Pilton News

Thursday 4th November 2021

Pilton State School

Back Plains Speech Competition – Dusty, May and Madhava Three of our school leaders have been invited to the Back Plains State School for the morning tomorrow (5th Nov) to take part in their annual Speech Compe-tition. Dusty, May and Madhava have been writing their speeches during the week and we are certain that they are well prepared for this opportunity to under-take some public speaking to a slightly larger audi-ence than we are used to! We wish them all the best for this competition. Australia Zoo Visit – IMPACT Project Year 5/6 – 12 Nov 21 Our Year 5/6 students have been enrolled in an IM-PACT Project (extension STEM program) that is pro-vided by the Brisbane School of Distance Education and includes a trip to Australia Zoo. This educational program includes a special message from the Austral-ia Zoo education officer and a couple of animal intro-ductions ‘behind the scenes’ at the zoo. We are cur-rently finalising the plan for transport and have emailed parents of Year 5/6 students to confirm if any parents are keen to join us on this day. Please keep an eye out for the permission form for this that will be sent home early next week and I apologise for the short turn around for planning this event. Finally, I would like to thank Mrs. James for the tre-mendous work that she has done keeping our school and grounds clean and tidy. Despite the effects of the hailstorm recently, it is a really wonderful thing to be able to come to our ‘green sanctuary’ at school each day. Today was ‘Outdoor Education Day’ and we are so fortunate to have a great place here in the Pilton Valley for our students to learn and grow. All the best, Jon Robertson

I had a terrific first four weeks at the Amaroo Environ-mental Education Centre but I am very glad to be back! I was very impressed by the fantastic behaviour and attitude of the students who engaged in so many won-derful activities over the course of the time that I was away. This is only able to occur because of the amaz-ing commitment to providing a quality education that the staff at school demonstrate. Thank-you Miss Ryan, Mrs. Cox, Miss Stewart and the amazing Mrs. Young-berry for going over and above once again for the stu-dents at our school! Also a massive congratulations to our triathlon competitors for their great success last Friday – Pilton students win again… an amazing fourth Central Downs Triathlon title in a row! Learning Goals – Read Every Day With all the excitement of term 4 ‘big events’ and Christmas holidays just around the corner, it is easy to find a reason to be distracted from the little things that really support the continuing educational success of our students. I would like to encourage all our families and students to make the most of the last few weeks of school and keep up the great work with reading every day that we aim for with our students. I know there are many students in the Year 3-6 class that were ‘excited’ about getting my homework again this week after my absence from school! I really do appreciate the efforts that are made by students and families in prioritising the time it takes to do this each week in support of the learning that occurs in the classroom every day. Our core business at school is providing a quality education to our students and I can assure parents that all the ‘fun’ never detracts from this imperative moral pur-pose. Transition half day – All new students for 2022 are welcome! We are holding a transition half-day tomorrow from 9am-1pm on Friday the 5th of November. All new 2022 students in Prep and other grades are encouraged to attend. It is a great opportunity for new students to meet the staff and students and familiarise themselves with the school environment. A second transition day will be held on Friday the 19th of November and will be a full-day event. Parents are invited to attend and join us for the playgroup component at the start of the day from 9-11am and then we will commence some classroom activities for the students together with their teachers and classmates. We are currently anticipating five new enrolments for our school in 2022 and are very excited to welcome these students to our school community!

24 Pilton Valley Road, PILTON Q 4361 Ph.: 0746964521 Fax: 0746964586

Term 4 Issue 3

Year 1 English - Students have been comparing imaginative, persuasive and procedural texts. For their assess-ment they need to stop seagulls from repeatedly eating Mr Grinling’s sandwich. They have started creat-ing a procedure on how to make a disgusting sandwich. Maths - Students have completed assessments on investigating number facts and identifying one half. We are currently learning about data and representing data on bar and picture graphs. Science - In Science this term students are exploring light and sound. Yesterday they did a sound experi-ment. They observed varying pitches that could be created using glasses with water filled at different lev-els. Next week they will start to create a musical instrument of their choice. HASS - In HASS students have been discussing natural, managed and constructed features at Pilton State School. They have been viewing maps and giving directions on how to get different places. Health - Students have been observing similarities and differences in individuals and groups. They have recognised how strengths and achievements contribute to identity. They examine and demonstrate ways to include others in activities, and practice strategies to help them and others feel that they belong.

Prep

English - Prep students have been listening to a range of imaginative texts. They are learning about the structure and features of these texts. They are becoming more independent with their writing skills when writing responses to the imaginative stories. Mathematics - Prep students have been learning about data and how we can ask questions to find infor-mation and then display this data. They have been practising counting forwards and backwards from dif-ferent starting points, representing and comparing quantities and matching number names, numerals and quantities. Science: - Prep students have been exploring movement. They enjoy playing Simon Says and Freeze as a warm up for our science lessons. They are currently investigating the movement of a variety of toys in-cluding spinning toys, toy cars and bouncing balls.

HASS - We have recently completed our HASS unit. Students finished making a pictorial map and a lego model showing a birds eye view of the classroom.

Health - Students are learning about safety. They are learning actions and protective behaviours that keep them safe and healthy. They have spoken about what to do in an emergency, such as who to call and what information to give.

