Newsletter Articles

School Captains

Our Year 6 students from all R-6 campuses have the amazing opportunity each year to become a School Captain. Each student presents a short speech as to why they should be a School Captain. Campuses have 2 School Captains and 2 Vice Captains. These students have great input into helping run whole school assemblies as well as being fantastic role models for our younger students. Congratulations to our School Captains and Vice Captains for 2019.

Ashbourne

Congratulations to Jack and Judah.

Langhorne Creek

Congratulations to Grace and Jack as Captains who will be ably supported by Maddy and Matt as Vice Captains.

Milang

Congratulations to Romany and Kobie.

Strathalbyn

Congratulations to Tom and Leah as Captains who will be ably supported by Tait and Sharli as Vice Captains.

Inquiry Mornings

Three mornings a week the Hakea class start their day with Inquiry. The students pick the zone that they want to work in for that lesson. There is the Writers Studio, Artist Hub, Drama Corner, Science Zone and the Tinker Table. Already students have directed their learning to create a bug habitat, written letters, composed a song and created a diorama!

Duke of Ashbourne

This year our seven Year 6 boys are going to work towards their Duke of Ashbourne Award. Similar to the Duke of Edinburgh Award, the award will have a voluntary component, camping adventure, and a term focus project. Students will have the opportunity to present on their journey at the end of the year.

Bush School

What a wonderful start we have had to Bush School lessons this year. Our theme this term is water. Students have been exploring issues around erosion and water pollution, developing prototypes for water filtration systems.

When we tipped water down different hill types, for example, one with lots of grass cover and another with just dirt, we found that the water went down the dirt one much quicker than the grass covered one. It only took 3 seconds to travel down the dirt hill, but it took 14 seconds to travel the same distance down the grass hill! - Michaela

Time Capsules with Acacia Class

The time capsules that we made were cool inside. I put how tall I was in it and at the end of the year we will open them to see how much I have grown. - Coyote

In my time capsule there is paper with stuff all about me. We open them at the end of this year. There is string inside that shows how tall you are. We did it with Maddi. I said I have one cat and 8 chickens, most of them have died. - Evie

On the first day of school we made time capsules. We put in some different things about our lives. Some of the jars smelt funny. I hope at the end of the year I get surprised when I open it. - Charlie B

On our first day of school we made time capsules out of recycled bottles. We put a piece of string that measures our height in it, some information about ourselves and more. I found it really fun and interesting. - Judah

We made time capsules with Maddi, on the first day of school. We are going to open them at the end of the term. We put our names, height, dream job inside it. Also, our favourite colour and length of our shoe. - Barnaby

New Faces at Langhorne Creek Campus

We welcomed a number of new faces to the campus this term including:

Our new receptions: Sophie, Liam, Hudson, Ava, Damien, Lilly, Rupert and Millie, who are already mastering the learning routines and play breaks.

Emma who joins the Year 3/4 class with Miss Hunt.

Ms Gail Murphy from Milang campus who joins us as the Year 2/3 class teacher with the Koalas.

Langhorne Creek Campus 2018 School Concert

WOW … Yet another wonderful End of Year Concert was held in Week 9 of Term 4 2018. The Fete, Yiros Stall and Art Show were all huge successes, very well supported and attended by the Langhorne Creek Community.

The students excelled themselves not only on stage but also with their amazing artwork and creativity of fete items for sale.

The students, parents, wider community and staff get a great deal of pleasure from this evening. This would not happen without all of the behind the scenes planning, co-ordination and work from the staff and Campus Advisory Committee. The list of people who made this night such a huge success is very long, we once again thank everyone involved and look forward to presenting another outstanding concert the end of 2019.

Staff in the Spotlight

Greg Doig

Greg has settled in as new Head of Campus at Langhorne Creek coming from McLaren Vale Primary School in 2018. Previous experience includes teaching and leading at Cook Area School, Tarcoola Area School and Georgetown Primary School. Living at Middleton, with wife Trina and three children, Mikaela, Austin and Mitch, Greg enjoys all the coast has to offer and supports the Goolwa/Port Elliot Football Club. Down time also includes spending time with his family, watching sports and travelling.

Greg is passionate about involving students in their learning and utilizing ICT/Digital Technologies to extend and ultimately transform the learning tasks.

Koalas Identity Studies

Learners from the Koala class have been involved in a range of activities focussing on the themes of Identity and Belonging for the Quality Start Program.

Cyber Safety with the Kangaroos

This week two police officers visited our campus to speak to us about Cyber Safety and Cyber Bullying. Senior Constable Sarah Coombes and police officer Catherine Windle from the Mount Barker Police Station showed us some clips about Cyber safety and they explained to us some online safety tips and laws in relation to this.

We know that the internet and mobile phones are great ways to express yourself and communicate with others, but it’s important to make sure they’re used safely and responsibly, respecting yourself and others. We know that Cyberbullying is the repeated use of the internet, mobile phones and other technologies to bully, intimidate and humiliate others.

When you play online games you need to make sure that your parents know what you are doing. You have to be thirteen years old to go on Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat. - Gemma

If you are playing a game online and someone is asking you questions you need to turn the game off or tell a trusted adult. Do not tell them your username of passwords or anything about you. If you have been bullied by someone you can call the Kids Help Line 1800 55 1800. - Edie

Cyberbullying is very serious and very mean. When you’re online, always only play with your friends, or just play single player, or you can block any strangers on the game. They also talked about ringing the Kids Help Line. It’s free and if any kid is feeling down they can go to kidshelpline.com.au. - Charli

If you are online you need to treat people how you want to be treated. Cyberbullying is never okay! Adults can help stop it. Be safe online! - McKenzie

When we’re online, we should act kindly and respectfully. Never give your address, school name or your name to someone you don’t know. Ask your parents before you do anything online. Cyberbullying is never okay, if it’s serious you can get in trouble. - Emma

We always have to think about what we say to people on the internet. The Police are here to help! - Maggie

We learnt how to be safe online and nothing is so bad that you can’t tell someone. We can speak to family, teachers and the police or contact the Kids Help Line- kidshelpline.com.au 1800 55 1800. - Isabella

What the Emus are looking forward to this year …

In Week 1 we drew and painted these houses and then wrote one thing we are looking forward to this year. - Lenny

Cockatoos Code of Cooperation

It has been a great start to the New Year in the Junior Primary Class this year. The students have been working on a Code of Cooperation and getting their books and routines organised for the year. They have been writing some narratives, learning new letters and sounds and working on patterns in maths.

Sharing and speaking kindly to others have been a big focus, as well as staying on task and doing our best.

New Students and Staff at Milang

Welcome to Elena and Alea, who have both been at our Strathalbyn campus previously. They have settled in so well and are the best of friends. We welcome them into the Junior Primary class. I asked them how they were enjoying their new school, here are their responses.

Elena says: It’s very nice and all the people here are kind. I think the teachers are great and it’s a really nice school.

Alea says: I like it because we make friends really fast and it’s a lovely school. It’s really good that I have my best friend here.

Also joining us this year are our new receptions Vanessa and John Leo. They are also settling in really well and the older children are enjoying showing them around the classroom and helping them with their jobs.

Vanessa says she likes learning about everything and also being with her sister Erin.

John Leo says he likes playing with his friends and having a race.

Strathalbyn R-6 Building Update

Over the holidays our new building has begun taking shape. The old intervention room disappeared in 20minutes and though the site has been quiet the last few weeks, during the site preparation phase it was very busy with many trades involved. We have a delivery date of late March, where the 3 classrooms will come on 7 trucks over a 2-day period, hopefully over the weekend. The students have enjoyed watching the comings and goings of machinery and the construction team have the safety of our student’s front and centre at all times.

Down it comes….

A Message from the Art Room

At last the bottle top mosaic has been put up outside Karra Yerta, under the verandah and facing the bus bay. Thanks to Steve and Brett for getting it in place so quickly after the holidays.

It reminded me that I needed to thank the staff and parents for your support on collating the thousands of bottle tops it required, and thanks to the two cafes at Castle Plaza that have been donating them every weekend.

But also it reminded me that I need to acknowledge the students who put hours of their time into gluing them on with silicon. Firstly to Vanessa, Ashleigh, Matilda and Chloe who finished the mural, and to Max, Jack and Kaige who were mostly responsible for getting it under way. There were many other students who helped in parts of its construction. Thankyou as well, there is not room to name you all!

Donation from the Old Cranks

You may know of, or have seen in the Argus, a group of 'senior' bike riders who call themselves 'The Old Cranks'. These folk meet together each Thursday morning for a 40km bike ride around the various back roads in the district.

Dr. Fred Carrangis (a local doctor here for many, many years) is one of the 'Old Cranks'.

Imagine my surprise and delight when in December last year I received a phone call from Dr. Fred.

For some time each rider had been donating $2.00 per week. The money collected they wished to donate to our Breakfast Program - a total of $300.

I met with this very cheerful group of riders to receive their donation and a Christmas Card with their good wishes to the school.

How lovely that these riders could do something so simple, yet make such a difference, for us here at school.

Strathalbyn Room 20 New Receptions

During the first two weeks of the school year, Room 20 have been getting to know each other through a range of games, books, activities and crafts. 'Quality Start' is such an important part of starting school. We have had many conversations and discussions about what makes a good friend, how to show kindness, how to be a 'bucket filler', what an 'A Choice' is and much, much more.

The children have settled into school amazingly well. New friendships have been formed and friendships made at Kindergarten have been further enhanced.

We are so proud of the work the children have done so far. We look forward to achieving many more amazing milestones along the reception journey including learning writing, reading and mathematical concepts.

One get to know you activity enabled the children a chance to ask their teacher questions about her! Once the question was asked the children got to add a peg to my hair. After that I then took a peg out one at a time and asked the children something I wanted to know about them. It was lots of fun getting to know their favourite things.

'Eye Can Find My Name' activity was simply for the children to locate their name and create an identity within the classroom. Their eyes look colourful!

'Bucket Filling' is a great way to demonstrate that we all carry an invisible bucket around with us. When we give people a smile, a compliment and nice thought we are filling their bucket! When we fill another person's bucket we are also in turn filling our own buckets. The children loved practising bucket filling language and decorated a bucket filling picture.

Quality Start in Room 8

Our class has been getting to know each other and learning to work as a team. During the first two weeks, we talked about our class agreements and what we would like our classroom to be like. The children have set some learning and social/behavioural goals and we are on track to have a great year together.

Here are some photos of a STEAM based team challenge we did last week which was lots of fun.

What’s Happening in Room 21?

Team 21 has settled into their first few weeks at school with ease!

To help us create a classroom we can learn and be happy, we made a recipe for a successful classroom.

We read Giraffes Can’t Dance to learn about using a Growth Mindset. We discussed things that we are good at and what we can’t do…yet!

Reduce, Reuse and Recycle

In 2019 at Eastern Fleurieu School R-6 we are aiming to reduce our environmental footprint and encourage our students and parents to reduce the amount of waste that comes to school in lunch boxes. We are hoping that students have waste free food in their lunch boxes. This will reduce the amount of rubbish that ends up in landfill and provide a much healthier lunch.

As a school we have an excellent recycling program where each class collects:

• White paper and cardboard
• Food scraps into compost
• Hard plastics, milk cartons, straws, yogurt containers
• Cans, bottles, juice boxes

Students are involved in collecting and sorting these items on a weekly basis which helps us reduce our environmental footprint.

This year we have had students request that we get involved in the Redcycle program, which encourages individuals and schools to recycle soft plastics, which can be dropped at a Woolworths or Coles outlet. This is a great program to be involved in; however the best option is to reduce the amount of packaging we as a society purchase.

Room 6’s New Addition

In Room 6 Ms Craven has introduced us to a few new residents! They are stick insects who students have recently called Rusty and Twiggy! While researching we have found that only females are able to fly. They also raise their tails when frightened and not all of them are spiky!

Bullying, No Way

During our quality start programme and throughout the year we work with students to deepen their understanding and awareness of bullying behaviours and strategies to ensure bullying stops.

Programmes have included discussion and explicit teaching on …

• definition of bullying
• types of bullying, including what is not bullying
• identifying bullying behaviours including self- reflection
• the effects of bullying
• bystander behaviour
• action to take to stop bullying
• how to seek adult help

Mr Bilney has also worked to ensure our older students are aware of cyber-bullying, its effects and positive strategies to ensure it stops. We encourage students to discuss these issues with their families and to feel confident to raise any issues with school staff.

We will be participating in National Days of recognition over the coming months

• National Day of Action Against Bullying, Friday 15th March
• Harmony Day, Thursday, 21st March

These occasions will all help to prompt conversations and deepen awareness and understanding. Most importantly we need our actions at home and school to reflect positive approaches and a commitment to ensure bullying is stopped.

Acacia class have created posters which will be a focus for peer teaching and will be prominently placed around our campus.

Swimming

Ashbourne

It was very tiring because there was a lot of leg and arm moving. - Charlie B

At first I was really cold, but when I started moving it warmed up. – Barnaby

We learnt a lot of new swimming skills – torpedo and survival backstroke. - Zack

The teacher that taught me was really nice. We used life jackets and went up the deep end and tried to stand on our hands. - Scarlett

Some people had to get out when they were cold, others stayed in the whole time. - Graeme

Langhorne Creek

Despite it being a cooler week during our week of swimming lessons at the Strathalbyn Pool, all who participated had a great time learning and developing their skills in the water. Learning to swim is such an important lesson in life that can not only save yourself but also others.

At swimming I went to the bottom of the pool and picked up a toy and then I went back up to the surface. - Jack

At swimming I did back stroke and bubble arm-breathing arm strokes. It was very fun but it was cold. - Charlotte

I floated in the pool. I did a torpedo. I had fun. - Peggy

At swimming it was very relaxing because when I’m in water, I’m relaxed. – Emma

At swimming lessons, I was a great swimmer. I had a fun time getting the little toys from the bottom of the pool. We all had fun at the pool. - Braden

This week we went to the pool and in the morning we went on the bus. The junior primary children swam first, and then the others swam. On Wednesday when we were waiting for our turn we went to the library. - Ollie

This week the school children went swimming. When we went to the library on Wednesday it was very quiet. - Riley

Milang

Hakea Class Learning Books

We have been designing our main learning books. These will be a collection of well thought through and present work. A bit like their very own textbook.

We have to do neat and careful work in them. I enjoy showing it to people. - Caleb

Duke of Ashbourne Update

Update on Henry’s project: I began by thinking I would build a Pulgi under the pine tree. We looked at the frame of the existing Pulgi and then researched other types of shelters in the library. I found pictures of tee pees built by American Indians and decided on trailing a tee pee like design instead. Then I practiced using a handsaw and cut saplings needed for the frame. Here are some photos of the site for the shelter and the saplings we are using.

Update of Zack’s project: I am designing a native food path through our scrub area. I have been researching different types of native foods and am currently working out what will suit our area. Did you know you can eat pigface?

Emus Making a Difference

In ‘Making A Difference’ with Mrs Hopkins we have been thinking about how nice it is to be kind, helpful and respectful. We did a guided art lesson to draw a picture of Mickey Mouse.

Walk and Talk with the Emus

We went for a walk around the Strathalbyn Pool area during swimming week. We visited the old pool which was in the River Angas and the old Lauke Flour Mill site.

