working through the narrative structure to create an engaging story. Students started with an orientation that would capture the readers attention. We learned all about using quotation marks for dialogue and explored onomatopoeia and how sound words such as Bang, Pop, Whoosh and Crunch can activate the readers senses and help them to build a mental image about what is happening.

This week, our focus was on building suspense in our writing. We learned that suspense is not just used in horror or thriller stories, and that it can be used in the complication and rising action of a story to slowly reveal key parts and keep the reader guessing what is going on. Some of the language features we used to create suspense in our own stories include rich vocabulary, onomatopoeia and description that provokes the senses (what you can see, smell, hear, taste, touch), short, sharp sentences and repetition of words.

We are working on creating stories that take the reader on a journey and create twists and turns, rather than rushing to the ending. We hope you enjoy some examples of our writing!

e out of. This was a great way way to start our learning and the students had a lot of fun creating.

Gabe Kearins

What's Happening in the Storms?

So far this term, our class has been reading the ‘Natural Disaster’ series by Jackie French. We have read the books Flood, Earthquake and Fire and taken a closer look into the different text features she uses such as similes, metaphors and personification and how they add to the book. Our class name- the ‘Storms’ was decided on after reading the book ‘Flood’, because a lot of floods happen after a storm. We also had a go at creating our own illustration based on some lines from the book ‘Fire’.

On Tuesday the 14^th of March, we had an exciting visit from a hot air balloon. The class was able to sit and watch it be inflated on the ground, although it was pretty windy and too windy for it to stand up! We also got a whole school photo with the balloon.

NAPLAN is well underway for the year 5s this week, with writing, reading and spelling happening this week and maths still to come next week. While the year 5s were doing NAPLAN, the year 6 members of the class are learning BODMAS.

In maths, our class has learnt about cartesian planes, probability and we are now looking at interpreting data and data collection, with our ‘escaping to the sticks’ project. The students have had a go at research using websites about the weather and collecting data on the minimum and maximum temperatures in Canberra.

Emily Small

What's Happening in the Ground Breakers?

The last few weeks, The Groundbreakers have had a focus on hot air balloons! We know that Canberra Balloon Festival is coming up and we are very excited to see some balloons in real life. We have looked at the different types, and the parts of the balloon.

We found different examples of some of the types of balloons and drew some pictures of each type.

We also labelled our own balloon and are all pretty good at telling apart the different types.

It was so exciting to have balloons visit our school! We spoke to the pilot Brendon, and The Ground Breakers even helped with the pack away. Lance, the balloon, went a bit crazy and tried to squash some students which was a bit funny. We got to squish the air out of the balloon by rolling and jumping on the envelope and we also had to hug the balloon and shove it in the bag. We had a great time!

Thanks to the community who came out and joined us to and a massive thank you to Brendon Mulloy for taking time out of his busy week of flying balloons to visit us!

Emma Cottam

Volunteering at WPS - how can you help?

If you would like to help us by volunteering at Weetangera, please take a moment to fill in this form, and we will contact you.

P&C Update

Disco ticket sales CLOSE on 24 March

Join in the fun at the JUNGLE DISCO! The DJ is booked, the glow sticks are ordered and our disco queens Ruth and Gab have decorations organised to transform the school hall into a jungle. We are all set for the children to get on their dancing shoes and join us for an evening of fun.

Time is running out to buy your tickets! Tickets can ONLY be bought through Flexischools until Friday 24 March. We won’t be selling tickets at the door, so book now and make sure you don’t miss out.

Jungle Disco

Don’t have Flexischools yet? Visit www.flexischools.com.au or download the app on the Apple Store or Google Play, and then follow the steps to create an account for your child. While you’re there getting disco tickets, check out our delicious canteen menu!

We're also looking for more volunteers to help us manage the jungle. You can help with setup (4-5:30), the K-3 session (5:30-6:30), 4-6 session (7-8:30) or clean up (8:30 until it’s clean). Sign up for one session or all of them at: https://form.jotform.com/230532642495860

Are you a creative genius? We want to hear from you

The Mother’s Day fairies have been busy planning, shopping and wrapping hundreds of gifts for our Mother’s Day stall on Friday 12 May. We would love to add some homemade gifts (value $5-$10) to the beautiful range for the children to choose from for the mother figure in their lives.

If you are a creative genius, a crafty angel or a clever cook and have items you could make, bake or create to donate to our stall, send an email to weetangera.pc.president@gmail.com and Ben will get you in touch with our fabulous Mother’s Day fairies Angelina and Kate.

Stay tuned early next term for details on how you can help with running the stall on the day.

Stay up to date

Don’t forget to like and follow us on Facebook for the latest news and ways you can get involved with events: www.facebook.com/weetangerapandc