Is happening this Friday!

Have a look at this flyer for more details: Crazy Hair Day

This is only crazy hair, not casual clothes day.

Migration Day

Today we spent the day migrating around the school as an introduction to our new unit on migration. Ask your child about some of their experiences today and their thoughts on what it would be like for people to have to migrate to another country.

Mad Minute

This week we are beginning Mad Minute! This is a way for us to learn our times tables. Every week we will have a one minute quiz and then take home some multiplication facts to practise for the next week. Please encourage your child to practise these, as we will be graphing our results and hoping to see progress!

Parent Teacher Interviews

Please book in for a meeting if you haven’t done so already. You would have received an email with your individual details. Please contact Lee-Anne Francis if you need help with this.

Camp Consent Forms

These need to be back ASAP please!

NAO Finals

The MLC students learned how to program a NAO robot during Creative Arts this term. They chose a song for a virtual robot to dance to and they programmed the moves. Three teams were selected to be our school’s representatives in the NAO Dance Off Competition. Happily, all three teams were selected to participate in the grand final last Saturday. Only ten teams were selected from the state of South Australia. On Saturday each team was given one hour to tweak their programming so the real robot wouldn’t fall over. We didn’t win the overall competition but we are so proud of these seven students who worked so diligently and creatively.

 

 

Easter Chocolates

We have spoken to all MLC students asking them to not bring in Easter presents for their buddies, as it can leave many feeling upset when they do not receive a gift and others do. Instead we will be spending some time with our buddy class this week.

Students can bring a small chocolate for their classmates on Thursday. If your child wants to do this, we ask that it include the whole class, so we can be inclusive of all students.

 

Blessings,

MLC teachers

Tomorrow is Sports Day!

Could all students please meet in their classrooms with labelled drink bottles, hats and snacks (unless you have ordered one from P&F).

Begin arriving at 12:30pm for roll call at 12.45pm.

Opening ceremony begins in Bukatila at 1pm.

Each class has a meeting spot with their buddy class for afternoon snack, please check where this is with your child as this is where snacks will be delivered to.

 

Bill Hansberry Session

This is being held Monday, March 19th beginning at 7.30pm.

We highly recommend that you attend this session. Bill is a very charismatic presenter with a wealth of knowledge to share. He will focus his session on building resilience, a skill we all need! This could be particularly relevant for your child in light of our upcoming camp next term.

Please see this flyer for more information: Bill Hansberry Session

 

Parent Coffee

Dear Parents and Caregivers,

Welcome to the Middle Learning Community (MLC) for 2018!  As class carers for MLC this year, we would like to introduce ourselves:

Michelle Braendler, Kathy Cox and Therese Hartley.

I’m Michelle Braendler and I have Josiah in Mr Pfeiffer’s class this year.  I also have Sophie, who is in Mrs Schultz’ class in the Junior Learning Community.  I have two older children who are now at Cornerstone; Ethan is in year 9 and Jaiden in Year 7.  Feel free to say hi and have a chat.

Mobile 0433383692      Email: mmbraendler@internode.on.net

Hi, I’m Kathy Cox and my son, Evan, is in Year 5 in Mrs Hall’s class.  I have an older son, Shannon, who is in Year 8 at Cornerstone College.  I work part time, Monday-Wednesday so don’t usually come to the school on those days however I am around the school on Thursday and Friday usually for both drop off and pick up.  If I haven’t met you already, feel free to come and introduce yourself or you can contact me on 0421341513 or by email, kathy.cox@sa.gov.au.

Therese Hartley.  Hi there, my daughter, Tanayah is in Mr P’s class. I’m generally around the school in the mornings more so than the afternoon as after school activities take up many of our afternoons. But guaranteed that I’ll be at Cafe 3:16 every Wednesday! Please don’t hesitate to pop over for a cuppa and a chat.  Mobile: 0416048808

Email: treeapple@live.com.au

Our role as class carers is

• To support and assist the families and children in our classes, especially in times of need e.g. the birth of a baby or illness in the family.
• Organise meals or help families when needed
• To assist the classroom teacher as needed and
• To coordinate learning community social events

As Class Carers for MLC we aim to plan some combined events for the year as well as an opportunity to catch up over coffee once a term.

Our first coffee morning will be next Friday, 23^rd March at 9am (just after school drop off) in Café 3:16.  We would love to see lots of you there to welcome you to MLC for the coming year, to meet new faces and to connect with old friends.  Coffee is available to purchase from the café and we’ll provide something sweet to have with it!

We are open to all suggestions for events that you think would encourage and promote connection within the MLC.  Feel free to either approach us in the school yard or we can discuss it as a group over coffee on Friday.

