Welcome to Country

We acknowledge Aboriginal people as the First People and Nations of the lands and waters we live and work upon and pay respects to Elders past, present and emerging. We acknowledge and pay respect to both the Warki People of the Ngarrindjeri Nation and to the Peramangk People as the traditional owners of the land we share our R-12 School on today. We acknowledge and respect the deep spiritual connection and the relationship that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have to Country.

About the R-6 Magazine Cover Design

The design is all campuses from Eastern Fleurieu R-12 School, the 5 circles represent the campuses. The first two symbols represent Strathalbyn R-6 and 7-12 with meeting place symbols in the green. I picked the meeting place as Strathalbyn as it was known to be a place of meeting where the Peramangk people would trade with other tribes. Following the dotted lines white and the blue represents the school colours. The dots connect each campus together uniting us as one. Langhorne Creek represents the vines in the region. Then we head down to Milang where we have Lake Alexandrina and finish up at Ashbourne with the hills and flowing between is the Angus River.

About the Artist... Shaan Broadbent

My heritage is the Iwaidja people, and my family are from the Muran Mob up in Arnhem Land. I come from a diverse family, my brother and I growing up in Darwin with my Aboriginal Dad and my non-Aboriginal Mum, spending lots of time on the land. In my early years mum moved us to South Australia in the Adelaide Hills the lands of the Peramangk people. This is now where I have spent most of my life. I love working with First Nation students and I paint and design as a hobby.

School Captains for 2022

Ashbourne

Congratulations to our 2022 School Captains: Michaela and Haley!

Langhorne Creek

School Captains: Joshua, Molly and Gemma

Vice Captains: Ollie and Marley

Their roles with include:

• Host assembly
• Welcome and thank guests
• Run kids teaching kids
• Role models
• Peer mediators

Milang

During Week 6 three of our Year 6 students spoke to the rest of the school about why they would make a good school captain. They used their best persuasive techniques to convince their audience. Students then voted for their choice of Captain. Congratulations to Erin and Natasha who were elected captains for 2022. Vice Captains are Alea and Carly.

Strathalbyn

It was wonderful to have over 20 applications for the role of school captain this year and the quality of the speeches was outstanding.

This year we really focussed on applicants connecting to our Character competency. Speakers identified personal strengths, examples of how they had exhibited these strengths, elements for improvement and 2 things they would like to see improved at school. Toilet paper, having a clean big kids slide and taking care of our school environment rated highly across the speakers.

Our School Leadership Team for 2022 are:

Captains – Elena and Lily
Vice Captains – Jacob and Lacey

Lacey, Lily, Elena, Jacob and Mr Kent

House Captains for 2022

Ashbourne

Well done to our House Captains for 2022: Michaela, Haley and Hayden.

Their roles will be to encourage students, teams, warm up, war cry and the winning team presentation and Spirit Cup.

Langhorne Creek

Finniss: Harry and Riley
Bremer: Thomas
Angas: Adam

Role of House Captain:

• Lead sports day
• Do the team chants
• Help the little kids
• Make a speech at the end of sports day

Milang

Finniss: Kayla and Dakota
Bremer: Carly and Tayah
Angas: Alea and Opal

The House Captains lead their teams on Sports Day and accept the winner’s trophy.

Strathalbyn

Davidson -

Captains: Quba and Eva
Vice Captains: Boyd and Theo

Dawson -

Captains: Charlotte and Callen
Vice Captains: Destiny and Poppy

McLean -

Captains: Ariah and Rowan
Vice Captains: Kodi and Maddison

Rankine -

Captains: Lauren and Bethany
Vice Captains: Sam and Jake

The House Captains will work with Mr K this year to plan and organise Sports Day. They will create War Cries, run relay practices and lead team meetings.

Being Kind with the Koalas

We have had a busy first 2 weeks of school in the Koala classroom. We have been learning how to be kind to ourselves through growth mindsets, mindfulness and gratitude. We have learnt how to be kind to others by using friendly behaviours, listening when others are talking and making strong choices. We have learnt we need to be kind to our environment through cleaning our classroom, yard and treating resources with respect.

Home Learning

Langhorne Creek

Kangaroos Hybrid Learning

The beginning of our 2022 school year has been a little different to previous ones. In the Kangaroos class students have been learning both at home and at school. While not all students have physically attended Langhorne Creek Campus, all students have been participating in the same lessons online with support from their families.

In class, students have enjoyed getting to know each other and reconnecting with friends. Today in maths, we have been learning about number and place value. The Year 2s worked exceptionally well placing 2-digit numbers on a number line; the Year 3s were exploring tens and numbers up to 99; and the Year 4s have been comparing and ordering numbers. It has been fantastic to see the class show collaboration, persistence and enthusiasm towards their learning.

Emus Home and at School Learning

We have enjoyed learning in a very different way. We have had a few people in class and we have been doing Zoom calls to our friends at home. We read one of the ‘Our Australia Girl’ books together so people at home could listen. We have done a lot of work on Google Classroom. It has been fun to see everyone. - Emma

Strathalbyn

Room 1 Flag Designs

Room 1 has started the year off online learning! Despite the challenges, the students have done a brilliant job engaging with learning and current events. They did a particularly brilliant job at researching all about the Aboriginal flag and its history considering recent events making it available for use. Here is what they found out and some of their own designs for new flags!

Sahara:

Who designed the flag?
Harold Thomas

What is the history of the flag?

The flag is a symbol of Aboriginal strength, representing Aboriginal people and their ongoing spiritual connection to the land.

Who or what does the flag represent?

The black symbolises Aboriginal people. The yellow represents the sun, the constant re-newer of life. Red depicts the earth and peoples' relationship to the land.

Are there any rules for flying the flag?

Raise the flag briskly and lower it ceremoniously.

Do not raise the flag earlier than first light or lower the flag later than dusk.

When the flag is raised or lowered or is carried in a parade or review, everyone present should be silent and face the flag and people in uniform should salute.

Mia:

When and why do we fly the flag (significant dates)?

July 1971 the Aboriginal flag was first flown. We fly the flag to show respect for the Aboriginal people.

Welcome to Room 4

What an interesting start to 2022 for our Year 6 students in Room 4, as they start their last year of primary school. All students and their teacher have showed Character, Creativity and Critical Thinking skills to support each other either learning from home or learning online at school. Some students even balanced both!

We have enjoyed a daily Zoom call, to catch up and connect. We have loved extending our usual interactions to meet various pets and siblings along the way.

Work tasks have been set, completed and handed in digitally, reinforcing key 21st century learning skills. With amazing family support for all, students have completed the 2 weeks and we are all super excited to start back face to face classroom learning. Bring on an exciting year!

Milang Upper Primary Outdoor Art with Mrs Cook

Students in the Upper Primary class both at home and school are focusing their Art this term on ‘Who we are and where we belong’. Through describing and discussing ideas and techniques used in other’s artwork they are then creating their own pieces. They looked at an Indigenous rock painting found on Gwion Gwion country in Western Australia. They were then set the task of trying to make their own paint using only natural materials (plants, sticks and rocks). This proved more difficult than they imagined, but after persisting were able to make many shades of brown and green which they used to paint a sketch of their own houses.

Ready to Learn Scales with Milang

The Junior Primary class made their own ‘Ready to learn’ scales this week. At the start of each day and after break time students put their named peg along the scale to indicate if they are ‘ready to learn’. This way they can indicate to the teacher if something has happened during the break that they need to talk about or if they are feeling tired and not ready to learn. Students then use strategies, such as having a drink of water, talking to an adult, 5 minutes of mindfulness to get themselves back on track. This self- directed awareness of how they are feeling has been shown to improve their ability to concentrate on the learning task. Each student designed their own scale and as a class they have voted for the one to be used this year.

Welcome to Team 21

Team 21 have had an enjoyable and busy first 2 weeks building relationships and getting to know one another.

In the first week we discussed about how to be a bucket filler and collaborated on six class promises that we would try our very best to follow. The students decided on three whole class rewards together and have already achieved one reward by being fantastic bucket fillers and following our promises!

In our second week the students worked on their perseverance skills and watched a short film called Soar. Together they problem solved and built kites to soar through the sky.

To finish off our second week, each student worked on their learning goals for Term 1 in maths and literacy.

Welcome to Room 13

In what we all know has been an interesting start to 2022, the Year 4 team have worked closely together to deliver a quality program to those students who returned to school and to those learning from home. Time spent getting to know one another looked a little different this year with a lot of our whole class connection done over Zoom meetings. However, our students showed incredible character and patience and will only become more resilient learners as time goes by.

We focussed a lot on creativity, with students at school showing off their ability to create artwork, stories and tell their life story through different mediums. Whilst students at home delivered topic talks via Zoom on their pets, special belongings, and a few fancy dress competitions which we all enjoyed tuning in for.

A huge shout out must go to the parents and carers of the students for persisting with home learning and juggling work and school commitments. I think we have made a great start to our learning for this year and can't wait to get everyone back together and commence our journey together.

Stick Insects with the Koalas

We have been busy in our Koala classroom learning about sounds, rhyme and syllables. We have been working on our number skills and learning lots of fun new maths games. Our living things deep learning unit has begun with a schoolyard safari and the introduction of our new classroom pet – a giant leafy stick insect. We have a one year old, a baby one and some eggs to look at the life cycle and see how living things can grow, as well as what they need to survive. We are all very excited to have them in our classroom and watch them grow.

Character with the Kangaroos

In the Kangaroos class, we have been further developing our Character. We are learning to deep learn, to keep trying, to have integrity, empathy, and compassion, and to always be a learner!

This week, we have been recognising our own, and each other’s, special qualities or ‘gifts’.

The gifts that we have identified in ourselves, and each other, are the good qualities that we all possess. It’s important to recognise our qualities and to help others to develop these qualities too.

These are some of the great qualities that our class share: We are kind, funny, responsible, good thinkers, brave, calm, patient, gentle, friendly, honest, creative, helpful, artistic and considerate.

