Weetangera Primary School Newsletter | Week 7, Term 4 2024

From Julie

Dear Families

This is the second last newsletter for 2024, hard to believe that the year has rolled through to December.

In the final two weeks of school there is still much happening:

• This week teachers complete end of year reports
• On Friday of next week; 13 December, all reports will be sent home, electronically
• Our current Year 6 students are looking towards tying up their final days in primary school and after that it is on into life as a high school student and the teenage years
• The preschool team have been meeting next year’s prospective students
• The current preschoolers have been investigating kindergarten, the library and becoming familiar with the layout of the school
• We have welcomed the students who are coming into Year 3 from Southern Cross Early Childhood School
• Year 6 will have their Graduation Assembly, their farewell dinner and the ‘fun day’
• Classrooms are being deconstructed so over the next period of time your children will bring home artefacts of learning
• The students in Years 4, 5 and 6 have elected their school representatives; Year 6 leaders for 2025
• We will farewell some of our staff and welcome newcomers and I will share with you the names of those staff in the final newsletter
• And as is usual at this time of year we have begun planning for 2025 regarding classes, teachers, room placements, timetabling, resourcing and focus areas for learning.

I would like to thank the brilliant 2024 School leaders. If you have been to an assembly, you will have seen them in action reminding students of the areas of focus for Positive Behaviours for Learning, they have led the Student Representative Council in many endeavours, discussed the outcome of class meetings and worked through ideas for school improvements and how to enhance the experience of the students of Weetangera. An extra enormous THANK YOU to MJ, Henry, Maddie and Victoria – you have done a wonderful job all year and I thank you for giving up your time to support your peers and make school the best place it can be.

Stepping into their shoes I would like to introduce the incoming, 2025 school leaders of Harriet, Kevin, Rivennie and George. Their first most important job is at the Farewell Assembly for Year 6. I look forward to seeing them blossom and grow into their leadership roles in 2025. Congratulations to the 2025 Student Leadership group.

Please refer to the information in the newsletter regarding the updated school uniforms, the processes for purchasing and where to see the uniforms themselves (the front office).

And the thought for the week:

Have an excellent week, 11 more get ups for school in 2024.

Enjoy

Regards

Julie

Julie.cooper@ed.act.edu.au

2025 Uniform Price List

What's Happening in the Koalas

We are having a busy term in Kindergarten, jet-setting around the world as we explore the concept of “Global Citizenship” through the question “how are we connected to the world?”

We have made passports and each week we explore a new continent. We started in Asia, the biggest and most populated continent in the world. We looked at where some of our friends are from; in Kindergarten we have students with families from Vietnam, China, Afghanistan, India, Nepal and Bhutan. We researched pandas and discovered some very strange facts about their toilet habits. We also explored the Himalayas and marvelled at how tall Mount Everest is! This was also the week we focused on capacity using rice and water to fill various containers.

The next continent was Africa! We learnt about Ancient Egypt and made paper pyramids before flying back into the modern age and learning about cheetahs and meerkats. A highlight for the Koalas was playing outside and pretending to be a mob of meerkats staying safe with sentries looking out for eagles. Anytime we heard a squawk we hid in our burrow until it was safe again. One afternoon was spent on safari in Botswana. We sequenced the animals we saw, wildebeest, buffalo, African elephants, lions, hippopotamus, gazelles, giraffes and zebras.

This week we have been exploring North and South America! We started our adventures in New York and we tried building skyscrapers in a STEM challenge. Zoe and Imogen from the Wombats won the competition with their 115cm tower that stood on its own! We learned about the Native American Plains Indians and created our own teepees. The next day we flew to Canada and learnt about the similarities and differences between polar bears, black bears and grizzly bears. For maths we created a picture graph of the bears we saw on our expedition. As we finish week 7 we are exploring South America and marvelling at how long an anteaters tongue is (60cm) and how heavy an anaconda is (250kg before they eat lunch) and finding out why sloths are green (it’s algae!).

Goodbye from Kindergarten! We will be in Antarctica in Week 8 and then we will swan around Europe all of Week 9! We’ll land back in Australia in Week 10, just in time for the summer holidays!

Jess Yeo

What's Happening in the Beetles

Celebrating Creativity: End of Year Artworks Inspired by Beloved Stories

Year One Beetles

As the school year comes to an end, our classroom has been buzzing with creativity and excitement. During Readers Workshop this week, the Beetles explored the world of literature and art in a unique way, diving into three inspiring stories: Stick Man by Julia Donaldson, Not Cute by Philip Bunting, and The Dot by Peter H. Reynolds. After enjoying these stories, the Beetles channelled their inspiration into creating matching artworks that brought the stories to life.

Stick Man captivated the imagination of the students, where they crafted their own stick person that illustrated Stick Man’s adventures.

Not Cute was another favourite. Students embraced the quirky charm of the main character, a baby quokka, and used their artistic flair to create the body of an animal baby quokka might be disguised as. Their artworks were filled with humour and personality, reflecting the story’s playful tone.

Lastly, The Dot inspired students to experiment with their own creative expression. Following the story’s empowering message, “just make a mark and see where it takes you”, the Beetles created vibrant 3-D paper line dot artworks.

This mini literature project not only allowed students to engage with literature but also encouraged them to explore their interpretations through art. It has been heart warming to see their creativity flourish and their confidence grow as they explore new techniques and ideas.

Take a moment to admire the creativity and effort of the boundless imagination of seven- and eight-year-olds whilst celebrating another year of learning, growing, and creating!

