Photo Of The Week – Term 2 Week 4

Posted on May 13, 2021 by Newsletter Editor

Preschool (8)

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Julianna Term 2 Week 4

Posted on May 13, 2021 by juliannam

Hi Everyone,

MAINTENANCE

If you are looking for a job please check the Maintenance List in the newsletter.

QUERIES- payments/invoices

Please remember if you are emailing me about invoices, fees or anything relating to your child, can you please reference with your Child’s Surname. This is especially important when you are making a payment.

LOOKING FOR A PAINTER

If anyone knows of a good painter could you email me their details. We are looking to get quotes to paint the outside of St Elmo

Thank –you!

Cheers

Julianna

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Preschool News: Week 4 Term 2

Posted on May 13, 2021 by katrinaa

Hello everyone,
What a wonderful and eventful week we’ve had in preschool.
Wendy’s class did an amazing job of organising and running a stall on Wednesday to raise money for a regional school to be able to go on an excursion to Canberra this week. For everyone in preschool this was the first time they’ve had the opportunity to take part in an event like this. The excitement and joy it brought to everyone was absolutely priceless! Preschool is now keen on running their own stall to raise money to help others so stayed tuned!
 We had a fabulous canteen with Penny and Ezra’s Mum Natania on Monday. We also had our first Hip Hop lesson with Otto’s Dad Nate on Monday in the afternoon. How amazing to have preschool children take part in such fantastic events. We’re really looking forward to canteen and Hip Hop again next Monday.
There’s currently a huge interest in cubby house making in
As the weather gets cooler and children are generally spending more time inside within close proximity of each other we’re noticing lots of coughs. colds and runny noses. In line with the schools current COVID procedure we require children and staff to be COVID tested and send the preschool the negative results before returning to school, though more importantly please be considerate of other families and teachers and keep unwell children at home where they can rest and recover. A huge thank you to all the families that have been doing this.
As part of the preschool sun safe policy, we require children to wear a hat and sun protection outside whenever the UV index is 3 or before. Many of the children don’t have hats and as we’ve put our spare hats away to stop the spread of nits we’re finding that lots of children don’t have hats. It would be greatly appreciated if everyone could please pop a hat in their child’s bag each day.
Wishing everyone a restful weekend!
Love
Katrina, Michael and Lisa

 

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Emma’s Class Week 4 Term 2 2021

Posted on May 13, 2021 by emmab

Dear Parents,

It’s hard to believe we’re nearly half way through the term! This week was another stimulating and thought-provoking one for the Puppy Crew.

We continued our learning about personal safety and protective behaviours with a focus on body boundaries and consent. We talked about the concept of a ‘body bubble’ and discussed the importance of people in our lives respecting it. I found a quirky and amusing book called ‘RESPECT – consent, boundaries and being in charge of you’ by Rachel Brian which we have been enjoying reading together, owing to its cartoon style and humour.

We did a fun investigation on air resistance where we dropped two A4 pieces of paper off the top of the stairs – one flat and one scrunched up – and tested which one fell to the ground faster. Many children felt sure that the reason why the scrunched up one fell quicker was because it was heavier, so an interesting discussion about mass vs. air resistance ensued. The children were also introduced to the concept of the six simple machines – the lever, the pulley, the inclined plan, the wedge, the screw and the axle and how they use force to make work easier for us. If you have any interesting household objects that utilise these forces and/or simple machines, we would welcome them in the classroom. I’d bring in my cherry-pipper if cherries were in season…maybe I still will! The visiting science show on forces and movement was a great way for the children to experience many of the concepts we have been looking at first hand. Who knew Tom could lift Emma off the ground with one hand thanks to a lever?

In Maths, we have been measuring area and volume. The children really enjoyed using their measurement skills and creativity to plan their own zoos, cities, classrooms and ‘Dream Bedrooms’.

Our first Hip Hop class was super fun and we look forward to more sessions with Nate (a.k.a. Nacho Pop), who was such an upbeat, vibrant and encouraging educator.

We also loved going to the stall that Wendy’s class ran. All the choice was so exciting and we were so impressed with the enterprising spirit, friendly attitude and organisational skills of Wendy’s students.

It’s terrific to see many parents putting their names down for the upcoming Parent Teaching Meetings. If you haven’t done so already, please click here to access the document.

Have a lovely autumn weekend,

Emma

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Sarah’s Class Week 4 Term 2

Posted on May 13, 2021 by sarahm

Hi Everyone,

I hope that you’ve all had a great week. Well the pace here has certainly picked up and we are now in full swing!!!!!

This week, we welcomed 2 Macquarie Uni student teachers, Santiago and Maggie into our class. They are on their first prac experience so are very enthusiastic to learn. The children have all been extremely supportive & welcoming and will make fabulous teachers for Maggie and Santiago to learn from.

