junior school news 11 august 2017 - all souls st gabriels ... · junior school news 11 august 2017...

Junior School Direct 07 4788 2242 Fax: 07 4787 3049 Email: [email protected]

Junior School News 11 August 2017

Pre-prep to Year 12

Co-Ed Day & Boarding 30 Dr George Ellis Drive,

PO Box 235, Charters Towers Qld 4820 Phone: 47 88 2242

Email: [email protected]

BUSY AND PRODUCTIVE TERM AHEAD There is a positive feel and energy around the Junior School, as the staff engage in providing our students with a wide range of opportunities to extend their learning. Term 3 will be busy and productive.

OUR BEST Giving our best is central to everything we do at All Souls St Gabriels. This couldn’t ring more true than watching the effort and enthusiasm the students applied during the Inter-House Athletics Carnival last term. Considerable pride and enjoyment was also shared, as individual and class work was prepared for the School displays at the Charters Towers Show. The commitment to doing our best continues this term, as staff and students prepare for success at the Inter-School Athletics Carnival and the CT Eisteddfod.

ATHLETICS CARNIVALS At ASSG we value ‘striving for success’ and the Athletics Carnival is one of the many events in our School calendar where we recognise our students for their outstanding athletic endeavour and great sportsmanship. We wish all our athletes all the very best for their events at the 2017 Primary Inter-School Athletics Carnival at Friemann Oval on Thursday 17 August.

CHARTERS TOWERS SHOW This year ASSG Junior School students entered a number of posters, samples of handwriting and works of art. Many children also had their work on display in the Schools’ section in “The Shed”. Thank you Mrs Polsen, Miss Browne and Mrs McGuire for organising the awesome display of children’s work.


This year, All Souls St Gabriels Junior School won Overall School Champion for the Handwriting and Poster section. Congratulations to the follow ing Poster and Handwriting w inners:

All Souls St Gabriels were also awarded the Primary School Student Participation Trophy for 2017. Well done to everyone who had their work on display and entered the many and varied events and exhibitions.

Name Place Entry

Year 2

Matthew Tait 1st Handwriting Bailey McGuire 2nd Handwriting Year 3 Annie-May Johnson 1st Handwriting Olivia Goeghegan 2nd Handwriting Annie-May Johnson 1st Poster Henry Jesberg 1st Poster Jett Moore 2nd Poster Year 4 Alaina Heuir 1st Handwriting Hannah Brown 2nd Handwriting Rory Barr 1st Poster Nate Taylor 2nd Poster Year 5 Anna Milton 1st Handwriting Lauren Atwell 2nd Handwriting Taitum Herring Champion & 1st place Poster Taitum Herring 1st Poster Keegan Henley 2nd Poster Year 6 Alexandra Holt 1st Handwriting Lucie Taylor 2nd Handwriting Reagan Butler 2nd Handwriting


YEAR 6 CANBERRA TRIP Our Year 6 students are on the countdown to their trip to Canberra (Week 6). This trip is linked to the Australian Curriculum and is an amazing opportunity for the students. It will provide them with a stimulating, real-life experience that will reinforce the content that is taught in the Year 6 Civics and Citizenship, History, Science and the Arts curriculum. This educational excursion has been planned to also incorporate many and varied cultural institutions in the National Capital. EARN & LEARN Please help us earn some ‘free resources’ by collecting the Earn & Learn stickers when you shop at Woolworths. We will be able to use the points gained from all the stickers collected to choose resources based on our unique needs, across all areas of the curriculum. It’s simple …. the more stickers we collect …. the more resources we can get!! We have a collection box outside the JS Office for you to place your Earn and Learn stickers and completed sheets. There is also an All Souls St Gabriels School collection box at Woolworths (for completed collection sheets). JSSG FATHER’S DAY RAFFLE

Thank you to all the local businesses and families who have donated some wonderful prizes for this year’s JSSG Father’s Day Raffle. For just $1 per ticket, you may be in w ith a chance of w inning one or more of these fantastic prizes: BBQ, Husqvarna blower, Blackman air compressor, Portable fridge/freezer , Ratchet assembly, Vet pamper pack, Flood light, Duffle bag, Small collapsible beach chair, Tickets to see a Cowboys & Broncos game. Signed Cowboys hat, 1 night’s accommodation - Aquarius on the Strand, $50 voucher from Towers Automotive, $50 voucher from Barrs Tyres, $50 voucher from The Sovereign Tavern and much, much more.

