junior school news 4 september, 2020 · 9/4/2020 · junior school direct 07 4788 2242 fax: 07...

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

Junior School News 4 September, 2020

Pre-prep to Year 12

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

PO Box 235, Charters Towers Qld 4820

Phone: 4788 2242 Email: [email protected]

NATIONAL SCIENCE WEEK - LEGO COMPETITION

At the start of this term, 23 Junior School students from Years 4, 5 and 6 gave up their lunch play to learn how to use the LEGO WeDo 2.0 kit. This kit is a Lego robot that the students use to build and program using coding, to solve real world problems. Mrs Dickson set challenges requiring teams of four or five students to collectively apply their Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) knowledge and skills.

A team of five students who showed particular skills in communication, teamwork, and problem-solving were selected to represent All Souls St Gabriels at the Townsville Junior School LEGO Competition, hosted by Townsville Grammar School on Wednesday, 19 August.

Tio Chong (Year 6), Roary Polkevaz, Isabella Maff, (Year 5) Judith Koglkia and Matilda Twine (Year 4) competed against 12 other teams from across the region. Working collaboratively, they set about solving a challenging problem that required them to design, build and code a LEGO construction. Congratulations on placing third, and being awarded the “Most Innovative and Creative” design of the

competition. Thank you Mrs Dickson for extending this opportunity to the Junior School students.

LITTLE SOULS RESUMES

It was wonderful to see the excited faces on the children who join us at Little Souls with their mums, dads, aunts, grandparents and family friends. In keeping with our COVID-19 Safe plan, there have been some changes to the regular routines, but these didn’t stop the children having lots of fun enjoying new play experiences, and making social connection with other children and families. As always, the health and safety of our community is a priority, and we thank everyone who came along for working together towards maintaining an environment that is as safe and secure as can be, not only for our children but the wider community.

We look forward to seeing more happy little faces each Friday morning between 9:00 am and 11:30 am. Little Souls is a great opportunity for children to play with other children in a warm and nurturing environment and for adults to make new friends.


YEAR 6 CAMP—MUNGALLI FALLS

The cancellation of this year’s trip to Canberra has been extremely disappointing for Year 6 students. In this year of uncertainty and unprecedented changes, it is very important for our Year 6 students to share something special together. We have been able to secure dates (Week 2, Term 4) for our Year 6 students to enjoy an itinerary packed with challenging and educational outdoor experiences at Mungalli Falls. Accompanied by Mr Turner, Miss Browne and Mrs Weston, the trip to Mungalli Falls Outdoor Education Centre will provide an opportunity for the students to enjoy a variety of nature based, interactive and curriculum based learning, in addition to a variety of team-building activities lead by qualified instructors.

ACTIVE START TO THE SCHOOL DAY

Being active is a regular feature of every Junior School student’s school day, whether timetabled, curriculum based or through informal play. On Tuesday, 25 August the Junior School students enjoyed a ‘short blast’ of physical activity together. The front of the Junior School was abuzz with fun and laughter as Captain Active, showed us all how invigorating it is to exercise to music.

DANCENORTH WORKSHOPS

On Wednesday, 26 August, Year 5 and Year 6 students were given the opportunity to participate in a Dance workshop lead by Dancenorth’s Community Experience team. The dynamic instructors ignited the students’ physical and imaginative energies while inspiring creative collaboration. Thanks to Mrs Sellars for co-ordinating this energetic and creative afternoon, which was enjoyed by all.

TOWNSVILLE FIRE COMMUNITY YOUTH PROGRAM

On Friday, 28 August, we were fortunate to have representatives from the Townsville Fire visit our School to conduct a basketball skills clinic for students in Years 4, 5 and 6. From all reports the students had a wonderful time practicsng fundamental basketball skills and drills. Thank you Miss Browne for organising these clinics.