We had a fantastic Hip Hop lesson on Monday with Nate aka Nacho Pop who is a parent in pre-school. We learnt how to do the Tidal Wave, JB (James Brown) and Pop move. These skills will all be built upon over the next 2 weeks. Also on Monday, we had our first visit to Lane Cove Library. If your child is not already a member then it would be wonderful if you could join – you can do this on-line. We were all very excited to be there and borrow books to take home, until our next visit in 3 weeks. The Science show on Tuesday afternoon was a lot of fun too! Along with helpers from our audience the presenter explained the different types of forces and used a variety of exciting experiments to talk about push, pull, spinning, gravity and static electricity. He posed some wonderful questions to the kids which either added to what they already knew or sparked their curiosity. We all left the show on a high! Thankyou so much to Emma for organising this event.

We have done a fair amount of singing this week and added yet another song to our play list- which includes songs by Bruno Mars, Bob Dylan, Cat Stevens, Joni Mitchell &  Matilda – and now I have introduced “Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da” by the Beatles and “Makin a Move” by Lady Bri. We also did some consolidation on our knowledge of Multiplication & Division with a running game. With a strong emphasis on learning about Grammar this term and the structure of our English language, we honed in on ‘contractions’. We discovered the meaning of the word and what it actually means to ‘contract’. This helped our understanding when looking more closely at the words which can do this. Words such as isn’t, didn’t, wasn’t, we’ve, we’re & I’ve were our focus for this week.

We began reading groups this week. In ability groups the children took turns to read through a text and then answer questions for comprehension. So it’s all go, go, go!!

Next week on Tuesday is the concert in Wendy’s. Anyone who wishes to perform should let Wendy know by this Friday. The concert starts at 11:30am and parents are most welcome to come. Apart from our Movie Night on Friday, 4th June Leesa and I would love for our classes to do something together for the remainder of this term, so we’ve decided to ask the children what they think. We’ll be having a meeting next week to discuss options.

I think that’s us for this week!

Love Sarah x

 

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Leesa’s Class Term 2 Week 4

Posted on May 13, 2021 by leesaj

This week we went bushwalking for PE with Wendy’s group to the magic bridge. What a wonderful and beautiful natural feature, very close to Currambena. The children enjoyed exploring, climbing and navigating the location.

Hip Hop was a lot of fun on Monday morning with Nate, who is a parent in preschool. The children learnt a little history of where Hip Hop originated from and some of the different basic moves. The children are eager to come up with their own moves over the next two weeks.

During Mathematics, we’ve continued to look at different number patterns including equivalent number sentences and shape patterns. The children complete Think Mentals weekly, with this week’s focus on multiplication strategies.

We revised homophones and completed our 13th unit of Sound Waves, which was on the sound ‘ai, ay, a_e and a’ as in snail, hay, cake and lady. The children choose words from their Sound Waves book to practise and later in the week have a spelling check-up.

Our Science incursion on Tuesday afternoon was full of experiments, laughter and predictions. The children were able to revise their knowledge of push, pull, spinning, friction, magnetism and gravity. Thank you to Emma for organising this show.

On Monday afternoon, we’re off to the Lane Cove Library. We’ll be returning and borrowing books and having some time to read in the library.

In week 7 on Friday 4th June, we will join Sarah’s class to have a movie night. More details to come in the coming weeks. It will entail the children staying after school to play, prepare and eat together and then watch a movie. Pick up time is 7:30pm. Also next week Sarah’s class and ours will be having a meeting to discuss options for collaborative learning together for the remainder of this term.

Please check the whole school dates and events page in the newsletter. Have a wonderful weekend everyone!

Leesa x

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Wendy’s Group Week 4 Term 2

Posted on May 13, 2021 by wendyp

Thanks to Vinnie for taking the group on Monday when I had to be away. It sounds as if they all had a good day, including our new student teachers, Erica and Taylor who are doing a great job getting to know the group, assisting individuals and starting to run small group activities. They are with us until the end of next week. Hip Hop Dance sounds great fun and I’m looking forward to the session next Monday.

We loved our bush walk (this week’s PE) with Leesa’s group on Tuesday morning down to the Magic Bridge. It is all looking so green and beautiful down there… except for the rubbish we noticed (and collected on our way back). Then on Tuesday afternoon, most of our group joined the rest of the school for a Science Show about Forces and Motion. A very entertaining and informative session. Many thanks to Emma for organising it.

In Class Meetings over the past few weeks our group has been making some very interesting and thoughtful decisions. We are starting to have Plastic Free Wednesdays where we all bring food not wrapped in plastic. If we forget, we take that item home again that day. It’s awareness raising as much as anything. We also decided to do some fundraising to support some disadvantaged students from a small school in rural NSW who could not afford a school trip to Canberra. Our stall yesterday was a resounding success and raised enough to send two children on this trip! Jana personally raised another $250 through her busking efforts and that is enough to send one more student! Many thanks to Susan, and others too, for all the donations of books, toys and food items. (I bought the left over food items for our afternoon tea!) Thank you to everyone who supported us by joining in and spending some money!