JS Families have received a book of 10 tickets to sell and more are available from the JS Office, Student Services and Admin. On behalf of the JSSG, thank you for your continued support.

JCU ACADEMICUS HOLIDAY PROGRAM WHOLE SCHOOL BREAKFAST ASSEMBLY JS TOP SAVERS WITH QCU

GOING FORWARD Learning happens everywhere and at all times. As co-educators, parents have a key role in their child’s learning. Together we share the responsibility for creating a positive learning environment for our students. As we continue to foster this partnership we encourage success and build aspirations. We have a lot to look forward to this semester. Working and learning together, we can ensure that the many activities planned throughout the term promote a positive attitude towards learning. Together we can teach our students to be tenacious and resourceful, imaginative and logical, self-disciplined and self-aware, collaborative and inquisitive and ultimately achieve their learning goals. We look forward to sharing the many aspects of the students’ learning and celebrating their successes with you. Please make sure that you keep up to date with what is happening by reading the newsletter, Souls’ Schedule and by checking Facebook and the School’s web page. Should you have any questions regarding any event or activity in the Junior School, please don’t hesitate to phone Mrs Weston 4788 2242 or send an email to [email protected]. Always learning, Serving others, Staying Safe & Going forward. Tina Akers


21 July, 2017

4 Aug, 2017 4 Aug, 2017


German (LOTE)

Mrs Melita Dunn

Have you heard of the Grimm Brothers? They were two German brothers who together collected and published traditional folk tales in the 19th Century. These folk tales have gone on to become some of the most famous fiction stories in the world and have been published in more than 100 different languages and brought to life in animation and film. This term we are going to use Fairy Tales (and in particular from the Grimm Brothers) to delve in to the German language. Children will be exposed to the reading of familiar stories in German and make connections between culture and language use. We will be building on basic vocabulary, formulaic expressions and modelled language to describe characters and settings and sequencing of story events. Luckily for me, I have been accompanied in lessons by two enthusiastic German Gap staff, Lukas and Thilo. They have made the reading of the texts much more authentic (and quicker) and are always willing to help with pronunciation of new words and correcting some of my own grammatical mishaps. I look forward to the year ahead with them. Just a reminder, homework will continue to be handed out in class and is expected to be completed and returned at the following weekly lesson. I am not expecting everyone to get everything correct (though the work should not be hard), however I do expect everyone to have a go. I have informed children that homework is an important part of their journey to learn German and in order to achieve an excellent effort mark on report cards, homework must be consistently completed.

How many of their tales can you name? Can you match the German names to their

English translations? Rotkӓppchen The Frog Prince Hӓnsel und Gretel Cinderella Rumpelstilzchen Rapunzel Der Froschkönig Rumplestiltskin Rapunzel Little Red Riding Hood Schneewittchen Hansel and Gretel Aschenputtel Snow White

Library Link—Miss Francis This term in the Library, its all about Book Week. The theme this year is ‘Escape to Everywhere’. All our activities are based around this theme and the short listed books.

JS HPE & SPORT NEWS Miss Pia Taylor

We have been straight into the swing of things on the sporting field, with three rounds of Inter-School sport already passed. The boys got off to a bit of a shaky start with their first game against Richmond Hill SS, but have found some form in the last couple of games against Columba and Central winning both games by 5 runs. The girls have had a tough start to the softball season after losing their first few games. They should be very proud of their efforts and their performances have improved drastically considering more than half the team has never played softball before. I look forward to seeing even more improvement from the girls and boys in their final upcoming rounds of Inter-School sport.

Congratulations to Lucie Taylor, who travelled with the Charters Towers U12 Softball team to the NQ trials in the Whitsundays in the first week of school this term. Congratulations also to Blair Colthup, Seth Guldbransen, Samuel McCartney and Will North who were all selected in the Charters Towers U12 Cricket team. They will travel to Townsville in week 7 to compete at the NQ trials. Good luck boys!