Jolly Phonics at Milang

Over the past few weeks the Receptions and Year 1’s have had a strong focus on learning their Jolly Phonics letter sounds and putting these sounds together to make short, three letter words. They have also been learning about patterning and sorting objects into groups. The students have been making their own patterns and telling their desk buddy what makes their pattern a pattern.

The Year 2’s and 3’s have been working on their spelling lists and learning different sound combinations in words. They have been learning to sort and classify these words into groups and how to use them in sentences. They have also been learning number charts and place value in numbers.

Early Explorers

During Week 5 Term 1 the Milang Upper Primary Class shared their learning on early world explorers, their adventures and how these expeditions changed the world have been a focus in class. We are looking forward to discovering more about early world explorers as the term progresses.

SAPSASA Swimming

Kobie and Ella represented our campus at the recent swimming carnival on Monday.

Well done and thank you for participating. It is not always about winning, but putting your hand up to participate and doing your best.

Pancake Day

Milang

On Wednesday Jacqui and Anne cooked pancakes for the kids at lunch time for a gold coin donation. All monies will go to Uniting Care for their work with homeless people, people with disabilities and families in crisis.

Strathalbyn

Pancakes.... Pancakes..... and more Pancakes!

With the expert cooking skills of the Strathalbyn Rotary Club Eastern Fleurieu School, Strathalbyn R-6 campus celebrated Pancake Day in great style.

While Rotary members prepared and cooked over 650 pancakes Annabel Gunn's Year 4/5 class donated the delicious toppings and manned the serving stations.

The asphalt area was buzzing at recess as students queued for their pancakes.

A little over $1200 was raised.

This will be shared between 'Need for Feed' a Lion's club of New South Wales project to help farming families affected by the floods in Queensland, and Australia Hope International which is a project in Uganda assisting with orphanages, schools and medical support.

Thanks to all who supported this event and a very big thank you to the Strathalbyn Rotary Club.

The 5 Facets of Health

To start off the year Room 3 have been looking at health, and how it’s not just about eating well and being active! Students have discovered that to be fully healthy, you need to approach the term ‘health’ holistically. There are five facets of health – physical, mental, social, emotional, and spiritual.

To begin with, Room 3 has examined what it really means to be physically fit. It’s not just about how you look or how far or fast you can run. It’s a combination of flexibility, endurance, strength and cardio. We can also consider skill based attributes such as agility, power and balance to supplement physical attributes.

With the analysis of a weekly reading to understand the topic, we conducted physical testing in many areas to demonstrate that everybody can achieve and succeed and break the idea that ‘I am not physically fit because I can’t run fast’. All of the data collated from these activities will be used in math to create graphs and discover class averages.

Next up we look at nutrition, everyone’s favourite. Eat your greens and you’re all good! Not quite…we will learn that a balanced diet is extremely important to function physically and mentally and understand the negative impacts that sugar can have on the body and mind. Maybe a MasterChef style cook off will be in the near future…watch this space!

Quotes from the kids:

I’ve been enjoying the physical testing. – George

I hope to learn more about diet, and I enjoyed the agility test. – Dannielle

I am enjoying how we got to be able to test our agility, speed, balance, strength, flexibility, reaction time, power and coordination. Also doing the weekly readings about it. – Sharli

I'm looking forward to the yoga class were going to do and I hope we get to learn why there's different minerals in different foods. – Larna

I hope to learn and expand my knowledge on health and wellbeing, and on the five parts: Physical, Emotional, Mental, Social, and Spiritual Wellbeing. – Ashley

I'm enjoying learning more about how a lot of sugar can affect you! - Lilly

Geoboards with Room 22

In maths we have been studying 2D shapes. We made them on the Geoboards. We made pictures using different shapes.

We even went to the Front Garden to make 2D shapes out of sticks. We discovered that the shapes had to have straight sides.

A New Sign for Room 27

Students and families of Room 27 decided it was time for the colourful mosaic that said ‘Room 9’ to be updated. With the assistance of some parents, the class created a new Room 27 sign to hang by the door. The sign is made from repurposed wine corks and backing board. The students are very proud of their new sign.

In the process of replacement, it was discovered that the previous sign was created in 2006, about 7 years before any of Room 27 students of 2019 were born. Fortunately, one of the names on the back was Jo Garwood; as she is still at our campus we were able to find out more historical information. She was able to inform us the students of 2006 were in Year 1 or 2 at the time, are now 19-20 years old and would have left Eastern Fleurieu School a couple of years ago. She also informed us that as the school has grown, room numbers have been changed to a more simplistic numbering system.

Although we aren’t certain that the new sign will endure the elements for 13 years as the previous one did, we will enjoy the bright new one for as many as it lasts.

Room 28 Nature Play

On Friday afternoons Team 28 participates in Nature Play. This can involve time in Tungaree Gardens, planting our vegetable patch or doing something that is nature based. It is a great time for children to be involved in team work, communication and problem solving. It helps develop resilience, confidence and the ability to assess risks. It reduces obesity and illness and improves nutrition and health.

This year we are developing our skills to sit still for a period of time and engage our senses. We have completed a Nature Scavenger Hunt which involved searching for a whole range of different things. We have built fairy houses for visiting forest fairies, and on the really hot Friday we investigated floating and sinking properties…and maybe got cooled down with a sprinkle of water from the hose.

Harmony Day Celebrations across R-6 Campuses

During Term 1 Week 8 our R-6 campuses celebrated Harmony Day. Each campus led their own unique activities and learning for the day, but between all sites it was a sea of orange. Harmony Day is about inclusiveness, respect and a sense of belonging for everyone.

Harmony Day is a time for all Australians to remember and respect our diverse cultural backgrounds and to share what we have in common.

.....everyone belongs.

Harmony Day and National Day of Action Against Bullying and Violence earlier this month prompted our students to think deeply about their rights and responsibilities, how their actions affect others and most importantly, changes we can all make to ensure we create a more inclusive community. Our Bush School themes (awareness, belonging and connection) and school values all contribute to a culture that values diversity. It is often the case that some of our youngest students come up with golden sayings; Archie put it beautifully when he said “we are all the same inside”.

Ashbourne Campus

Langhorne Creek Campus

Harmony Day in The House

Koalas

Kangaroos

On Harmony Day, the Kangaroos remember to be respectful, happy, share, include others and stick up for others. Always remember to never bully, be the kind kid. - Keely

Emus

For Harmony Day the Emus celebrated the day talking about multiculturalism and in technology with Mr Doig we designed Harmony Day posters.

Milang Campus

Milang students enjoyed Harmony day with some group activities including painting, cleaning hub caps for an art project, and planting some seeds. The students worked with a partner and really enjoyed the activities.

We all enjoyed a shared lunch afterwards.

Strathalbyn R-6 Campus

At the Strathalbyn R-6 campus we celebrated Harmony Day by dressing in orange, attending an assembly with music and parade, making posters and having a cupcake stall. As well as this, many classes participated in classroom-based activities and tasks. It was great to see so many staff and students dressed in orange, yellow and pink on Thursday. Orange is the colour chosen to represent Harmony Day. Traditionally, orange signifies social communication and meaningful conversations. Australians can choose to wear something orange on Thursday, 21st March to show their support for cultural diversity and an inclusive Australia.

Mr Steele’s Specialist Art Lessons

National Young Leader’s Day

Ashbourne

The next generation of leaders were encouraged to ‘dream big’ at Halogen’s National Young Leader’s Day.

Ashbourne School Captains, Jack and Judah visited Adelaide Entertainment Centre where they heard from four guest speakers. The speakers shared their life stories with students to inspire them to become leaders.

Judah and I really related to Phil Cummings. He told us stories of when he was a kid and we’ve done the exact same things. - Jack

Phil Cummings advice was to be persistent. He told us stories about birds that fly all the way from Siberia to Australia. He never gives up with his writing. He did 25 drafts before his book was published, don’t give up. - Judah

Langhorne Creek

On Wednesday, 20th of March, Tye, Grace, Matt and I went to Adelaide for National Young Leaders Day at the Adelaide Entertainment Centre. The first guest speaker was Rossana Mangiarelli, who is a TV news reporter for Today Tonight. She talked to us about all the different jobs she was presented with and told us about all the different stories and accidents she had to report about. Her main key to being a leader was if you don’t believe in yourself no one will.

After our recess break, we met the second guest speaker, a lady called Jade from Cotton On Foundation who talked to us about how Cotton On are donating money to kids in Uganda. The Cotton On Foundation build facilities such as schools and toilets for people in Uganda. Her main key to being a leader was helping others when they need it and everybody is the same no matter what their background is.

After Jade, we met Leisel Jones a famous Australian swimmer who told about her world record for 100m breast stroke which is 1 minute and 5.9 secs. She told us that you can’t teach success but you can learn it and that the bigger your goal is the harder you work to achieve it.

After our lunchbreak, we met a famous author, Phil Cummings, who told us a story about when he was a kid and why he wanted to be a story teller. He told us about a book called Feathers. He said that he wanted to be a rock and roll star. He wrote a song about Neil Armstrong landing on the moon in 1969. Overall it was a great day and we learnt lots of interesting and new things.

Milang

On the Wednesday, 20th March Romany and Kobie, our school captains travelled with Mrs Yard and students from Ashbourne down to Adelaide for the National Young Leaders day. Here is what they had to say about it.

Romany: We met Rosanna Mangiarelli (Journalist), Leisel Jones (Olympic swimmer), Phil Cummings (Author) and Jade from Cotton On. My favourite speaker was Leisel Jones because she was always aiming to get better and she never gave up.

Kobie: My favourite speaker was Phil Cummings. He was really inspiring and good at telling his story. His books have great meanings and are especially for kids.

Patterns

In maths the Hakea Class have been learning about patterns and how they do not have to be uniform. Here are some of the patterns we have found around the school.

Persuasive Writing

In the Acacia class we have been working on our persuasive writing skills. The students choose topics they were passionate about and used their knowledge of text structure and strong, emotive words to create powerful and persuasive writing pieces. Here are 2 examples of their writing.

Duke of Ashbourne

Update on Hudson’s project: For my school based component of my project I am running a LEGO club once a week. I designed a poster to advertise and set guidelines for the challenge. Each week I have a different theme and challenge to interest kids to join in and have fun. We started yesterday, the challenge was to make a watermelon. I found one lunch break was not enough time, so I am going to try starting at recess next week and flow into lunch if needed. For my water focus term project I am looking at how we make water slides. I am investigating how you can make an awesome slide and still keep it safe.

Update on Barnaby’s project: For my term project I am looking into how many planets have water on them. Did you know that there is a XO planet called Euorpa that has a liquid sub-surface. This means that in the future – if its atmosphere develops further – we could live on it.

Bush School

Continuing with our water theme, we have been exploring how to best insulate ice to stop it from melting, how to slow down downpours by building LEGO models of dams and mazes, and trialling ideas to clean up oil spills.

From Miss Tilley’s Possums

Speckled Frogs

We sang 5 little Speckled Frogs and painted our own frogs.

We help our friends in our class

In the house we love to help and share. Here are some photos of the Possums in class.

Bullying, No Way!

The Koalas designed a poster for Bullying - No Way Day to display around the school.

In Health lessons we have been discussing the different types and forms of bullying and the impact that bullying has on individuals, groups and communities.

We are also learning about how to counteract bullying, emphasizing that we all have the right to feel safe wherever we are. Protective behaviours need to be known, practised and used widely to promote our safety and the safety of others too.

We hope you enjoy looking at our posters. Was the criteria met?

Recycle Right!

Last week Jo, from the Fleurieu Regional Waste Authority, came to the Langhorne Creek Campus and she taught us more about how to use our 3 kerbside bins to recycle correctly. We played a game where 2 teams raced to sort the rubbish and recyclable items into their correct bins.

Clean Up Australia Day

On Clean Up Australia Day Langhorne Creek Campus went down to the oval to pick up rubbish. Thankfully there wasn’t too much rubbish!

Operation K9

Family History

Over the past few weeks the Cockatoos have been learning about families in history; what is a family, what makes families different and how families have changed over the years. In the next week, the students will be bringing home a 'family tree' question sheet so, as a class, we can learn about one another's families.

The Reception and Year 1 students have also been focusing on numbers; how numbers are ordered and subsidising numbers.

The Year 3's have also been focusing on their history unit and researching local Aboriginal culture and the connections to the Murray River. They have been very interested in the past events and what has lead the Murray River to be what it is today. Over the next week, the students will start their own projects on the Ngarrindjeri people and what they have learnt through their research.

The Year 2's and Year 3's have also been learning about number sequence and partitioning and where numbers sit on a number line.

Early World Explorers

In HASS the Milang Upper Primary students are continuing our learning about early world explorers. We have been writing explorers logs documenting our journey to South America and using Venn diagrams to compare the explorations of Christopher Columbus and Ferdinand Magellan.

We have nearly finished our plans to make the outside of our classroom more welcoming.

Working Bee

On Sunday, 24th March Milang Campus had a wonderful group of volunteers who spent all morning and half the afternoon doing lots of jobs around the school. We planted some new plants and trees, painted the wooden fixtures around the basketball court, Mrs Jolley and her son Seamus decorated the Upper Primary entrance and spray painted the hub-caps that we have been collecting. It was a very productive day. Thank you so much to David and Shannon for picking up and delivering a trailer load of soil for us kindly donated by “Strathalbyn Hire and Landscape Supplies”. We were also lucky enough to have 4 trees donated by Jodie - Bunnings Victor Harbor and 50 plants and tree guards donated by - Mrs Natalie Gilbert and the Conservation and Land Management students at Investigator College. Thank you to Natalie Perkins for organizing this. A massive thanks to our helpers on the day: Merran, Seamus, Heidi, Natalie, Donna, Kathy, Karen, Sian, Marie and Dennis and the kids, Emily, Hudson, Amelia, Maeve and Henry. The grounds are really looking great, ready for our sports day.

Country Fire Service Visit

On Tuesday, 5th March the Milang Playgroup community was joined by the Reception and Year 1 students on a visit to the local Country Fire Service (CFS) station. The children enjoyed a short walk to the station on Chapel St where they were met by Captain Alistair McInnes and 2 of the CFS crew. The children were delighted by a tour of the station - having fun trying on the CFS uniforms and helmets, climbing aboard the fire engine, testing the fire hoses and learning all about the CFS.

During the morning families shared morning tea with the crew, and also had fun playing in the sand piles and making model CFS trucks. Milang Playgroup would like to thank the Milang CFS for hosting a wonderful morning and Mrs Yard and the Receptions and Year 1’s for coming along on our CFS adventure.

Strathalbyn R-6 Grounds Update…

We welcomed Paul Minnards back to pop the finishing touches on the big kids slide with some new big climbing rocks and tree branches for climbing. The final stage of this project is to add to the lawn section, extending around the back to further stabilise and provide rolling space for play.

Yes, they are coming!!!!

On the weekend we are expecting our new buildings to arrive, so exciting after such a long wait. At this stage, we will be moving in early in Term 2 as the ground works, decking and verandas will all need to be completed before moving in.

Room 14 Artwork

Recently Room 14 students participated in a painting workshop with a Ugandan artist. They learnt some new skills and produced some interesting and colourful paintings. Here are some photographs from the day.

Soft Plastic Recycling

Room 10 has been working on how to stop littering and start recycling because it’s bad for the animals and on behalf of doing that we have been trying not use any glad bags so every Friday we count them up in our class meetings. – Bella.