FATHER’S DAY RAFFLE

Thank you: Towers Gas and Camping; Repco; Towers Power Equipment; Hollimans Home Timber and Hardware; Herbert Hall and W Titley and Co, who have provided some wonderful prizes for this year’s JSSG Father’s Day Raffle.

Congratulations to all the winners. Wishing all Dads and Granddads a Happy Father’s Day on Sunday.

On behalf of the Junior School Support Group, (sub-committee of ASSG P & F) thank you for your continued support.

PARENT TEACHER INTERVIEWS

This term, teachers will contact parents by email, to arrange a mutually convenient time to have a phone conversation. Please don’t be concerned if you are not contacted by your child’s teacher, as this means your child is progressing well.

If parents have any concerns regarding their child’s academic progress or wellbeing, they are very welcome to contact the Junior School Office (4788 2242 or by email: [email protected]) to arrange a suitable time to talk with the relevant staff member.

SPIRIT OF PARTNERSHIP

Respect, responsibility, honesty, tolerance and doing your personal best are the values reflected throughout our School. We appreciate the important role the wider community plays in the progress of our students and are always grateful for the feedback we receive. Achievement is very important and, as a school community, we are all striving to be the best we can be in all that we do. Partnerships with families and the wider community are strong and we are very proud of our students’ achievements.

Thank you for your continued support and advocacy for our School.

mailto:[email protected]


News from Pre-prep: Mrs Peagham,

Mrs Limkin, Mrs Cragg

Have you seen our flower and vegetable garden? Every day we are seeing changes. We now have a variety of colourful flowers and the beans are growing already. Remember to come and have a look with us.

In Numeracy, we have been counting one-to-one in our play and in our learning time. In our hardware store we had to create a price for our tools (we wrote the $ symbol and the number) and our friends had to count out their money to buy what they wanted. Our goal is to count forward to twenty (20) by the end of the year and count backwards from ten. We are learning to recognise the numerals from zero to ten and then we will progress onto twenty. We have been learning about ordering numbers. We have also been exploring fullest to emptiest, heaviest to lightest and biggest to smallest.

In Literacy, we have continued to learn the sounds the letters in the alphabet make, including letter E, T and F. We love creating books about our friends when we are learning the letter at the beginning of their name. We can ’t wait till it’s our turn. Mrs Peagham shows us what our mouths look like when we articulate the sound. We practise writing the capital and lower case letter. We have started to look for letter sounds, illustration clues and sight words when we are reading.

In Technology, we have been learning how to take photos using the digital cameras and how to use the mouse on our desktop computers. It is quite tricky co-ordinating the sliding and clicking of the mouse. We took an adventure up to the Design & Technology classroom and we loved it. We saw the Year 9 students working with metal and the Year 10 students working with wood. They showed us their safety equipment including their safety glasses, covered shoes and aprons. We asked lots of questions and we decided we would like a mallet and a measuring tape in our Pre-prep tool box too.

In Science, we are exploring the seasons and the things that change when the weather changes. We discovered that we change our clothes, the food we eat and the games we play when it is cold, winter weather. We discovered that the animals change when the weather is cold too, some of them hibernate. When the weather begins to warm up again it ’s called Spring. We will see lots of new growth on trees, plants and flowers. Spring is also a time when new baby animals are born. We have been expanding our vocabulary using the baby animal names including cub, kid, puggle and foal.

In Geography, we have been exploring the Charters Towers community. We have been thinking about places that are special to us including the skate park, Centenary Park, the pool and the library. We built some features of Charters Towers using our blocks, the train track and objects from our Art centre. We’ve even created some of our town’s features in the sand pit including Towers Hill and the Weir.

In the Arts, we have been exploring colour. We sprayed cloth with different colours and we’ve been mixing primary colours to create secondary colours – it was so exciting seeing them change. We are exploring collage using a variety of textures and colours to explore our creativity.

We have been very busy creating a card and gifts for our Dads for Father’s Day. We are writing words, creating patterns and following instructions to make something wonderful for our Dads who we love so much.