Pre‐Prep Mrs Peagham, Mrs Limkin & Mrs Cragg

Welcome back to Term 3. We are amazed at how beautifully the children have settled ready for the second half of the year. We have dived straight into learning and as you can see from the Curriculum Overviews we have a lot to learn and think about.

In Numeracy, we have started learning about what ordering means. We have learnt that when we order we have to measure or compare things to see where they belong. We have weighed ourselves and discovered the heaviest and the lightest students in our class. We have measured our height and discovered who is the tallest and the shortest. We have thought about biggest to smallest and fullest to emptiest and placed them in their order.

Buddy Bear is our new Pre-prep friend (he’s a teddy bear). He will help us with many features in Literacy, Language and Literature including forming sentences, looking for letters and sounding them out, using capital letters and full-stops. We will create our own information story about our day with Buddy Bear in Pre-prep.

Did you see our wonderful plasticine creations at the Show? We did them all by ourselves to coincide with our Term 2 Science unit about what animals need to live. This term, we are going to be learning about the weather. Not only can we see the weather with our eyes we can feel it with our skin, because even a sunny day can feel cold. We are doing a Weather Report to share what we see each day. We are learning how to draw pictures of all types of weather including overcast and hot weather. We will talk about our observations with our friends at Sharing Time and put them up on the whiteboard for our families to see.

During outdoor play we have been talking a lot about the Ninja Warrior TV show. The teachers created an obstacle course for us so we could pretend we were Ninja Warriors too. The commando crawl, jumping with both feet, climbing, swinging and balancing are so good for our gross-motor skills. We now want to play “Japanizi Going, Going, Gong” after we learnt how to say ‘hello’ in Japanese – ‘ko-ni-chi-wa.’ The practice and principles of the Early Years Learning Framework state that: “Intentional teaching occurs in emergent (spontaneous) and planned experiences.” We use the children’s interests and experiences to extend children’s thinking and build a deep understanding.

In Information and Communication Technology (ICT), we have been learning how to operate a desktop computer. It is quite challenging for us to co-ordinate sliding our mouse and clicking with our pointer finger to operate a game or program. We will try different games and programs and keep practising our skills.

In Geography, we are thinking about where our rubbish goes and what effect this has on our environment. We looked at some images of marine litter and we felt very sad to hear that some turtles eat plastic bags because they think they are food like jellyfish and it makes them sick – sometimes they even die! We are thinking about how we can reduce and reuse the amount of rubbish that we use. We have been reusing some of the bags and containers we have in our lunch boxes including zip-lock bags and yoghurt containers. Some of our friends have no rubbish in their lunchboxes!


News From Prep Margaret Riddle and Vanessa Herring

As the semester begins, we are enjoying our curriculum topics involving studies of families, special places, weather, dance and analysing designs and data. A large dolls’ house has come into the room. The children will be using this to explore the idea of “special places”. This Geography topic encourages them to think about what makes a place “special” and how we can design and care for this place. It is suggested that children focus their discussions and planning on their bedrooms and just maybe, you will see some willing children tidying bedrooms at home! We have been measuring as part of many activities: the diameter of shapes, ingredients for muffins, lengths of wool for a construction, the rope to hold up a tent and water for a mud cake. Measuring has been an important part of their learning in play throughout the year and it is exciting to see them now applying these skills and understanding in ways that go beyond the curriculum standard. The children have been looking at a number of rhymes: The Muffin Man, Jack be Nimble and Hickory Dickory. We use these to focus their thinking about unknown words, the rhythm of language, and lots of probing into why the rhyme was written, what could be meant by it and how they can change phrases. Our learning around the Harry books culminated in the messy and dirty experience of creating “Harry” pictures using charcoal sticks. We hope that those of you who went to the Show were impressed by their work. We were! As the plants in our garden bed grow, the children are able to record their observations. We just need a few beans to catch the final step in the growing sequence. It is taking a while and I’m very tempted to buy some and scatter them around the plants. While it is disappointing to see some failures in the bean crop, such occurrences have prompted good discussions as to the “Why”?? Learning how to question is a skill which we will be focusing on this semester and will be important in many of the subject areas. It is wonderful to hear them eagerly saying, “I have a question.” And then even more so when we hear, “I think I can answer that question.” There were tears in the outdoor area last week as the group became involved in an accident of an old mulberry twig being broken. It was a complex affair which needed all of us to sit together and discuss the situation using “Talking Ted” (The person who is holding the teddy is the only one who can speak.) Emotions were so intense that we needed to have the

