Volume 18- 29 October 2021
From the Principal
As the middle of the term draws closer, our students are working really hard in all their classes. Our focus this term is on improving English marks. If you have had a chance to come to one of our assemblies, you would have heard our teachers ask about, ‘What do you need to do to get a C in English?’ Students’ answers are showing improvements every week in that they are now able to communicate the exact language they need to use to get a pass in English. For our students who are already passing, we are working on getting As and not just for English but for all subjects!
Today is World Teachers’ Day and we are celebrating the fantastic work of all the teachers at our school. As principal, I could not be any prouder or wish for better people on our team. The effort that goes in to plan engaging lessons, keep children learning without disruptions and develop a love of learning in the little ones is enormous. Our teachers do it with a smile on their faces and with a strong sense of commitment to make the students’ lives better.
Last week, a number of Leichhardt staff received some beautiful letters from the 2C Class, led by Ms Brett. The students wrote Gratitude cards for staff at school and I just wanted to share their lovely messages and their fantastic writing!
This term, students in Year 3 are studying poetry and writing their own poems. Two students, Arabella and Ruby, wanted to share their poems with our community. I have included the poems at the end of my article for your pleasure. As a teacher, I am so impressed with their efforts and the quality of their work. The language features in both poems have been chosen with precision and paint a beautiful picture in our head as we read it and enjoy it. Well done, girls, we are so proud of you!
THE THUNDERSTORM
Poem by a student in year 3
I can see bright lightning flashing in the south.
Dark grey clouds swallow up the blue like a greedy dinosaur gobbling up its daily food.
Thunder crashes from cloud to cloud lighting up the sky like beautiful fireworks in a lovely festive carnival.
I hear the pitter patter of rain furiously running down my bedroom window like a colony of ants running in all directions.
Thunder booms off in the distance like a nuclear bomb.
Lightning crackling trying to DESTROY the Earth.
Creating massive forest fires.
I feel the anger from deep inside the heart of the storm.
Adrenalin runs through my veins.
Rain runs down my body like a melted ice cream.
Hail drops on to my body like I’m falling in to a pile of rocks.
Heat rays shoot through my head like I’m being shot by a gun.
Thunder
Poem by Arabella
I see dark clouds thundering in the blue sky.
Water falling from the grey clouds.
Rain dripping like a hole bucket full of water.
Birds flying in the dark sky trying to find a dusty cave.
I hear thunder roaring in the grey sky.
The rain falling like pitter patter.
Rain drops smashing in the trees.
I feel rain dropping on me. One by one. Wind passes by. It’s cold.
Rain dropping on the wet ground.
My heart beats so slow and cold.
Today is ‘Day for Daniel’ and our school is taking part in this important event that focuses on protecting the safety of our children. So many families in our school supported the event by helping their children to pick out something red to wear today. I would like to share with you the photo of one of our families who took part in the ‘Day for Daniel Walk’.
Reading @ Leichhardt
Reading@Leichhardt
Spelling Challenge!
It has been great to see students demonstrating their spelling prowess on Assembly on Monday mornings. Students have demonstrated great confidence as they have analysed and then spelt words in front of an enthralled audience. Below are pictured Leichhardt State School’s ‘Amazing Assembly Spellers’!
Chelsea (Prep A)
Mark (6B)
LJ (5A)
Israel (2A)
Hearing Screening
Hearing testing took place on Wednesday. Many thanks to parents and carers for promptly returning hearing consent forms. If hearing test results have not yet been received, please contact Mrs Finlay (Head of Department: Reading) efinl9@eq.edu.au.
Reading Eggs
It has been wonderful to see students receiving the monthly Reading Eggs Awards. Students enjoy engaging with this online reading and they love receiving their Gold Award Certificates! October Reading Eggs award recipients will be shared at Monday’s Assembly and certificates will be provided by the end of Week 5! If your child does not have their Reading Eggs login details yet, please contact your child’s teacher.
PBL @ Leichhardt
PBL
A reminder that students are expected to wear a hat when outdoors. If students do not have a hat they will need to play in the shade, library or deadly room.
Weekly focus:
In Week 4 students have focused on the expectation ‘Be Safe’ and the value ‘Gratitude’ in relation to being in the right place at the right time. Thank you to everyone for your support towards 'Day for Daniel', it was wonderful to see so many students wearing red.