Outside play has given us many wonderful opportunities to communicate, run and create with our friends. Inside play provides a wide range of activities to choose and explore to help us learn all the valuable skills and knowledge we will need to progress to Prep.


News From Prep:

Mrs Marshall and Mrs Fittock

Mrs Marshall’s Monkeys have been working hard creating rhyming sentences. I’m very proud of their efforts with rhyming and letter formation.

Corban

Evelyn

George

Georgia

Gordon

Jack

Jackson

Kendyl

Travis

Lucas

Morgan

Nate

Sarah


News from Year 1:

Mrs Reardon’s News from the Reef

Year 1 have loved learning about Dreamtime Stories. I

have enjoyed the discussions that it brings about

whether they are true or not. We have looked at how

the birds got their colours, about the cocky, crow and

the hawk and why they live the way they do. Our

favourite story so far has to be how the kangaroo got

its tail. We modelled and practised our retelling with

this story. There were giggles when the small, grey

kangaroo tricked the big, brown kangaroo into finding

spiders and not sugarbag (bush honey). The biggest

laughs came when the two kangaroos fought with

sticks and then threw their sticks at each other,

landing the sticks in their bottoms! This week we start

writing our retell on Tiddalick the Frog. I cannot wait

to share some of their retell with you.

In Mathematics, we have been working on half past

time and being able to read and write it in both

analogue and digital time. So more of our

Mathematics has looked like playing rather than

learning; however, we can give great directions and

find locations. We have practised with bears and a big

life size grid mat. Soon we will use our new location

and direction knowledge to do more coding with

Cubetto.

We are coming to the end of our Science unit and are

now starting to discuss differences and similarities

between photos of different landscapes. The different

pictures may show different seasons, day or night or

even weather.

Our Geography unit is moving on to look at how we

can care for special places. We have been learning

about different landscapes, such as constructed,

managed and natural and we are thinking about what

we can do in each of these to look after them. They all

have different needs.

We are starting to get really clever in Technology. We

are getting better at logging on the computer, finding

PowerPoint and starting a new page. Some tricky bits

are learning to right click our mouse so that our new

page can be blank. Did you know that computers are

not that smart? It is our job to tell the computer

what it needs to do. That means if we want to type

on the screen we need to insert a textbox first. To

change the font size or colour we have to highlight

the typing with our mouse. Otherwise the computer

does not know what we are trying to do.

Once again, Year 1 has been very busy and things

are not going to slow down yet. We will be working

hard to finish all our units until the very last day of

the term.


News from Year 2: Chief Heuirwatha’s Tribe

English

The students have been busy investigating how authors make their stories engaging and appealing to the reader. They have started planning a new event to add to Bob Graham’s story “Spirit of Hope.” Stimulus pictures have been provided to help them create ideas and complete plot diagrams. The purpose of the student’s narratives are to help the main characters, the Fairweathers, solve a huge challenge that the family must overcome. Here is an outline of the story that will help to explain further…….

The Fairweather family lived a happy life, full of fun and laughter until one day the family are told that they have to move out of their little home to make way for a new factory. The thought fills the family with despair as they search and search for a new home with no luck. Then one day, one of the Fairweather children, Mickey, has a brilliant idea………..

How will the students help the family to solve the problem?

What is Mickey’s fabulous idea and will he succeed?

What new challenges will the family need to overcome together to help Mickey solve the problem?

I know that you are all probably itching to find out the answers to these captivating questions, so stay tuned because the answers are hot on the press!

Science

The students have continued to have a wonderful time investigating push and pull forces. They have built on their knowledge by observing the effects of strength on objects in motion and have observed how toys move on different surfaces. When testing a toy car in various places, they were able to understand the concept of friction and how it changes movement. Our scientists learnt that the greater the friction the slower the movement and the less friction the faster the movement. They will now use their knowledge of forces to change the movement of a toy that they have built and will reflect scientifically on their investigations.