Right now South Australia is trying to convince the other states to give people 10c for a can, bottle or juice box. – Mia

If you go fishing and you see a dead fish or shark or any dead animal in the sea don’t touch it but if you see rubbish at the top of the ocean pick it up so fish do not die. - Jordan H

We in Room 10 have been learning about having a growth mindset around recycling. We have been counting up our glad bags on every Friday. – Jordan B

I think schools should recycle soft plastic because if we don’t recycle soft plastic animals will die and then all animals will become extinct because when we litter it gets in the drains and washes into the ocean. - Dylan

In Week 1 we had 24 zip lock glad bags in our soft plastic recycling. In Week 2 we only had 4. In Week 3 we had 21! In Week 4 we had 11. In Week 5 we only had 10 and Week 8 only had 8! Altogether, that is 78 glad bags that could have been recycled. We wash and find ways to reuse the bags in our classroom.

If we could give you some advice it would be to:

Clean, care and be careful with plastic!

Don’t use plastic straws, use metal or paper ones instead!

Reduce, Reuse and Recycle!!

Holistic Health

In Room 1, we have been focusing on Holistic Health, aiming to be the happiest, healthiest versions of ourselves! We have done a range of readings and tasks informing us about the different aspects of health with the aim of each student creating a healthy lifestyle plan to ensure their own health and happiness. One of our main goals has been to deepen our understanding of staying healthy past 'not eating junk food and going for a walk'. We have looked at physical, emotional, mental, social and spiritual health and how, when combined, they create a healthy lifestyle. We have been defining what each facet of health actually means at the end of each week:

I hope to see the students implementing what they have learnt this term throughout their schooling, allowing them to look after themselves when stress and business start to become more prevalent. We are looking forward to finishing off the term with a MasterChef cook off and sharing all of our new knowledge with you!

Room 4 and Room 27’s Egg-speriments

With the help of our Room 27 Buddy class, Room 4 has been investigating the properties of different liquids in Science with some ‘egg-speriments’. We had to record properties of a normal egg, then predict what changes different liquids would have by placing eggs into water, salted water, orange juice, vinegar and milk. We collaborated and communicated to make predictions as to what impact each liquid would have after 1 hour and 5 days.

Some predictions included-

• The egg changing colour to white in the milk or orange in the orange juice.
• The egg becoming bouncy in the vinegar
• The egg becoming stinky in the salt water.
• No change for salt and normal water.
• And even the egg exploding in the salt water, as the salt will crack the shell, exploding the insides.

The students of both classes are looking forward to seeing whether and how the eggs properties have changed with their eggs and checking the accuracy of their predictions.

Small Campus Sports Day

Ashbourne and Milang

We finished last term with an excellent Small Campus Sports Day at Milang. Despite the atrocious weather on the day, all of our students joined in enthusiastically and gave their very best throughout the day. To start off our Sports Day, the Milang school captains Kobie and Romany, along with Mrs Yard welcomed everyone to Milang Campus. In their speech they brought to our attention the school values: Integrity, Respect, Responsibility, Participation, Co-operation, Care and Compassion. They reminded us that throughout a fun day such as Sports day to remember to show our school values and to remember that the strength of a team lies in each member.

The faces of the students during the “tug of war” says it all; grit and determination! Congratulations go to Bremer on winning the shields for 2019 and to all of our students for their team spirit and ability to push themselves for personal best results whilst still remembering to be good sports and have fun. Many thanks go to Mr K and all the Milang staff, students and families for organising and running such an enjoyable day for everyone.

A big thankyou to Maidment Meats who donated the ham for our wraps, Woolies Strathalbyn for their $40 voucher towards our lunch deal and all the families who baked muffins for us to sell. We had an awesome amount of volunteers in the morning making wraps and throughout the day selling juice boxes, water, ice blocks and muffins. We raised a total of $688.76. Included in that amount was the “Guess the lollies in the jar” which was won by Opal at Milang.

Instrumental Music

Another heart-warming achievement this year has been the excellent participation in our instrumental music program. The Ashbourne Band continues to grow and is a wonderful example of students being willing to extend themselves and develop new skills. Performing is always a challenging experience and our band members fought through last minute nerves to deliver an entertaining performance at assembly last term. They can all feel very proud of their improvement and efforts over the term.

Young Environmental Leaders (YEL)

Ashbourne

In Term 2 Barnaby and I went to YEL. We learnt some pretty interesting information. We learnt about water filters and how to filter dirty water. In my water filter I used charcoal dust, cloth, sand and rocks. We also learnt about bush tucker and aboriginal people. There was tucker called damper, different nuts, sap and fruit. – Hudson and Barnbay

Milang

Once a term Bohdan, Bailey, Ivan and I go to YEL. In Term 2 when we went to YEL we learnt how to filter lake water. We also learnt about the native food that the aboriginals ate. We made a hut with tarp and sticks. We also learnt how to get water out of eucalyptus trees and we made damper and it was good. - Kobie

Anzac Day

Ashbourne

The Acacia class have been learning about the history and meaning of Anzac Day. We celebrated the day, by creating some Anzac Day artwork which includes a sunset and a silhouette of a soldier.

Langhorne Creek

In HASS we learnt about Anzac Day. We read a story about a Teddy Bear that was passed down to a boy from his grandfather. Anzac Ted went to war, keeping soldiers company and giving them comfort.

As part of our learning we visited the new RSL in Strathalbyn and had a very informative talk from Cate and Norm Goodall. Cate is the president of the RSL and Norm is a returned serviceman. We learnt more about our local service men and women and how much the wars impacted on the local community. It was very interesting and we are very grateful to have had this opportunity. – Jazz

Hakea Class - Maths

In the Hakea class we have been learning about fractions in maths. Fractions are equal parts that make a whole. We have been playing games to practice breaking a whole (class) into equal parts (students)… this has been leading us to understand equivalent fractions.

Bush School

Our Term 2 Bush School focus is mapping and orienteering. Many thanks to Zita from Orienteering SA who is running a series of workshops for all students. This has been funded through the Sporting Schools Program and has been a great asset. Enthusiasm and energy continue to make Bush School Day a favourite for everyone. In our circle of appreciation students unanimously welcomed the rain!

Mother’s Day

Ashbourne

Students hosted a wonderful Mother’s Day afternoon tea last Friday. Thank you to Angela Breeding who visited from NRM through the “Precious Plants” program and helped us all to learn more about critically endangered local plants and we were fortunate enough to be a part of the Silver Daisy-Bush Project.

Langhorne Creek

Possums

We all love our mums and painted special flowers for them, we hope you enjoy our beautiful colourful flowers.

Koalas

We worked with Mrs Hopkins and Mrs Rollins creating some lovely artwork for our wonderful mums for Mother’s Day.

Kangaroos

Last Sunday was Mother’s Day and our class made some amazing exploding gift boxes for our mums. Our messages expressed how much we love and appreciate our mums and how thankful we are to have them. To make our exploding gift boxes, we had to use a lot of patience and careful measuring skills to make sure the boxes would fit perfectly together. We also made a beautiful vase picture, in our Making a Difference lesson, with special messages to mum written on our hands that we traced.

Emus

We made these place mats for our mums for Mother's Day using fluro oil pastels and creating different patterns. We hope all mums had a great Mother's Day! - Mia

Strathalbyn Room 27

We had a bowl and we put a plant in it. Then we put a stick with a love heart with Mum xx on it. - Addy

Mrs Brittain’s mum helped us to do it. We all got to choose our own plant and bowl or cup. - Violet

We had soil in our bowls or cups and we had to choose a plant. I chose a little one and it had a sign in it that was shaped like a love heart. - Clementine.

Mrs Brittain put the soil in the bowls so that we didn’t get our hands dirty. We got to choose a sticker that said Mum with 2 kisses. – Brock

Duke of Ashbourne

In the Duke of Ashbourne for Term 1 the focus was water. I studied hydroelectricity and this term I will make a mini hydroelectricity plant. The focus for Term 2 is mapping. - Jack

Langhorne Creek Campus SAPSASA Representatives

SAPSASA, Softball Athletics and Cross Country

We have had a number of our students qualifying for SAPSASA Softball, Athletics and Cross Country Run events recently. With all who competed and represented both Eastern Fleurieu School and Langhorne Creek Campus, well done on your effort and good sportsmanship. Special congratulations to Edie who will heading down to SANTOS Stadium, for the Southern Fleurieu Zone SAPSASA Athletics Country Championships, to enter the High Jump event for her age group and to Charlotte, who ran a great Cross Country time of 12.35.21, and is off to Oakbank for the State Cross Country Day. We wish all entrants all the best for these upcoming events.

SAPSASA Softball

We went to West Beach for SAPSASA Softball in Week 11 of Term 1. We played two games per day on a range of different diamonds. The girls' team only lost one game and finished in 2nd place, whilst the boys' team won the carnival. The best parts of the week were making new friends, hitting home runs and having a go in different positions. – Jazz, Grace, Jacob and Tye

Charlotte Cross Country

On Wednesday, 8th May I went to the SAPSASA cross country championships for the Southern Fleurieu region. I ran in the Under 11 girls group and the distance I needed to run was 3km. There were around 30 other girls in my age group. I ended up winning the race by about 400m, and the top 4 girls were all from our school.

I have now qualified to go to the state championship at Oakbank in June. - Charlotte

Post Painting

As part of our community involvement, we went to the Langhorne Creek oval on Monday to do 'Post Painting'. We were met by community members and set to work painting the new posts around the oval together. It was lots of fun and showed how good teamwork can achieve good outcomes efficiently! - Maddy

Geography with the Cockatoos

In Geography we have been looking at place and different types of homes that people live in. We have been concentrating on our own homes and what makes them special and safe to us. It has been great to learn about everyone’s homes and to see what is different and what is the same about them. We will look at our community next and what makes it special to us.

Mrs Cook’s Science Lessons

On Friday’s the students are enjoying making paper-mache bowls with Mrs Cook as part of their science lesson.

WELCOME!

The Milang Upper Primary Class recently gave the outside of our classroom a makeover. We wanted to make the entrance more colourful and inviting. We each created a collage on a coaster, which we sealed and added to the wall outside the classroom along with a large WELCOME sign. We enjoy seeing our colourful entrance when we arrive at school each day.

Botanical Illusions at Milang

In Art we collected flora from around the school grounds, just like explorers around the world would have done when they first visited a country. We used the flora we collected to create botanical illustrations using lead and colour pencils. We discovered that our artworks improved when our peers gave us feedback and we critiqued our own work. We made multiple drawings trying to improve the quality of our artworks. We have compiled our final drawings into a book and pressed our flora to make another book. It is interesting to look back at the growth we have seen in our drawings during the process.

Milang Mural

One of our Milang grandparents Greg Coombs has donated his time to paint a beautiful mural on our toilet block wall. He had been working very hard to have it ready for Sports Day. Thankyou Greg. We are very fortunate to have you at Milang and do appreciate you sharing your talent with us. Thank you also to Roger Dunn and Strathalbyn Mitre 10 for donations of paint and boards.

Thank you also to Sian Steele and Lynn Coombs for making our bunting over the sandpit and the Junior Primary classroom. It looks awesome.

Milang Bush Day

Students enjoyed a fantastic day at Ashbourne Campus last term for Bush Day.

They worked with the Ashbourne children and were involved in activities that included water play, mapping games, nature craft, and building activities such as tepees and homes for our native fauna.

Strathalbyn R-6 Building Update

Wow, our grounds were very busy with contractors over the break with new carpets, blinds and external painting of the unit and library. The new building continues to progress, all internal carpets and fixtures are in, decking and steps completed this week and then external connections to finish.

Staff in the Spotlight

Les Cameron has recently won our Assistant Principal role for the next 5 years. Les lives locally in Strathalbyn, previously working as Deputy Principal at Port Elliot Primary School.

Les is an Early Childhood trained teacher, also Aboriginal Education teacher and has worked as a School Counsellor, Intervention and Support Leader. She is passionate about ensuring all students are able to access developmentally appropriate learning and being able to support children and their families as needed.

Les lives with her husband Duane, her cat Datsun and has 4 daughters and 3 step children. She is a very proud Nan to 12 grandchildren with another one on the way this year. She enjoys spending time with her family, gardening, camping and music. Les is looking forward to working in her home town and sharing her love of learning with our students, staff and families.

Hello, my name is Heidi Yard and I will be acting in the Wellbeing Support Role at Strathalbyn R-6 this term. Previously Annette Foster and Rebecca Blackwell have held this position, so please feel free to speak with me about any issues that may be ongoing. As part of this role, I will be supporting students and staff with wellbeing needs, helping to support the Expect Respect and White Ribbon Day, running some What’s the Buzz lessons in classes, supporting attendance, coordinating the Break Mates program, supporting the Celebration Committee and helping to connect families with the Grow Wellbeing school psychology program. If you feel that I can help to support you or your child in anyway, please contact the school and I will do my best to help or direct you.

Room 6 Students love a debate!

Persuading change is always a challenge. “Should students have homework or not?” What do you believe?

Here are some samples of student’s persuasive writing on that topic!

Narnu Farm Camp

In Week 9 of Term 1, Rooms 9, 12 and 13, went on an overnight camp to Narnu Farm. This was an opportunity to work together to build relationships and team work.

Goolwa Wharf was our first stop for the day. Mr Springhall organised, what seemed like, the longest scavenger hunt along the river to the Nature Playground. The kids and parents enjoyed the 3 km walk.

We then continued our journey to Narnu Farm, Hindmarsh Island. Where the fun continued as we set up our bunk houses and started our activities. Students were lucky enough to be involved in a range of activities over the two days in their groups of 8-10 children.

Our activities included hand ploughing with a Clydesdale horse, horse riding, rope climbing, tennis, table tennis, blacksmithing, feeding farm animals, chicken hatchery, butter making and a vintage truck ride to feed the Clydesdale’s.

The two days were entertaining, enjoyable and all-round lots of fun. New friendships were made, and all students showed their maturity, reliance and most importantly their best behaviour. A highly recommended place to visit!

We would like to thank all the parent volunteers that came along and made the experience a delight. We could not have done it without you.

Team 28 Update

Team 28 have settled back into the routine of school after what sounded like epic holidays! We have planted up our vegetable garden and we can’t wait to start using the produce with the Wednesday morning cooking with Nardia.

We are getting super excited for our one night camp to Adare in Victor Harbour on Tuesday, 21st May and Wednesday, 22nd of May. This camp will be full of challenges, problem solving, adventure and fun. We are going with Room 26, 27 and Millindilla.

Also this term, we are looking at mini-beasts. Learning about these wonderful creepy crawlies is very interesting and exciting. So far we have learnt about some major groups of mini-beasts and their characteristics of each group. We went down to Tungaree Gardens to find some of our own mini-beasts and drew and classified them into groups. We have also had a few caterpillars move into our classroom and we are all super excited to watch them change into butterflies.

Pippa (school dog) visits Fridays and she is a hit with the kids and helps them with their learning!

Breakfast Club

Breakfast Club is held each morning in the Art Room at Strathalbyn R-6 Campus from 8:20 till 8:45am. Breakfast Club is open to all students and there is no cost.

The menu consists of cereal, milk, wholemeal or wholegrain toast with a selection of spreads, tinned fruit and yoghurt.

We are very grateful to Kick Start for Kids for keeping us supplied with bread and milk each week and very grateful also to the various folk who help out with donations of vegemite, jam etc. and not to forget the very kind folk who give cash donations.

