Mrs Bryan’s Bright Bunch

Wow! You guys are fantastic! We have made huge progress on the amphitheatre, with the old, enormous retaining bricks removed during the week. We cleaned the steps too. New retaining sleepers are in place, the steps have been painted and many plants have been planted. It already looks great!

We still have many more plants to put in. Unfortunately the ground is rock hard, so its a job for adults. If you have time to spare this week and are able to put a few in, that would be fantastic. (You’ll need a crow bar or similar, but the holes don’t need to be very large.) On Tuesday we are asking that all children wear closed shoes and bring a bucket so that we can lay the irrigation system and mulch the whole area.

By the end of the week we hope to have completed this project and be getting ready for camp

This term is flying by!!!

Also, Bernie is looking for parent volunteers to run a coordination program called Move to Learn for half an hour each morning. Please see me or Bernie if you are able to help on any morning.

Thanks again for all of your help

This week we have been very busy getting organised for the Open Garden on Sunday. Many thanks to the parents who have helped us to make the Christmas decorations, fudge, cup cakes, jelly and honey crackles. The children have really got a lot out of it and are all looking forward to a successful stall. Thanks also to the parents who have volunteered to help at the stall on Sunday. We are still looking for 1 more helper from 1 till 2 and will propbably be closing the stall at 2 o’clock. Hope to see you all there. It should be a great day.

We have also organised ourselves for the amphitheatre redevelopment. We will be holding a working bee on Saturday 15th November from 8-12. In the week before this we are hoping that you can spare some time to help move the retaining bricks ready for our working bee. Steve (my husband) and I will be cleaning the steps at some stage - probably before the working bee - in readiness for painting which will hopefully occur in the week after the working bee. This area should then look much better for Carols Night. The children are quite excited about this too. A note was sent home yesterday to gauge your availability, so please look out for that. (Its pink I think).

We have also organised a few more things for camp. A note will be sent home next week letting you know of the final arrangements. We are trying to avoid congestion in the carpark by asking you to drop off at 9am on the Monday and pick up at 2.30 on the Tuesday. We have also included a list of things to bring. Please remember that clothes must be sun safe - so no strappy tops, and that children need enclosed shoes to move around the bushland setting  (although thongs would be useful to get to and from the pool and to go to the toilet at night).

Next week we hope to spend more time on our unit of inquiry into Public Places and may visit local parks if the weather permits. We will especially be looking at how they cater for different age groups - so if you happen to visit a park with your family perhaps you could talk about this as well as the safety features.

Have a great weekend, hope to see you on Sunday at the Open Garden.

Have you seen this website? It has lots of free tips and practice sheets:

http://www.stabilo.com.au/easyergo/index.html

This week we have begun learning about fractions. The main points covered so far are that they must be EQUAL parts and that the top number describes the amount the we are talking about, and the bottom number describes how many parts make up the whole.

Earlier in the week Declan brought along a great art book… so today we tried to do mono-prints. Some of them were very effective. We will be sending some to go in the runiing to be displayed in the Gill Gallery later this term. The task was to design a cover for next year’s Festival of Music songbooks, which is what our choir uses.

We have been revising narrative structure, and many of your children have written some excellent pieces so far. 

I hope you had a great break with your children and that you were able to spend at least 1 day with them

We have all settled back into school routines, some faster than others and have already begun our new PYP unit of inquiry. For more information on this visit the page entitled Public Places.

The next few weeks will be quite busy with Sports Day and Open Garden. Look out for notes about these events as I’m sure there will be a few!

What a busy term we have had.

The children enjoyed German Day yesterday and all did a great job in their dance.

Have a fantastic, safe break with your children, whether you are going away or staying home.

Check out this website for lots of educational, but fun activities

http://www.britishcouncil.org/kids

I have added a new brain teaser for the holidays. Enjoy:)

This week we have been very fortunate to participate in 2 Science Shows. Yesterday we saw a show called ‘Blown Away’. It was all about gases. We were shown the different colours that different gases burn, as well as how dry ice and liquid nitrogen affect things.

Today we learnt all about sound and vibration. The children learnt that things have to vibrate a t a certain frequency to make sound. They also learnt that long tubes make a low sound and short tubes make a higher sound. This was demonstrated using water in glasses, a chanter, and bagpipes.  The children were enthralled.

This week we have had a very busy week working on lots of things to do with our imagination.  Some of our favourite things were: making a monster using only torn paper; and making a bridge that spans 20cm and can hold a whiteboard duster using newspaper. We also made an Imaginary Pet today in technology. We had to use 1 popstick, 1 foam ball, 6 match sticks, 2 feathers and 4 other things.

In child protection this week we thought abut the things that make us happy. We then wrote some of these down on love hearts and made a ‘Happiness Tree’.

In maths we have been learning to make a tally and to make bar and column graphs using the data. So far we have graphed our favourite subjects and vehicles that pass our school. 

 Don’t forget that our year 7’s are at Murray Bridge competing in the Pedal Prix event. Racing starts at 12 noon Saturday and finishes at 12 noon Sunday. Ity is a really great event and I’m sure that your children would be interested to see our guys compete.

What a busy few weeks we have had!

The special lunch that we held last Friday week was a big success. All of the children managed to calculate the cost of their lunch, although a few did only allow for margarine on 1 slice of bread

We have now finished our unit of work on money and the children completed a test today to show their growth over the unit. Most children made good progress. It would still be really beneficial if you could involve them in ‘real’ money tasks when they are with you, especially giving change up to amounts of $1.00.

This week we are moving on to graphing in maths.

Our current PYP unit is to do with Imagination. We are really enjoying letting our imaginations run wild! Some of the things that we have done so far include: invent a ‘trancapar’, draw a ‘giraforilla’, design and make a bridge out of straws in small groups.

Today we have begun to write narratives about the day we drank a ‘potion’ that made us as small as a mouse.

Last week we spent Wednesday afternoon learning about safely entering and exiting cars, especially at the front of our school. Hopefully you have all seen the yellow TravelSmart folder and have done the homework with your child.

Don’t forget to tease your brain There’s a new challenge waiting for you on the Brainteaser page.

Have a great week.