children feel safe in the discussion and at the beginning, Ted and I were the only ones given permission to speak. Within the Australian Curriculum, there is an important element called Ethical Understanding. We hope to bring this into much of our planning this semester. Talking Ted was happy at the end of our discussion. The children had begun to talk freely, with no judgements or pain and with the discovery that some behaviour is neither good nor bad, but many consequences can happen. Just room now to thank you so much for the support you are giving your children and us in completing those History timelines. It will be lovely to share them.


Mrs Marshall’s Muppets

Mrs Marshall’s Muppets are studying the Ocean this term. The children have loved immersing themselves in this theme and finding out facts to share with the class. Our recounts this term will also focus on a trip to the beach we have had with our family. With a rich vocabulary of the ocean and the past tense verbs and adjectives they have learnt, I am looking forward to some top class writing. Art has also taken on an ocean theme. We studied the work of a Japanese artist, Katsushika Hokusai. The use of shape and colour gave the children ideas on their own artwork. We will be observing the colours and patterns of fish and other sea creatures to create a multi-media piece to display in the classroom. This week the children have drawn representations of their favourite animal starting with a basic shape and adding on other bits such as fins and tails. During Science, we will be looking at changes around us. The children will be observing the sky and surrounds to discover what changes quickly and what takes a longer time. We will be planting a garden and recording any growth we see. There are many simple experiments we can do with plants, such as using red dye and celery to show how a tree drags water up in through its stem to the leaves. Putting plants in the dark, some with no water and some with salty water gets the children thinking about what plants need to live and flourish. Reading to the class has been a big hit this term. The Muppets like to sit in the Kermit chair and read a story to the class. It’s great to see them so confident in their belief as a reader. That’s it for now. If you have any questions please come and have a chat. Miss Piggy (AKA Mrs Marshall)


Talented Twos Miss Melissa Browne WELCOME: The Year 2s were super excited to start their term off by welcoming a familiar face back to our class. We were lucky enough to welcome the amazing Archer Reardon back to our School. He is a pleasure to have in our class and has settled so well into everything we do here at Souls. CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY: The students have absolutely loved listening to the story of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. They have particularly enjoyed analyzing the text and comparing the characteristics of the main characters. We have delved into the type of language that the author uses to describe each character and it has helped us make better pictures in our mind as to what each character would look like. It was also great having Year 5 student, Charlie Maxwell, come and read some of the story to Year 2. They even noticed how well he used expression to portray each character. It was great to listen to. LIFE CYCLES: So far this term Science in Year 2 has been nothing short of seriously sensational. In the second week of the term, the students welcomed a number of new members to the class. However, some of these members were of the slimy kind and others were of the creepy crawly kind. We are now proud owners of seven beautiful guppies and many, many mealworms. While there are too many mealworms to name them all, we have decided to name two of our fish. We chose to name two guppies after our last Gappies, Bastian and Jaron. We hope they approve of the fish we chose for them. Each day the students have studied their mealworms closely. As we have found out, mealworms go through the process of metamorphosis and we are excited to see how our mealworms transform and change. The students are keeping a calendar and drawing diagrams each day to note any changes they see. We cannot wait to share their transformations with you. We are also super excited to learn about the life cycle of Green Sea Turtles, as we head off to Reef HQ very soon. Watch this space! AMAZING ART: We have had a wonderful start to our Art unit this term and were lucky enough to work with the wonderful Jenna Whitby. Ms Whitby has taken some time out from the Secondary School to come down and teach the Year 2s about portraits. First, they learnt about the shapes and features of the face. Did you know that the human face could sometimes be in the shape of an upside down chicken egg? Or that our eyes are often in the shape of an almond? One of the things Ms Whitby noticed when teaching the students was that many did not know how to use their pencils as artists do. To help them with this, she took some time to teach them about shading. They learnt that artists use their pencil like a feather and that they do not always have to press hard. We have loved having Ms Whitby in our class and cannot wait to share in even more of her knowledge. THANK YOU: Over the past few weeks, Year 2 have been extremely lucky to have four extra reading sessions a week. The Year 5 students have been visiting our classroom every Monday to Thursday morning and reading with a Year 2 students. We have seen some wonderful successes already and we are so grateful for the effort Year 5 have been putting in to help Year 2 with their reading.