I am also very grateful for the volunteers who help out each week as well as the students who come in offering to help.

Eastern Fleurieu School Pedal Prix 2019

Eastern Fleurieu School (EFS) Racing will compete again in this year’s ‘Australian Human Powered Vehicle (HPV) Super Series’. Our students will race our HPV’s against 200 other school and community group teams from around the country; in a series of endurance races. One primary team and one secondary team of EFS students will race in 3 events over the season:

Adelaide 6-Hour on Sunday, 16th June.
Adelaide 6-Hour on Sunday, 28th July.
Murray Bridge 24-Hour on Saturday, 21st September and Sunday, 22nd September.

The teams have been training hard for the upcoming 6-hour race at Victoria Park in Adelaide on the Sunday, 16th of June. We encourage all families to come down and cheer on our riders at the events.

Our teams could not compete without the support of our local community. We are hugely grateful for the support from:

Daish Irrigation
Laurie Galpin Accountant
The Cheese Factory Studio Gallery
Moonglow Glam Camp
Maidment Meats
Old Market Shed

And our new major sponsor: Chopping Board Catering

New Handball Courts for Ashbourne!

We have used the last of the autumn sun to put the final touches to our new 9 square game. Steve has challenged students to use all their creativity to build on the traditional 4 square game; our new court has many more combinations and challenges. The new dynamics have inspired us all.

Walk to School Day

Huge thanks to Judah, Evie, Zeb, Oscar and Maya who organised a tour of Ashbourne on National Walk to School Day. We had beautiful weather and it was a great opportunity to appreciate the wonderful Ashbourne community. Our walk to school included a walk along Bull Creek, climbing through a few barbed wire fences, over the mulberry tree and finished with a game of Eagle Eye.

Thanks to our Community Policing Officers (Libby Bruce and Catherine Windle), who visited on Walk to School Day to explain their roles within our community and help us all to appreciate how we can take responsibility for keeping ourselves and others safe. We all had a chance to sit in the police car and learn about the equipment that police officers carry.

Circuits with the Acacia Class

In Science we have been making circuits. They are really fun to make. - Scarlett

In Science we have been making circuits. We made two types of circuits. A parallel circuit and series circuit. We used batteries, wires, pins, paper clips and small globes. - Grace

For Science we were making circuits. We got given batteries, globes, paper clips, split pins, buzzers. We used paper clips and split pins for switches. - Barnaby

In Science we have been doing circuits. I made a light. We’ve been also working on parallel and series circuits. We have made circuits that beep. - Evie

Possums Playdough Towers

Our task was to build houses using playdough and tooth picks. We had to connect them. – Rupert

We had to build houses. It was tricky because the house wasn’t stable. I made it stable by putting playdough on the outside. - Angus

I found building the house hard because I used lots of playdough. - Sam

I built a house out of play dough and sticks. It was tricky the first time but then got the hang of it. - Ava

We had to make some towers out of playdough and toothpicks. It was easy because you just had to roll little balls and it won’t fall down. - Millie

Around the Langhorne Creek Campus

We enjoyed some time around the campus in the sunshine.

Reconciliation Week

All students have recently participated in Reconciliation Week activities; “Grounded in Truth, Walk Together with Courage”. This has included learning about our shared histories, cultures and achievements and developing a deeper understanding of the meaning of reconciliation for all Australians.

Ashbourne

The Koalas have been studying Indigenous Culture during Reconciliation Week. We have read books written and illustrated by Indigenous people and discussed the key messages in each story.

Our awareness of Indigenous people’s love of country and connection to the land and animals has grown. We reflected on our own connection and love of Australia and our work is about these reflections.

Langhorne Creek

Last week our class created posters for Reconciliation Week. Mrs Hopkins entered them in a competition through Alexandrina Council. They were judged by Aboriginal Elders at the opening of ‘Black Screen’ in Goolwa. I was lucky enough to win the competition and I am very happy with my art piece. - Jazz

Strathalbyn

Our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island students were involved in cooking and preparation of morning tea for the local reconciliation celebration held in the park on Sunday. Traditional foods were shared at the breakfast barbecue and our wattle seed biscuits were a hit.

National Simultaneous Storytime

Langhorne Creek

Kangaroos

We took part in National Simultaneous Storytime on Wednesday, 22nd May. Together we read the book called ‘Macca the Alpaca’ and then created our own Alpacas.

Emus

On Wednesday, 22nd May we read a book called ‘Alpacas with Maracas’. It was a really good book and was about two alpacas called Macca and Al. They are best friends and they do everything together. When they were out and about they saw a poster that said that there was a talent show on. They went home and tried to think of something they could perform. They thought very hard and said, “all we need is maracas”. They danced and shook the maracas and had a blast even though they came last.

We really enjoyed this book. It was funny and we loved reading it at the same time as all of the schools in Australia and New Zealand. – Charlotte M

On Excursion with Langhorne Creek!

On Friday, 31st May Langhorne Creek Campus went on an excursion to Adelaide. First we visited the Royal Flying Doctor Service (RFDS) base at the airport and were privileged enough to see the brand new RFDS jet that has only been in Adelaide for four weeks and cost $13,000,000. It was very interesting and we learnt all about how the RFDS works and that they rely heavily on fundraising to fund new planes. We saw a RFDS plane land after an emergency while we were there.

After that we went to China Town to experience some Asian food following on from our Cultural Studies on Asia. I had spring rolls and fried rice which was really yummy.

Then we caught the tram to Parliament House and met Adrian Pederick, MP, Member for Hammond. He showed us all around Parliament House and we had a mock debate in the House of Assembly about whether we should have homework or not. It was fun and I got to be the speaker! We learnt a lot about the government.

It was such a good day and we are all grateful to have had the opportunity to go. – Grace

Shapes!

The Milang Reception and Year 1’s have been looking at 2D shapes and the Year 2’s and Year 3’s have been looking at 3D shapes. Our shape unit has included looking at everyday objects around the school and within our classroom and recognising what their shape is called, whether they are a 2D or 3D shape and if they are manmade or natural objects.

The students have also been learning about the different features of shapes and how to identify these. We have ended our shape unit by designing our own shapes and naming them. Everyone’s shapes were very creative and it taught us to think about the different elements of a shape and what it needed to be classified as a shape.

Sizzling Starts

Milang students have also been looking at narrative writing and working on knowing all of the elements that are needed to make a narrative engaging and exciting for the reader. We have looked at sizzling starts; drawing in the reader from the very first line of our story and character descriptions; what is needed to create likeable and not so likeable characters within our stories.

Investigating Materials

In the Junior Primary class we have been wondering about and the investigating materials, their properties and how they behave. We have conducted investigations with paper to see what happens when different types are put in water and then we looked at paper mache to see what happens when flour and water mix and then dry out. Last week we investigated different ingredients and how they change how they look, feel and taste when mixed together; flour on its own didn’t taste very good but when mixed with butter and sugar tasted a whole lot better and even better when cooked! Our next question will be; which materials do we use to package our biscuits so they don’t break when we send them?

Milang’s Post Office Visit

Last Friday, 31st May we walked down to the local Milang Post Office and we were given a guided tour and shown how letters were posted and stamped and sent around the world. The students are reading Flat Stanley and will be sending him to various locations to continue his adventures.

Chess at Milang

Junior Primary students have been learning how to play chess to promote strategic thinking and develop impulse control. Students have been learning the various moves of the chess pieces and how to think ahead in order to defeat their opponent.

Preparing for STEM Day

In preparation for our upcoming ship building and simple machines Science Technology Engineering Art Math (STEAM) challenge we have been investigating how to shape a piece of plasticine so it will float in a tub of water. This is some of what we discovered about our plasticine boats:

Don’t have short walls. – Alannah
Have a hollow part in your ship. – Bohdan
Don’t have thick wall. – Bailey
Don’t have hole in your boat. – Ivan
Make it light weight. - Amahlia

Art at Milang

In Art we have been looking at proportion and size. We studied photographs of African ladies carrying pots and baskets on their heads. We then created drawings of the African ladies carrying baskets. We had to draw three ladies. Their bodies had to be in proportion to the basket and the size of the paper. We used lines to add detail to the dresses they were wearing.

Cultural Studies with Mrs Rollins

At the beginning of Term 2, we began our Cultural Studies unit by focusing on Southeast Asia. The region of Southeast Asia is made up of eleven countries and the children in Mrs Jolly’s class each chose their favourite country to study. Over the past weeks, they have been busily researching information on their chosen country and using the information to make a PowerPoint presentation. The children were asked to include a Fact File as well as information about the location, geography and climate of their chosen country.

In the Junior Primary class, our learning has focused on the geography and culture of Indonesia. Each week we learn an ‘Interesting Fact’ and we began by learning that Indonesia is an archipelago made up of over 13,000 islands! We also located the five main islands of Indonesia and learnt that the capital of Indonesia, Jakarta, is slowly sinking and may have to be relocated one day – this prompted lots of discussion about how they would actually do this! Our most recent ‘Interesting Fact’ is that Indonesia is located on the Ring of Fire and the children added lots of volcanoes to their maps of Indonesia.

Milang Old School House NOSH (MOSH)

Every fortnight our students love to go to the Milang Community Centre for their MOSH NOSH, (their lunch). As we don’t have a canteen at school, this is a special treat for the kids to have a hot lunch with dessert for a very cheap cost.

It is also a fantastic way for them to join with other community members. I know the community love seeing them there. Thank you to our parent volunteers who make this possible, and Denise Quinn who facilitates it all.

News from Room 3

During Term 1 we engaged in a health unit while following the deep learning model. Students learned that there are multiple facets of health including: physical, emotional, social, mental and spiritual.

We took a closer look at what physical health means and discovered the broadness of what ‘being fit’ can look like. A fitness program was then run over a 5 week period where a particular component of fitness could be improved. Students researched and created their own program which they would conduct once a day to improve a variety of fitness components such as: strength, muscular endurance, balance, agility or cardiovascular fitness. At the end of the program students used their collected data and constructed line graphs to gauge improvement.

To supplement their own fitness program, the opportunity was given to participate in a yoga session. Loretta from Unfold Yoga + Wellbeing in Mount Barker provided an incursion for all year 6 students. A great experience that involved both mind and body.

The health unit was concluded with a cooking experience facilitated by yours truly and inspired by Chris Pelle. We created mini pies (one savoury and one sweet). For the sweet pies the choice of fruit given was between apple, pear and mixed berries. Three ingredients were required to be chosen for the savoury pie including: lean beef mince, cheese, capsicum, mushroom, spinach, onion, sweet potato, carrot, tomato and bacon.

Adare Camp

Last week, Room 26 along with Rooms 27, 28 and 15 went on camp to Adare House in Victor Harbor.

We were very excited to play a variety of games and activities in our Tribes! Through participating in these activities we developed our problem-solving, collaborative group work and communication skills.

Here are some photos of us on camp to show our camp experience!

Bee-ing in our Garden

The Year 3 students of Strathalbyn R-6 Campus have bee-n very bee-zy this term. The students have been digging, raking, building and planting in hopes to create a native habitat down near Tungaree Gardens which will attract native birds and bee's to the unused area. In science we have been looking into biological sciences, specifically undertaking a 'deep learning' approach to bee's. Our students have bee-n working tirelessly understanding the life cycles, the different roles within the hive and the genetic make-up of our tiny pollinators. One thing we have definitely taken out of the learning is just how important the bees are to our everyday life.

Room 10 El Shaddai Camp

On Tuesday, 21st May, Rooms 10, 11 and 14 went on camp to El Shaddai. We worked in activity groups that had kids from different classes, which meant that we made new friends, and had to work with people that we hadn’t worked with before.

There were six activities that we completed: The giant swing, laser skirmish, low ropes obstacle course, archery, vertical climb, and rock climbing. Some of these activities were easy, and some were much harder. We had to use our growth mindsets because some of the activities challenged us in different ways.

We had lasagne for dinner with chocolate mousse for dessert, and then had a talent show. We also watched a movie before we went to bed. Camp was fun, sometimes scary with new challenges, and taught us lots of new skills. We also made some great new friends!

Art with Gaynor

Throughout June Ashbourne Campus have been fortunate enough to have Artist in Residence, Gaynor Hartvigsen, regularly join them. Gaynor has been working at Ashbourne through a grant from Inspire.org on a “Colours of My World” art project. All students have worked with Gaynor to create a self-portrait. They have explored different creative techniques and had an opportunity to reflect on their own identities. This project has led to thoughtful conversations about values and qualities and how we are all unique and still connected. Art work will continue to be on display over the coming weeks and will possibly be entered in the Willunga and Strathalbyn Shows.

Character

Our recent self-portrait creative project complements work all students have engaged in over the term, identifying their own character strengths. These can be learned, practiced and cultivated; they are our super strengths and the more we focus our attention on them, the stronger they become.

“Character education is just as important to education as reading, math and science.”
Maria Montessori

Part of our daily restorative justice conversations include reflection on how we can be the best version of ourselves and how we encourage others to do the same. These are all big life concepts and it is amazing to see our students rise to the challenge of genuinely learning how to shine.

Winter Solstice

On Friday, 21st June the Ashbourne Campus celebrated the winter solstice with a bonfire night fundraiser. A range of activities were enjoyed early in the evening, including a disco, haunted house, edible campfire-making and ropes challenge course.

After dark, the focus of the evening was around the campfire with music, hearty food and damper making. The night was a great opportunity to showcase our beautiful bush campus and to enjoy the company of friends, family and community members.

We were delighted that a number of families from other campuses and the wider community joined in our celebrations and we thank them for making the journey out to Ashbourne.

The night was enjoyed by all and helped to raise more than $1,000 for school camp which is a fantastic result. Thank you to all staff, parents and students who helped make the night a success.

Orienteering Sessions with Zita

We did orienteering with Zita. Orienteering is where we look for controls. The first stage was fun. We put holes in the piece of paper. The stage three part was really fun. It was electric orienteering. - Scarlett

Orienteering is where you have a map and you have to run different controls and stamp off on a bit of paper or with an electric control. - Jack

In Term 2 for Bush School someone from Orienteering SA came to teach us more about orienteering. Her name is Zita and we thank her for teaching us. Orienteering is where there are stamps around the school, they are called controls. We were given two pieces of paper. One we stamped on and the other was a map of our school showing North, South, East and West. – Grace

I found it really fun and I wish I could do it again. - Michaela

I found it quite easy and it was really fun. - Hayden

From the Possums

Peer Reading

The Kangaroos came down to the house for a visit and read us some wonderful stories. - Lexi

Paddle Steamers

We have looked at how transport has changed over time and drew and painted these paddle steamers. - Darcy

Koalas Magic

We have been learning how to type a narrative using the Microsoft Word Program.

Our stories are based on the theme of MAGIC.

We would like to share our book covers and blurbs with you.

World Environment Day

Langhorne Creek

For World Environment Day the Koalas painted pictures of trees. They traced their arms for tree trunks and fingers for branches. As nature is magical we used lots of colour and creative images to complete our pictures.

Milang

As part of our “World Environment Day” the Milang students had a visit from the Goolwa Rotary. They work very hard to spread the word about not using one use plastic bags in shops, in schools etc and asked the students to think about ways they could help decrease the amount of plastic waste. They were thanked and presented with a donation from our school captains, Kobie and Romany from casual day. They also make their own vegetable bags for use in the shops and sell them for a gold coin donation. We will continue as a school to promote the use of these bags instead of the plastic ones and have some in the office to sell. We are nearly sold out, so be quick!!