This week in Class Meeting, the group decided they’d like to start learning to type properly so I’m going to investigate on-line typing tutors. If anyone knows a good one for beginners, please pass on the details.

We have recently received several donations of great books in terrific condition for the school library. Many thanks to the families who have donated these. And special thanks to Rebecca for the name flags now adorning our ceiling… they look terrific!

Our Year 6/7 night this Friday is open to all children in our group who wish to come. All children must be accompanied by an adult. Please bring some finger food to share if you can and some cash to buy more tea towels! We will start at 5:30, have the more formal part of the evening first and then chat afterwards while we snack. The returning Year 7s will tell us about their schools and their first impressions of high school. The focus will be on giving the current Year 6 students the opportunity to ask questions and find out more about what to expect when it’s their turn next year! I expect we’ll be finished by about 7pm.

In our inside times this week, we’ve been finishing off Chance in Maths and continuing to practise times tables! In English, we are writing more about the short film “Whale”, summaries, reviews and recounts from different points of view. Some children have also begun writing their short film scripts. We’re also having a bit of a grammar focus, revising spelling words that are tricky for many of us and extending vocabularies with words from our shared book, “Northern Lights”.

Our science topic is more or less at an end and the list of history interest areas for our next topic is extensive and fascinating. I’m doing my best to put together a coherent unit of work to cover all bases… starting with how civilisation began!

Please consider nominating for Council. It’s a fabulous way to contribute to the school community … and please come along to the AGM at school on Friday 21st. We need a quorum of around 24 parent s…. to legally hold this meeting which is essential for the school. Details in the whole school notes at the top of this Newsletter.

Next week, we have our mini concert… 11:30 to 12:30 in our room on Tuesday. Children need to let me know their pieces and do lots of practise before then!

Have a great week.

Love,
Wendy

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Photo of the Week

Posted on May 6, 2021 by Newsletter Editor

Jess (4)

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Julianna Term 2 Week 3

Posted on May 6, 2021 by juliannam

Hi Everyone,

Business as usual in the office with not much to say this week. The most pertinent information will be in the Currambena calendar page

Wednesday was particularly busy with play-group happening, a bunch of families arriving for our first back to regular Information Morning, the interviews for preschool families applying for entry into Jess’s class next year being conducted by Jess and Leesa, and Carolina upstairs in the library teaching Spanish. Phew! The school was really buzzing and it seemed every room in the school was fully occupied.

Cheers

Julianna

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Preschool News Week 3 Term 2

Posted on May 6, 2021 by katrinaa

Hello everyone,

After what may have been the last blast of Summer on Monday, the cooler weather seems to have hit us for the remainder of the week. The rain has led to lots of busy indoor play in preschool as well as lots of fantastic exploration in the rain!

We had the first information morning for both preschool and primary since COVID-19 on Wednesday this week. I was out of preschool for the morning and returned a few hours later, it was a wet day, so almost everyone was playing inside, it was noisy and chaotic, though I was struck by how comfortable and relaxed all the children are and what great connections they have formed with each other in such a short amount of time.

Everyone was engaged in some sort if activity… a group of children were using the rainbow snake as a tightrope, someone was riding their bike on the basketball court in the rain (they had rain clothes on so it was okay) there was a group of children drawing at the writing table and children were coming and going with their parents as they were attending interviews for primary.

All of this made me realise how fortunate I am and what a wonderful environment Currambena is to be a part of. We also had a visit from our NSW Department of Health partner on Friday last week. They meet with me to assist the preschool in its implementation of active play and healthy eating which is a big part of the national quality standards our preschool comes under. They were struck by the relaxed atmosphere, the ability for activity that children are constantly provided, and how embedded many of our practices are when it comes to healthy eating and physical activity.

The preschool children who attend on a Monday have particularly been enjoying the canteen over the past two weeks. It’s been amazing to see how fiercely independent the children are with the ordering and payment of morning tea and lunch. Please remember that if you want you child to order from canteen please leave a few dollars for them. Everyone in preschool has a special pocket in preschool in which they can store their money. That also goes for ice blocks on Friday. Remember the money raised from ice blocks goes to a child that Wendy’s class sponsors in Chad.

For those families that may have younger children, a reminder that playgroup is up and running again on a Wednesday from 9:30 to 11:00am. It’s a fantastic way for younger siblings to get a taste of Currambena before they begin in preschool.

That’s it for this week!
Preschool

“Learning and teaching should not stand on opposite banks and just watch the river flow by: instead, they should embark together on a journey down the water. Through an active, reciprocal exchange, teaching can strengthen how to learn.”
Lois Malaguizzi

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