Year 3 Rock Stars The Poetry Edition! Mrs Laura Heiur

Year 3 Rock Stars Creative, Enthusiastic

Writing, Thinking, Rhyming Poets in the making

Superstars The Year 3 Rock Stars have started off the term with a “Bang” by creating some entertaining poetry using onomatopoeia, alliteration, rhyme and adjectives. They have begun studying some of the poetic devices and language features that poets use to create imagery and bring their poems to life. It has been rewarding to see them, not only enthusiastic about their writing, but able to innovate on chosen poems so creatively. They have also learnt that poets draw on their own experiences to stimulate their writing ideas. The Rock Stars had so much fun at the Whole School Breakfast that they created this Onomatopoeia inspired poem. Enjoy!

Whole School Breakfast By The Year 3 Rock Stars

Stomp! Stomp! Go the stampede of feet.

Chitter! Chatter! Go the ASSG students.

Slurp! Slurp! Goes the fresh sweet OJ.

Chomp! Chomp! Go the munching mouths.

Clang! Clang! Goes the stacking of plates.

BURP! Go the full tummies.

Guess what? It’s Whole School Breakfast time!

Onomatopoeia is a word that imitates the sound that it represents. It engages the reader by helping them to use their senses. Here is another onomatopoeia poem to tickle your senses!

The City By Joshua Philip

Beep! Beep! Go the cars.

Vroom! Vroom! Go the car engines Squeak! Squeak!

Go the peoples’ shoes Crackle!

Go the chip packets Chomp! Chomp!

That is me eating chips Guess what?

It’s lunchtime!

Adjectives are used in poetry to build descriptions and imagery so that the reader can create pictures in their minds. Enjoy these descriptive poems!

The Snake By Taleeah Leer

On my way to the zoo I saw a snake It was a scaled, snake

It was a green, scaled, snake It was a venomous, green, scaled, snake

It was a strong, venomous, green, scaled, snake It was an awesome, strong, venomous, green scaled snake

and it wanted to bite me!

The Tiger By Olivia Geoghegan

On my way to the zoo I saw a Tiger. It was a baby Tiger.

It was a playful baby Tiger. It was a fluffy, playful baby Tiger.

It was a striped, fluffy, playful baby Tiger. It was a clumsy, striped, fluffy, playful baby Tiger,

And it wanted to snuggle me! Poets use language to engage the reader senses which helps them to become a part of the poem. Enjoy these ‘Holiday’ poems that enable the reader to use their senses.

Staying at Jett’s place By Lincoln Coleman

Jett playing and climbing on the cubby. The fresh rissoles off the BBQ.

Motorbikes speeding along the back paddock. Rissoles melting in my mouth.

Handle bars turning in my hands. Staying at Jett’s place!

To Cairns By Tio Chong

Family eating golden crispy fish and chips. Delicious chocolate mud cake cooking in the fancy oven.

Kids jumping like crazy monkeys at ‘Jump Mania’. Freezing icy Frozen Coke.

The bouncing mesh of the rainbow trampolines. In Cairns!

Inside Scoop –Science The students have had fun investigating heat energy and the effect it has in the world around them. They have learnt how heat travels from a warmer object to a cooler one through the movement of its particles. Our young scientists have also investigated the transference of heat from the sun to objects in the playground. Through these investigations they have discovered that some materials are ‘Conductors’ while others are ‘Insulators’. They particularly enjoyed observing what heat energy looks like in three different temperatures of water and have begun learning about the importance of “Fair Tests’ in scientific investigations. They will be heat experts by the end of the term!


Year 3 Rock Stars Mrs Laura Heiur

Looking for heat energy in the playground.

What does heat energy look like?

Inves ga ng 1000s in Mathema cs

Enjoying breakfast with all

ASSG students and staff.