Strathalbyn

Our school was a sea of green at our recent Environment Day on Thursday, 6th June with students participating in activities around sustainability and recycling. The canteen was overwhelmed by the support from families for the litter free lunch choices and Sharon and her team did a wonderful job meeting demand.

Kangaroos Walking Rainbow Science Experiment

In class we did an experiment. The materials it required was 5 clear plastic cups, food dye, the colours were yellow, blue, red, water and folded paper towels. - Charli

We filled the first, third and fifth cup 3/4 full of water. Then we put 4 drops of blue food dye into the first, 4 drops of yellow into the third cup and 4 drops of red into the fifth cup. Then we folded the paper towel and put one in each cup while being connected to the other cup. Now wait! - Emma

The results were that the dyes mixed together in the empty cups and made a rainbow. It went red, orange, yellow, green and blue. You should all try this experiment. It was lots of fun! - Gemma

History with the Kangaroos

On Sunday, 20th July 1969 Neil Armstrong landed on the moon. Wow that’s nearly 50 years ago! We have been learning about it in history and we painted these awesome astronaut posters. - Mack

Reconciliation Week – Poster Competition Winner

In the last Newsletter I showed you my award winning Reconciliation Artwork. Here I am being presented my prize which was amazing. I received a Ngarrindjeri language book, a Smiggle voucher, a keep cup, a boomerang to decorate with coloured sand and some other excellent things. Thanks to Alexandrina Council for sponsoring the competition and to you to Anna for attending our campus assembly and presenting me my prize. - Jazz

Cross Country State Championships

On Thursday, 6th June, I went to the Oakbank Race Course to take part in the Cross Country State Championships. In my group there were over 170 kids and I came in 13th position. The course was 3 km long and I had to go over the road and there was a thick patch of mud. As I came 13th I get to try out for the State Team. If I place in the top 6 I get the opportunity to go to New South Wales. - Charlotte

Investing Materials with Mrs Cook

The Junior Primary class have been learning about materials this term with Mrs Cook. They have explored different types of packages and also experimented with making cornflake cookies by replacing the cornflakes with another ingredient to see what happens. This week they designed and made their own packages to send a cookie through the post. These are their final designs. The cookies were sent to the Year 2/3 class at Langhorne Creek and they are now waiting for the feedback. Did they break?

Recognising Feelings and Emotions

Recently the Milang Junior Primary have been focusing on our feelings and emotions and recognising what they all mean. We have been looking at our emotional zones; green, blue, yellow and red zones and using this language in our everyday communication to describe how certain situations make us feel. This is helping each of us understand why we feel the way we do but is also helping us to understand that others deal with different thoughts, feelings and emotions in other ways than us.

We have also been looking at our character, in particular our growth mindset. We have been focusing on using our ‘can do’ statements instead of our ‘cannot’ statements and realising that asking questions and asking for help is all okay and an important part of our learning. We are learning to take pride in ourselves and in our work.

Milang Port Adelaide Excursion

Last week the Upper Primary class travelled to Port Adelaide to visit the South Australia Maritime Museum. We participated in a workshop focusing on British explorer Matthew Flinders and French explorer Nicolas Baudin. After the workshop we moved onto The Ketch which is an actual ship located inside the museum. Here we heard a talk about the design of the ship and we were able to investigate the different parts of the ship. We enjoyed discovering new information about ships and sailors as we explored the three levels of the museum.

Writing Fictional Stories

Milang students have been writing fictional stories based on the true story of Matthew Flinders and his cat Trim. After handwriting their stories and much editing, students have typed up their stories, illustrated them and we have bound them into books. This week we published our books by reading them to the Junior Primary class. We appreciated the opportunity to share our books with the younger students and hear their positive feedback.

Milang Student Free Day Working Bee!

We were lucky enough to have a group of volunteers from the Treasury Wine Estate, Rosemount Vineyard come to our campus for a working bee.

They removed the garden shed frame, made a path for playgroup, repainted all the benches, cleaned all the Upper Primary windows, jet washed the classrooms, fixed the blinds, patched holes and painted the sand pit cover. So an amazing amount of work! Also they were joined by Matthew, our volunteer groundsman, who has been working hard at keeping our campus looking lovely.

Musica Viva – B’Tutta Incursion

Last Friday, 7th June the percussion group B’Tutta came to Strathalbyn R-6 campus. It was awesome! Ashbourne, Milang and Langhorne Creek campuses along with Room 9, Millindilla and the Junior Primary classes, got to play percussion instruments, body percussion, sing, shout, dance and even conduct with these amazing musicians.

They played a variety of instruments like the Marimba (a giant wooden xylophone); a Vibraphone (a giant metal xylophone); a drum kit; African drums and a variety of percussion instruments.

Some of our kids and teachers were chosen to go out the front!

Here’s what the kids had to say:

I loved the Vibraphone! It’s got an amazing sound and it has a pedal to make it soft and loud.
I want to be a drummer.
I want to see them again.
I liked the weird instruments. They made cool noises, very mysterious.
It was loud. I liked how it was loud. My eardrums nearly blew up.

Albinism Day

On Thursday, 13th June the Strathalbyn Middle Primary classes were involved in celebrating World Albinism Day. Chase from Room 9 has Albinism and organised a really special day. He presented to 6 classes what it means to have Albinism. The classes were then involved in a session with Mel from SASVI, where they had to wear specially designed glasses that limited their vision.

Students had to complete a written task as well as play an outside game. It was fantastic to see the understanding students were able to gain from seeing what Chase sees. Children were asked to give a donation to wear a touch of white on the day and parents and Room 9 kids donated white cupcakes to sell. We raised a massive $315 that was donated directly to the Albinism Foundation.

Mini Beasts with Room 23

Room 23 have been studying ‘Mini Beasts’. We have looked at quite a few but really liked learning about bees, snails, worms, spiders and butterflies. We learnt that insects have six legs and spiders have eight. Here is some of our fantastic work. We painted, wrote stories and created some great creatures.

Jon Madin Music Workshop

What a week for Performing Arts at the Strathalbyn R-6 Campus! We were extremely lucky to have Jon Madin and his wacky instruments visit our campus over two days Tuesday, 18th June and Wednesday, 19th June. He ran magical workshops filled with fantastical instruments like “ding boxes”, “echo cellos”, “musical bicycles”, “throw-able percussion” and “giant xylophones”, called Marimbas.

The Year 3-6’s made music with their whole bodies, not just their hands. During the workshops each class learned two songs each. Songs like The Blue Danube, We Will Rock You, Shortnin’ Bread, Macarena, Play that Song, Pachelbel’s canon and many more.

Tuesday’s classes were lucky enough to perform in front of the whole school, which was a total buzz! It was amazing seeing the whole school dance the Macarena. After the workshops here’s what some of your children were saying:

That was amazing!
I want to learn the violin
I want a musical bike for my birthday
I want an echo cello
Can he come back next year?
Can we make those ding boxes?
We want to raise money to buy marimbas for the music room

And we said - ”yes please!!”

A big thankyou to everyone who helped move the instruments, to the parents who watched the performance, and an ENORMOUS THANK YOU to the students who were respectful, professional and totally engaged in music making!

Off to Camp with Room 1!

Upper primary is currently off on camp! We have spent the term learning all about the evolution of our planet, ecosystems and how animals (including humans) have adapted to their environments and Arbury Park camp is a brilliant way to start to close our unit of work. We have been enjoying all sorts of brilliant activities including a web of life game and a bonfire with Dreaming stories! As the camp continues we will learn more about caring for our environment and then hopefully implement something that we have learnt back at school, to make a change that helps our local area.

Bush Day with Room 9

On the Thursday, 20th June Room 9 headed to Ashbourne Campus to be involved in Bush Day. Students from Ashbourne Campus welcomed us with open arms and taught us a range of activities. Students really enjoyed the mud kitchen and creating trenches to guide water to a holding lake. Orienteering was a huge hit. Students had to navigate their way around Ashbourne Campus to find clues that made a word. This was a great mapping exercise and the kids really enjoyed it. Rope climbing was one of Room 9’s favourite activities. We had a camp fire and played lots of games. All the kids were really engaged in their learning and the day.

NAIDOC Week Thursday, 4th July

On Thursday, July 4th, Eastern Fleurieu School 7-12 Campus hosted its very first NAIDOC Week Celebration in partnership with Alexandrina Council. NAIDOC Week celebrations are held across Australia each July to celebrate the history, culture and achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

The purpose of the day was to immerse students in the celebration of Aboriginal and Torres Strait culture and to show our support for the Aboriginal and Torres Strait community of Strathalbyn.

The morning began with a ceremonial flag raising and Welcome to Country by Courtney Heatherman, before a welcoming speech by Mayor Keith Parkes.

Across the day, more than 600 students from Years 3-7 were transported to the 7-12 campus where they engaged in a variety of activities, workshops, stations, games and even virtual reality Dreamtime stories, all of which were organised by Ms. Turpin and her amazing team of student volunteers. Students also had the opportunity to meet Peramangk Elder, Mandy Brown, and experience the process of making Coolamon.

During an extended lunch break, we were fortunate enough to have David Booth and his troupe perform for the students with a demonstration of traditional dance and music. On the other side of the courts, Mr. Tarling and his student muso’s did a fantastic job with their live performances.

With our NAIDOC celebration being a community event, we were delighted to host members of the Strathalbyn community, including the Strathalbyn Children’s Centre and Tyndale students who were interested in participating in the day.

The celebration was a tremendous success, and feedback has been overwhelmingly positive from staff, students, parents and the community! To have all of our Year 7-12 students attend the Welcome to Country, and all of our Year 3, 4, 5 and 6 students from all of our campuses getting a chance to participate in the celebration, was something truly special to witness, and further strengthened our school community and inclusive culture.

A huge thank you to Ms. Turpin who was integral in the planning and development of the day, organised all of the fantastic workstations for the kids to engage with, produced a documentary with her students for public viewing, and transformed the Performing Arts Centre into a wonderful venue with the help of some seriously dedicated students. The fact that these workstations were run by student volunteers, spoke volumes of their commitment and leadership. They represented our school wonderfully and the community were truly impressed by what they saw.

Thank you to Ms. Broadbent for her involvement in the preparation and planning of the day and for organising the amazing food with the help of Ms. Stevens, Ms. Gale, Ms. Duval and Ms. Willsmore and some wonderful R-12 students. The morning tea (which soon became afternoon tea given how much food was prepared) was amazing!

Thank you to Mr. Tarling for arranging the student performances! It was great to have a variety of entertainment at lunch, and once again, 7-12 students seriously delivered.

Thank you to Ms. Cameron from R-6, Mandy Brown, Courtney Heatherman and Deb Drake from Life without Barriers! Your contributions and support prior to, and on the day itself, were greatly appreciated!

Finally, a big thank you to Anna Schmidt and the Alexandrina Council for their support in hosting the event. Their support and contributions made the day a resounding success!

Foxy’s Farewell

The last day of Term 2 Friday, 5th July, saw the final run of Eastern Fleurieu School’s (EFS) Treutler Rd bus.

Ian Fox was the regular driver since he commenced work at EFS as groundsman at the Strathalbyn 7-12 Campus. When Ian retired as groundsman, he continued to drive the little yellow school bus.

Such an occasion cannot go unheralded, so some staff members decorated Bus 1491 to farewell it and make the day more memorable for Ian. Balloons and streamers were used to ‘wrap’ the bus and block Ian’s entry for the final run.

Ian could not quite believe his eyes as he rode into the carpark on his ‘trusty treadly’. With a grin from ear to ear, he circled the bus, obviously moved, and appreciative of the sterling effort.

A family of 3 boys who travelled with Ian, gave a gift, thanking him for delivering them safely to and from school each day.

Ian will continue to do relief driving when needed but won’t miss the twice daily, five days a week, 10 week a term commitment!

Pedal Prix

Thanks to everyone who came out to support Eastern Fleurieu Racing on Sunday at Victoria Park.

Our Junior Team Barracuda came 36th out of 68 in their category (and 132nd out of 172 carts overall) with 102 laps and one rollover. Tom pushed out the fastest lap in 2:19 on lap 41. Great work Tom!

Our Senior Team Fast and Fleurieu came 60th overall (out of 172), and 30th in their category. They managed 132 laps, with Harry stunning the field on lap 27 doing it in 1:56. No rolls, but a few scrapes from other carts.

Rob (2) from Chopping Board Catering broke all records by feeding 60 Eastern Fleurieu Racing team members and supporters throughout the day without a break! Thanks to Maidments Meats and The Old Market Shed too! And Thanks Rob (2).

Rob (1) and Harry get full credits for ensuring the bikes were trouble free on the day, and arrived looking slick and shining. Hours of design and preparation paid off!

Planning for the 24 hour race is now underway.

Music Tour

On Wednesday, 31st July 100 music students from Eastern Fleurieu School boarded buses to travel to Meadows and Macclesfield Primary Schools to perform to their students. We had a wonderful day presenting performances from our three ensembles; Concert Band, Vocal Ensemble and Performing Arts Group. Particular highlights of the day were hearing students and staff sing along to the Concert Band’s rendition of ‘The Best of Queen’ medley, the performance of Adele’s ‘Set Fire to The Rain’ by the Vocal Ensemble and the very strong performance of Guy Sebastian’s ‘Battle Scars’ by the Performing Arts Group.

Our day tour ended with a performance to Eastern Fleurieu students at the Performing Arts Centre. Both staff and students had a very positive experience sharing the joy of The Arts with neighbouring schools.

Gymnastics at the Ashbourne Hall

Ashbourne Clay Art

Acacia Class - Culture Projects

I did a project with Cameron and Tyron, we chose Egypt. We learnt lots of stuff about Egypt like there are big pyramids and a lot of desert. – Nate B

I did a project on China, I learnt that they eat cats and dogs and frog legs. China celebrates Chinese New Year in late January. The traditional clothing is cool and has lots of colour. - Coyote

I worked with Hayden on my Vietnam project. It took us a few weeks to finish. I learnt that Vietnam catch a lot of fish to eat. Their flag is red with a yellow star. The five points on the star represents the 5 working groups in Vietnam. - Graeme

I worked with Edward, Michael and Zeb. I learnt that the weather in Russia is cold and snowy. They eat soups and stews and their flag is white, blue and red. – Charlie B

I worked with Maya and we did a project on Africa. We learnt a lot of stuff about what eat and about the animals that live Africa. - Scarlett

Hakea Class - Time

We have been learning about time. Last week we made clocks to help us learn.

We made a clock so I can tell the time and when I need to go to bed. Time helps me to know when it’s breakfast, lunch and dinner time. - Seth

The clock I made helps me tell the time. So when I know when to go to sleep and when it’s time to eat my food. - Oliver

I made a clock to help me tell the time. It helps me to learn how to tell the time. Then when I need to go somewhere, like a concert, I won’t be late. - Eliza

It’s fun to tell the time. We need to know when to go to bed. We got to make these clocks. - Caleb

Bush School with Guest Speaker Darcy Whittaker

Koalas Class Excursion

A class excursion was organised to explore the environment in relation to the history, geography and local significance of places along Lake Alexandrina. The Koalas wrote an account of the excursion.

A special thanks to Jane for driving the bus and also Jo and Nat for their help on the day.