My gifts include being kind, honest, creative, funny, helpful, calm and brave. I know I am kind because I enjoy helping people. - Lexi

I am helpful, funny, energetic, creative and very brave. I am creative because I like drawing, designing things and colouring. - Angus

I am honest, calm, kind, creative, funny and brave. I know I am creative because I am good at drawing, using creative ideas and making things. - Darcey

My gifts include being athletic, kind, funny, brave, a good thinker, responsible and honest. - Regan

My gifts are that I am kind, helpful, a good thinker, calm, funny and brave. I am kind because if someone is hurt or upset I will help them to feel better. These are our awesome Character Gifts posters! - Sam

Kangaroos Lighthouses

In history we have been learning about the significance and importance of lighthouses and how technology has changed over time. We drew these lighthouses in art. - Marley

Kangaroos Goldminers

We are reading the 'Our Australia Girl' series as our class novel. We recently finished 'Meet Poppy’ which was set around the gold rush time. It is a great series and we thoroughly enjoyed reading it. We then drew these gold miners. - Harry

Connecting with our Country

At Milang we have been learning how to connect with our country. We have collected things we found on our country and used our senses to see, hear, feel and touch our country. Today we 'tasted' our country! Mrs M brought in some bush tucker that had been collected from around the south coast. We learnt about the plants and how they can be used. The 'muntries' seemed to be a favourite - they tasted a bit like a spicy apple!

Maths at Milang

In our maths lessons, we have started learning about patterns. We are learning that a pattern is the same thing repeated over and over again. We have also been learning to 'crack the code' and work out the missing pieces of a pattern. Today we went for a walk outside with our clipboards and paper to record all the patterns we could see around us. We found lots of different patterns such as the pavers, the chain-link fence, galvanised iron and the brickwork on the edge of the old building.

Students have also started learning about number lines and used giant cards to order numbers 1-10. They also started learning about telling the time on an analogue clock but making a circle out of 60 counters to represent 60 minutes.

International Women’s Day

International Women's Day held on Tuesday, 8th March is a global day celebrating the social, economic, cultural, and political achievements of women. The day also marks a call to action for accelerating women's equality.

At Strathalbyn many classes took the opportunity as part of learning programs to learn more, recognise and celebrate women that, throughout history have made a difference. Many older students were surprised at past injustices and restrictions that were in place that discriminated against women ie not being able to vote.

It was heart-warming to see many of Room 13’s Year 4 students recognise their mum’s as the most important and inspirational women in their lives.

HASS in Room 9

In HASS this term we have been studying the history of the Olympic Games, both Summer and Winter. We watched some of the 2022 Winter Games in Beijing and were amazed by the talent of the athletes. As a class we posed some questions that we wanted to investigate. Then we asked our older buddies in Mrs Ds room to help us investigate and learn more about researching. We have put our information on a power point slide to present to the class later and look forward to the next part of our learning which is pinning the journey of the Olympic torch through China.

Team 28 Update!

Well, what a start to the year it has been!

A big focus in Term 1 has been looking at the Global Competencies of Character and Collaboration. Character is being responsible for our behaviour and taking charge of our learning. It is also about integrity and doing the right thing even when no one is looking. This has been very challenging but our Character is becoming stronger and more positive. We have been earning badges for our Character traits. Collaboration is about working together and taking responsibility for our part of the group and to be respectful to all of our group members. We made human figures out of natural materials in Tungaree Gardens. We had to work together to create these figures. Again this was challenging in having to share ideas and work together. We can also earn badges for Collaboration.

Free Writing in Room 3

There's been a lot going on in Room 3, and one of those things is called 'free write'. Free writing reduces expectations of perfection, increases creativity and inspiration, uncovers thoughts and ideas you never knew you had, and the ability to continue with past writing pieces with no deadline has been a winner. We write three times a week for 20 minutes and at the end of the fortnight students publish their favourite piece which is then sent home via Seesaw. Before they are published, we conduct reading and listening sessions to pick up on errors and do some self-editing.

The genre or text type is chosen by the writer. Here's a snippet from a narrative that has had me on the edge of my seat.

"There’s a dreadful scream and the shadow disappears out of sight. Still terrified, I go to my door with a sharp pencil as it's all I have to defend myself. I open the door but there's no sign of anything, there's absolutely nothing there. I figured I was just dreaming the whole thing so I settle myself with a few deep breaths."

Room 20 are Reaching for the Stars

In our first weeks of school, we started a Quality Start program. In this time, we got to know each other, discussed bucket filling, and collaborated to create class rules and expectations that we will try our best to follow.

In HASS we have been learning about our personal histories and the different celebration traditions each family has. We have begun looking at our family and who is in our family.

In maths the students have been busy learning about patterns. Have a look at the different patterns we’ve created!

We have begun our InitiaLit program. Our first storybook of the program was ‘How to Catch a Star’. We looked at what happened in the book, vocabulary and connected the text to our self, other texts, and the world. We created a rocket ship, reaching to catch the stars.

Welcome to Room 11

We have made a great start to the year! We have been busy setting up our classroom, including writing poem and drawing self-portraits. Check out our happy faces!

Small Campus Sports Day

Ashbourne

Monday, 21st March was our annual Small Campus Sports Day, it was hosted by Milang this year. All the students demonstrated excellent sportsman ship, resilience and persistence. They completed each activity to the best of their ability and I could see so many smiles and hear a lot of laughter throughout the day. Well done to all the students involved in the day from the three campuses. Congratulations to Angus for taking out the Spirit Cup and to Finniss for winning in total points.

Langhorne Creek

On Monday, 21st March it was our Sports Day. My team is Bremer and we lost! The events were the high jump, AFL, shotput, sack race, sponge relay, sprints and hurdles. I loved the AFL event because I like it when we all kicked a goal. I kicked lots of goals! I enjoyed it when we ran through the sprinkler. The Tug of War was fun because the parents versed the Year 6s. Angas won the Spirit Cup. - Sam

I’m in Finniss and we won the shield and Angas won the Spirit cup. I enjoyed the shot put and the sack race. The Tug of War was so much fun but we lost a few times. We have won the shield 2 years in a row, so great win Finniss! - Angus

My favourite 2 events were the high jump and the Tug of War. My team won the Spirit cup because everyone was trying hard and cheering other people on. - Khiyaden

My favourite events were the high jump and the champion race. In the high jump I jumped really high and I ran really fast. I enjoyed just being there with my team. It was a ton of fun! - Regan

I am in team Bremer. My favourite events were pulling the rope [Tug of War] and the sack race. I had fun with Jane. I got a Spirit Cup token for trying very hard in all of the events. - Lilly

My favourite event was the sponge relay. We also did the high jump, and many different events, then at the end we did the Tug of War. - Millie

Milang

For Harmony Day this year Ashbourne, Milang and Langhorne Creek held their Sports Day! In the true spirit of harmony and inclusiveness there was excellent participation by all students from all campuses. Teams worked hard to earn points for their teams in long jump, shot put, hurdles, high jump and sack races. This year saw a new event ‘The Champion Sprints’ take place with the two fastest students from each campus and each year level race in front of a very supportive crowd! At the end of the day the winner of the Spirit Cup for being great sports throughout the day was Angas and the Sports Day shield was won by Finniss. Thanks to the AFL for running the footy skills program and the local churches for making the lunch wraps sponsored by the Milang MEC (Milang Environmental Centre) who purchased the ingredients.

Life Cycles in the Hakea Class

In Hakea class we have been learning about the life cycle of plants. Over the past few weeks we have been exploring plants in our school, looking at their features and putting them in categories. Last week we planted sunflower seeds in cotton wool. The students discussed what a plant needs to grow. The students have been excited to see their seeds sprout and begin to grow. They have been watching the growth of the roots and have been fascinated to watch the changes in their new plant. As they get bigger we will transfer them into soil and watch our sunflowers get bigger and produce a flower.

Harmony Day

Langhorne Creek

We celebrated Harmony Day on Friday of Week 8.

Students came along in splashes of orange and enjoyed a picnic lunch on the oval.

What does Harmony Day mean to the students of Langhorne Creek Campus?

• Everyone is friends. - Esther
• Celebrating differences. - Frankie
• Love everyone. - Mardi
• Respecting everyone. - Lincoln
• Helping everybody. - Eli
• We care for everyone. - Indie
• A world without war means a peaceful and happy world without harm. - Regan
• A world without racism means peace and everyone would get along. All cultures would be treated fairly and spread kindness. - Rupert
• Everyone getting along. - Jett
• Spreading our kindness around the world. - Josh
• All people coming together. - Nate
• Everyone being happy. - Tommy

Milang

Harmony day for the Upper Primary involved exploring the connections we have with others in relation to family groups, activities and interests we share and how we can encourage equality and fairness in our lives for everyone in our society.

Strathalbyn

Banners of orange, orange hair, shirts, faces and food, we love to celebrate Harmony Day!

Harmony Day celebrates Australian multiculturalism, and the successful integration of migrants into Australia’s community. Australia is one of the most successful multicultural countries in the world and we should celebrate this and work to maintain it. Harmony Day is about inclusiveness, respect and belonging for all Australians, regardless of cultural or linguistic background, united by a set of core Australian values. Harmony week runs from Monday 21st-Sunday 27th, the 21st is the United Nations International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (adopted in 1965 and entered into force in 1969).

Stick Insects at Langhorne Creek

We have had exciting learning happening in our Koala classroom, with two new baby stick insects hatching. We have been doing lots of learning on how to be a good friend in our kind koala classroom. This is focussed on saying and doing kind things. We have learnt how it is hard to unwrinkle a heart when unkind things have been said. We made a mind map of ways to be a good friend and have it hanging up as a reminder. This links well with our collaboration global competency.

Milang Year 6 Citizenship Program

Each year our Year 6s work with Mrs Cook on a Citizenship program. In Term 1 they are tasked with contributing to the campus and this year the 10 Year 6s chose to upgrade the nature play area and fix the mud kitchen. After a few hot afternoons working outside they have added some supports to the mud kitchen and repainted the top as well as building a river system in the nature play area. This has sparked a renewed interest in playing in both of these areas of the school.

Year 6 Jumpers

Milang

Our Year 6’s were very excited to receive their jumpers this week, they look really great, and just in time for some cooler weather!

Strathalbyn

It was wonderful to have our first assembly for the year out on the asphalt, to see all our students smiling faces together and have a sense of normal. Our Year 6 students were looking particularly sharp; we surprised them before assembly with their Year 6 Jumpers and Ariah, Olivia and Miss Russo shared the meaning behind our artwork this year. Shaan Broadbent (ACEO/artist) created our design capturing our five campuses and the lakes, hills, vines and rivers that connect as we ‘Walk Together’ each day.

