Volume 7 - 13th May 2022
From The Principal
Last term, students in Years 5 and 6 completed their Visual Art projects focusing on telling a story about an Australian animal. This was a great opportunity to teach students about Indigenous perspectives and use of artwork to express our ideas. Ms Fullarton, the Art teacher, and Aunty Marly worked with the students to complete their projects and encouraged them to share their artwork with our Elders. This morning, we welcomed Aunty Cheryl, Aunty Gloria and Aunty Lisa who met the students and listened to them explain the ideas in their art work. Our visitors were very impressed with our students’ learning and shared their cultural knowledge with us. I have included some photos from the event below.
The first week of NAPLAN testing is underway and our Year 3 and 5 students are showing great effort in completing the tests to the best of their ability. Despite Tuesday’s internet issues, we managed to complete all tests without interruptions. Thank you, parents and carers, for your support and encouragement of the students to try their best. The testing continues next week.
With wet weather continuing, our thoughts are with all our families who may be impacted in any way. As a school community, we stand together and help each other; so, please contact us if you need any help to get your students to school, provide food for lunchboxes, etc. When we know what issues are impacting our community, we have a good chance of being able to assist.
Attendance at school is crucial for your child’s learning and social development. Over the last few weeks, many of our students have missed school for different reasons. If this is the case for your child, please contact the school to discuss ways in which we can support you to encourage your child to attend more frequently.
Stay safe, strong and kind. I hope you enjoy the Newsletter
Learning At Leichhardt
YEAR 1A
Students in 1A are learning direction words in Maths. The students got a great opportunity to understand and demonstrate direction words like move forward/backward, turn left/ right etc to reach a specific location.
The students worked with partners for the grid activity. The students took turns to give directions to their partners for them to move through the grid accordingly. It was a great practical experience for the students to understand the concept of direction words.
Teaching and Learning
The year 4, 5 and 6 students have had a strong start to the term developing their organisation skills. The students have been learning how to organise their books following bookwork expectations. This is a great way for our students to learn skills that they will then be able to use throughout life and importantly in high school. Below are some examples of the great work the students have been doing while learning how to organise their notes. We are excited to see the students then use these bookwork expectations to build their skills in notetaking. Stay tuned for more amazing work!
H.P.E.
It has been wonderful to see the students eagerly participating and learning ahead of the sports carnival later this term. Although the rain this week has limited the athletics events we have been able to participate in the students have been working on their coordination skills and fitness in team environments.
Did you know there was so many benefits to moving our bodies?
The Steam Hub
This term in Science, the Year 6 students have continued their units focusing on circuits and switches. They have investigated how energy is transferred and transformed in a circuit and built different circuits. The Year 5 students have learnt about how plants and animals adapt to their environments. They have investigated how plants lose their water.
In Visual Arts, the students have continued to make their stories on native plants and animals of all different varieties – they have all done an amazing job and their artworks look incredible.
The students in Year 5 have built robots and continued learning about electrical energy in Technology. The Year 5 students have designed, programmed and built robots with movement, light and sound using Lego devices. The year 6 students are currently learning about safety on the internet and Artificial Intelligence, and the year 5 students are working on designing, building, learning about motors and programming to develop their own robot.
Our students are all having an amazing time learning in STEAM!
Reading At Leichhardt
In Week 2 we remembered Shakespeare’s birthday and shared some of the words that he created that we still use today e.g. lonely, critic, zany, bandit, dauntless and elbow (the verb) to name just a few. Staff completed a Shakespearean quiz and introduced their students to some of the famous lines quoted from Shakespeare’s more well-known plays.
Below are pictured the Leichhardt Bards who, with the support of their students, fared well with the quiz!
Partnerships are so important and particularly the partnership between home and school in supporting our students in learning to read.
If you have a child who is still learning to read, these are the types of activities that you can do to support them at home:
- Practising sight words each day.
- 10 minutes of daily reading and asking questions about the text just read.
- Encouraging your child to engage daily with the online reading resource of Reading Eggs. Please remember students win awards at Assembly for their engagement on this program.
I also strongly encourage you to make contact once or twice a term with your child’s teacher to check-in on how your child is progressing with their reading. The following are the National Minimum Standard for reading achievement for each Year Level by the end of this semester:
Prep – PM 5
Year 1 – PM 11
Year 2 – PM 18
Year 3 – PM 23
Year 4 - PM 25
Year 5 - PM 27
Year 6 – PM 29
From Student Services
Student Services…We Care!
In Student Services we have been very busy working at keeping our students safe and well!
Please remember, if your children are unwell in any way, keep them at home to rest and recover.
Students showing any signs of illness will be sent home and if showing symptoms of COVID-19 will be given a RAT test to be completed at home. Students may return to school if they have a negative test result and are symptom free.
Updating Contact Details!
Please remember, to update your contact details with the school.
Up-to-date contact details ensures that the best care can be given to our students and parents/care givers can be contacted quickly, in the event of illness or serious injury.
Lost Property!
If you have lost something, please come down to Student Services and check out the big red tub, where you will find lost property.
Please remember to name your children’s belongings as this helps in returning items to their rightful owners.
Preloved School Uniforms!
Thank you to those families that have donated preloved school uniforms. If your children have grown out of their school uniforms, it would be greatly appreciated if you would please consider donating them to Student Services. Student’s often require a change of clothes while at school and our supplies are getting low. We would also appreciate donations of preloved shoes that are in good condition.
Riddle!
What Am I?
I’m white but I’m not a sheet of paper
I come in different shapes and sizes but I’m not a snowflake
I can be broken but I’m not a window
I can be brittle but I’m not peanut butter
I’m sometimes humerus but I’m not funny
A bone!
Health & Well Being
Sleep Tips For Children
Sleep is vital for children’s growth, learning and development. Having a good sleep every night makes your child happier, helps them to concentrate and remember things and improves their behaviour.
Every child is different but as a guide, primary school children need 9 to 11 hours of sleep each night.
The following tips will help children fall asleep, stay asleep and get enough good quality sleep.
- Having a set bedtime ensures that children get the sleep they need.
- A positive bedtime routine can calm children so they’re ready for sleep.
- A bedtime routine involves doing similar activities in a similar way each night.
- Bedtime routines can include things like having a bath, brushing teeth, and reading books.
- Avoid stimulants and turn off technology.
- You can shift your child’s bedtime by starting your bedtime routine a little earlier each night.
Try a worry box. Before bedtime, your child can draw or write down their worries. At bedtime, worries go into the box. Talk about worries the next day.
From The Tuckshop
$5 $5 $5 $5 $5 LUNCH PACKS $5 $5 $5 $5 $5
Sandwich (jam, honey or vegemite)/Fruit/Chips/Muesli Bar or Le Snak/1 x Cupcake
Order by 9am. Payment: Cash/Eftpos