Dear parents, families, students and community members, 

Welcome back to Term 3! We have a big term ahead of us and some exciting activities include: 

• Wednesday 13th August - Grade 4/5/6 Class to Triabunna District School for Australian of the Year speeches 
• Thursday 14th August - K/P/1 Class to Oatlands Aquatic Centre for their second Learn to Swim session for the year
• Friday 15th August - Book Week Parade. Please meet us in the Swan Hall for Breaky and a Book at 8:50, before walking with the students to The Swansea Amphitheatre
• Monday 18th August - Thursday 21st August - 4/5/6 Class Canberra Camp 
• Friday 22nd August - Grade 2/3 to Festival of Bright Ideas (and any 4/5/6 students onsite)
• Thursday 28th August - What is Waste? Incursion for the Grade 4/5/6 Class 
• Tuesday 9th September - Grade 2/3 Class to Triabunna District School to watch their school performance (Charlie and the Cholocate Factory)
• Friday 12th September - b kinder Summit - students in Grade 6 to Landsdowne Crescent Primary School 
• Friday 12th September - Music Viva Incursion for Kinder - Grade 5 students
• Thursday 18th September - Grade 3 - 6 students to Bicheno Primary School for a Sports Gala Day
• Tuesday 23rd September - MAST Incursion (boat safety)
• Wednesday 24th September - East Coast Cluster Dance Day at Orford Primary School
• Thursday 25th September - End of Term Assembly and Art Exhibition
• Friday 26th September - Footy Colours Day to raise money for the Fight Cancer Foundation

I would like to take this time to thank the Swansea Makers Market for their $200 donation towards Arts or Humanities subjects. We are very excited to buy more resources for our Art program with this money, including air-dry clay and hessian, and we are looking forward seeing what the students and Mrs Gadd can produce using these products. Student art work will be on display at the end of the term, after our end of term assembly at an Art Exhibition (held on Thursday 25th September). 

A reminder to families that we require notice from parents/carers if your child has an alternative pick-up arrangement at the end of the day. We require confirmation from parents/carers regarding the change, not the family member or friend picking your child up. This is also the case for Childcare. If your child is away, the school does not normally communicate with Lady Gowrie regarding absences. Please contact Lady Gowrie directly if your child will be absent from After-School Care. 

Kind regards, 

Anna Knowles
Principal

Students from our school will soon be undertaking an education tour of Canberra. Students will be given the opportunity to participate in a variety of educational programs with a focus on Australia’s history, culture, heritage, and democracy.

The Australian Government recognises the importance of all young Australians being able to visit the national capital as part of their Civics and Citizenship education. To assist the school in meeting the cost of the excursion the Australian Government is contributing funding to our school in the amount of $1050 per student under the Parliament and Civics Education Rebate program towards those costs. The rebate is paid directly to the school upon completion of the excursion.

We would like to thank the Australian Government for the PACER Rebate, without which our Canberra Trip would not be able to happen. We are excited to be taking 21 students to Canberra from the 18th August - 21st August.

Learning News, Highlights and Reflections

By KP1

Maggie – I liked making ochre playdough with our special visitor, Bianca.

Caleb – I had the best day ever because we got to use our hands when we were painting!

Olivia – I liked making the ochre playdough and playing with it too!

George – I painted with flowers!

Hazel – I liked reading at the library because I liked the books I read.

Wyatt – I am proud of my handwriting and my pencil grip.

Daisy – We are learning how to play soccer in HPE. 

Lucy – I am proud of my rainbow painting.  We used bubble wrap and paint. 

Arlo – I am proud of my handwriting.  I have been working on remembering to slow down. 

Ellie - I discovered you can make playdough with ochre!

Jaxon – I learnt how to mark the football… and kick the football.

Llewyn – I am proud of my Science learning and my volcano.  We have been learning about natural disasters!

Grace – I learnt how to do painting at Art and squiggly line letters.

Amelia – I am learning new ways to do art.  We used bubble wrapping to do really cool Art and we have been learning how the primary colours work!

Indie – I have been enjoying writing words I can see around the classroom. 

Eowyn - I am most proud of the chalk painting I did at lunchtime.  

Miss Pearce – It was wonderful to come back to school this week and hear which learning our students have been most proud of this fortnight!  We have been recording our ideas on the Learning News board in our classroom.  Our goal is to share learning from all areas of our curriculum with you; however, Art has clearly been the favourite for many of our students this fortnight!