Technology

Did you know that you can create your own unique illustrations and pictures using the shape tool in PowerPoint? Well, the children do and they are very creative and skilful with their use of technology. This term, the students have been given the challenge of creating their own illustrations for their ‘Spirit of Hope’ writing. They have generated their own characters using the freeform tool, built objects using many different shapes and added backgrounds to complete their pictures. Their goal is to build illustrations that add detail to their narrative events and help to further engage the reader. So far, they are well on the way to achieving these goals. SUPER!

Visual Art

Our classroom has continued to come to life with the display of brilliant artworks created by some very talented children. Last week, we had a visit from the famous Picasso, who taught the children a little about his life as an artist and some of his famous works. We learnt how he went through different stages and often painted how he felt. A book called ‘Picasso’s Trousers’ showed us how he liked to draw portraits from the front and side in one picture! The children thought this was hilarious, but loved creating their own ABSTRACT portraits in this style. Many loved the flexibility and freedom involved in this type of art. Next we will create portraits in the Pop Art style of Anthony Warhol…. WOW!


News from the Year 3 Dream Team

Miss Miliauskus

The Year 3 Dream Team has had quite a busy Term 3

so far. While we are building our knowledge we have

also been focusing on building our mindset using our

gratitude journals and smiling minds meditation. One

of our best days so far was the dress up day where

we all came as our most beloved characters. There

were some incredible costumes.

One of our favourite subjects this term has been

Digital Technology. We have been learning all about

computers, some of the different components they

have and how people make them work. After learning

how computers need very small steps to follow and

that these steps are usually given to them using a

‘code’ we took a little robot called Cubetto on an

adventure using a visual coding language. We are now

exploring another visual coding system on a program

called Scratch, where we are creating our very own

quiz game based on what we have learnt in Science

using a special combination of codes.

In English, we completed our novel study on Matty

Forever and are immersed in our own friendship

narratives. We have really been focusing on using

noun groups to add detail to our settings and

characters. We can add a little bit of flavour to our

stories by sprinkling in a little bit of dialogue too.

Our next focus will be on editing, where we will use

our detective skills to ensure our writing has

everything we need.

In Mathematics, we have explored measurement

including capacity (L, ml), mass (g, kg) and length

(mm, cm, m, km). We discovered something VERY

interesting to help us remember our conversions –

did you know that ‘centi’ is derived from the Latin

‘hundred’? Did you know that ‘kilo’ is derived from

Greek ‘thousand’? Did you know that ‘milli’ is

derived from Latin ‘thousand’? This really helped us

to remember that there are 1000g in a kg, 1000ml

in a L and 100cm in a metre. We used this

knowledge to complete a measurement scavenger

hunt.

We have blasted off out of this world in Science,

where we have been learning all about night and day

and how these occur. We became the Sun, Earth and

Moon as we demonstrated how the Earth rotates and

orbits the Sun, all while the Moon also rotates and

orbits around Earth.

We have been thinking like an artist to create a few

different art pieces based on the art elements of line,

shape, pattern, texture and our personal favourites

colour and value. We are currently completing our

cool and warm colour night and day creations. Then

we will be creating our own art piece based on what

our own special world would look like, using other

artists examples and techniques as inspiration.


News from Year 4: Mrs Turner’s Trekkers

We have continued to fill our time with a variety of learning tasks. Recently we have completed our Digital Technology task to find out the most common coloured Smartie in the small packets. Data was collected individually at first, Smarties were then eaten and we collated all the data to answer our question. Students were able to enter data, create tables, use formulas and create a variety of graphs to represent their findings. So which colour is the most common? Orange!

Students have been putting their creative and fine motor skills to the test in Visual Arts. Based on a fabric craft from South America, we have been creating designs with paper and layering. Many students have found adjustments are needed from their original planning as they have worked through the task which is a necessary part of the learning process. I can’t wait to decorate the room with the native South American animals in paper Mola form. Our next task will be beautiful African sunsets filled with native animal silhouettes.