Let’s Spell-It in Room 6!

Room 6 have been working hard in their 'Spell-It' each morning. We have been revising the spelling of the sounds in the English language and been putting our words into sentences with conjunctions and exciting adjectives.

I like to write my sentences. - Matthew

I like being able to write cool sentences and I can make then funny and write about my axolotl Dwayne. – Mason

I like writing using words with the sounds. - Zahli

Team 25 Update

Team 25 have had a wonderful start to the year. The students have been learning about the Deep Learning competencies of Collaboration and Character. They are working hard at developing skills to work together as a team. This has included activities such as working together in maths to create structures using MAB blocks then calculating how many hundreds, tens and ones were used.

We have also been enjoying our Wednesday afternoon sessions with our Year 4 buddy class.

Last week the students learnt more about their buddies by completing portraits of each other. The Year 1s have also been doing some fabulous reading to their buddies.

On Friday’s, Team 25 have been enjoying learning about the water cycle with Mrs Baker and currently have some experiments in the classroom that they are observing and investigating over time.

SAPSASA Swimming Update

On Thursday, 24th March 9 R-6 students represented our school at the Southern Fleurieu SAPSASA Swimming Carnival held at the Strathalbyn Pool.

Even though it was the smallest team we have ever brought due to the current climate and circumstances, these students were so grateful for some "normality" and an opportunity to represent their school. Out of the 9 students 3 (Jack, Ainsley and Jypsi) were selected for the Southern Fleurieu District Team. 5 students placed 4th or higher in their events.

SAPSASA Softball

In Week 11 of Term 2 students from our R-6 Campuses at Eastern Fleurieu School represented Southern Fleurieu in the State Softball Carnival at West Beach. Several of these players had not played softball before and thoroughly enjoyed the experience. They all learnt a lot and improved every game. The boys team won most of their games, finishing fourth. The girls team went through undefeated which was fantastic. It was great to have other students play in our team from Mount Compass and Upper South East too.

It was really fun – Gemma
It was a great experience – Molly
I really enjoyed it – Harry
It was good meeting new people – Ollie

EFS representatives

Back Row L-R: Jack, Harry, Molly, Ollie, Jayden, Lachlan,
Front Row L-R: Braden, Gemma, Quba
Absent in photo: Eva, Poppy, Thomas
A special thank you to Grace from 7-12 Campus for helping to coach over the three days.

Kyeema Excursion with Ashbourne

At the end of Term 1, we enjoyed an excursion to Kyeema Conservation Park as part of our Bush School. Our focus was birds, on the excursion the students were able to see a variety of birds that they had learnt about over Term 1. We all enjoyed the hike through Kyeema and finished the day there with a fun game of camouflage. Darcy Whittaker led us on our hike and supported the spotting of the birds with his expertise.

Hakea Class

Hakea class has had a fun filled start to Term 2, learning a lot of new things. Our focus for Science this term is force, push and pull. On Monday the students experimented making ramps and roads to investigate push and pull.

The students are learning about patterns in maths, we went for a walk around the school grounds and found patterns. They then made their own patterns outside from natural materials, including leaves, twigs, rocks, gum nots and bark.

The students love Art and always create amazing art work. This term we are focusing on paint as our medium, acrylic and water colour. The students sketched and painted a koala and last week they painted autumn trees.

End of Term 1 at Alfred Langhorne Park

On the final day of Term 1 Student Representative Council organised a casual clothes day and sausage sizzle at Alfred Langhorne Park. We collected more than $150 on the day for the Hutt Street Centre for the homeless people doing it tough.

Whilst at Alfred Langhorne Park we played games and listened to Daniel and Mrs Cameron play their guitars and sing.

We also had a special visit from Linley Cleggett who told us about Alfred Langhorne Park and the many different plants that are growing in the park.

‘What is it made of?’ with the Koalas

In our Koala classroom we have started our new inquiry topic of ‘what is it made of?’ This is a science and HASS topic that is linked with chemical science and the past. We have had fun exploring different materials and how they feel. Our global competency this term is based around character and resilience. Our resilience wall has been set up with emotions that we can show on our journey of resilience. We have looked at stories and thought about times we have been resilient. Our resilience trackers are up and running to track how resilience we are throughout the day.

Kangaroos - Messages of Love to Mums

The Kangaroos were busy making beautiful gifts for their Mum’s on Mother’s Day. Students made fabulous exploding gift boxes and decorated gorgeous picture frames.

This required quite a lot of maths, including measuring lengths, symmetry and patterning, and it was evident that students incorporated Collaboration, Character and Creativity into their charming artworks. It’s always a pleasure combining learning and making special gifts for those we love dearly. Well done on your efforts, I’m sure every mum was delighted to receive your gifts filled with love and great care.

Kangaroos Celebrating End of Term 1

As a whole school end of Term 1 celebration, students enjoyed a barbecue lunch and played games at the quaint picnic spot- Alfred Langhorne Park.

Students enjoyed playing games with their junior buddies and assisting them with participating in a number of games. Linley Cleggett dropped in with some sweet-tasting grapes, and bush tucker that tasted like apple skin, and shared her knowledge and wisdom about our local flora. On return to class, students were delighted to see that the Easter Bunny had made a special delivery to their bunny baskets in the classrooms!

It was so much fun playing with the little kids! - Regan

Playing the old-fashioned games was great! - Liam

It was nice listening to Ms Cameron and Dan playing the guitar and singing! - Darcey

The barbecue was delicious! - Millie

I really loved everyone working and playing together! - Sophie

I loved all of the classes having fun together! - Lexie

I loved playing The Web of Life! - Aidan

Kangaroos 2022 Student Representative Council

Congratulations to Sam, Rupert and Darcey for being voted by their peers as our class Student Representatives for 2022.

We look forward to them using student voice and contributing to what happens at our campus. Working alongside SRC leaders across all classrooms, they will have the opportunity to influence change, help organise events, be involved in decision-making, learn leadership skills and get experience guiding and negotiating with others.

Science in Room 2

Levers are used everywhere to make daily life easier. We tried to design some levers displaying balance.

Anzac Day with the Emu’s

In the holidays we commemorated ANZAC day on the 25th April. It is a very special day where we remember the brave soldiers who have fought in all wars. We did some artwork about ANZAC day when we got back to school. - Jett

Strathalbyn Canteen Update

It was lovely to walk back into a new bright and revamped canteen area after our holiday break, a fresh coat of paint, repurposing of cabinetry, decluttering and restructuring of work areas has enhanced our school environment for all. Mel Vanderzon has joined Karen Fox as canteen managers, now job sharing this role each week. This dynamic duo, have provided time, elbow grease and innovative thinking to update our menu and increase work efficiency.

Horse Riding with Millindilla

The students in Room 29 have been extremely fortunate to access weekly horse riding lessons at The Riding Patch in Strathalbyn for the whole year all thanks to the amazing support and funding from The Ladies of Variety charity!

These weekly horse riding lesson aim to support our students in many different ways!

Physical Wellbeing: Horse riding supports core strength.

Mental Wellbeing: Horse riding provides opportunities to connect with nature, do an activity that brings joy and providing opportunity to look after animals which brings a calming mood for everyone.

Executive Functioning: Horse riding provides opportunities to build upon executive functioning skills by building capacity in remembering sequences, learning the reigns and practicing prepositions.

Incorporating literacy and numeracy: Horse riding supports connecting real life experiences with the literacy and numeracy we are learning in the classroom, including counting, expanding vocabulary, practicing prepositions and developing language and communication confidence.

Community connection: Horse riding supports our students to have a sense of belonging in the Strathalbyn community and provides opportunities to practice safety and life skills.

So far this year, the students in Millindilla have built up their skills and confidence, and thoroughly enjoy their weekly lessons. We look forward to continuing the program for the rest of the year, and hopefully in the future years.

Science Projects in Room 14

In Term 1, Room 14 were looking at animal classification in science. This means that we were learning about the different ways that we classify animals according to similar features, such as whether they have wings, gills, and whether they have hot or cold blood. Each student in our class chose an animal to research, and had to find out information about their animal. They had to record their information and draw a diagram before making a final copy of their research on a poster. We worked hard to make sure that the posters not only had the important information, but so they also looked nice and interesting.

Below are some of our posters on animals that we have completed. Some of these students have not yet finished their posters:

Last term I did the proboscis monkey and a fact about them is that they can swim. – Willow

Room 14 has been choosing animals and researching information about them. – Izabella

Room 14 has been working on animal posters. They have done a really great job. – Laycie

Last term I studied the Nilgiri marten and one of the facts was that it could live up to 30 or 40 years. – Hudson

Last term I studied a blue dragon. An interesting fact about the blue dragon is that they look very cute but if you touch them they can sting you. - Genevieve

I worked on looking at the flying dragon lizard. It has many self defence mechanisms. It is small but has wings so that it can fly away from its predators. – Audrey

Buddy Class in Room 30

This year Room 30's Buddy class is Room 7. We meet once a fortnight and have done lots of different activities so far. Last week we recycled tennis ball containers to make different characters. The older buddies help and guide the younger buddies and the various social and communication skills learnt is two way. It's a lesson that we really look forward to each fortnight.

I like building with my buddy. - Billy

Buddy class is fun. - Magnus

My buddy is Erica - she helps me. - Amaya

I like it when my buddy helps me do stuff. - Kirra

I like seeing my buddy. - Jarlath

My buddy is nice- Isla

I like making things with my buddy. - Connor

Team 27 Term 2 Update

A lot has been happening in Room 27. Many friendships have formed, wonderful work is being done and we are having a ball in Term 2.

We have been working really hard in literacy lessons, learning our sounds and practicing our writing. We have also been focusing on learning to read and write our tricky words. It’s been amazing to see the students’ development in literacy. Each student is taking more risks and growing in confidence. I love looking back at their first piece of writing for the year to remind them of just how far they have come.

Maths in our classroom is very hands on. We have been focusing on patterns, number and measurement. The students loved creating different types of patterns using unifix cubes, colours frogs, counters, match sticks, numbers and more. They were very creative! In measurement we have just learned to use centicubes to measure different objects in the classroom. Next, we are moving onto measuring with a ruler! It’s been fun estimating the measurement first, and then seeing how close we were.