We look forward to a great year together!

Your class carers for MLC,

Michelle, Kathy and Therese

 

Lastly, new Home Learning ideas have been added to Pages.

 

Blessings,

MLC teachers

Scottish author Stuart Reid was a huge hit today! We hope your children have some stories to share with you. We have heard from a few that they have been inspired to write a story over the weekend!

Stuart will be returning on Monday for those wanting to purchase any of his books and have them signed. Prices are $14 each, any two for $20 or all three for a special offer price of $25. He’s offering this lower price for schools.

 

On a side note, the gel pens have been returned.

We will be beginning our Kidz Biz sessions in the coming weeks. Year 5s will begin February 26th for three sessions and Year 4s have one session on March 26th.

All workshops cover core social, personal and sexuality development education and are mapped to the Australian Curriculum: Health & Physical Education and the Keeping Safe: Child Protection Curriculum. They also work well as an introduction to school-based programs in Pastoral Care and Personal Development.

The content of the Year 5 sessions include:

The Reproductive System

• Familiarise students with names, positions, and functions of the male and female reproductive system

Basic Puberty: Physical and Emotional

• Informs students of physical changes associated with puberty for both females and males e.g. breasts grow, voices break, pimples, body odour
• Informs students of the emotional changes associated with puberty for both females and males e.g. mood swings, hormone levels
• Encourages students to feel comfortable about the changes happening to them and an acceptance of individual variation

Keep Safe: Cyber Safety

• Identify skills required for personal safety
• Social and family responsibilities and minimising risks associated with social media and internet use and cyber bullying

The Year 4s have only one session which covers an introduction to:

• Correct names and function of parts of the male and female reproductive system
• Role of the egg and sperm
• Basic conception and birth
• Preparing them for puberty both physical, social and emotional changes

The following link has a range of recommended reading specific for girls, boys and parents. It is worth having a look to support your child (and yourself) through this stage.

http://www.kidzbiz.edu.au/files/resources.php

These sessions are part of the required curriculum for our students and provide basic information. We encourage families to engage in the conversation further at home, in case your child has questions which they are not comfortable asking at school.

 

Queen’s Baton Relay

The Commonwealth Games Queens Baton Relay is coming to Hahndorf main street and St Michael’s JLC, MLC and SLC students will be attending on Wednesday, 21 February.  The street will be blocked off for the duration of the event, with activities and entertainment being a feature of the Mt Barker Council’s celebrations.

The celebrations will finish around 12.30pm with a free sausage sizzle lunch for all students.

As this event is within the ‘local’ excursion zone, it is covered by your data form consent (if you provided that)  There will not be another consent form sent home, however, if your child has new allergies or you have concerns of which we are unaware, please contact your child’s teacher.

We welcome parents to join us at this community event to help support the students and to share in this special introduction to the Commonwealth Games.  Please let your child’s teacher know if you are able to help on the day, if you have completed the necessary police clearance and Mandatory Notification Training.

 

iPad Apps

We still have a number of students who have not downloaded all the required apps for this year. Could you please check this with your child?

Year 5s in particular need Scratch Jr and SeeSaw Class which are new for this year.

 

Uniform

We would appreciate if parents could read our uniform policy and assist your children in making appropriate choices, especially when it comes to earrings and correct coloured hair ribbons.

Disco & Parent Retreat

Concert

We loved sharing our Concert with you! Here are some snaps from the Thursday night performance:

          

Year 4 Wetlands Excursion

The Year 4s had a blast learning about the wetlands habitat at Cornerstone College. We tested how healthy the water was, looked at samples of seeds and used a dichotomous key to identify which seeds turned into which plant, learnt about the food web through a fitness game and planted native shrubs and trees.

Year 5 Science Day

While the Year 4s were at the wetlands, the Year 5s had a focus on the solar system. Students engaged in research and chose creative ways to present their findings. We discovered some ‘out of this world’ facts about the solar system which left us ‘star struck’.

   

Book Week Parade

Can you guess who we are and which books we are found in?

Mt Barker Library Excursion

Last Friday the MLC classes visited the Mount Barker Community Library to view the Splash Theatre Company’s 2017 Book Week presentation. The performers skillfully entertained us by retelling several short stories interwoven with songs. We had a fantastic time. A very special thank you to Mrs Monique Percy for facilitating our visit.

Have a wonderful week!

Middle Learning Community 🙂

Father’s Day Breakfast 2017

Next week is Book Week and we will be having our dress up day and parade on Monday!

We are looking forward to seeing your costumes for our theme ‘escape to everywhere’.

Entries for the competition are due on Wednesday as well.

Have a lovely weekend!

God bless