Welcome to Term 3!

Our classmates have returned to school with super positive attitudes to learning, ready to tackle new challenges head on.  We've hit the ground running with some great activities.

Maths

We're learning our times tables in maths.  We've made use of some classroom resources to create arrays and sort/organise different ways of showing a multiplication algorithm.  We've used our great communication skills to work as a team and find the answers efficiently, while being respectful and calm towards each other.  This is huge growth for the class as a group, with everyone feeling respected and proud of their work.

Art

Tuesday afternoon is art time with Mrs Gadd.  We had a fun lesson this week with clay - please stay tuned to see what magic we've created!

Woodwork

We've welcomed Peter and Eli to woodwork this fortnight. Our puppy mansion is coming together beautifully, with many hands having worked very hard to create it! 

Library with Lilibet

We go to the Library before Art on Tuesdays.  Melissa and Lilibet have been joining us and enjoying a story read by our students.

See you next fortnight!

Sunshine and smiles, 

Mrs Sparshott

We’ve been enjoying some flexible learning opportunities for literacy around the school grounds and at the beach. Ms Knowles and Ms Gadd joined our class down at Jubilee Beach and helped us to further develop our open-ended questioning skills. 456 have been practising our new morphemes for our Word Origins spelling program. Our morpheme focus these last two weeks has been cycle, tri and sign. In Mathematics we have been revisiting long division with the Grade Six students. It’s amazing how much improvement has happened with a little bit of determination and practise. In Grade Five the students have been using division to break whole numbers into smaller parts and the Grade Four students have been converting millimetres, centimetres and metres in real life situations.

In Science the 456 learners have been investigating light and how it assists us to see. We’ve been researching natural and artificial light sources and using torches to complete some light experiments. During our HASS lessons we’ve delved further into Australian citizenship by looking closely at the different types of pledges that people make when they accept the responsibilities and privileges of becoming an Australian Citizen.

Lilibet has been very busy since term 3 kicked off.  20 weeks old and getting very heavy!

Lilibet's personality is starting to take shape, and as the students have learnt, Lilibet loves tummy rubs, treats, playing fetch, and lots of snoring whilst sleeping.

Lilibet and the students are having lots of fun at recess with many laughs.

Library visits with classes are the focus for Lilibet for Term 3, as this space is proving to be a great space for hanging out with her in a calm environment.  Plus, she loves listening to all the stories the students have been reading.

Students are learning the prompts for interacting with her.  This ensures she is listening to them to sit before approaching and making sure she gets to smell their hands in a soft fist prior to students patting her.  With patting being on her chest and back, not the head to start with.  Students are learning that coming in for a pat straight over the top of Lilibet's head can feel intimidating to a dog, and we wouldn't want to poke her in the eyes or ears.

Given that a dog's sense of smell is dramatically more sensitive than humans ', the big change for Lilibet this term is being able to explore all those smells before her pawfriends arrive at school, especially on the oval. This sense of smell also happens in the Library space before students arrive for their Library lesson.  Lilibet goes in and discovers all the smells first. By doing this, it removes the excitement and the hype for Lilibet and creates a calm connection with Lilibet and her pawfriends.

Lilibet is loving being able to go to the doggy day spa in Swansea for the weekly wash and blow dry, so she is sparkling clean, ready to hang out at school for the week with her paw friends.

Free Access to StoryBox Library for Tasmanian Families!

Tasmanian primary school students now have free access to StoryBox Library - a fun and educational digital library you can enjoy at home!

StoryBox Library is a subscription-based website and app featuring Australian storytellers reading hundreds of much-loved children’s books. It’s a fantastic way to nurture your child’s love of reading and support their literacy development.

With features like Read-Along, Closed Captions, Auslan stories, and engaging audio-visual content, StoryBox Library is designed to be inclusive and accessible for all children.

How to Access:

1. Visit www.storyboxhub.com or search “Story Box Library” on your device’s app store.
2. Click LOG IN at the top right of the homepage.
3. Enter the school username and password (provided below)
4. Start exploring hundreds of stories - Anytime, anywhere!
   
   

School Login Details
Username: taslift894
Password: lit907

Please visit the DECYP website or StoryBox website for more information.