Today the whole school community celebrated the joy that books bring to our lives.  Our annual Book Week parade was a huge success, with all the students, staff and some parents dressing up as a character from a book.  We were also joined by some of our Launch into Learning families and would like to thank Lady Gowrie Childcare for joining us too! It was truly wonderful to see the effort and engagement from everyone.  The buzz around the school this morning was due to all the students excitedly guessing and sharing who they and others were dressed up as. 

There are many studies that have shown that reading to a child, reading with a child, listening to children read and children reading independently is beneficial in so many ways; from boosting their achievement at school to improving mental health and social skills.  It was so great to see our students and families value books and the importance of reading on this special day.   

Students in the 4/5/6 class are on a mission to read for as many minutes as they can before the end of term.  I have loved the conversations we’ve been having about what has been read – both fiction and non-fiction! Please take a moment to listen to reading or talk about what’s been read whenever possible to support the upper primary class in their quest!

Mrs Sophie Wilson

Teacher in Charge

After watching a wonderful YouTube live video about bush tucker and medicine Aunty Patsy, an Australian Aboriginal Elder from Flinders Island, the grade 2/3 class spent some time exploring and comparing elements of our bush tucker garden.  We also recently read "Sea Country" which was written by Aunty Patsy (Patricia Cameron) and illustrated by Lisa Kennedy.  This gave us a beautiful insight into the Aunty Patsy's experiences with the natural indicators of season changes that form part of Tasmanian Aboriginal Culture (particularly on Flinders Island).

As part of a measurement unit in Mathematics, the 4/5/6 class conducted an inquiry to find out how to measure mass accurately using different scaled instruments. We were also able to make connections with our Science understanding about the force of gravity and how gravity can affect the weight of an object, however it’s mass will stay the same.  

There was lots of discussion about the different measures, including metric, and the need to convert between grams and kilograms at times.  Students were also honing their estimation skills as they challenged each other to guess the weight of various objects in the room before measuring them. Next week we will investigate how to measure volume and capacity.

SPSSA Winter Sports Carnival

Netball

After trying out to make the team, we got selected to represent our region in netball.

 On the 24^th of August, we went to play netball in the SPSSA Winter Sports Carnival. It was held in Hobart at the Creek Road Stadium.

We competed against 5 other teams from the south. We enjoyed playing against the pink team, because it was a little bit of a challenge, but we had both fun playing against them.

We loved meeting new people and playing the sport we love. We both made lots of friends.

It was a very tiring and cold day, but we both had lots of fun.

By Lilly and Millie

Soccer

On the 24th August Alex and I went to the SPSSA sports carnival to play lots of soccer.

Before we did that, we had 4 weeks to practice at Sorell.  Some of the training activities involved were passing and moving around manikins and then we played practise games.

At the carnival we played six games with two 15 minute halves each game.  We had to play 3 games because there weren't enough girls int he team.  It was tiring but lots of fun.

By Alex & Gabriel

Grade 2/3 Bee Inquiry

There have bee-n some excellent bee activities happening in our grade 2/3 inquiry this fortnight. 

On Friday the 13^th of August, Mr Barker came to teach us about bees.  We had a go at finding the queen bee in the observation hive.  We found the queen and she was longer than the other bees. She also had a darker, smooth section on her neck.  Mr Barker showed us how to light a smoker.  We did this outside in the fresh air.  We got to sample 3 different kinds of honey, including honeycomb.  We also got to take some bee-utiful honey home.  The honeycomb tasted waxy after we ate it and it got stuck in our teeth! It was delicious.

Hattie: The queen bee looked a bit like a cockroach and she didn’t wear a crown.

Ruby:     We got to see a real hive box but there were no bees in it.

Henry:   We had to light the smoker with pine needles.  It smelled like sap.

Zephyr: The smoker was so cool.

Will:       You need to wear special gear to be a bee-keeper.

Ryder:   Cooper and I got to wear the bee suits.  Mine was too big but it was pretty cool.

Xavier:  Some of the bees were on the side of the observation hive, eating honey.

Arnab:  The smoker smells good.

Cooper: The smoker stops the bees from communicating and keeps them calm so the bee-keeper can get honey out of the hive without getting hurt.

Occy:     Mr Barker showed us how to put the smoker out so that the ground didn’t go on fire.

Archie:  I wish I wasn’t allergic to the smoke so that I could smell it.

Roland: The smoke smelled bad.

Evie:      The smoker was really cool.

On Friday the 20^th of August, Mrs Nunn came to visit us.  She brought many different materials to make wax wraps with us.  We had a discussion on how to make them, the materials we had to use and being safe around the hot appliances.  Mrs Nunn brought stiff brushes, electric frying pans and hot plates to melt the beeswax.  Then we had to line up in Mrs Nunn’s group or Mrs Sparshott’s group.  We placed our cotton fabric on the hot plate. We had to paint our fabric with the wax/jojoba oil/pine resin mix.  We then lifted our fabric and shook it to let it dry. We also made some wrapping paper for our wax wraps.

Chelea: We got to choose our own fabric for the wax wraps.  It was a fun activity and I loved seeing Mrs Nunn again.

Sophie: This was an interesting activity.

Bella:     I liked making the wraps.

You're invited to visit our

Scholastic Book Fair

23rd August- 3rd September

In the Library

Lots of great gift ideas and every purchase earns learning and literacy resources for our school.

Fathers' Breakfast

Friday 3rd September

8am-9am