NEWSLETTER MAY 9

During term 2 I would like to offer greater opportunities for our students to explore their many hidden talents or try something new. I am putting a call out to any member of our community who has some time between 12:50 and 1:30pm (any day of the week and with a WWVP card and completed the Mandatory reporting) who would like to work with students in an area of their interest that also supports our students. For example – if you love knitting and want to share this skill with our younger generation – we’d love to hear from you. Or you may have time before school to listen to students read. Please email Suzanne.oates@decyp.tas.gov.au if you would like further information or would like to put your hand up to participate.

In line with this, some staff will be taking some additional lunch time activities to support our students. Not every student enjoys the running and physical activities of lunch. We are in the process of timetabling alternate activities that will engage our students over term 2.

I would like to extend a heartfelt thanks to our wonderful School Association for organising and running the Mothers Day stall. Students were extremely excited to purchase gifts for those special people in their lives. I believe that some students haven’t been able to wait to share their gifts, so some have received theirs early!

I would also like to remind families about the importance of online safety. It is always good to chat with our children about safety when accessing devices – phones, computers, social media.

• Always be respectful: Think KIND! 
• Be an UPSTANDER. Don’t become a part of unkind online activity. Tell people who are, that it is not OK.
• Cyberbullying (along with any type of bullying) is upsetting and harmful and can have long term effects on people. It is never ok - even if you think you are joking or if someone else did it to you first. 
• Do not chat to people you don’t know online. Ask yourself, “Would Mum or Dad be happy with me talking to this person?” This includes in online games. If someone keeps trying to chat with you, know how to block them. Never reveal personal information about yourself online. 
• Shared content is there forever. Always think before you send, think about who it is getting sent to: ALWAYS ask yourself: Is it kind? Is it true? Is it necessary? 
• Photos: be careful with photos shared online. What do they reveal about you: School logo (provides location and indication of age)? Name of park where you are playing? Remember to never share photos of other people online unless you have their permission to do so, also their permission to tag them. 
• Do not accept requests from unknown people. Many people make fake profiles pretending to be someone they are not using fake images. A question to ask – Do you know all of your online friends? Can you justify to your parents who they are and why they are your friends? Is your online friend, Christiano Ronaldo, really that person?  
• If an unknown person online offers you a gift the answer has to be NO. The person then needs to be reported and blocked from your account. NEVER agree to meet in real life. 
• If you have a device, you are accountable for what you do with it and you own the consequences.
• If anything happens online that causes you to be upset, talk to someone. Your parents are a great place to start. Your teacher can help, the police can help, so can Kids’ Helpline. 

The eSafety Commissioner Kids site contains some helpful information about online safety and what to do if you are experiencing a problem: Kids | eSafety Commissioner

I am extremely excited to announce that we have an ‘Adopt a Cop’ who will start with us in term 2. He is yet to come and meet us as he is new to the profession of policing, but is excited to be part of our school community. Their role is to come and chat with students about any questions they have that can be answered by police, they come over lunch times and play sport with them, or might participate in assemblies and whole school events. As I have further information about Constable Daniel I will let you know.

As always, the door is always open for a chat. Watch this space with some special events coming up over term 2.

Prep Lincolne have been learning about teen numbers.  Students work in pairs to count collections of objects making a group of ten and some ones.   We are learning to write teen numbers understanding that the 1 represents 1 group of 10.

In Grade 1 / 2 Riseley we have been focusing on Narratives and the different components that come together to make a story. We have also been focusing on retelling parts of a story. We have been working really hard on developing our literacy skills by taking the time each morning to practice our independent reading and spelling words for the week. This is where students will work on a particular strategy during reading and a sound of focus.

In Maths, we are developing our addition and subtraction skills by finding more efficient ways to count numbers and add them together or subtract. Some students find that using our ‘friends of ten’ can be really helpful in adding our numbers together, while others will use a ‘near doubles’ strategy. We have also been working hard on our problem-solving skills and using pictures to show our understanding when solving worded problems.

It has been a great start to the term in 6A, with our class getting a start on some new and interesting learning.

We began the term by deciding together our class non-negotiables, those behaviours we will always show Miss Mahy and she will always show us. We then turned this into our classroom agreement that identifies what we expect from each other at school.

In Literacy we have begun studying a Word of the Week to prepare us for some new vocabulary we will encounter in Science and HASS. Last week our word was ‘Federation’. We identified ‘federate’ as the base word and listed other examples of verbs that become nouns by adding the suffix ‘ation’, like communication and decoration. This week, our word is ‘Observable’.

We are practicing our fluency in reading every day in our Fluency Pairs. We listen to our partners read to give them feedback on the accuracy, pace, and expression of their reading.

In Maths we are focusing on decimals and have had to apply our knowledge of place value to parts smaller than one whole. We are working towards applying this to the four operations next, starting with addition.

Miss Mahy is looking forward to a great term with the Grade 6s.

A huge thank you to the School Association and all volunteers involved with the Mother's Day stall.

It was a huge sucess and the children enjoyed chosing their special gifts for their loved ones :)

Happy Mothers Day to all the special women in our lives! 

We hope you have a fabulous day on Sunday with your loved ones