YEAR 4: TEAM ALL STARS: Mrs Jane Turner We have had a busy, yet great start to the term. I wonder what the answer would be if I asked the class what has been their favourite part so far….. back to hands-on science experiments, Paper Mola art, or the more recent races we have had to locate places around the world using our atlases. In Science, we are learning about the properties of materials and how these materials are suited to particular purposes. First we had to understand that materials could be metal, plastics, fabrics, etc. Then we started using words to describe the properties of these materials such as flexible, absorbent, stretchy. We also learnt about fair testing, you may have heard about this one. I organised a dress-up relay, which was a whole lot of fun. Through this game we learnt about variables. Each team had been allocated a different number of team members, different lengths to race and different amounts of dress-ups to wear. We then worked out that to make the testing fair, all of these needed to be the same. Using fair testing, we have tested which fabrics would leak, soak and repel liquid. There has been predicting, recording results and discussions about some surprising results along the way. We have some more experiments to come. During English, we have been reading a variety of traditional tales from Asia. The students have noticed the structure and purpose of these stories are always the same. They are gathering ideas for their stories they will be writing along with a list of morals/messages to choose from for their own writing. As usual, the students can access the Learning Wall at the back of the room to see what they need to know and do to achieve an A, B or C for their task. We are also adding examples and ideas to use during our own writing time. This week we are working on our class story in which we plan and write the first part as a whole class while I model how to improve and edit the work. Each student will then write the ending so they can get feedback on how to improve for their own story. I can’t wait to see what ideas and plans we get for those! For any of you that made it to the Show, I know you would have already seen the amazing Paper Mola’s the students created. I was super surprised to see how different they all were and the dedication to complete this task. Our classroom now has a very bright section displaying them all. See below for photos during the creation process. There is so much more I could share, but only so much room to fit it all in. Wonderful learning is happening every day and the students are just as enthusiastic as always. Another special mention and congratulations to all of our recent entrants and winners in the Charters Towers Show and the Hughenden Country Music Festival.


Year 5 News Mr Rob Roughley

It is hard to believe we are already part way through Term 3, and what a busy term it has been thus far. It is also hard to imagine that it is only 14 or so learning weeks until the end of the year and only a short hop, skip and jump before Year 5 become our 2018 Year 6 Junior School Leaders. With the scent of seniority whetting their appetite, this term, Year 5 have begun exploring the importance of their leadership responsibilities, and in particular, the ASSG Code element of Serving Others. Thanks to Miss Browne and the support of the fantastic Year 2’s, we have had the opportunity of supporting our little buddies (Monday to Thursday) in improving their reading and comprehension skills. It has been so heartening to see how well Year 5 have stepped up to meet the challenge in coaching Year 2. Starting this Term, I will commence my Mathematics Tutor Groups. There will be two sessions held each Tuesday, one from 8 am to 8:25 and another from 12:45 to 13:45. The focus for our first few sessions will be on improving the speed of number fact recall as well as multiplication and division skills. If you would like your child to be part of these tutorials please email me. Coming up in another few weeks Years 5 and 6 will compete in the Charters Towers Eisteddfod Choral Speaking section. This year we provided the two classes with a selection of poems to choose from and put it to the vote. The vote was very close, and much to my surprise, Little Red was given the flick in favour of a ghostly apparition. Through initial readings in class it was great to see how engaged everyone was in the story. It also provided Year 5 the chance to share some of their own ghost stories to get us in the mood. Being such a large group, it will be very exciting to watch them compete in the Eisteddfod’s Choral and Choir Sections. Win or lose, we know they will be awesome. Likewise, we know our students competing in individual sections will be outstanding and do us proud. Talking of being proud, Year 5 also had their share of Charters Towers Show winners. Congratulations Anna for 1st place in handwriting; Blair 1st place for his drawing; Karlee for 1st District AM 7, 2nd Open AM 7, 3rd Six Bar and two 1st and a highly commended for her photography. Karlee also received 3rd place at Hughenden Country Music in the Open Music Duo section. Keegan received 3 participation awards for his poultry, 2nd for poultry and 1st and Champion for his sculpture; Kody also received a participation award for his poultry, two 1st for his birds and 2nd place for his eggs; Lauren received 2nd place for her handwriting and Taitum was awarded 1st place and Champion for her ‘If it’s flooded, forget it poster’. Well done to all those who participated.