EFS Wins Southern Fleurieu Athletics Carnival

After holding an intercampus Athletics trial day in Week 3, we selected a 20 student Year 4-6 team to compete at the Southern Fleurieu Athletics Carnival. This event was held at the Victor Harbor Primary School oval in Week 4.

We came away with some outstanding results and won the title ahead of Encounter Lutheran.

7 students from our team performed at such a level they have now been selected for the Southern Fleurieu Team to compete in the State Championship in Term 3.

These students are:

Violet - 100m relay
Hudson - 100m, 100m relay and long jump
Destiny - 100m relay and long jump
Jaxson - 100m and 100m relay
Jemma - 800m
Campbell – Discus
Jack – Shotput

Southern Wins GOLD and SILVER at the State SAPSASA Carnival.

The Southern Fleurieu netball squad participated in the three day SAPSASA carnival at Netball SA Stadium from Monday, 27th – Wednesday, 29th June. After winning a Division One Gold in 2021, big things were expected from this talented playing squad.

40 teams from 20 country districts were split into 4 divisions, and with no finals, every game was a must win.

Eastern Fleurieu School were well represented in the squad with Molly F, Gemma C, Quba, Amarlee and Destiny L being selected in the Division 1 team, and Ashlea A, Violet R selected in the Division 3.

Southern Division One were shaky in their first game, recording a shock loss against Barossa and Light by three goals. At this early stage, coach Kelly was nervous for the week ahead, but the girls continued to grow with each match and remained undefeated for the remaining 8 games of the competition. At the completion of the carnival, both Lower Eyre Peninsula and Southern had recorded one loss, and despite defeating them on Monday, it meant that Southern tied for gold with Lower Eyre Peninsula.

Division One Players: Gemma, Molly , Ruby , Quba , Amarlee, Destiny, Paige, Hannah , Swae, Alannah

The Division Three Southern girls were a young team who improved immensely across the week. The girls won 8/9 games, with their only loss being to overall winners Lower Eyre Peninsula.

Division Three Players: Ashlea , Violet , Jordyn , Tara , Ayla, Isla , Kalani , Phoebe , AlexisD, Sofia

Not only did the Southern girls have great success on the court, they made new friendships, developed new skills and were lucky enough to meet Thunderbirds players Georgie Horjus and Lenzie Potgieter.

Division 1 Results

Defeated Northern York Peninsula 13-3
Lost to Barossa and Light 21-24
Defeated Lower Eyre Peninsula 25-28
Defeated Lower South East 28-12
Defeated Northern 36-15
Defeated Mid South East 41-13
Defeated Central Eyre Peninsula 31-12
Defeated Riverland 34-23
Defeated North Eastern 41-7

Division 3 Results

Defeated Northern York Peninsula 25-4
Defeated Barossa and Light 15-12
Lost to Lower Eyre Peninsula 8-19
Defeated Lower South East 23-13
Defeated Northern 23-9
Defeated Mid South East 16-10
Defeated Central Eyre Peninsula 15-9
Defeated Riverland 18-9
Defeated North Eastern 28-5

Collaboration, Communication and Creativity at Ashbourne

We set our students a challenge of working together to use wooden planks to build a structure. They had to have input from each student, work as a team and create something creative and structural. The students had 20 minutes, they were very proud of what they created and how they worked together. It was valuable to hear them talk about how they had applied the global competencies to this challenge.

Arnie Visits Ashbourne

Tyson Potter, father of Eli brought his service dog Arnie in to meet our students on Friday. He spoke to the students about how a service dog supports the owner and why he has a service dog. The students were very interested in hearing about what Arnie does to help Tyson and were respectful of their interaction while Arnie wore his special service jacket. When Tyson removed the jacket the students were able to pat and play with Arnie.

Bush School – Room 12 Visit

On Tuesday we had Mrs Thomas's Year 4 class from Strathalbyn visit Ashbourne for Bush School day. The Ashbourne students demonstrated strong leadership skills by stepping up and being the teachers for the day. They led their group through multiple activities including damper twisties, bird information and water colours, Aboriginal painting using symbols, planting of seeds, personal stick paintings, cubby building and scrub play. The Strathalbyn campus students enjoyed their day and when leaving were asking when they could come back again.

Past and Present with Hakea Class

In Hakea class, students have been discussing changes in transport, technology and communication over time. We had the opportunity to use an old typewriter and we compared this to our new laptops. At first, students found it tricky to use and the ink hard to read compared to the laptops but they enjoyed the satisfying sounds of the typewriter keys! The students noticed differences such as the typewriter is not electrical, some of the keys are missing and they couldn’t get onto the internet.

Measurement with the Koalas

In our Koala classroom we have been looking at measurement in our maths lessons. We put our investigation hats on and measured/compared many things in our classroom and school.

We experimented with jars and containers of different sizes to see what held the most. We kept them outside during play for some experimenting. The students made potions and vases with them while thinking about which held the most.

We used reasoning to back up our answers:

I think this jar will hold more since it is wider and taller. - Emerson

This one will hold the least because it is small. - Ada

My playdoh snake is longer than an ant. - Mila

My playdoh snake is shorter than the room. - Lincoln

Year 6 Transition Visit with the Emus

On Wednesday, 22nd June our Year 6 students had their first transition visit to the Strathalbyn 7-12 Campus.

They were shown around by student leaders and thoroughly enjoyed their experience and are looking forward to 2023 as Year 7s.

Milang Year 6s Citizenship Update

The Year 6 Citizenship group finished sprucing up the cubby house this week!  Bunnings very kindly contributed towards our fundraising and paid for half of our new slippery dip. Thank you Bunnings.

The Year 6s also enjoyed their first transition visit and are looking forward to their next one.

Wellness Wednesday at Strath R-6!

On Wednesday mornings at the Strath R-6 campus, we start our days with a bit of a blast from the past.

For those adults that attended the Strath R-6 campus when they were younger, might remember doing morning aerobics with Penny on the asphalt. We thought that the younger generations might enjoy it too and they sure do!

We have all the same songs and dance moves, even the teachers and SSOs remember! What a wonderful way to start the day

Measuring with Room 25

Room 25 have been doing lots of measuring activities over the past few weeks. The students have been learning about measuring length and area of objects. They have been enjoying using lots of different units of measurement to measure different things, including their hands and feet!

Bush School with Room 13

On Tuesday, 28th of June we ventured to the Ashbourne Campus to participate in their Bush School Day. We were greeted by the lovely staff and students who took us through welcome circles and outlined the day. We took part in list of fun and interactive activities including planting seeds, cooking damper, making bush cubbies, painting and decorating sticks and leaves, Indigenous art drawings and wildlife drawings. Our class enjoyed meeting new students, being out in the sunshine for the whole day and connecting with nature. Tash reflected on the day saying, 'It was a really fun day, I liked the activities, especially the Web of Life game at the end'. Lauren spoke about the Philosophy circles, stating that she enjoyed that people got to put their opinions and points of view forward and had a chance to hear from others.

Indonesian Update

During Semester 1, students studied the features and plight of the Honey Bear, Beruang Madu also named the Sun Bear. They learned the Indonesian language associated with a short factual story about the Honey Bear and wrote a narrative in Indonesian, where they were able to apply both current and previous vocabulary to their stories.

They also discovered that Indonesian students engage in clapping rhymes similar to those that are played in their school yard. Students successfully collaborated with a partner to teach each other and practise the Indonesian rhyme and clapping rhythm Mi, Mi, Mi.

Discovering information about the elusive cicak (lizard) has been interesting for the R-2 cohort of students as cicak are located in many countries and some are very colourful. The students have recently made a cicak and are engaged in learning the words for a song, titled Cicak di Dinding (Lizard on the Wall).

Science in Room 14

Room 14 has been investigating heat and the properties of things that produce heat. We have looked at different ways that we can create heat with our bodies, and how some things that we think produce heat, such as blankets, actually don't produce heat. They just trap it! As part of our studies we have done some experiments with heat.

Here are some comments from students:

Room 14 has been working on heat in science. Our teacher Miss Nikita showed us a mini volcano explosion. She made a mini volcano. It was epic. On heat we did an ice challenge and a lemon juice picture. Miss Nikita got an iron and made them visible but first they were invisible. - Sophia

Team 14 has been looking at heat this term, including ice cube challenges and different temperatures of food colouring water where we had to guess how fast the colour would spread. - Willow

Room 14 has been doing a science experiment on heat with ice and water. – Hudson

This term Room 14 has been looking at heat and we did what I call the lemonade project. We had lemon juice and q tips and drew a picture using lemon juice. Once it dried, Nikita ironed them and it came up yellow. It was a great experiment. - Genevieve

Maths with Room 6

Room 6 have been learning about factors and multiples in maths. We have enjoyed playing games that help develop our fluency with identifying factors and multiples of different numbers. A class favourite game is ‘Snakes and Ladders- Factors and Multiples’. The students have to show Character when they land on a snake, Collaboration if their partner needs help identifying the factors or multiples and Critical Thinking to make sure they are utilising efficient written and/or mental strategies.

Nature Play SA with Room 20

Nature Play SA came to visit the receptions for an afternoon full of fun! The students were involved in cubby making, making clay echidnas and even a ‘Masterchef’ Mud Kitchen.

The kids had a fantastic time getting muddy and learning about nature.

In Term 2 Room 20 have focused on ‘Collaboration’ as one of the 6 Global Learning Competencies. The kids were able to put their collaborative skills to the test as they worked in pairs to make a tent out of sticks, cloth and rope. All groups were successful with making their tent!

We then used our experience to write a recount about what happened.

Here were a few of the kids’ favourite parts:

My favourite part was the mud play. - Maddie

I liked the mud and cubby making. - Hunter

I loved all of it! - Zoe

My favourite part was the Mud Kitchen. – Logan

Room 13s War on Rubbish!