Hayley Dix

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What's Happening in the Kookaburras

Science in Year 3

Year 3 have been very busy exploring how we can interact with our world and become better global citizens by understanding science.  So far, we have studied different types of rocks and how volcanoes are formed and the rocks they create.  To start on our exploration of forces that shape our world, in this case gravity, we took on a design challenge.  Our job was to find a way to protect Mr Paperclip from harm as he fell from a great height.  How could we slow his fall?

We started by drawing our designs, labelling them and working out what materials to use, based on a limited selection.  Then we made our designs, adapting them as practical issues arose.  We did a few test runs in class and made any adjustments needed.  The students who used balloons found that they were a tricky material to work with due to their tendency to pop at inopportune moments.

Then we tested our creations.  Some plummeted to the ground in less than a second.  Others drifted more slowly and gave Mr Paperclip a much gentler ride down.  We found that the designs that were more parachute-based were the most effective.  Our next step is to appraise how well our individual designs worked and consider what we could do to improve them.  We all had a lot of fun and came up with some creative ideas.

Joanne Lawson

What's Happening in the Elves

Over the last few weeks 4LT have been busy learning with our University of Canberra student teacher, Vinuli. Vinuli has been sharing the teaching with Ms Tominich and will finish her placement in week 7. It has been great to welcome a new person into our classroom and the kids have connected with her beautifully.

In Week 4 the Year 4 cohort went on an excursion to the Museum of Australian Democracy to support the learning we have been doing on the Global Concept, ‘Voice”. We had a great time exploring inside Old Parliament House where we learned about how Australian democracy works and even spent time in the old senate chamber. This was all highly educational, but rolling down the hills of the current Parliament House was a definite highlight too.

In addition to learning about democracy, we have also been focusing on how to write an engaging narrative, including examining structure and word choices. The students have responded enthusiastically and are beginning to produce some beautiful, engaging writing. We look forward to sharing our stories with you towards the end of the year.

In maths we have started exploring currency and are looking at solving problems using money such as working out change and adding collections coins together. On Friday in week 7 we have our final assembly for year 4 for the year. We would love for families to come along at 9am and see all the things we have been learning about, like our skipping routines, Science ‘Scratch’ Shows on food chains and our speeches from our unit on Government.

Louise Tominich

What's Happening in the Big Fishys

This week, we took the opportunity to reflect on our learning and what we have enjoyed doing most this year.

We have had such a wonderful year, and I cannot believe it is coming to an end.

Ben

I liked it when I met my buddy for the first time. His name is Luca. I also loved the daycamp. I loved finding out that I got into the band and when I said it to my mum, she was elated. I liked all the carnivals and the fete we had.

Hunter

Playing soccer with friends.

Saxon

Watching Jumanji at the end of term 2 was really fun.

Jaxson

I loved getting buddies. It was so fun playing with them.

Rivennie

I enjoyed playing with the fluffy chickens , and checking if they had any eggs.

Callum

I liked playing soccer with  my friends and liked doing Art and PE.

Avery

Playing netball at Boorowa with my friends and learning about different art techniques.

Alaya

I loved all our art activities and making our own ghostbusters dance with my friends.

I also LOVED canteen duty. It was so fun!.

Steven

Attending the athletics carnival at school to eventually compete against all of Belconnen and ACT.

Mika

I liked doing lots of band performances at different places and hang out with my friends.

Audrina

Doing art and playing with my friends.

Fatimatu

Playing netball with my friends. And when Avery scored a goal in netball because we didn't get any goals and we lost all of our games and vix made Avery very dizzy.

Izzy

Playing soccer with my friends and making new friends

Vix

Learning more art techniques. And becoming best friends with Hudson

Logan

When Lilly, our special teacher from uni, gave me a lollipop.

Wynn

The new PE clinics.  They were fun and a way to show off my skills. ;)

Ejay

I loved playing basketball with my friends and I love maths because it's my favourite subject(but it can be hard sometimes).

Siddhik

My favourite thing was to meet my buddy Daisy. I also loved playing cricket.

What a fantastic year Big Fishys! We have had many adventures, a lot of laughs and much PE. I wish the Year 6s the best in High School and we will miss you greatly. Year 5s thank you for a wonderful year and I’m excited to see what next year brings you all.

Bec Spoors 

Parent Portal App

Parent Portal at Weetangera

Parent Portal is now available. It is a secure online platform used to share student information between you and your child’s teachers.

Some reminders about Parent Portal:

• If you already have a Parent Portal account, use this Parent Portal access link to start using the great features.
• You can’t access Parent Portal directly through the ACT Digital Account website, you need to use the link above.
• When you are logged into Parent Portal, we recommend saving the browser as a favourite or to the homepage on your mobile phone for quick access in the future.
• The website can only be viewed using a web browser on your computer, mobile phone or tablet. An app is not available at this time.
• If you still need to register, you will need an access key and a Parent Portal registration link via email to link your existing account to your child’s records. If you haven’t received this, please contact the school’s front office team for assistance.

Head to our website for all the details:

https://www.weetangeraps.act.edu.au/For_Parents/parent_portal

P&C Update

The last P&C meeting for 2024 will be held next Tuesday, 10 December. 6pm in the school staff room. All welcome. 

Canteen Update

The last day of WPS Canteen service will be 

'Friday 6th December, Week 8'

Belinda and I have the end of year cleaning, stock take and all the not so fun duties to do in week 9.

Be sure to get the last of your orders in, especially for our senior.. this will be their last WPS Canteen lunch 🫣

I will be discounting stock that needs to be cleared, so be sure to look out for these items on Flexischool, try give the kiddos a few extra dollars bucks for counter sales that week too.

Thank you to everyone for supporting our canteen this year. I have had an outstanding year serving our school, students, families & P&C. I have bigger and brighter plans for 2025, can't wait to get it started.

Much appreciation, 

Cantina-aka Martina 🌻

Communication at Weetangera

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