Year 6: Mrs Marilyn Toohey What a very busy start to Term 3 with students involved in a range of activities and challenges, including the Australian Mathematics Challenge, the ICAS English Assessment, learning our poem and songs for the Eisteddfod and Inter-School Softball and Cricket. Amongst all this, Year 6 have been completing their Geography research on a country of their choice, starting their Physical Science unit on Electrical Energy, with the help of Mr Toohey, who will accompany us to Canberra, finding out all about Australian Federation, democracy, the three levels of government, former Prime Ministers, how laws are made and many other aspects of the Civics and Citizenship unit they will be working on before, during and after their trip to Canberra.

So, in the next few weeks, your son/daughter should be able to explain to you how a democracy is superior to any other form of government, who the key people were who guided Australia towards Federation, what ‘pretend’ Bill they are working on to present to our classroom ‘House of Representatives’, what the three levels of government are in Australia, which Prime Minister they are researching and some important facts about him/her. In Science, the Electrical Energy unit should lead to lots of conversations about the generation of electricity, how electricity gets to your house from the place it was generated, alternative ways of producing electricity, making a circuit to power a small device, etc. Here are some of the facts students have discovered about their chosen countries:

Hannah-Grace France is a country in southern Europe so it is in the Northern Hemisphere. The capital city of France is Paris. France has several neighbouring countries – they are Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Monaco and Spain. The Pyrenees Mountains are on the border with Spain and the European Alps are on the border with Italy. France’s coastline is partly the Atlantic Ocean, the Bay of Biscay and the English Channel. The climate in France is much cooler than Australia, although some parts get hot in the summer. Meg Canada has many of the world’s natural beauties including the Northern Lights, Canadian Rockies, Banff National Park, Niagara Falls and the Cabot Trail. The season periods in Canada are different to Australia as Canada is in the Northern Hemisphere and Australia in the Southern. The climate of the two countries is very different because Australia is reasonably close to the equator and Canada is far from it. The average summer temperature in Canada is 28 degrees but winter can be as cold as -25 degrees. The mountains in Canada receive more snow in a year than the Swiss Alps do in two years.


Walter Ethiopia is an African country that is one of the earliest places that humans ever lived. It now has a population of more than 96 000 000 people, the 13th largest country population in the world. In area, it is the 27th largest country in the world. Ethiopia does not have a coastline and is surrounded by the countries of Eritrea, Djibouti, Somalia, Kenya, South Sudan and Sudan. Lucie Greece is in the south-eastern part of Europe and is sometimes referred to as the cradle of Western civilisation. Tourists love to go to Greece because there are thousands of islands in the Aegean and Ionian Seas and beautiful beaches all along the coast. Greece has mild, rainy winters but extended periods of sunshine right throughout the year. Some of the native animals are bears, squirrels, wolves, lynxes, foxes and jackals. Milli Russia is the biggest country in the world and stretches almost halfway around the world from east to west. It is hard to give a general description of Russia’s climate because the size of the country means it varies a great deal. However, it is generally a cold climate because Russia is close to the Arctic Ocean. Not a lot of rain falls in Russia and only about 10% is suitable for agriculture. Countries that share a border with Russia include Norway, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Belarus, Ukraine, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, China and North Korea. Emilee Hungary is in the eastern part of Europe and its neighbours are Slovakia, Ukraine, Romania, Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia and Austria. All 418km of the river Danube that flows through Hungary is navigable. Lake Balaton is the largest lake and is 78km long and from 3-14km wide. An animal that is grown for meat is the Mangalitsa pig, whose fatty meat is ideal for sausages and salami. Crystal Japan is located in the far east of Asia, it is a group of islands in the Pacific Ocean. Tokyo is the capital city. North Korea, South Korea, Russia and Taiwan are its nearest neighbours. Approximately 1500 earthquakes strike Japan every year, on average 7 of these are very strong. There are also 108 active volcanoes in Japan. Seth Iceland is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean. The Norwegian Sea separates it from Norway, which is 2203km away. The population of Iceland reached 300 000 in 2006. During the months of June and July, Iceland has days with a full 24 hours of precious, beautiful sunlight. There are about 130 volcanic mountains in Iceland. 18 have erupted since the settlement of Iceland 1100 years ago. Birch trees are the only trees that are native to Iceland but rarely grow to even a metre in height. Reagan The United States of America includes Alaska and Hawaii. The main natural features are Denali (Mount McKinley) in Alaska, which is North America’s highest mountain; The Grand Canyon in Arizona, which is visited by more than 5 million people every year and Yosemite National Park in California, which has the 6th highest waterfall in the world. Washington DC is the capital city.