As part of our Deep Learning unit, we have been very busy in trying to make our school a more litter free place. We started with several observations by students noticing how messy our school was getting and how it impacted the environment. We brainstormed ideas and came up with many positive solutions. We have been identifying the high rubbish areas in the school yard which are fence lines, Tungaree Gardens and the Upper Primary playground. Sadly, the litter never stops, we have spent several lessons cleaning up these areas but have now started to take the fight into classrooms and the yard itself. Room 13 will be going around the classrooms speaking to students about the impact of littering, highlighting where the bins are and even bringing in a new initiative that when the bell goes, everyone needs to pick up a piece of rubbish on their way back to class - watch this space! We will also be giving up some of our play times to be out in the yard directing students to bins and monitoring the high litter areas to make sure they remain clean. This is such a major issue, one that we are all directly responsible for!

Narnu Farm Camp with Ashbourne

In Week 10 of Term 2 we went on a whole school camp with the Milang campus. They students had a fantastic time, they enjoyed feeding and learning about the farm animals and learning how to use an old fashion travel to dig up a paddock with the help of the Clydesdale, Sally. They experienced going back in time and how it would have been to live in the early 1900’s. The students made new friend connections with the Milang children and we enjoyed a student talent show and the Upper Primary students loved hearing the scary stories told by Mr Nash around the fire on the second night.

Hakea Art

Every Monday the Hakea enjoy their Visual Arts lesson with Rebekah and Robyn. Their favourite art medium is painting, water colour and acrylic. They have created several colourful free choice art pieces and a guided drawing art piece of a cow.

Langhorne Creek Market Stall Preparation

In our Koala classroom we have been very busy making our shrinky keychains for our Student Creation Market stall. We have talked about our global competency of Communication and how the things we make/sell need to appeal to an audience. We reflected on what works best to shrink and what colours show up the best on the black lids. After many discussions about what we could draw on our keychains we started to design them. We used chip packets and old recycled coffee lids that shrink down in the oven. This has followed lots of deep learning about recycling, materials and how things can change when they get hot.

I drew a meerkat. – Seth

I drew a minion because everyone likes them. – Hudson

My keychain has a mermaid on it. - Ada

LC Koalas Market Preparation

Old Tailem Town Pioneer Village

At the end of Term 2 our whole campus travelled by bus to Old Tailem Town.

Mr Squires began our day by welcoming us outside of the old classroom. We had to salute the flag and sing God Save the King. He checked our shoes and fingernails before we marched into the classroom to the beat of a drum.

The classroom was from the 1880s and we learnt how life at school was during the olden days. Then we could walk around the village and collect information about the different buildings and sites.

I enjoyed looking through all of the creepy houses, but I liked the hotel the best. I also enjoyed climbing onto the train, there were so many spider webs! - Darcey

I enjoyed going to all of the places and houses around the village and I really liked being with my cousin, Chayce. - Lexi

I liked going to the coffin making place and the house with the creepy dolls on the walls. - Angus

I liked looking at all of the cool trucks, the train and seeing all of the different types of barbed wire. - Connor

I enjoyed looking at the old cars and trucks. I loved learning about all of the cool things. - Regan

My favourite part was when we went into the telegraph station and the clothing shop. - Sam

I really liked the horse stables and the old hospital because it was so creepy! - Abby

Jeans 4 Genes at the Creek!

Raise Money. Find Cures. Jean-ius!

On Friday, 4th August Langhorne Creek Campus celebrated Jeans for Genes day to help raise money for children’s genetic research.

Sadly, every minute around the world, 12 children are born with a birth defect or genetic disease. Just to name a few, these include, genetic blindness, cystic fibrosis, spinal muscular atrophy, autism, cancer, bone marrow disorders, diastrophic dysplasia, osteoporosis, Kawasaki disease and heart defects.

Students proudly wore denim and donated a gold coin that will directly support the ground-breaking research conducted by the Children’s Medical Research Institute in Australia. It was wonderful to see the rate of participation, the display of empathy towards others, and the level of understanding that students are helping to make kids with genetic diseases feel more accepted and included within their school community.

Welcome to Term 3 from the Emus!

Mrs Hopkins was happy to welcome back her Emus, so happy in fact she flew off to Bali to celebrate her happiness. So the Emus have been fortunate to have Mandy Melville, the relief teacher.

But all has not been doom and gloom. On Wednesday there was a burger cook up, Emus even had shredded lettuce to put on their burgers! Then, after lunch, the M&M cookie extravaganza. Some Emus chose to eat their cookie BEFORE it was cooked, so there were a few sore stomachs.

The Emus really hope Mrs Hopkins is enjoying the lovely warm weather while the rest of us freeze, or get blown away, here in SA!

End of Term 2 in the Emus class

We were treated to a special paella made by Tommy and his mum at the end of last term to celebrate our unit of work on Italy.

Milang Relationship Circle

Students created a giant relationship circle in the lunch shed with themselves in the middle and then identifying other people in their lives who are important to them. The purpose of the activity was to show that some people are really close to us while others, such as emergency services are important but not as close to us.

Milang Kids Teaching Kids

At the end of Thursday, the Junior Primary and Upper Primary classes spent some time together during Kids Teaching Kids. Each small group activity was led by the Upper Primary students and the main focus was helping the younger children learn how to play a new game or have a go at learning a new skill. Well done to all the students for working so well together!

Puppet Show at Milang

In Term 2 we were fortunate to have a visit from Snap the Crocodile and Lindi Jane, who showed the students how puppets can be used to share culture, stories and entertain. A lot of singing and dancing occurred during this show which was fun to see. The students really enjoyed the show.

Narnu Farm with Milang

Here is what the kids thought of camp:

Feeding the animals was my favourite activity because they were so cute and my favourite was the fluffy chickens.

I enjoyed riding the horses because they were fun to ride.

I liked riding the horses because we tried different skills and went on a trail ride.

I really enjoyed feeding the animals.

I liked sleeping on the top bunk.

Our fort building had so much space inside, we had to drag the trees through the forest.

We got to ride the horses on our own.

We did butter making and it was fun.

I could ride a horse and it was fun going back to Narnu again, I went there in reception.

I liked that we got to do horse riding, butter making and blacksmithing.

I liked feeding the baby lambs and baby cows with a bottle.

David Basham Visits Milang

David Basham, Member for Finniss came and spoke with the Upper Primary class about his journey in politics and how they could make a difference in their local community. The students asked lots of relevant questions and came up with some viable suggestions for improving the area. His main message was if they wanted to make a difference they could!

NAIDOC Week

Langhorne Creek

The last week of Term 2 was NAIDOC Week. At Langhorne Creek Campus we celebrated the week by taking part in different activities like making friendship bands with our campus mates, painting river rocks which we placed in the gardens at Alfred Langhorne Park which we visited on the final day and were treated to a sausage sizzle, indigenous games and a sing along with Ms Minards.

As part of Reconciliation Week some of our students entered into a Colouring Competition. Congratulations to Hudson C and Darcey who were two of the lucky winners across Eastern Fleurieu School.

During NAIDOC week we saw the ‘Deadly Nannas’ perform at Milang. The Deadly Nannas are a group of Ngarrindjeri grandmothers who are dedicated to reinvigorating their language. They sang songs and we enjoyed joining in and dancing!

Milang

During NAIDOC week we saw the ‘Deadly Nannas’ perform at the Milang Institute. The Deadly Nannas are a group of Ngarrindjeri grandmothers who are dedicated to reinvigorating their language. They sang songs and we enjoyed joining in and dancing! We also had a casual day and the students and staff all dressed in the NAIDOC colours.

A Note from Rebecca

For the past few terms, we have been developing socio-emotional skills in the Junior Primary class with the help of our Kimochi friends from Kimochi's Way- Bug, Cat, Cloud and Huggtopus. Kimochi's has been a fun way for students to practice different social skills as well as to develop social-emotional intelligence and healthy emotional regulation. Some of the skills we have learnt includes how to redo a 'hurtful moment' by saying sorry, how to do a 'calm-down' breath, how to put 'brave' feeling in front of our 'shy' feeling, as well as how to identify and articulate different feelings. We look forward to continue to learn more about our feelings with our Kimochi friends from Kimochi's Way.

Strath R-6 Bee Garden – A Holiday Replant and Garden Renewal

The native bee garden and the Tungaree nature play bush garden had some needed renewal of indigenous native plants during the holidays. The plants were donated by the GWLAP (Goolwa to Wellington Local Action Planning) and some wonderful students and their families came in and planted, fertilized, and guarded the plants with a new selection of bee attracting plants. Each year we aim to add further plants to our bush gardens and encourage biodiversity improvement. We have been fortunate to have the assistance of a Woolworths/Landcare grant over several years to help fund this development as well as improve the vegetable garden beds across the campus.

Room 9 Science Experiments!

This week we have done some experiments at home. We looked at what products at home melt. We then shared our learning with in pairs. We will be going on to look at the change in state from a solid to a liquid and what these look like.

100 Days of School Celebration

The Reception Classes celebrated 100 Days of School on Friday, 29th July. 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 100 day celebration the children had an opportunity to take a photo at the ‘Photo Booth’ holding up a sign and using props to celebrate this great milestone. Room 20, 30 and 31 moved around to each class and participated in 100 Days activities including making a crown, using 100 Planks to create something and using the number 100 to make a picture. The children also made a 100 Days Placemat where they collected ten of each food treats for their placemat which they were able to later eat! They collect 10 M&M’s, 10 Fruit Loops, 10 Nutrigrain, 10 Popcorns, 10 Soy snacks, 10 Choc Chips, 10 Twisties, 10 mini marshmallows, 10 sultanas, and 10 tic tacs.

We all got together to make the number 100 on the oval and Matt took a video and photos with his drone.

As you can see from the photos the children were super excited and had an amazing day celebrating!

Meet and Greet with Greg the Wiggle!

On Thursday, 4th August a few of the Room 21 students were lucky enough to meet Greg the original Yellow Wiggle! Greg was visiting Strathalbyn to spread awareness about the Heart of the Nation charity that he is a founder of.

Here are a few comments from the students:

I liked him, he was really cool. – Hudson

Greg was really nice and talked to us. – Carley

What’s been happening in Room 12?

This term looks like it is going to be action packed. Here are some of the things we have been up to.

We have been learning about the properties of materials and used our collaboration and creative thinking competencies to create ‘a shoe for Mr Bean’ based on a funny clip we watched. The pictures are of our science lessons.

The children are refining their skills in writing persuasively and have also been exploring narratives.

Our maths learning has been around decimals, money, and multiplication/division. We are practising our computational skills during our planning sessions for Gala night.

