8th August 2019 Issue No 21

SCHOOL NEWS

It is hard to believe we are already part way through August, as the term is flying by. Today we had a practise ‘Shelter-In Place’ Drill, and were fortunate enough to have members of the CFA come and observe us and pro-vide us with feedback. I have to congratulate all of our students and staff for acting in such a calm and responsible manner, as all students listened to instructions promptly. This is an important part of our Emergency Manage-ment Plan to ensure everyone knows how to act if an emergency was to occur. Later in the term we are hoping to also hold a Lockdown Drill and gain some valuable feedback from the police, in order to help us become even bet-ter. When visiting classrooms this week I was fortunate enough to hear some of the amazing short stories being writ-ten in the grade 4-6 classrooms. Students had been set a challenge to write an engaging narrative in just half an hour. The quality students produced was extremely impressive, with the use of ‘Sizzling Starts’ and figurative lan-guage. Some students even managed to build a large amount of suspense into their writing, which left all of the audience wanting to know how the stories would end. As some of you may have noticed over the past few weeks there have been a number of days when staff have been out of the classroom for Professional Learning. These days have been planned since earlier in the year and are helping staff consolidate their understanding of best teaching practice. Yesterday teachers participated in the third module of the Professional Learning Communities (PLC) Initiative. The work being conducted on these days support our long term planning for Mount Blowhard Primary to continue to increase student learning growth. Please note next FRIDAY 16th AUGUST, is another planned pupil free day, which supports us to do this work.

Megan Lindsay—Acting Principal

Parent Opinion Survey: This survey clothes this weekend (Sunday 11 August 2019). The more families we have complete the survey the better! As we only have 47 families, we would love to hear all of your opinions so that the School Council and Principal can make decisions based on the results. Parent Opinion Survey Link: https://www.orima.com.au/parent Select Mount Blowhard Primary School . Then enter the School PIN: 633510

In Reading this week, the Prep/Ones continued to use their visualising skills when reading. We read a few more poems and students explained what the picture in their mind looked like, remembering to use the details from the poem. In Writing, students wrote a recount about their weekend. They focused on including when, where and who details in the opening sentence and then another sentence saying what they did. Students also continued learning about nouns. We combined our previously learned knowledge of adjectives with our new knowledge of nouns to write sentences. In Maths, students started learning about money. This week we have been looking at the names of Australian coins and ordering them from the biggest coin to the smallest coin. The students have loved using fake money for activities as they tell me they feel like they are rich Our 2 class songs for the musical are coming along well, we started putting some actions with our beautiful

singing this week. Thank you to the parent helpers that have been helping me get the costumes ready!! Miss Bilton

P/1 CLASSROOM NEWS

We’ve had another busy week in 2/3. Last week we started reading a new class novel – The Tale of Despereaux. This is an interesting story that includes four smaller stories that interweave with each other. So far we’ve read about an unu-sual mouse named Despereaux, a rat called Roscuro who wants revenge and the latest character is a young girl called Mig. We’re trying to decide how all the characters will even-tually come to meet each other! In Maths we are reviewing multiplication and division. We’ve been practising our two times tables for two weeks and will move onto the three times tables next week. Practising these at home would be very helpful! Students who already have automatic recall of these facts are using their knowledge of doubling to solve larger problems like 745 x 2. We’ve also been doing lots of practise for our two musical items – get ready for an impres-

sive performance! Miss George

2/3 CLASSROOM NEWS

MOUNT BLOWHARD PRIMARY

WORKING BEE

Sunday 18th August 2pm

All Welcome!!!!

Around

the

school...

We have had an excellent week of learning in my classroom. In Maths, we

have been representing real life data as line graphs. Data was collected

and recorded in data tables, which was then represented as line graphs.

Apart from the skill of graphing the individual points, a graph needs other

features for it to convey information – title, labelled axes, arrows, and the

considering of scale to fit in as much data as possible on a single page. In

Writing, my class have started publishing their adventure short stories on

the new class set of laptops. Laptops are a new experience for our senior

students and they are being supported with separate technology lessons

to learn how create and save files on Windows, plus word processing skills.