Here are a few brief recounts from Year 2 students:

On Wednesday, 3rd July our class, Scarlett’s mum and Kate’s mum went on an excursion. Our class went on that excursion for History and Geography. First we went to Milang and had our fruit. Next, our class went to Point Sturt and we had recess. And finally we went to Clayton Bay and went fishing. Then we had lunch. I had so much fun. – Peggy

On the Wednesday, 3rd July the Koalas went to Milang, Point Sturt and Clayton Bay. First we went to Milang for our fruit and we went for a walk. The class had a little look at the shacks and it was a pretty sight. Then we went to Point Sturt. Then we went to Clayton Bay to have lunch. After that we went back to school. – Scarlett

Yesterday the Koalas’ class went to Milang, Point Sturt and Clayton Bay. First the class went to Milang for fruit and recess. Jane walked us to the old shacks. After that the class had a look at the Snipe Sanctuary. From there the class walked to the trains. At Clayton Bay the class had lunch and Emma and I went to the playground. We had a muffin and then went fake fishing. Then we drove back to school. – Lexi

Reading with our Possum Buddies!

The Kangaroos love shared reading with our little buddies, Miss Tilley’s Reception and Year 1 Possums! Most Thursdays we have the opportunity for our classes to get together and read aloud some favourite picture books from the library, bringing the stories to life and using some of our comprehension strategies to predict and make connections.

Ava and I read There’s a Snake in my School, by David Walliams and Enormouse, by Rebecca Gerlings. I liked Ava’s predictions because she thought about it really well and then she shared her ideas with me. Ava and I giggled at the illustrations and we loved the books. I liked reading with Ava because she listened the whole time. – Zerah

Aidan and I read the story One Keen Koala, by Margaret Wild. We made some predictions and we talked about the meaning of some new words. I like reading with the Possums because they can learn new things, like words, and because I just enjoy it! Aidan enjoyed the book. – Rachael

My reading buddy was Jazmine. The story we read together was Yobbos Do Yoga. I asked Jazmine to make some predictions about what the story might be about and to use the illustrations for clues. We both read some pages and I was really impressed with her reading. We rated the book 7/10. I like reading with the younger kids because I want to be a teacher when I’m older. – Charli

Liam and I read the story Mopoke, by Philip Bunting. Before we started, we predicted what we thought might happen…Liam thought Mopoke would go on a journey. Afterwards, we talked about all of the funny illustrations- Liam liked the Afro-poke and I liked the Posh-poke! It was fun. – Ella

Sophie and I read the story Do Not Lick This Book. I enjoyed reading to Sophie because I love reading and she listened really well. – Maggie

My reading buddy was Damien. The stories we read together were called The Koala Who Could and We are All Equal. Damien thought that the illustrations were cool. I like reading with our buddies because they have funny predictions and they can read the books really well. – Mack

Term 2 Touch Rugby at Langhorne Creek

During last term, each Tuesday for 6 weeks, we were lucky to participate in learning how to play Touch Rugby. Our instructor was Sarah. Over the first couple of lessons, we learnt backwards ball passing skills and we played a lot of small group games to help develop our speed and accuracy. After we learnt the most important rules of the touch rugby, we played a game. I think it was great and a good experience for us all, it was awesome! – Ella

Learning touch rugby was a lot of fun! One of the rules was that you can only pass backwards; it was very hard to remember at first. Some other rules included, you cannot drop the ball, you only have 6 touches to score a goal, and when you score a goal you have to put the ball down. I really enjoyed playing the touch footy games once we had practised and doing some other ball games, especially the passing games. I thought that the easiest rule would probably be having to put the ball down when you score a goal. – Molly

We learnt that you cannot throw the ball forwards; otherwise you give the opposition the ball. The last two weeks of learning touch rugby we played against each other in our class. I scored a touchdown in the first game. My favourite part was scoring a touchdown. It was the best six weeks ever! - Edie

Subject Expo

The Langhorne Creek Years 6 students were fortunate enough to go to the Subject Expo at the 7-12 campus. We had a chance to have a look around and pick up some pamphlets that we were interested in. We then moved to the sewing room where Mr Blair and Mrs Sims talked to us about SAPSASA and being organised for your different subjects on different days. They also informed us about the PE uniform and house points. The ways you can get house points in by being in full school uniform, being kind, picking up rubbish in the schoolyard and more. Overall, it was a great opportunity to be able to go to the 7-12 campus and we all thoroughly enjoyed it. - Maddy

Cockatoos Classroom

Maths

For our Maths lessons, we have been learning all about ‘money’ and ‘time’ and our literacy learning has continued to focus on being able to recognise sounds and blends to work out new words. In the photos you can see the children involved in sorting their words from the Words Their Way Spelling Program into different groups. This involves being able to recognise the blends and letter sounds within words and then selecting the words that go together.

Science

Our Science program has also been off to a flying start with the 50th Anniversary of the Moon Landing setting the theme for our learning about Space. Our initial learning focused on finding out what the children already knew about Space and the knowledge they shared was both impressive and inspiring. Following a discussion about the surface of the moon, the children painted their own moons with a mixture of flour and white paint and used a bottle top to make craters.

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Miss Charlotte had been reading “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” with the students at Milang and on her last day they enjoyed making their own chocolate bars, and of course eating them afterwards!!

How far is a kilometre?

In Maths last Milang students investigated perimeter and area. During discussions we wondered how far a kilometre would be for us to walk. On the last day of term we used trundle wheels to measure our walk around the block the school is located. Before we started our measurement walk, we estimated how many laps of the block we would have to walk. We discovered that we needed to walk around the block twice to reach one kilometre.

I found out that a kilometre is a lot longer than I thought it was. - Bailey

I thought once around the school would be a kilometre. It wasn’t. - Sarah

Fair Day Fundraiser

Ella and Isla from Milang organised a Fair Day to raise some money for some new sports equipment last term. They wrote to the Milang Bakery and Milang Mini Mart to ask for their help. At recess they had hot-chocolate and lucky dip. At lunch time they had a sausage sizzle and popcorn for sale. Thank you to Ella and Isla’s mum’s for cooking the sausages. We raised $148.90. We also had a casual day and shared lunch on the last day of school and continued with the lucky dips. We decided to put that gold coin donation towards the sports equipment too. This day raised $57.60.

Strathalbyn R-6 Our New Classrooms!

It has been so wonderful to start Term 3 in our new classrooms and our students have been enjoying the beginnings of our latest nature play space. This work will continue over the next months with a fence, mud kitchen and plantings to go in.

The unit is also being transformed into an inquiry play space, full of learning provocation activities to inspire, challenge, allowing students to be curious and creative within their learning. All classes in Junior Primary will be able to access these spaces. Exciting times….

100 Days at School Celebration

Langhorne Creek

We counted the first 100 days of school. The last day of Term 2 was the 100th day and we dressed up like we were 100!

I would like 100 lambs but I would not like 100 sheep. – Damien
I would like 100 Pollys but I would not like 100 yaks. – Millie
I would like 100 sharks but I would not like 100 sheep. – Liam
I would like 100 4WDs but I would not like 100 fish. – Angus
I would like 100 snakes but I would not like 100 porcupines. – Sam
I would like 100 puppies but I would not like 100 snakes. – Lexi
I would like 100 rainbows but I would not like 100 snakes. – Darcey
I would like 100 pieces of gold but I would not like 100 sharks. – Oliver
I would like 100 puppies but I would not like 100 snakes. – Ava
I would like 100 sharks but I would not like 100 snakes. – Hudson
I would like 100 huntsmen but I would not like 100 stingrays. – Aidan
I would like 100 monster trucks but I would not like 100 spiders. - Rupert

Strathalbyn

The Reception Classes celebrated 100 Days of School on the very last day of Term 2. The children had been recording the number of days they had been at school each morning using a tens frame to record this information. They have enjoyed being involved in the count down and became quite excited for our 100 Day celebration.

On the 100th day the children had an opportunity to take a photo with our ‘Photo Booth’ holding up a sign and using props to celebrate this great milestone. Rooms 20, 21, 22 and 23 moved around to each class in groups and participated in 100 Days celebration activities including making a crown, using 100 Planks to create something, using 100 cups to stack up and completing a number puzzle. The children also got to make a 100 Days Placemat where they collected ten of each food treats for their placemat which they were able to later eat! They collected 10 m&m’s, 10 Fruit Loops, 10 NutriGrain, 10 Popcorns, 10 Skittles, 10 Choc Chips, 10 Cheerios, 10 mini marshmallows, 10 sultanas, and 10 Cheese and Bacon Balls.

The children were super excited and had an amazing day celebrating!

Moving into our New Classroom 30!

On the first day of this term it was very exciting to move into our new classroom. We used be to Room 22 and we are now Room 30. We all think it is great.

Here are some of the student’s comments:

I like the new board and new carpet. – Marisa
We have got a door to go into Penny’s. – Maddie
I like the new sink. – Miller
The new blinds are good. – Parker
The lights are cool. – Tayla
The view to the oval is really good. – Fraser
The power points are so cool. - Connor

Bees Wax Wraps with Room 27 and Room 4

With our buddy class Room 4 we have been learning about Reducing, Reusing and Recycling products and materials. We learnt that it is most important to firstly try to reduce what we use, for example buying chips in a big bag and bringing them to school in a container rather than buying a packet with lots of little packets in it. It is also important to reuse things for example washing a jar out and using it to store pantry items. We learnt that recycling is the last part of the process. Instead of throwing out our unwanted clothes we turned them into Beeswax wraps. We have been using our Beeswax wraps in our lunchboxes to reduce our soft plastic usage.

We learnt that if you buy a fast fashion $4 T-shirt, there is a greater cost. There is a true cost when you take in to account production and disposal. One striking fact is that according to World Wildlife Fund for Nature, it takes 2,700 litres of water to make one cotton T-shirt, that’s enough for one person to drink for 900 days. Australians are currently disposing of 6,000 kilograms or 6Tonnes of fashion and textile waste every 10 minutes in Australia. The students were shocked!

Clothes

1. Wear them
2. Bin

OR

1. Wear them
2. Rags, op shop, beeswax wraps (100% cotton)

You put the beeswax onto the cotton and put it in the oven. You can use them instead of using plastic. – Violet

Beeswax wraps can help us to reduce our waste. – Tara

We brought cotton tea towels, sheets and clothes to school and made beeswax wraps with them. – Charlotte

You can reuse beeswax wraps. - Nate

SAPSASA Basketball

On Wednesday, 7th August our Year 4 and Year 5 boys and girls represented Eastern Fleurieu School at the SAPSASA basketball at Morphett Vale stadium. The girls showed no signs of faulting throughout the day, being the unstoppable force in the Division 1 competition going undefeated to claim the shield. Congratulations to Peyton, Isla, Darcie, Poppy, Tilly, Mia, Lucy, Riley and coach Andrew.

The boys had a tougher day out, finishing 3rd in the Division 1 competition. Showing some great skills and team play throughout the day. Well done to Sam, Ben, Jasper, Aiden, James, Jai, Darcy and coach Craig. A big thank you to Caitlin, Alyssa, Mitchell and Tom for umpiring throughout the day and also to Mr K for organising the teams. Great job everyone!

Small Campus STEM Day

What a great day we all had at Langhorne Creek for our small campus STEM Day.

Everyone had clearly spent a great deal of time and effort developing their inquiry questions before undertaking some detailed and informative research. From here students used their knowledge of design thinking to develop plans and models for their solutions to their problems.

Research and problems covered a broad range of topics including:

• What makes the best 'rocket' engine?
• Natural disasters and their effects.
• How can we stop food waste?
• What shape is more aerodynamic - a X or Y
• How can we better use renewable energy?
• Flash Floods in Bull Creek, how to reduce the damage?
• If you had to parachute from a plane should your parachute by triangular, circular or rectangular? Do the shapes influence how the parachute falls or glides?
• What happens in Forest Fires?
• How does the number of wheels influence the effectiveness of a lunar rover?
• Should you have independent motors for each wheel on a lunar rover seeing you can't get RAA road service? What are the pros and cons?
• Why do we use transport?
• Millipedes.
• How can we save possums?
• Can we make a package to protect our biscuits when they are sent through the post?
• Design and build a ship that includes simple machines to make the job of a sailor easier.
• How can you flood proof your home?
• Should we rely on the CFS for sandbags or should we alter our house plans?
• Fight for The Bight, ensuring the Great Australian Bight survives.
• How does composting work?
• How can the use of floodgates in vineyards be used to reduce the flood risk in our homes?
• Oil spills in Mexico.

Students should be commended on their presentations as well as the manner in which they listened to their peers and their research findings. Whilst time was at a premium it was great to see and hear everyone sharing their ideas. In looking ahead to the future it is clear that we need to investigate options to explore and extend how students share their learning.

Besides their sharing session, students also had the opportunity to participate in two challenge activities:

1. General outdoor challenges and activities with Mr Rofe and his Year 11 Outdoor Education Class with help from Mr Koutsikas.
2. Independent STEM discovery challenge with Mr Bilney in the library.

Two things were clear - students thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to mix and engage with others from the smaller campuses and secondly, given enough equipment and a few ideas, students can develop some amazing solutions to design briefs / problems.

Special thanks must go to all the students involved along with their class teachers and campus staff. Without everyone's creativity, collaboration and communication the day would not have been successful.

Ashbourne

Our STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics) focus enabled students to choose a topic of personal interest to explore in depth and then apply this knowledge creatively to real world situations. The photos below capture the wide range of topics and ideas. Congratulations to all students on their hard work over several weeks; they demonstrated commitment, creativity and genuine citizenship.

Langhorne Creek

Our recent STEM Day was a great success with students presenting their learning and interacting with their peers from Ashbourne and Milang. The projects certainly created a buzz and proven to be a catalyst for further learning activities. Special thanks to our parent helpers who provided us with a great lunch and Miss Tilley for her rockets at the end.

Milang

Mr Bilney has 3D printed our Makers Empire designed ships. We were able to share both our pop stick ships and 3D printed ships to the other campuses at our STEM day at Langhorne Creek.

Book Week at the R-6 Campuses

Ashbourne

Book Week has been fun, engaging and most importantly an opportunity to reflect on the value of reading and books. We’ve all spent time considering how books are our “super powers” and how our lives are richer through engaging in books to experience others thoughts, ideas and knowledge.

“Reading can be a road to freedom or a key to a secret garden, which, if tended, will transform all of life.”
― Katherine Paterson

Langhorne Creek

Possums

We read Chalk Boy. It was about a man called Barnaby who drew a boy made out of chalk. The chalk boy would wash away in the rain and was lonely so Barnaby made him a friend. We made our own chalk characters. Aren’t they cool! - Sophie

Koalas

With Mrs Hopkins we read a book called Jeremy and drew a picture of him. The book is illustrated by Danny Snell. The book is about a little kookaburra that fell out of a tree and the cat brought it inside and the little girl looked after it for a while. Jeremy grew up to be a big kookaburra and then flew away.

Danny Snell came in for Book Week. His is an illustrator and author and he wrote Bilby Moon, Seagull, Jeremy, Ozzie Goes to School, Somewhere In Australia and also lots more books. - Maggie, Edie, Emma and Molly

Milang

Last Tuesday, 20th August was lots of fun as everyone arrived at school dressed up as their favourite book character. We had fairies with sparkly wings, two Snow Whites, a Darth Vader and ‘Gekko’ and ‘Catboy’ from PJ Masks. Bob the Builder came along just in case we needed to fix anything and ‘Billie B’ and ‘Matilda‘ also joined us for the day. We had to keep an eye on the three ‘Where’s Wally’ characters to make sure they didn’t get lost in the crowd!