Significant Australians Research Infographics

Room 2

Term 2 saw the students of Room 2 investigate the life of a person they admire or look up to. Students carefully researched the various events, obstacles and eventual triumphs of their chosen role model, taking inspiration from the life lessons explored. From parents to pets, scientists to anime characters, we saw it all. The project helped to develop student’s research, digital creation and oral presentation skills. Additionally, it was a terrific way for students to investigate the life of someone remarkable and start considering their own identity and the person they want to become. Despite a number of nervous students, the resilience and confidence of each child was evident within the presentations.

The project was really fun and engaging because we got to research who we would like to be like. – Boyd

I think it was really fun and motivating because it was something we were interested in so we were motivated to do it. – Theo

I really like the project because it wasn’t a set character like from a book or anything. It was someone we wanted to be or grow up to be like. – Charlotte

I really loved learning about amazing people that changed the world. – Elena

Room 4

At the end of last term, Room 4 students researched their own significant Australian since 1901. They had to find out why they were famous, what they did that was exceptional and any ways that they gave back to Australian society or made a considerable difference.

They then needed to collate these ideas to key points and use Critical Thinking to analyse which ones were most important to include. Then they made an infographic in Google Drawings, having to consider layout, readability and effective use of images and colours.

Check out some of their work! Amazing results and a great range of significant people.

Ashbourne Whole School Excursion!

We went on a whole school excursion, exploring the Local River and Catchment area of the Murray-Darling Basin (Lower Murray). We started in Macclesfield, looking at Crystal Lake, we had Lizzie Schofield support our learning through the day and special speaker Sue, talk to the student about this special part of the river system. We then travelled to Strathalbyn to the Angus River, we asked the students to count the dams along the way as part of our learning. Lizzie spoke to our students here about the native fish and the introduced fish and the impact of them on the river system. Back on the bus to travel out to Willyaroo to look at the change in the river, we saw how the river was now below an 8 metre drop, there had been a huge amount of rain over the past week and the river was flowing quickly and high. Our students asked a lot of interesting questions and shared their prior knowledge and made connections. Our final stop for the day was Alexandrina Lake in Milang. We had our lunch break here and Darcy Whittaker spoke to the students about frogs that live along our local river systems and the importance of the Alexandrina Lake. We had the students transfer water from one bucket to another to show how water is taken out of the river to dams and farming. It was a brilliant day, filled with so much learning and new experiences for our students.

We are excited to see where this learning takes them through the next 5 weeks of our Bush School program.

Geocaching at Ashbourne

On Tuesday, 23rd August we had Abe from Nature Play SA come to our campus to run a session on geocaching with the students. The activity was connected to the Book Week books. The students had to use their GPS device to locate each bag that contained one of the book week books and complete the activity inside. They also had to find the key word at each station to work out the hidden phrase, ‘In 2022 together we can be brave and make change and dream with our eyes open’. The students enjoyed this activity and showed their skills in location and tracking.

Weather with the Koalas

We have been looking at weather in our inquiry lessons. We have made binoculars to watch how the sky changes. We have looked at weather from around the world and what we might need to pack if you visited these places.

We were very curious as to how clouds were made and how rain worked so we did an experiment in class. We used shaving foam as a cloud and put blue food colouring to watch it rain down into the water.

We all thought this was very cool.

Kangas African Animal Spotlights

Students have worked hard studying an African animal, researching the causes for their decline in the wild, and coming up with ways that we can help. Many of these animals are at the Monarto Safari Park, and at our end of term zoo excursion, students are now equipped to help inform their peers about their chosen animal during our tour.

Research tasks included acquiring information about their animals’ habitat, diet, characteristics, status, interesting facts, predators and distribution. Students made a poster and shared it with the class through an oral presentation. These projects became the springboard for assembling our Student Creation Market groups to produce items for sale.

‘I learnt that the African Painted Dogs form strong bonds showing care and support to pack members that may be ill or weak. Our group made and African Puzzle book for the Student Creation Market and I came up with the quiz questions’- Sam.

‘The White Rhinoceros is the largest Rhino and they can run up to 50km/hour! Their status is Near Threatened and one their biggest threats is poachers who sell their horns for the international illegal horn trade. White Rhinos are actually grey and they estimate there’s 10 000 left in the wild’- Rupert.

Student Creation Market

Ashbourne

On Friday, 19th August we went to Langhorne Creek Campus for our first small campus Student Creation Market. During Term 2 our students decided on a topic to research, design a product, make and create the product and then market and sell their product at the market. The students were dedicated and achieved amazing products. The products included Aboriginal and bird rock art, paintings, fabric art, gift cards, bird origami and a novel. We were proud of each of our students through their journey of learning and creating.

Langhorne Creek

This year was our very first attempt at creating items for sale at the Small Campus Student Creation Market. As a class, students brainstormed all of their ideas and then collectively chose the top 5. It was decided that a showbag would be a great idea to showcase everyone’s saleable product.

‘I enjoyed designing the board game with my group and we sold out on the day!’- Angus.

‘Jubilee’s Amazing Showbag’ included the following items:

Giraffe and Horns board game - by Rupert, Hudson, Khiyaden, Liam and Angus

Puzzle Booklet - by Regan, Aidan and Sam

Animal Fact Card - by Archie (Giraffe), Damien (Arabian Oryx) and Connor (Leopard and Chimpanzee)

Painted Gumnut Keychain - by Sophie, Abby and Millie

Wonderful Wishing Rock - by Darcey and Lexi

Showbag Artwork - by Lilly

The process from draft to final product stage took some time but their teamwork and persistence definitely paid off! Congratulations on your incredible efforts Kangas!

Milang

Students at Milang attended a wonderful day at Langhorne Creek Campus on Friday, 26th August. They had worked hard at making a fun stall using recyclable products and raising money for a good cause.

Maths with the Emus

In maths we have been revising number lines, ordering numbers from smallest to largest using whole numbers, negative numbers, fractions, decimals and percentages.

I like the challenge of working out decimals and fractions. - Jackson

I like working together and I have learnt a lot. It is fun. - Adam

I have learnt about improper fractions. - Charlotte

I have learnt more about percentages. - Kate

Langhorne Creek Goolwa Excursion

We went on an excursion to Goolwa. The activities we did were linked to the Deep Learning unit of work we did on The Murray Darling Basin. We went on the Oscar W, we also went to The Murray Mouth and the Barrage. It was lots of fun. - Gemma

Gymnastics at Milang

The students really enjoyed their two gymnastics lessons as part of the Sporting Schools Programme.

Channel 7 visits Milang

Ron Kandelaars from Channel 7 came to Milang to interview some of the students who worked on the Colonial map in 2021. After winning our Historical Research award at the Alexandrina Heritage Awards night in Term 1, Ron was very impressed with the students work and asked if he could do a story on it. Milang Colonial Map will be featured for a Channel 7 program of ‘Weekender’ in the near future. Stay tuned for a date.

Book Week!

Ashbourne

On Wednesday, 24th August we had our Book Week dress up day and whole school assembly. The students looked amazing in their different costumes, they proudly paraded their costumes in front of the staff, their peers and families. The different costumes included popular book characters and movie characters, sports stars and even a jockey and his horse. It was fabulous to see all the staff dressed up as well.

Langhorne Creek

At Langhorne Creek Campus we celebrated Book Week with a parade on Monday, 22nd August. It is always great to see the efforts by so many of the parents and students in their costumes, and this year did not disappoint. The parade was short as there was the threat of rain, but we had a great turn up of families.

We continued our celebrations with a special donut morning tea donated by the Student Representative Committee. Later in the day students worked in groups with staff reading stories and joining in activities based around the Shortlisted and other favourite books.

Milang

As part of Book Week celebrations the Year 6’s planned a movie afternoon during with popcorn and milkshakes as a fundraiser for Ukraine families. The cost was $5.00 and they raised $130 altogether.

Well done Year 6s.

Strathalbyn

Book Week in Room 1

Room 1 had a surprise on parade day as their classroom was transformed into Starbooks café for the day!

Hot chocolates, hundreds of different books and fun reading challenges made the day really fun and exciting.

Reading is truly so important for learning but also such a special skill to have; to be able to travel without leaving the spot and see things we never might see! Hopefully days like this encourage your children to read and give new genres a try.

Here is what the students had to say:

I liked the Starbooks reading tasting because we read different books. — Jas

I loved the choir singing the song for Ms Jolly and dressing up! - Jemma

It was fun watching the Pagemaster and seeing the class dress up in their costumes. — Nate

I liked that I didn’t have my saxophone practice during the good stuff! - Sam

I enjoyed the café treats and seeing the movie about the library. — Lily

I enjoyed the golden streamers and the way the class was set up, also the food! And doing the Starbooks book tasting! - Campbell

I liked the movie and the hot chocolates but I also loved the parade because it was fun to see people in costumes! - Mia

I liked seeing everyone’s costumes and what book they had come from. — Maddie

I liked the library movie and the café treats. — Sahara

I enjoyed playing chasey as all of our characters! - Jacob

I really liked what the classroom looked like and seeing everyone’s costumes. — Amelia

Everyone was so creative! - Leia

Laratinga Wetlands Excursion with Room 6

Room 6 went on an excursion to Laratinga Wetlands to further develop their understanding of how animals adapt to suit their environment. We were all rugged up and prepared for the wet weather that found us in the afternoon! Once we arrived, we went on a tour with Emma and Jamie from Mount Barker Council, and they gave us lots of information about the different species of animals that live at the wetlands. We learnt about the 3 basins and their different purposes and how they suit different plants and animals that live at the wetlands. We used a microscope to observe different plants we found, we conducted some observations and used binoculars to go bird watching. We thank Emma, Elisa, Jenna and Miss Sarah for coming with us for the day.

Room 13 – Gala Night Design Phase

We have been very busy this term in the lead up to Gala Night in Term 4. We did a host of brain storming activities that led us to our grand idea. Students decided that they would like to incorporate a range of different learning areas into their main theme. What started as a small idea has expanded rapidly into a whole range of ideas before we had to narrow our focus. Our idea is a sideshow type game that encompasses our maths unit of chance and data while also using our science unit for the term on earth and space sciences. We also have dipped into every component of our 6 C's during this design phase which has been pleasing to witness. Huge thank you to the parents and care givers who have donated a lot of materials for us to use! Let the fun (and mess) begin!!!