Mr Nettelbeck

This week students finalised their Hip Hop dance routine for the school dis-

co next week. This has been an activity enjoyed by all and something very

different to our regular school routine. In Maths we have been working on

calculating percentage, and creating a savings plan based on career wages

and house sale prices throughout Victoria. In Reading we have been devel-

oping our synthesising skills, we have also started to complete or first Book

Club texts for Term 3. Well done to all the students who read ‘The Boy in

the Striped Pyjamas,’ this is an emotionally draining text but has also pro-

vided the students with many learning opportunities. It was great to see

the students independently questioning the text. In writing we have contin-

ued our memoirs, we also had some fun with a quick write set in a medie-

val kingdom. We modelled this on the theme of the ‘Horrible Histories’

book series, including a comical element by equally trying to disgust the

reader with medieval practices whilst making them laugh. Mr Rodger.

4/5 CLASSROOM NEWS

5/6 CLASSROOM NEWS

OUR CHOIR NEEDS YOU!!!

Parents/Grandparents/Community members… We are

currently looking for a volunteer to help run our

AMAZING choir. If you have

some spare time and are keen

to get your vocal cords working,

please let Megan know.

PARENTS & FRIENDS ASSOCIATION

P&F invite you to join us for drinks and nibbles at our next meeting on Weds 14th August at school whilst the disco is on! Come and have a say in where fundraising $$ should be priori-

tised.

Thanks Liz

Above: Grade 5/6 Zone Golf Competition

SHINY NEW LAPTOPS The school has just purchased 22 laptops and we

would like to acknowledge our Parents and Friends group who provided the funds for this new acquisition. Their fundraising efforts are

very much appreciated, and this significant pur-chase is directly supporting student learning.

This class set will be shared across classrooms.

THANK YOU!!!

Week 5 Mon 12th Aug Basketball Sessions years 2-6

Tues 13th Aug Indoor Soccer Team (3/4s)

Wed 14th Aug Whole School Disco!

Parents & Friends Association Meeting (in 4/5 classroom) Thu 15th Aug Financial School Council Sub-Committee

School Council

Fri 16th Aug PUPIL FREE DAY – No Students attend school Sun 18th Aug Working Bee (2pm) – ALL Welcome!!!

Week 6 Mon 19th Aug

Tues 20th Aug P-3 Magic Show Excursion

Wed 21st Aug Indoor Soccer Team (5/6s)

Thu 22nd Aug Book Week Parade & Learning Celebration OPEN MORNING

Fri 23rd Aug School Photos

Assembly 3pm Week 7 Mon 26th Aug

Tues 27th Aug

Wed 28th Aug

Thu 29th Aug

Fri 30th Aug Assembly 3pm

Week 8 Mon 2nd Sept

Tues 3rd Sept

Wed 4th Sept 4/5/6 Melbourne Excursion

Thu 5th Sept

Fri 6th Sept Assembly 3pm

Week 9 Mon 9th Sept

Tues 10th Sept

Wed 11th Sept 2020 Prep Transition Day — 2 to 3.30pm

Thu 12th Sept

Fri 13th Sept Assembly 3pm

Week 10 Mon 16th Sept Musical – Last Knight’s Story Dress Rehearsal

Tues 17th Sept Musical – Last Knight’s Story Performance 1pm

Wed 18th Sept Musical – Last Knight’s Story Performance 7pm

Thu 19th Sept Financial School Council Sub-Committee

School Council

Fri 20th Sept LAST DAY OF TERM – Casual Clothes - 2.30pm Finish!

TERM 4 Week 1

Mon 7th Oct FIRST DAY OF TERM 4!!!

Tues 8th Oct

Wed 9th Oct Cave Hill Creek Camp—Gr 3/4

Thu 10th Oct Cave Hill Creek Camp—Gr 3/4

Fri 11th Oct Cave Hill Creek Camp—Gr 3/4

Dates to remember...

Absentee Text Line: 0409 321 916

Thank you to all parents who are using the Absentee Text Line. Texts to this number get automatically forwarded to all teachers and is a great timesaver for us rather than running telephone messages to each other. You can also text messages during the day, like an early

pickup for appointments, etc. If you don’t have it saved, please add this number to your phone address book.