Attendance:
Our class winners for the highest percentage of attendance:
Junior:
1B - 80%
3B - 80%
Senior:
6A - 88%
4A - 88.7%
Learning @ Leichhardt
In Prep B we have been working hard to complete our work quietly and independently so we have introduced “Quiet Creatures” to our class. These little creatures sit on our desk watching us as we work quietly. It is important that we do not noisy as they are scared of noise.
1B Newsletter
1B have had a fabulous few weeks of science investigations, poetry author visits and swimming lessons amongst all of our other exciting learning. We learned where our fruit and vegetables come from and tried foods with new tastes and textures for our Science Week investigation. We are building confidence and having lots of fun at swimming lessons and learnt how funny poems can be, through an entertaining presentation from the Bush Poet. We also learnt very interesting information about native Australian foods from the Bush Tucker Man. It’s been an exciting few weeks!
Our Year 3 were very fortunate enough to have Noel Stallard visit our school. With the help of some lucky students Noel performed a variety of poems, including some of his very own.
4B
We have had a busy week in 4B learning all about poetic devices in English. Some of the poetic devices we have learnt about include neologisms, spoonerisms and alliteration. In these photos we can see students working together to create their own words. Also seen in our photos this week is the students celebrating science week. They investigated activating yeast with warm water. The students thought it was very interesting to see the balloons rise as the yeast activated.
STEAM News at Leichhardt
Over the last two weeks, for science, our students in Year 5 continued learning about how First Nations Peoples design shelters to keep cool. They have built a model Gunyah, using a simple shelter design, to investigate which direction to face the Gunyah to receive the maximum amount of shade throughout the day. Our Year 6 students have continued their biology unit on ecosystems and plant physical conditions and how we can learn from traditional ecological knowledge. They have conducted an experiment into which plants are salt tolerant and learnt about the different physical conditions necessary to keep living things alive.
In Arts the Year 2 students doing Media Arts. They are using Power Point on the computers to create their own posters. Their posters are about a school safety message and need to include text and images.
For Technology in Year 5 and 6, the students have continued their Oz Harvest food technology lessons. They prepared delicious fried rice, healthy sandwiches and smoothies.
Science Week
Last week we celebrated National Science Week at Leichhardt, which was themed Food different by design. The students engaged in a range of food related science experiments in and out of the classroom.
Street Science performed a science show, the children thoroughly enjoyed it. The show included lots of explosions and experiments and our awesome Chappy, Mr M, ate bugs on stage. The students learnt about chemical reactions, identified smells and how the juice from an orange peel can pop a balloon.
During break time, some lucky students were selected by their class teachers to make edible slime and sherbet in the STEAM hub with Mr Flaherty. They loved how slimy and gooey it felt in their hands and how sweet it tasted, they had a fantastic time. The library also ran activities where students experimented with sounds by making their own string instruments with Mrs Ferguson.
The Junior School did Deadly Science lessons with the Bush Tucker Man. During the lesson they learnt about edible native plants and how they can be used in cooking.
In class teachers chose activities to do with their students relating to the National Science Week theme. Students in Year 4 held a tea party with teas and foods from all around the world and did experiments with yeast. The Year 2 classes made sandwich sushi and conducted seed experiments and the year 3 classes made ice cream, yoghurt and soup. In the Prep classes they conducted experiments with seeds and in Year 1 they made salads. In year 5 and 6 the students continued their cooking with Miss Everingham.
It was wonderful to see the students develop a love of science through all the various activities, thank you to all the teachers and students who made the week such a success!
Mission Australia Play and Learn
This term we are celebrating countries & cultures that are important to our families lives at playgroup.
So far we have looked at the Philippines& New Zealand.
Other countries & cultures we are focusing on this term are SriLanka, our own indigenous culture, Vietnam & will be doing some Christmas craft & activities in the last couple of weeks as well.
Each week we are making craft that represents the culture or represents a festival held in that country & sample some food from the county as well.
Community News
**Leichhardt State School does not endirse or recomment any of the advertisements, notices or flyers; this serves as a noticeboard.**
Here at Leichhardt State School we are please with the amount of support we get from community organisations. We are pleased to share this information regarding support that can be provided to you by The Smith Family to help with educational expenses through the Saver Plus program. Should you require further information please call on the phone number provided or via their email.