SAPSASA Basketball

In Week 3 of Term 3 we had our Year 5/6 girls and boys basketball teams head to St Francis de Sales College to compete in our regional tournament.

The girls started off with some heart stopping games defeating Parkside by a single point! We then came up against a very tall Belair team that shot out to a bit of a lead before Quba scored the winning bucket with 2 seconds remaining giving us the win by 2 points. Our next game versus Linden Park was expected to be an easier one however we didn't play our best basketball in the first half to only be up by 5 points, in the second half we played some great team basketball to give us the convincing 20-point win. We then faced off against the home side St. Francis who won the state title for this age group last year, we again started slowly before getting the job done by 27 points. Our final game of the day was against Burnside who were also sitting high on the ladder, the winner of the game would win the day and progress through to the state titles. We played our very best game of the day to secure a 14 point and ensure we progressed through! A huge day for us all with the girls showing their skills on both the offensive and defensive ends. Thanks to all our parent helpers on the day, Mr K, Mr S, Emma, and Alissa.

On the boy's side they started the day in emphatic fashion with solid wins over some much taller opponents in Burnside and Linden Park. Some tough basketball followed with the guys showing their maturity and grit to run over the top of Stirling East which put them into a semi-final against Blackwood. After a slow start the guys played the better defensive game to come out victors in a physical affair. That set up a grand final showdown with St. Francis! While the boys played their hardest the shots just wouldn't drop early in the piece which allowed St. Francis to get out to a large lead before we found our groove and reduced the margin to 14 points at the end of the game. A massive congrats to these guys to make the grand final. Well done to super coach Alissa who gave up her day to support these guys.

Room 24’s Blast from the Past

Telegram From 1935!

In Week 3 Room 24, along with the other Year 1 classes (Rooms 21 and 27) as part of our History unit on past and present went back in time and had a day of learning as though we were in the olden days. We got into character by dressing in clothes they would’ve worn back then. Girls wore dresses and boys wore pants or shorts, nice shirts, some of us wore ties and braces and hats.

We started the day by singing God Save the Queen. This song was tricky as it’s not the anthem we are used to but the students gave it a go. This was followed by Headmistress Coker, Headmistress Vikki, Headmistress Pitt and Headmistress Heidi arriving to check our nails, hair, faces and shoes to make sure we were clean before our learning could begin. We chatted about the chores we had to do before we got to school, some families are still ploughing their fields, while others are already seeding their seed. Some of the boys were a little concerned their horses were going to get spooked in the weather. We had a group head off and make scones for morning tea while the rest of us got on with literacy and dictation. The frustration of writing on chalk boards was real!

We had a quick fruit break and snuck outside for some photos while the rain stopped. Recess came and we headed outside. After recess we did arithmetic followed by making our very own butter and some games like skittles, quiotes and marbles outside under the shelter. The quiotes were a hit! Lunch time came and we had some fresh butter on bread. It was such a fun day! The students were a little scared of the very solemn head mistresses, but it added to the experience! Thanks to the amazing parents who got on board and got the students in costume we really appreciate it and couldn’t have pulled it off without you.

Auslan in Millindilla

In Millindilla, we have been doing weekly Auslan lessons to improve our way of communicating to each other and the world around us. Our Auslan lessons promote further opportunities for phonological development, vocabulary and open discussions about communicating with others in the deaf community and those with limited speech.

During our lessons, we read known story books with Auslan interpreters and try to figure out new signs, sing known songs and learn the signs, learned the Auslan alphabet and how to sign our own name, and learnt lots of emotion and doing word signs.

We all greatly look forward to our Auslan lessons weekly, and are excited to see how much we develop moving forward.

Hakea Class Update

Art

This week in Art the students made wool owls. It was a fun activity and each student made their own unique owl. Hakea students love Art, their artist skills are high and shine through each week in their individual art work.

Library

When we visited the library, Eli and Grace were brave enough to read to the class! They read with expression and fluency and we all enjoyed the stories!

Health

In Hakea class, we enjoyed a visit from a hygienist and a dental assistant. We learned about everyday foods and sometimes foods. We also got to see healthy and unhealthy teeth and we practiced brushing some teeth. We all got a new toothbrush to take home!

Acacia Class Update

Maths

In the Acacia class we have been exploring multiplication and division in mathematics. We have been learning different ways to solve multiplication and division problems. We have been learning lots through different card and dice games, these support us in our learning and are fun to do.

English

In English we have been exploring humour in poetry, we have learnt some new terminology like spoonerisms and neologism. We have been innovating poems like ‘On the Ning Nang Nong’ by Spike Milligan creating some funny content.

Geography

In Geography we have been exploring continents and countries, we have been playing some geography games that have been supporting us in learning the locations of different countries in the world. Last week we drew a map of the school and directed our peers and teachers to different areas of the school using North, South, East and West and different types of measurement.

Art

In Art we have explored some different art techniques that other countries use like tessellation and mandalas.

Book Week Author Visit

Ashbourne

For Book Week we had a visit from the author, Kristin Weidenbach, she read us her prize winning book King of the Outback - The story of Sidney Kidman. She explained that she likes writing about history rather than fiction and that she had written several books for children but also enjoys writing for adults too. She told us that the illustrator, Timothy Ide, liked to put his own picture in books he illustrates and this time he put a picture of her in the book too. When she read us the book we had to try and find those pictures. She showed us two other books she had written, Meet Banjo Patterson and Tom the Outback Mailman. She came dressed in outback style clothing as she likes writing from that era the best. She read us a book she wrote when she was a child and Archie also showed her his prize winning book. She was very impressed and encouraged him to keep up the good work.

Langhorne Creek

We were lucky enough to have an author visit our school and talk about her writing process. We all learnt a lot and enjoy her showing us the different items she brought with her, such as a whip and a cool hat. When asked who wants to be an author when they are older most of the koala classroom put up their hands.

Inquiry Lessons at Langhorne Creek

We have continued our inquiry into weather in the koala classroom. We drew weather symbols with crayon and watercolour painted over them. These will be used in our final assessment where the students write and film a weather report.

We have been practicing our oral language skills combined with our mapping skills with “Where is the treasure?” barrier games. This helps us become better communicators and improve our social skills. The students learnt about the compasses and how we can use North, South, East and West to guide people

Peggy’s Short Story Award

Earlier this year I wrote a short story called 'Meet Lucy'. We entered it in the Mayor's Short Story competition and my story was short listed. We went down to Goolwa for the presentation, and I received an award for writing a creative and well written piece. I am really proud of my achievement. - Peggy

Crossing Artwork at Langhorne Creek

We made these posters to put out by our crossing to raise awareness to motorists to be more aware of children crossing. They look really bright and colourful out by the road. - Molly

Junior Primary Learning Update

Shared Play on Wednesday afternoons! Lots of inventive creating, imaginative making and sharing games with friends.

On Friday afternoon the students enjoyed playing chess together.

Upper Primary Learning Update

In the Milang Upper Primary we have been "warp speeding" towards our concert to be held at the Milang Institute on Tuesday, 27th September, called Kids in Space. The students are all responding to their script and roles really well and it will be a lot of fun to watch on the night. Speaking of night our Science learning has moved into exploring the phases and location of the Moon in relation to the Sun and Earth. Some students were able to think about how the Moon could be seen at certain parts of the day and found it interesting that we can also see the Sun in the sky at the same time. We tried to get outside to observe this phenomenon in action during the lesson but were thwarted by clouds! More work on Moon phases will be occurring over the next two weeks.

In English we completed our long vowel sound work for the term, building on the prior experiences worked on in Term 2. We have also looked at the purpose of advertising in our English lessons and are breaking down the important information that is being transmitted by the creators of the advertisements for the viewer or reader of the text within it.

Our mathematical learning has been developing further understanding of measurement, looking at real-life use of space and finding ways to work out the area and perimeter of space. We have also begun to look at 2D and 3D shape making and properties of shape and this will link into our next Deep Learning project, which will involve the students creating a positive use for a vacant space of land that the school owns.

Farewell to Denise at Milang

During the term we had a staff dinner to say goodbye to Denise. We have missed Denise this year in the class helping the students and her loving, kind nature around the school. The students appreciated her helping with their learning and have valued her support for the last 4 years. We wish Denise well in her retirement.

Gala Night Planning with Room 11

In Room 11 we have been busy planning our stall for Gala Night. We have decided to create a Prize Wheel and have worked hard to brainstorm and develop our ideas. We have been working on ways to ensure everyone has a chance of winning a prize, dividing our wheel into equal parts, and coming up with appealing and cost-effective prize options. As part of our plan to turn our ideas into actions, we have been writing letters to send to various companies requesting donations. A big thank you to the parents/carers who have helped us with this process. Make sure to look out for our Prize Wheel on Gala Night.

Tech Update

I heard a great quote from a speaker recently which was "Technological change is faster than ever, but will never again be this slow." This highlights our teaching of technology in Primary School where the goal is not to teach our students how to code or 3D print, but to teach them how to be problem solvers, critical thinkers and be creative with technology because chances are they'll leave school and be using technology that isn't invented yet.

So this term has seen all students using Scratch, a block-based visual programming language, to explore a variety of concepts from across the tech curriculum. Junior Primary students have explored Digital Citizenship and how we can make our online experiences fun and safe at the same time. Most of our content comes from the link below if your students ever have any questions about their online experiences. Middle Primary students have developed an understanding of animation and how it's created, making their own animated projects, and Upper Primary students have looked into machine learning, creating their own chatbots to replicate the programs that you might encounter on a website or when ringing a company like your bank.

We've also been busy 3D printing students designs from last term with the middle primary's emoji tokens almost ready to be put into practise as our ready to learn scale.

Room 3 Poetry

This term Room 3 has been looking at poetry. Often a text type that students may shy away from, we have seen a high level of engagement. Students have had the opportunity to read, analyse and create poems with specific structures and poetic devices. From acrostic poems to diamante poems, I’ve loved listening to their creative pieces…especially when confidence and enthusiasm are applied. The image below is of Jack sharing one of his poems. Each of his words was said with gusto and he had the body movements to bring it to life even more. The poem ‘Final Minutes’ written by Ned demonstrates a particular rhyming pattern of AABBCC.