In the morning, the Junior Primary class participated in some art and craft activities which the Upper Primary class organised. The Upper Primary children did such an amazing job of keeping everyone occupied and the Junior Primary children loved being able to take home their finished project.

Strathalbyn

As we celebrated ‘Reading is our Superhero’ for Book Week, with our visiting author Danny Snell, we continued sharing the wonder of books, the ability of a story to take you away to another land, fulfil a dream or make you laugh. Once again, parents did an outstanding job of supporting students with dress ups for our parade, I think the costumes just get better and better every year.

Danny Snell Visit

Ashbourne

Over the next month Students will be completing their Premier’s Reading Challenge and Book Week is a great motivator to seek out new and interesting books. Last Friday we met illustrator Danny Snell which was a unique opportunity to understand the process of illustrating a book and how to build and develop these skills. Appreciating the many career paths we have within our community helps to inspire students to nurture and build their own capabilities.

From Danny Snell’s website

What advice would you give to an aspiring illustrator? Keep drawing. Drawing is such a fundamental part of being an illustrator. It’s how you develop and communicate your ideas. It also teaches us to slow down and observe the world around us - which is so important these days.
Danny Snell.

Langhorne Creek

Book week saw the students engaged in a number of special activities to promote literacy and creativity including a parade, special guest illustrator and author, Danny Snell, talking to the campus about the process he undertakes when illustrating a story and mixed Reception - Year 6 groups each afternoon which was great to observe.

Milang

On Thursday of Book week Jane Jolly and Danny Snell visited us and the students enjoyed hearing the story of “Seagull” and watched as Danny painted the Seagull in front of the class.

Campus Advisory Committee (CAC) Report

Our Winter Solstice raffle was drawn during Week 5 Assembly and all our lucky recipients were very pleased with their prizes. CAC are delighted to be able to once again provide funding for all students at the Ashbourne campus to attend school camp. This is made possible by the fundraising efforts carried out throughout the year. On behalf of CAC, we would like to thank the school community (staff, students, families and the wider community) for their ongoing support.

Matt Bruer Natural Disasters talk to Acacia Class

Matt came to our class and talked about his experiences in Ash Wednesday in 1983. He told us about two people who very nearly died in the fires. They managed to save themselves by running into a dam and burning off the surrounding grass. Matt explained how quickly the fire spread around Ashbourne and how a Fire Tornado developed. - Barnaby

Mini-beasts around Ashbourne

On our Bush School days Hakea students have been focusing on different types of mini-beasts, especially the ones we can find around our campus. We created colourful backdrops to display our nature insect creations.

Bush School- Kindy Visit

On Wednesday, 7th August we welcomed the Strathalbyn Outreach Kindy (Burkett Drive) for a visit. The wild weather added to the thrill and excitement! The Ashbourne students lead the kindy kids through a number of activities, including an animal tour, mud play, shelter building, nature craft and teamwork games. The Possum and Koala kindy groups will also be visiting Bush School next term.

Koalas Tennis Coaching

The students had their first Tennis lesson which was enjoyed by all.

Visit from Andrew Joyner

Our class was fortunate enough to have a visit from the amazing Andrew Joyner, who is an illustrator of multiple books that you can borrow at any library. He talked about his new book ‘The Horse Museum’ which is written by the world renowned author Dr. Seuss. Andrew was contacted by an American publisher who asked him to illustrate the book. What an amazing opportunity! Andrew did some drawings with us and it was awesome. He showed us how to draw a horse, baby and an elephant and we think our class are impeccable drawers. We are very grateful for this opportunity and we wish Andy all the best when he goes to America for the book launch in September. - Montanna and Kelsey

Bees

As part of our study for the theme of 'Bees' for the Langhorne Creek Writers Festival, we went to Alfred Langhorne Park with our local environmentalist, Linley Cleggett. We looked at the bees in the flowers down there and learnt a lot about bees. It was fun and interesting. - Jack

Snow Success by Jazz

A few weeks ago I went to Falls Creek to compete in South Australian Interschool in Snowboarding and Skiing. I was also in a team with Grace from Ashbourne in snowboarding and our team came 1st, and in my single snowboarding I came 2nd coming after Grace. In skiing I came 4th by 1 second, but I was still lucky enough to qualify for Nationals at Mount Buller competing against other states. I also qualified for Nationals in snowboarding and my snowboard team as well. - Jazz

Convict Boy

Milang Upper Primary students are enjoying the unit of work on the First Fleet, and have made convict files to store our work this term. Our current class novel is Tom Appleby Convict Boy by Jackie French which we read every day. We have made predictions about what we think is going to happen next in the novel and are eager to see what happens next and compare it to our predictions.

Maths with Ms Diepgrond

Ms Diepgrond the R-6 Numeracy Coach has visited the Milang Upper Primary students twice to work with on the area model of multiplication. We have been practicing the model in-between Ms Diepgrond’s visits and have been working on some difficult problems. The hardest problem we have tackled so far was suggested by Romany, 67693 x 75892. Working together we determined the answer to be five billion, one hundred and thirty seven million, three hundred and fifty seven thousand, one hundred and fifty six. Unfortunately we couldn’t check our answer on the school calculators because it was too large! We find stretching our brains satisfying and we are proud of what we are achieving.

Oil Painting at Milang

This term we are studying the artwork of Vincent Van Gogh. In particular we have been analysing his paintings of sunflowers. On black cardboard we have created our own version of sunflowers in a vase, using oil pastels. We have now started work on a sunflower mural that the whole class is contributing to. We are excited to see how the pieces are coming together. It’s like creating a large puzzle.

Lawn Bowls

In Term 3 the Milang students will be learning how to play Lawn Bowls. We were lucky enough to get a Sporting Grant which supplies the equipment and coaching sessions for four weeks. The students really enjoyed their first lesson last Friday.

Celebrating SSO Week at Strathalbyn R-6

Now to some real superheros…

This week we celebrate our SSO staff. Not all heroes wear capes, in fact, at school they wear all sorts of outfits. This is a tribute to all our unsung heroes that leaders, teachers and students are always and forever thankful for.

Our Front office team – the heartbeat of our school, the phone call answerers, the band aid givers, the ice pack providers, the finance fixers, the minute typers, the Book Club sorters, the apple givers…. often all at the same time!

Our Classroom Support team – our on the ground angels, always there to support any student that needs that little bit extra, be it with learning, behaviour, intervention, self-regulation, resources, a shoulder to cry on or a side hug to comfort.

Our Groundsman Super Steve – keeping our site safe and tidy, mowing, sweeping, whipper snippering, the retriever of the balls on the roof, the keeper of the tap tops.

Our Canteen chefs – the endless muffins, cheese and vegemite scrolls, pizza slices, super lunch specials and litter free lunches…. NOW WITH EFTPOS.

Our Cleaners – they sneak in on the cold early mornings and as darkness falls, scrubbing, washing, spraying, vacuuming all the messes that you could imagine and even some that you can’t.

Our IT wonder – you can hear the cry, ‘Where’s Matt’ as the internet crashes and in he comes to save the moment, the laptops singing, the keyboards ringing, the network zinging as smoothly as can be.

On behalf of our whole school community we thank you so much for all you bring to in our school.

STEAM Day at Strathalbyn R-6!

Congratulations to our students who demonstrated their impressive skills and learnings, as part of our Community STEAM celebration day. Thank you to all the families who visited. We appreciate your interest and support. STEAM is a cross-disciplinary approach aimed at providing students with the opportunity to use their knowledge of the curriculum subjects – technologies, mathematics, art and science to inspire them to WONDER, IMAGINE, LEARN and CREATE.

STEAM Day with Room 26

Room 26 had such a fabulous Community Day! We had grandparents, parents and friends help us to design and create baskets made from natural and recycled materials. We will be visiting the South Australian Museum to see examples of Aboriginal basket weaving and we can’t wait!

STEAM Day with Room 12

Wednesday, 14th August saw a transformation of our classroom from semi organised, to organised chaos. We had 6 separate stations set up for our budding young scientists to take part in.

The activities ranged from cup stacking, without being able to touch the cups. Students used rubber bands to stack up and stack down their cups, some with great success, others, well let’s just say there was some cleaning up to do. We experimented with vegetable oil in warm water, adding in food colouring to watch the explosion of colours, we showed off four designs - making prowess on Makers Empire, creating our very own key rings to be 3D printed. The highlight according to our class was the Zooper Dooper Cooler experiment, where students had to use a range of materials as insulators to try and stop their Zooper Dooper from melting. The best part of course was the taste test at the end of the day.

We had a terrific band of parent and family supporters who thoroughly added to the fun and excitement of the day. Thanks to all who were involved. We are still cleaning up!

How to make a toolbox

Over Term 2 Susie, Aaron and Team, (Aaron Martin Construction), worked with Room 21 to make each child their own toolbox. Aaron had precut all wood pieces for each child and they enjoyed nailing it together.

At the end of term the kids painted them and were so proud of their final product. Thanks Aaron Martin Construction, you made 23 children very happy!

Periscopes with Room 8

Today we made periscopes to test looking around corners without poking your head around. Periscopes are used by submarines to stay under water and look around. This week we have been looking at how light travels and the terms ‘refraction’, ‘opaque’, ‘transparent’ and ‘translucent’. Refraction is where it makes an object look bigger and a spoon for example look double and bendy. Opaque is where you can’t see light through an object like a piece of cardboard. Transparent is where you can see light coming straight through and object like paper. Finally, translucent is where you can only see some light through an object like bubble wrap. We have learned so much with Craig who is our student teacher. - Hugh

Today our class did an experiment making periscopes. Using just paper and cardboard, we made our own. We’ve been learning about light and how it reflects making a reflection. The light comes through the hole on the side and reflects on the mirror. The mirror is at an angle so we can see around corners, up and down and all around. In the First World War they would use periscopes (in the trenches) to see where their enemies were. Submarines use them too. Light is every colour – red, blue, yellow – all of them. Light travels in straight beams and can be blocked easily. - Jessica

Today we made periscopes in groups of two. My partner was Hannah. The reason we are making periscopes is because we’re learning about light and all the cool things it can do like…. it travels in straight lines but when it hits a reflective surface it changes direction. We had to cut the stencil out and stick it onto cardboard. Then we cut that out and stuck the parts together. The next step was to stick the mirror on with sticky tape. We went outside to test them out and that was really cool. At the end, we had to take the mirror out because it belonged to the school. - Gemma

Room 21’s Deep Learning

In Term 3 Mrs Pitt is implementing Deep Learning. We are exploring the big idea ‘living things are connected’. We have planted herbs in pots and will make sure we meet the needs of each plant. Later in the term we will be visiting The Adelaide Zoo.

Off to Arbury Park with Room 3

Late last term the Strathalbyn Upper Primary students camped out at Arbury Park Outdoor School and what an experience it was! So well organised with relevant activities that tied in with learning around sustainability and the food was great.

The weather was kind and students had the opportunity to partake in activities such as bush walks, Indigenous Australian art and craft and learning bush survival skills such as mapping. One of the highlights was the campfire experience where Trent treated us to dreamtime stories, fire making with sticks and learning about tools and weapons that have been used by Indigenous Australians for thousands of years.

There was always something to do for students and teachers, leaving not much in the tank at the end of the day. As a result, heads made pillows 9.30pm-10.00pm on both nights. Absolute bliss!

The Acacia Class

We have been very busy in the Acacia class over the last few weeks. There has been lots of great learning and many fun things happening. The Acacia students have decided to share some of their favourite things that they have done over the past few weeks.

We have been doing the Premier’s Be Active Challenge. The challenge is where we spend a lot of time being active and it is similar to the Reading Challenge but with exercise. We are recording our activity in a book, each day we are doing at least 60 minutes. On Bush School days we do over 300 minutes of physical activity! - Scarlett

During an Art lesson, we did a portrait of ourselves and made them into caricatures which are cartoon versions of us. – Coyote

They all looked really funny. My caricature has a big head and small body. Everyone cut out their caricatures and we glued them together as a class. - Hudson

In Maths we have been learning about volume. I built this shape from ones and tens blocks. I worked out that the volume of this shape is 448 centimetres cubed. – Nate B

In Technology lessons we have been 3D printing. I have made a light green military tank. I built the tank with many different small and big pieces on Makers Empire. – Charlie M

I have been working really hard with Tony during my Quick Smart Maths sessions. Everyone has been trying their best to beat their high scores. I have bet my high score once. Quick Smart is helping me to improve on my times table skills. - Graeme

This term in Art we have been making Junk Sculptures. Judah, Graeme and I have made a seagull out of bottle top lids. We named the seagull Dorothy because of its red feet. Our biggest challenge was that the wings kept turning and the lids would fall off. We are still working on fixing this. - Evie

My dad, Tony came to talk about living near volcanos in Papua New Guinea. He was an aviator and as a 14 year old boy he would fly with his father over mildly active volcanos. Dad mentioned how whole communities would have to move in the wake of lava flow and how the coastline of small islands was expanding due to lava flowing into the coastal sea and cooling, forming new coastline. - Oscar

In Technology we went on Makers Empire and designed playground equipment. We then turned this into 3D printing. I did a monster chair with hands that you can climb and you can climb inside its stomach and the hatch closes. – Charlie B

On the Community Breakfast day, we bought our fathers to school for some bacon, eggs and pancakes. We went up to the oval to play a game of camouflage, I was lucky that my dad could come because he was leaving for work the day afterwards. My dad had an awesome time at school for breakfast. – Nate S

In Week 8 we did a narrative writing task where we had to plan a short story and write it out on the computer. It’s really exciting and great to be writing narratives again. In our health lessons we randomly chose a food out of a hat. We then had to research the nutritional benefits, shelf life and facts about the food and make a poster about it. - Judah

On Bush School days I have been working on a hut. My hut is made of dead sticks, leaves and bushes. My hut can hold up to 3 people in it. It has taken me 4 Bush School days to make. - Henry

We have been doing some planting around the school over the last couple of weeks. On Monday we planted sunflowers up in the garden by the scarecrows. Hopefully they grow really big. - Zack

On Bush School days we have been focusing on fauna. I chose a cow as my animal to study. We have been drawing and labelling the parts of our animals whilst observing them in their natural habitat. We each created a scientific drawing. I have learnt that cows have two tiny hoofs on the back of their feet. - Barnaby

Bush School

Last Thursday we welcomed Cathy Hunt’s Langhorne Creek Koalas class to join us in Bush School activities.

Langhorne Creek Zoo Excursion

Possums

On Thursday, 5th September our class went to the Adelaide Zoo for an excursion. We took the bus to the zoo. Our driver was Jane.

When we got to the zoo we ate our fruit. Then we went to the Education Centre to meet Sally. Sally told us all about habitats. We had to build a habitat for a skink called Boris. Our habitat needed food, water, shelter and enrichment. We also got to see the other animals in the Education Centre and we got to feel their fur. After we walked around the Children’s Zoo and saw goats, alpacas, quokkas, chickens and met Mr Raven who kept trying to steal our food.

After recess, we saw the sea lions getting fed. Then we walked around the zoo and saw many other animals. We also saw the giraffe in his big home. If you looked carefully, you can see the giraffe through the window. We named him Gerald.