We have been investigating the properties of different materials in Science, and discussing how these properties make them suitable for different purposes. Further experiments and testing are planned where students will determine the purpose of each investigation, list the features that make a fair test, predict the results and give reasons for their thoughts. After testing, they will record their results and label diagrams. Our final investigation will involve ochre mixed with different binders and to compliment our earlier learning in History this year.

We have finished our symmetry unit, and continue to work with fractions and graphing. Students have been using mini whiteboards to help visualise fractions in diagram form and in number lines. This helps to consolidate student understanding of a sometimes, tricky topic to master in Year 4. There has been regular excitement in the room when children realise the task is not as difficult as they originally thought once we work through steps, tips and tricks to help.

Over the recent weeks, students have been enjoying hearing book recommendations from classmates. This has promoted interest in other authors and book series with children trying some books they haven’t come across before. I can’t wait to hear more and see what is popular with the children at the moment.

After finishing ‘The One and Only Ivan’, we are now analysing the changes within the main character within two parts of the story. Students then have the opportunity to discuss their favourite part in the book, explaining how the author was able to use vocabulary and language features to engage the audience. I know they are all waiting with bated breath for me to read the sequel, ‘The One and Only Bob’ which will happen as soon as the writing task is finished.


News from Mrs Dickson & Year 5

“I like that Wookiee.” Maz Kanata Force Awakens

We have packed a lot of activities in the last few weeks

and I will be squeezing in a few more before the term

ends.

Students have been working diligently writing poems and

completing their poetry analysis assessment. They are

using the learning walls very effectively to make sure they

understand the types of poems and language features

they are seeing in the poetry we have been reading.

In Mathematics we delved into the deep end of converting units of

measurement, which I have to say has never been fun. Even as an

adult it can be quite challenging. In true growth mindset fashion

the Year 5s realised they needed to practise to become more

confident at converting between the different measurements in

length and capacity.

In the Light unit in Science the students are applying their

knowledge in the assessment investigation by using shoe boxes to

direct light from a hole on one side via mirrors, and out of a hole

at the other side.

We started our Paddock to Plate excursion series with a fantastic

trip to Mick and Joanne Laffin’s to learn how Laffin Honey is made.

Mick invited the Townsville District Bee Club which taught us so

many things about beautiful bees and delicious honey. In the

coming weeks we are off to Royston Park Pasture Raised Eggs and

Black River Produce.

With all this new information for our Digital and Design Technology

and Media Arts integrated unit on Paddock to Plate, students are

busy developing their short film trailers on how a particular food

goes from the animal to our plate. They have been incorporating

the skills learnt in Term 1 using Green Screen and new skills on

Stop Motion to develop this trailer. I am impressed with the

storyboards students have created when planning this trailer.

New experiences with JCU Fire Basketball and Charters Towers

Regional Council Film Workshop with Orvon Gough have given Year

5 more opportunities to shine. Students worked with Orvon to

develop their short film concept and we will have auditions for the

roles prior to our full day of filming in the last week of term.

Stay safe.

Maz Kanata


Year 6 News: Mr Turner

In Year 6, we have begun writing and discussing Bills

in Parliament. We have been looking at the process of

how a Bill starts and what it goes through to become

law. Some children have been given portfolio roles

(Minister for Environment, Defence, Education etc.) in

the Government, while others have been given

shadow portfolios. We have a few Independents and

discussed their roles when a new Bill has been

introduced. The children were surprised by the fact

that no matter where you are in Parliament House, the

Member has only 4 minutes (bells are rung) to make it

to the House of Reps (before the doors are locked) to

cast their vote when a division is called (House splits

into for and against) The children will be presenting

their Bills to Parliament in the coming weeks.

The children are very excited that Inter-School sport

has resumed this term. It was great watching them

play T-Ball last Friday against BTC and CCC. Hopefully,

it will be a regular fixture for an extended period until

the end of the year.

We had a great time with the Townsville Fire

basketball visit recently, the children showed an

amazing skill level to really impress the players from

the Fire.