Prep and Year 1

Technology - All students have recently started a coding and robotics unit. They will use the iPads and ozobots to create and respond to basic code. They will use code to program a range of speeds and direc-tions for the ozobots to reach a destination.

Japanese - All students will continue to focus on recognising and writing the 5 vowel hiragana charac-ters. They will revise Japanese greetings and introductions, counting, colours, body parts and animal

names. Students will practise using Japanese language and gestures to exchange gifts.

Learning Goals – Our goals to achieve Accelerated Reader Quiz success are looking a little hard to reach for some students. Please encourage reading for pleasure when you can at home and we will keep working on experiencing success for all students! English – In English, the Year 3 students will be exploring poetry creation and presentation. They will be looking at the language features of these types of texts and also having a go at creating their own poetry that would conform to this genre based on an adaptation of an existing text. The Year 5/6 students are focusing on the use of both informative texts and narrative texts to persuade an audience about a social issue. Students will be engaging with issues like sustainability or welfare and will at-tempt to argue which type of text they think would impact on an audience the most for their issue. Mathematics – In Mathematics, all the Year 3-6 students will be working on their understanding of number and operations at their different levels of difficulty. Students will also be learning about the concepts of place value, accurately solving operation algorithms, fractions and decimals, money and financial mathematics. The Year 5/6 students will also be focusing on developing understandings of fractions and decimals, measurement and spatial awareness, data, chance, patterns and algebra in term 4. We have commenced a trial of a new program ‘Maths Pathways’ at school that will support our individualised learning at school with a targeted approach to online numeracy skills. We like what we see so far and will look to engage with this more in 2022. Science – We are completing two separate topics in our class this term in Science. The Year 3 stu-dents will be undertaking a unit on chemical science and material use. The Year 5/6 students will be completing a unit about living things and their interaction with their habitat. Humanities and Social Science – The Year 3 students will finalise their unit on exploring places and the use of democratic processes during term 4. The Year 5/6 students will be investigating Aus-tralia’s place in a diverse world. Technology – Technology this term included the final run of our CO2 cars at Clifton SHS and cer-tificates for this were sent home. Our Year 3 students have been engaging in Coding and Robotics lessons in the STEAM Shed and our Year 5/6 students are engaging in a STEM Impact project called ‘Danger Zone’ that investigates the interactions between built environments, technology and animals. The Arts – This semester in the Arts, all the students at school are continuing to undertake dance, drama and music lessons and tasks. This will be linked to existing opportunities that we undertake at school so these tasks serve a second purpose and have a real-life context. Friday is a very important day for us in term 4 and we will be making the most of the chances we have to learn about and re-hearse our performing arts every chance we can get! Health – This term the Year 5/6 students will be completing a Health unit on transitioning that is de-signed to support the Year 6 students especially as they look towards the end of year changes and the new chapter that starts for them in 2022. Our Year 3 students will be investigating the benefits of physical activity on their health and ways they can plan and support effecting healthy activity. Japanese – Japanese lessons for the all students will continue to be provided through either online linked lessons through the Charters Towers School of Distance Education or face-to-face lessons with Mr. Robertson. They will be assessed on increasingly complex Japanese vocabulary in a combi-nation of reading, writing and speaking tasks. The Year 3 unit is focussing on the language to do with describing pets. Year 5/6 students this term will be undertaking language lessons that would help them describe their town or home location.

Keep up to date with school events and the latest newsletter digitally by downloading the QSchools app.

Join Miss Stewart for Playgroup on Friday 9am - 11am.

Prep Transition Half Day is tomorrow Friday 5th November 9am - 1pm

Swimming Lessons Every Monday during weeks 2-7 at 3pm-4pm

Tennis Coaching Every Wednesday during weeks 2-9 at 8am

Prep Transition Half Day Friday 5th November 9am - 1pm

Back Plains Speech Competition Friday 5th November 9:45am - 12:00pm

P&C Meeting Thursday 11th November 3:30pm

Year 5/6 Australia Zoo Visit Friday 12th November

Amaroo Visit “Watch Your Waste” Wednesday 17th November 9:30am

Prep Transition Day Friday 19th November 9am - 3pm

Fairholme Swimming Lessons Monday - Wednesday 22nd - 24th November

School Concert Friday 3rd December 6pm

Clifton State High School Transition Day for Year 6 Students

Wednesday 8th December

Picnic Day Thursday 9th December

Last Day of Term 4 Friday 10th December

Playgroup Dates

5th November Playgroup and Prep Transition Half Day

12th November Playgroup

19th November Playgroup and Prep Transition Full Day

26th November Final Playgroup for 2021

Friday 10th December 2021 From 5:00pm

Pioneer Park, Clifton

Clifton and District Progress Association

Christmas Wreath Workshop

Outdoor Education

Day

The whole school travelled to Greenmount State School to attend Musica Viva where students learnt how to “make shapes” with music.

Having fun after the

Hail Storm

Last Friday 10 students from the 3 - 6 competed at the Nobby Triathlon. Pilton State School won the Averages Trophy for the 4th Year in a row!

Congratulations to Harriet who won her age champion and to Olivia and Madhava who came runner up for their age group.

We are so proud of all the children and their Strong and Willing attitude.