Jed 8.2 million people live in Papua New Guinea, compared with 24.6 million in Australia. Until 1933, sea-shells were used as the national currency. Rainfall is excessive in the highlands, averaging between 2000 and 5000 mm. In the capital city, Port Moresby, average monthly temperatures are 26 to 28 degrees celsius throughout the year. There are about 190 mammal species in PNG. James South Africa is in the most southern part of the continent of Africa. Interestingly, the countries of Lesotho and Swaziland are within South Africa’s borders. The Atlantic Ocean is on the western side and the Indian Ocean on the eastern side. Some parts of Australia have a similar climate to South Africa.

JS Music Mrs Alison McGuire A big thank you to the good elf who found the recorders hidden away in a back room, this enables us to augment the tuned instru-ment program in Junior School. The Year 4 students have taken to them like ducks to water…. no squeaks after only one lesson! All classes so far this semester have succeed-ed with our joint expectations of showing re-spect, planned lessons, listening and doing and most importantly, having fun. Keep up the great work!


J S S T 3 W 5‐8

WEEK 5 Monday 14 August

**Year 2 Excursion to Reef HQ** After School Care/ After School Activities 3:00—5:15

Tuesday 15 August

**Pre-Prep to Year 2—Braveheart Presentation 11:30—12.00** After School Care/ After School Activities 3:00—5:15

Wednesday 16 August After School Care/ After School Activities 3:00—5:15

Thursday 17 August

**Primary Inter-School Athletics—Friemann Oval—8.30—3.00** Secondary Inter-School Athletics—ASSG—from 1:00 Souls Shakers—Dance MPC 3:00—4:15 After School Care/ After School Activities 3:00—5:15 **Year 6 Canberra Information Evening—5.30—6.30, Year 6 room**

Friday 18 August JS Assembly 8:35 (Class awards) Secondary Inter-School Athletics—ASSG—Full day After School Care/ After School Activities 3:00—5:15


**CT Eisteddfod Choir night** After School Care/ After School Activities 3:00—5:15

Tuesday 22 August After School Care/ After School Activities 3:00—5:15

Wednesday 23 August

** CT Eisteddfod Choral Speaking Verse night** After School Care/ After School Activities 3:00—5:15 Father’s Day Raffle tickets due back today

Friday 25 August

JS Assembly—Class Awards and Pre-prep Presentation Father’s Day Raffle drawn today After School Care/ After School Activities 3:00—5:15

Sunday 27 August

Community Day in the Park Come along and visit the ASSG Early Years Tent at Centenary Park


After School Care/ After School Activities 3:00—5:15

Tuesday 29 August After School Care/ After School Activities 3:00—5:15 Wednesday 30 August After School Care/ After School Activities 3:00—5:15

Thursday 31 August After School Care/ After School Activities 3:00—5:15 Friday 1 September

JS Assembly Class Awards Year 5 & 6 Inter-School Sport Round 5 After School Care/ After School Activities 3:00—5:15

WEEK 8 Sunday 3 September

**Year 6 Class depart for Canberra**

Monday 4 September Year 6 in Canberra After School Care/ After School Activities 3:00—5:15

Tuesday 5 September Year 6 in Canberra After School Care/ After School Activities 3:00—5:15

Wednesday 6 September Year 6 in Canberra After School Care/ After School Activities 3:00—5:15

Thursday 7 September Year 6 in Canberra After School Care/ After School Activities 3:00—5:15

Friday 8 September Year 6 return from Canberra After School Care/ After School Activities 3:00—5:15

** More informa on will be/has been sent home to families about these events.**

Thursday 24 August After School Care/ After School Activities 3:00—5:15

junior school news 11 august 2017 - all souls st gabriels ... · junior school news 11 august 2017...

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