We had lunch and watched a bird show. The zoo keepers had food in their hands and the birds flew from one zoo keeper to the other zoo keeper. They flew so low we thought they might land on us!

After lunch, we went to the pandas, monkeys and the reptile house. Then we got back on the bus and drove back to school. We had a really fun time going to the zoo and we hope we can go back another time – The Possums

I enjoyed having recess on the balcony in the Children’s Zoo. – Rupert
I liked seeing the skink lizard, meerkats, crocodiles and Gerald. – Sam
I liked seeing the crocodiles. – Oliver
I liked seeing the snakes because they couldn’t see us and they were different colours. – Hudson
I liked the giraffe because we were really lucky seeing him. - Sophie

Koalas

We were very fortunate to be able to sleep over at the zoo. Additionally, adding to our luck, we had the zoo to ourselves for exploring after public viewing hours.

It was a fantastic experience, one that we will always remember. The animals are well cared for by the zoo staff. We all enjoyed watching the sea lions and Sumatran tiger being fed.

We would like to share our highlights of our zoo encounter, in particular, our favourite animals.

My favourite animal is the fennec fox. It was asleep in the day as it’s a nocturnal animal. – Maisy
I liked the Emperor Tamarin as it sticks its tongue out when it feels threatened. – Kate
I liked the sea lions as they were playing and splashing in the water. – Peggy
I liked the sea lions; Tasko and Addie. Addie was good at doing tricks. When Tasko was resting he came up close to me and he was really cute. – Lexi
My favourite animal is the penguin because the colours on their body are blue and white. They live in cold places. The penguins are in the Children’s’ Zoo. – Kohde
My favourite animal is the spotted hyena. I like its spots. At the zoo, I saw it lying down underneath a big boulder and it was sleeping. - Harry

Kangaroos

On Thursday, 29th and Friday, 30th August our class went to the Adelaide Zoo for a sleepover. We had an incredible time and were fortunate to enjoy many different experiences. With our scientific cap on, we observed the behaviours of the Australian Sea Lion, Giant Panda and the Little Blue Penguin during their feeding times. We noted their varying behaviours (eg preening, vocalising, basking, swimming, walking etc) and how their enclosures resemble their natural habitats. We used the map of the zoo for orienteering and had the privilege of an early morning and evening walk with our education officer. Here are some of our reflections:

My favourite part was the Fairy Penguins, it was so much fun. My animal I researched was a Red Panda. Did you know Red Pandas live in eastern Himalayas? - Keely

I really enjoyed doing the night and morning walk. I have been studying the Meerkat. Did you know that they mostly eat insects? But they also eat fruit, birds and even poisonous scorpions! - Gemma

I thought the zoo was really cool and lots of fun. I loved looking at all of the animals play. I enjoyed the night walk and the morning walk the most. In class, I learnt about the Aldabra Tortoise. This tortoise is one of the largest species on Earth. They were found around 250 million years ago. - McKenzie

My favourite part of the Zoo Snooze was watching the Lions being fed and the night walk. The night walk was excellent because we got to see wild possums and nocturnal animals. - Zerah

The animal I researched was the Giant Panda. Did you know that Wang Wang loves bubble baths, all Giant Pandas around the world belong to China and Wang Wang and Funi are fed apples, pears, Panda Cakes and carrots for treats! - Emma

Langhorne Creek Hotshots!

We are really enjoying learning ‘Hotshots’ tennis skills each Tuesday with Tony.

We all enjoy playing tennis at school during our play breaks. Here are some photos of us in action learning new skills and techniques to become great tennis players!

In my photo, I am bouncing the ball on my racquet to count how many I can bounce before dropping the ball. I have counted over 60 hits! I enjoy doing these tennis lessons with Tony and I’ve learnt a lot! - Gemma

For the last 3 weeks we have been doing tennis training and we have had a lot of fun. I have learnt to do the backhand and the forehand hit. I’ve learnt to serve as well. To warm up, we do certain types of hits, like bouncing the ball on the racquet without it falling off. It has been so much fun, thank you Tony- our coach. - Keely

Tony told us to make a loop with the racquet in the air as we make a hit. In my photo, I’m hitting a forehand to Kohde. - Mack

Emus Bush School at Ashbourne

In Week 6 we were lucky enough to go to Bush School at Ashbourne. The weather was perfect and it was a great day. The activities were lots of fun and it was great to see our friends at Ashbourne and join in with them. The best bit was playing deer and cougars where the adults joined in and had to catch us. We really appreciate Ashbourne for letting us come. - Imi

Emus Warradale Camp

We were lucky enough to go on school camp to Adelaide. We stayed at Warradale Urban Campsite. The first thing we did was go to a tennis clinic at Memorial Drive which was great. Then we went to the Maritime Museum for a First Fleet lesson which was very interesting and we went on a boat cruise around Port River. We tried to spot dolphins but we didn’t see any. Then we went to buy food for the three days. We broke up in to small groups and were responsible to purchase different foods. We had a barbecue for tea and that was really yummy!

The next day, we caught the train to Adelaide and had an art lesson at the Art Gallery of South Australia. We did self-portraits. Then we caught the bus to Greenhill Road and did the Tree Climb which was super adventurous (and scary!) The last activity for the day was going to the Apple store and doing movie trailers on the iPads. This was such a cool experience. We went back to Warradale and went to Fasta Pasta for tea. YUM!

On our last day we toured the fire station in the city with Lucy’s dad who is a fireman there. There was so much to see. Then went to the Botanical Gardens and wandered around, looking at all of the interesting plants with Linley who is a volunteer there. On the way home we stopped at our local bakery called Small World Bakery and made delicious, healthy pizzas. - Emily

The whole camp was a great learning experience and so much fun! - Tyrone

Keen Cookers

At Langhorne Creek Campus we are extremely fortunate to have a wonderfully supportive group of parents who support and help out in many ways. One of the wonderful programs is the Keen Cookers group, these mums come into the campus and work with groups of students to prepare and cook delicious healthy treats for all to sample. Some of the ingredients are donated by families or grown in the school garden. Thanks to our wonderful parent helpers.

What’s happening in the Junior Primary Cockatoo’s Classroom at Milang

As part of our literacy rotations, the children are involved in hands-on activities designed to give them an opportunity to experiment with familiar sounds to make words. One of the activities the children love is using magnetic letters and in the photos you can see how they have made words to match the pictures. This helps the children to understand the relationship between letter sounds and blends and gives them the confidence to transfer this knowledge to other areas of learning such as writing and reading. Book making is another activity which the children really enjoy and this gives them the freedom to choose how their book will unfold. As ‘authors’ they can decide on the type of book they write, the content within and how the book is presented. Book making also gives them the opportunity to practise using concepts of writing such as punctuation and grammar.

What’s happening in the Upper Primary at Milang

Our collaborative art work based on Vincent Van Gogh’s sunflowers is finished! We are pleased with the way our colourful drawings came together, and we enjoyed creating a large piece of striking class artwork. The artwork will be on display at the art exhibition during the Spring Concert in Week 10. We are looking forward to sharing it with our families and the Milang community.

Heroes and Villains Musical Showcase

On Wednesday, 4th September the Eastern Fleurieu School Performing Arts Group presented their Heroes and Villains concert to audiences in matinee and evening shows at the 7-12 Performing Arts Centre. This group is made up of students from Strathalbyn R-6, Milang and Langhorne Creek Campuses and comprises of students in Year 5 and Year 6. Compared by students from Strathalbyn R-6 and Milang, the performance featured an amazing choir of 70, various soloists, 2 dance troupes, and an instrumental group.

This group of dedicated students have been rehearsing with Ashleigh Tarling, Natalie Baker, and Suzanne Minards (Langhorne Creek) for these performances since Term 1 and have put in a tremendous amount of effort. Many of our students gave up recess and lunch times for extra rehearsals, attended an extended evening boot camp rehearsal, performed in a local tour and the dance troupes met for two extended rehearsals in the July school holidays. We are so pleased with the direction of the Performing Arts Group in 2019 and thank students, parents and staff for embracing this change.

The evening opened with our Feature Dance troupe entering the dark stage and participating in a choreographed battle to Imperial March from Star Wars complete with glowing light sabers. Another favourite from the evening was Warriors by Imagine Dragons featuring our choir and Feature Dancers. This performance told the story of a young girl who struggled with bullies at school. With the help of a school yard hero, we discover that everyone has a role to play in school-yard bullying. Be Prepared from the Lion King opened the second act of our show. Madi was extremely impressive as the villain of the story, Scar, and was well supported by her pack of hyenas (particularly Levi, Charlotte and Zinta who played Benzai, Shanzei and Ed). Audiences enjoyed other songs such as Battlescars by Guy Sebastian, Titanium by Sia and David Guetta and Kryptonite by 3 Doors Down, featuring Addison, Gemma and Sharli. The evening closed with a lively rendition of Holding Out For a Hero by Bonnie.

Thank you so much to Akeyla, Ellorah and Caity for providing entertainment both before the show and in the interval, and to the Celebration Committee and Campus Advisory Committee for providing refreshments.

We were very excited to share our new concept for choir and were very impressed with the positive feedback we received.

Milang Choir Students

Milang choir kids are from left to right, Kobie, Katelyn, Romany, Sarah, Dahla and Laqushia. These students have been making the trip to Strathalbyn R-6 campus every fortnight with Mrs Cook to rehearse for their choir performance. Mrs Cook, Mrs Jolley, Grace and Donna enjoyed watching the performance on the Wednesday, 4th September at the 7-12 campus. They all did a great job, and Kobie and Romany were terrific comperes. Well done everyone.

Cedric Varcoe Visit with Room 9

On Tuesday, 3rd of September Room 9 were lucky enough to have Cedric Varcoe visit and share his art and knowledge with us. Cedric is an Aboriginal Artist from the Fleurieu Peninsula. He began his session with an Aboriginal Dream time story, which captivated the class. Cedric then discussed how all symbols in Aboriginal Art tell a story. The students, with Cedric’s support created their own Aboriginal Art pieces as well as a class mural.

Mayor’s Short Story Competition

On Wednesday, 4th of September shortlisted participates, Campbell, Kody and Leah were invited to the presentation evening for the Mayor’s Short Story Competition. This is run annually and allows schools from the Alexandrina Council, Victor Harbor Council and Yankalilla Council regions to enter a Narrative piece of writing. There were 1010 entries this year with 500 of them coming from the Alexandrina Council Region. Campbell and Kody from Room 9 and Leah from Room 2 were shortlisted. The presentation evening was held at the Goolwa Library and saw all shortlisted applicants attending. There were 4 categories, R-2, Year 3-4, Year 5-7 and Year 8-9. For each council region there were 4 shortlisted applicants per categories, with one overall winner per categories.

There was also one overall winner for each council region. Leah was the overall winner for her Year 5-7 categories as well as the overall winner for the Alexandrina Council entries. Congratulations to Campbell and Kody for being shortlisted and huge congratulations to Leah for an amazing achievement of overall winner for the Alexandrina Council entries!

Visiting Monarto Zoo with Room 14

YUM YUM YUM! Did you know that Chimpanzees eat their own poo? On Friday, 16th July Room 10 and Room 14 went on an excursion to Monarto Zoo. We went on a tour around the zoo and it was really interesting to learn about and see all the animals such as: antelope, Mongolian horses, rhinos, meerkats, giraffes, lions, cheetahs, very cute emu chicks, ostriches, Tasmanian devils, hyenas, African wild dogs (African painted dog) and chimpanzees, eating their poo!

We visited Monarto Zoo because we have been learning about Africa. We learnt that Rhinos are endangered because their horns are worth a lot of money. Some people think their horns have magic powers, but they don’t, they are only made of something called keratin (which is the same as our hair and finger nails).

When we visited the chimpanzees it was really exciting because lots of them were fighting. The Alpha male was putting on a show, rubbing a rock on the floor, making lots of noise and showing that he was the boss.

As well as the tour we also went on a rhino enquiry, acting like rangers, we had to look for clues to see if there had been any poachers trying to kill the rhinos for their horns. We walked around the natural habitat and found some clues like: rhino poop, rubbings on trees, footprints, a campsite where the poachers had been staying and small bullets from the poachers trying to get the rhino horns.

We also learnt that the white and black rhinos got their names because the Afrikaans called the white rhino the ‘wide’ rhino because of its wide lip but when English settlers came, it sounded like ‘white’ to them, and the opposite to white is black!

We had lots of fun and we would love to visit again.

Strathalbyn R-6 Sports Day

After a postponement due to bad weather the Strathalbyn R-6 Campus Sports Day went ahead on Thursday, 26th October under perfect conditions. The campus oval and grounds was in perfect condition thanks to the tireless work of Steve Blackeby our groundsman.

This year was my first year back at the helm after missing last year and it was such a thrill to be part of what I think is the best day on the school calendar (slightly bias). I was assisted by a terrific Sports Day committee of Jo Garwood, Zara Lewis and Darcy Springhall. We added in some fresh and exciting new events which received really positive feedback and we will use into the future. These events were the Junior Primary giant blow up obstacle course, a volleyball station run by 7-12 volleyball students and the sponge relays.

Students assembled out on the courts in the morning for our Health Hustle which was choreographed by the amazing Mrs Tarling and the War Cries. Classes moved through their events scoring as many points as possible for their teams which followed into an after lunch program which featured Sprints, Whole School Relay, Tug of War and Spoke Relay.

The House Captains this year were outstanding in organising their teams at the start of the day and during the after lunch program.

After the day of positive and exciting competition the results finished as:

1st Davidson (Red)
2nd Dawson (Blue)
3rd McLean (Green)
4th Rankine (Yellow)

I must say a massive thankyou to Lisa Bird who provided wonderful coffees throughout the day and the Parents club for running a cake stall. Sharon in the canteen provided terrific lunches and the 7-12 Volleyball students ran a delicious barbecue.

It was wonderful to see so many parents out supporting the day.

Sustainability with Room 1

In Room 1 we have been looking at sustainability and caring for our Earth. Did you know that if everyone on Earth lived like Australians, we would need 3.6 Earths to sustain life... which we clearly don't have. Recently we have been looking at whether Mars is a viable option for Plan B but we would rather save the planet. We recognised that clothing waste is a HUGE problem in Australia, we are the second largest consumers of clothing in the world and on average each person consumes about 27kg of new clothing each year! Global clothing production has doubled in the past 15 years, with garments on average being worn much less and discarded quicker than ever before.

So we thought we better do something... we collected all of the clothes and textiles that weren't being used at home and decided to re-purpose them into something new! We made pillows, scrunchies, costumes, and handbags... all sorts! It took lots of planning and designing but we are so proud of our finished pieces, which we are hoping to sell and raise some money at a later date.

Less waste, more life!

We won a drone!

Since Term 1 students in years 3-6 at Strathalbyn R-6 have been taking part in the Commissioner's Digital Challenge which involved students completing at least four different digital challenges over three terms. Challenges involved students creating their own games in Scratch, creating monsters with Python and hands on programming with Microbits. After submitting records of completion along with a short testimonial from Sam in Room 13 we've managed to win a programmable camera drone for the school.

A wonderful reward for all of the students' hard work this year.

Choose how to add this event to your calendar:

Apple Calendar iPhone, iPad, Mac - Download .ics file

Outlook Desktop Outlook - Download .ics file

Android Calendar Android devices - Download .ics file

Other Calendar Google Calendar, Yahoo, etc. - Download .ics file

Download Event