This week we had our first school camp meeting. The

children are excited that we still get to go away for a

few days of adventure and learning outside of the

classroom. Our day trip to the reef, archery and

canoeing are certain to be among the favourite things

to look forward to. At the meeting we discussed the

itinerary, packing list and answered lots of questions

from parents and student. It is only 39 days away!

We soon will be going back to the Science lab to do

some cool hands on experiments involving density and

using Bunsen burners. This week the children will

make a coloured water density tower inside a test

tube. They will see how the different densities affect

how items float or sink.


JS HPE & SPORT NEWS: Miss Browne

Sustainability in Year 3:

As part of the health unit, the Year 3 students have

been investigating some of the sustainable practices

here at All Souls St Gabriels School. We have been

lucky enough to visit the Senior School Art

Department, as well as the Dining Hall, to investigate

what they have been up to. We learnt about saving

the waterways from toxic paint, reusing and

repurposing items and reducing landfill by creating a

fertiliser out of the dining hall scraps. We also had a

visit from Mr Akers, a representative from the grounds

staff, to discuss the many projects we have at school

that help maintain our planet for the future. We

discussed the use of solar panels, recycled water,

recycling cans, bottle and poppers and by fixing or

repurposing broken items.

Thank you Mr Akers, Ms Kelly, Miss Oberg and Mrs

Kempster for helping build our knowledge and sharing

your work with us.

Inter-School Sport:

Recently the Year 5 and 6 students participated in a

trial for both touch football and T-Ball. Our T-Ball

teams played an afternoon of games against

Blackheath and Thornburgh College and Columba

Catholic College. The boys team were victorious,

winning both their games. The girls tried their best

and managed to come away with one win and a loss.

Considering the sport was new to many of the

students, they did a fantastic job.

Our Touch Football team have enjoyed playing against

CCC and BTC and are looking forward to the upcoming

Gala Day.

Representative Sport:

After selection in the Charters Towers Softball team a

few weeks ago, Annie-May Johnson has attended the

Northern Queensland Softball trials where she was

chosen to represent North Queensland at the State

Championships. Annie-May has since been training

and working hard to build her skills before she travels

away next term to compete at the next level. Well

done Annie-May.

Cooper Brazier attended the Charters Towers Cricket

trials last week and was selected in the team. We are

waiting to hear back about how he went at the

Northern Queensland trials. Good luck Cooper.


Music News: Mrs Sellars

Greetings from the Music room!

Last week, Years 5 & 6 participated in a visit from Dancenorth Community’s annual regional workshop tour.

Andrea and Alice taught the students to listen to their bodies and to seek joy and freedom in their dance

movements.

The students enjoyed their sessions and demonstrated some very groovy dance moves.


Library Link: Mrs Silverwood

Planning for our Book Week displays is

underway. The older classes were given

a choice on what they would like to

create. It has been an interesting

experience and one filled with some

horror on my part.

Our wonderful Preps are making masks

from The Illustrated Encyclopeadia of Ugly Animals. What was I thinking. I now

have to work out how to put these

wonderful creatures front on for the

masks.

The Year 5 class is quite large, so

students were asked to volunteer to look

through books and come up with ideas

for their class. The group of 9 (5 boys

and 4 girls) came up with an idea from

the book Nop by Caroline Magerl. Their

creative ideas ran to paper mache. So

today – instead of my quiet and tidy life

in the library, I found myself surrounded

by excited students, lots of paper and

flour glue. What fun – please someone

remind me to choose the activities

myself next year.

We had an enjoyable session and I hope

the photos show the wonderful Year 5

class in action.

Holiday soon. Please ensure all library

books are returned by the end of term.

Another good term in the library.

Happy reading.


Dancenorth Workshop with Years 5 & 6


An active start to the week .


Adventurethon “Ride to School”

junior school news 4 september, 2020 · 9/4/2020 · junior school direct 07 4788 2242 fax: 07...

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