One of our Deep Learning competencies being assessed this semester is Creativity. The particular dimension we have been exploring is the ability to ‘pursue and express novel ideas and situations’. We combined this competency with the Design Thinking model to compete in the classic egg drop challenge.

One egg, a few materials and a two metre drop. The aim is to have your egg still in one piece after it has hit the ground. The images that you can see show examples of the ideate process that we examined before we started to ensure our ideas are captured from various angles and we left no stone unturned. Next was the prototype phase where students started building their designs, ready for the competition in Week 10.

Room 21 Update

Maths

In maths we have recently been learning about fractions. The students have looked at halves and quarters. We created some delicious donuts with toppings of our choice. It’s very hard not to crave a donut looking at their masterpieces.

Writing

In writing this term we have been learning about the power of persuasion! We read the book, ‘The day the crayons quit’ and the children wrote an opinion piece about their favourite-coloured crayon, along with three reasons. They first wrote a draft using a template, then edited their drafts and wrote a final good copy to display in our gallery.

Science

In Science we have started our unit on Living Things this term. The students have been learning about animal features, habitats and how to classify animals. In Week 8 we started our research project on Australian endangered animals and the students have been collating their information about their animal for their information reports. We are aiming to have these finished and displayed for everyone to see on Gala Night in Week 3.

Room 27 Term 3 Update

Room 27 have had a very busy and exciting term. There's been lots of great learning happening and each student has demonstrated persistence through challenges.

This term we have had a focus on STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) with tasks to complete each Friday with Mrs Scott. We have built houses for the three little pigs, spaghetti towers, lunch boxes, paperclip chains, paddle-pop bridges and more. It's been fun using a variety of materials to help us with these challenges.

Strathalbyn Sports Day 2022

After several false starts due to the weather, we finally were able to have our Sports Day for this year. It was amazing to see parents, families and friends back as spectators after such a long break due to COVID. The sun was shining and our students competed to the best of their abilities with such fantastic team spirit.

Congratulations to Rankine to won our first ever Mitre 10 Spirit Cup Award. A big thank you to Brad from Mitre 10 for sponsoring this award.

Congratulations to the overall winners of the day, Davidson.

Davidson 2104
Dawson 2054
McLean 1537
Rankine 2006

A huge thank you to the committee of Donna, Zara, Mr K and Steve for their support organising the day.

Also thank you to Strathalbyn Cricket Club and the South Adelaide Football Club for hosting an event during the day.

Eastern Fleurieu School Levelling Up

During Week 2 of Term 4, Ben Smith (Innovative Pedagogy Coordinator) and Keegan Taylor (Senior Leader Middle Years) attended the ‘Level Up - Deep Learning Lab’ in Sydney. Hosted by Independent Schools Australia NSW, the 3 day conference and accompanying school visits focused on creating purposeful, engaging and deep learning experiences for students which develop the competencies and dispositions young people need to be good at learning and at life. To enable this, education must shift from traditional to transformative. Ben and Keegan learnt from and worked with leading professionals from around Australia, as well as global delegates, to extend our capacity in this space. The 3-day visit helped to propel our leaders thinking, deepen national and international partnerships but also reaffirmed that our school’s work in the space of Deep Learning is not only on track but world leading; with Eastern Fleurieu specifically recognised for the innovative practice already occurring across our 5 sites in this field.

Ashbourne Police Visit

On Thursday, 27th October we were fortunate to have Senior Constable Lucas Perry visit our campus. The Acacia class took part in a lesson on Online Cyber safety, called Think U know. It was a very informative lesson, our students shared what online games and platforms they use and Senior Constable Lucas spoke to them about all the ways to keep themselves safe in the online world that our students are now living and engaging in daily. Our students asked many questions and at the end of the lesson they were rethinking their online choices and how they can be online and be safe. The Hakea class enjoyed their visit, they had a general chat, asking questions, our younger students were very excited to meet Senior Constable Lucas. It is so important for our students to understand that the police are there to help and keep them and their families safe.

Fractions Day

Last term as a whole school we had a fun fractions day, making our own pizzas and sharing chocolate equally between our peers. This was a lead in to learning about fractions for our Acacia class which we will be exploring more throughout Term 4. The students have shown a great understanding of fractions which will support them in developing on their knowledge and understanding.

Ashbourne Bush School

We have some exciting excursions and incursions happening this term for bush school with our focus being on reptiles and amphibians we will get to visit the zoo and have someone coming in to share their knowledge and some animals with us. The students have been engaged and excited about the topic this term and have shown their interest in different reptiles and amphibians.

The students all created some great projects last year which they presented at the end of the term showing all of their knowledge and understanding around what we had learnt in Geography and on bush day. It was great to see all of the effort that they put into their learning and how much they have grown in researching and creating.

Happy World Teacher’s Day

At Langhorne Creek Campus we celebrated World Teacher’s Day on Thursday, 27th October. A special morning tea was prepared by our local churches community. The teachers were presented with certificates, cards and a small gift by the School Captains and representatives from each class.

Koalas Inquiry Lessons

In inquiry lessons we have been learning about features of places and mapping skills. We have looked at directions using maps and how they can help us find places. We have looked at different features of towns and explored if they are man-made or natural features. In one inquiry lesson we used our collaboration skills to build a town out of loose parts including natural and built features. This will continue with an excursion to Urimbirra to practise our mapping skills in a real life context as we work our way through the park.

Global Citizenship for the Chimpanzees!

What an incredible way to wrap up our deep learning unit of work learning about Africa, Jane Goodall and recycling e-waste.

During the last week of Term 3, our class went to the Monarto Safari Park and enjoyed a full guided tour and a Zoo Crew session in the Yellow-Footed Rock Wallaby exhibit. We were also fortunate to meet zookeepers Amy and Sarah at the Chimpanzee enclosure.

Students have further developed their Citizenship global competency by researching issues (eg: habitat loss due to mining, deforestation, poachers, illegal pet trade) affecting the status of animals in Africa. They have all shown a genuine interest, empathy, compassion and ways to help solve real-world problems that impact environmental sustainability.

Each student researched an African animal so they could make close connections to the animals at the park and inform others of interesting facts. The students took part in the Mobile Phone Muster recycling program to divert mobile phones from landfill and to help support primate conservation in Africa. We donated 50 mobile phones and 7 tablets. Each device generates $2 for Monarto Safari Park.

Congratulations on your amazing efforts in making a difference for conservation and the Chimps in the wild! We will continue to collect unused mobile phones until the end of the year, so please drop off your damaged mobile phones to the front office at your campus.

My favourite part of the day was when the zoo keeper told us that a giraffe’s heart is the size of a basketball- Sam.

My favourite animals were the lions and giraffes. A fact I learnt about the giraffe was that their patterns help them to have just the right body temperature! The keeper said there are currently 12 Chimpanzees but Hannah is pregnant, so soon there will 13 Chimps! - Regan.

We learnt a lot and my favourite exhibits were the Chimps and the Yellow-footed Rock Wallaby because we got to be keepers and pick up wallaby poop and get up close to the chimps! – Rupert.

I learnt the Cheetahs have 2000 spots! – Connor.

We saw a Cheetah and it reminded me of my cat, how he stretches when his is asleep. My favourite animal was the Bison because it was so big and it was scratching on the big tree - Hudson.

The Black Rhino has a hooked lip that it uses for ripping off leaves. Did you know that giraffes have 7 bones in their neck, just like us? – Archie.

Fun Times at Mosquito Creek

Our last day of Term 3 was celebrated at Mosquito ‘Mozzie’ Creek. Students enjoyed cooking damper by the fire, going on a nature walk with Linley Cleggett, making woven bracelets with Mrs Cameron, cubby building and water watching with the Natural Resource Management girls. We returned to school for a sausage sizzle lunch.

At Mozzie Creek we cooked damper in the fire and put yummy strawberry jam on it. We also made huts out of big sticks and we went on a nature walk. It was my birthday and I had a lot of fun! - Abby.

I liked cooking and eating the damper by the fire and going on the bush walk and eating some indigenous plants. I also liked making the teepee out of sticks, leaves and bark with Khiyaden, Liam and Aidan – Hudson.

I liked making the teepee and going on the bush walk. Linley told us about the native fruit growing on the tree that you can eat. I could hear heaps of frogs making noises in the river – Angus.

We collected water samples and looked through a magnifying lens at insects and larvae. The frogs were very loud and cool! There was a lot of mosquitoes for them to eat! – Archie.

I liked looking at the different water insects and making a reed bracelet - Millie.

I liked making damper and collecting spiky gum nuts with Linley. I enjoyed listening to the frogs croaking and looking at the different water insects – Rupert.

The Bend with the Emus

Last week we went on camp to Tailem Bend. We started by going to Narrung and Raukkan and learning some more about Indigenous culture and history. We also got to go to the Raukkan School which was cool. Then we headed to the Big 4 at Tailem Bend where we got to go to the Sports Park and go karting. It was so much fun. After that we had tea and played in the caravan park. We also got to play mini golf, basketball, bouncy pillow and soccer.

The next day after we packed up we had a nature walk tour, then went to The Tailem Bend Railway Station which was very interesting. A freight train went past while we were there. Then we did some history activities at Murray Bridge, then it was time to go back to school. - Braden

Go karts were the best. - Macy

I enjoyed spending time with my friends. - Marley

It was fun learning more about culture. - Charlotte

It was interesting learning about The Bunyip. - Kohde

The Bend complex is amazing and the go karting was so much fun. – Ollie

Spring Concert at Milang

At the end of Term 3 we held our annual Spring Concert and Art Exhibition. It was so lovely to see a big crowd of friends support our students. The students did a fabulous job singing, dancing, drumming and performing. They were all so proud to see the Supper room filled with their artworks and loved being able to share this with you. Many thanks to Nat Baker and all the Milang staff who supported the students prior to the event and on the night. We did have to say farewell to Nat who has now moved with her family to Queensland. For this term, Michael Simmons will be taking the Music lessons each week. He is a very experienced teacher who has actually been at Milang before, many years ago. Michael will work all day Tuesday at Milang doing music lessons, extension Maths lessons for Upper Primary students and supporting Literacy in the Junior Primary class.

Top 4 Finish in State Basketball Carnival!

A massive shout out to our Year 5/6 Girls Basketball team who recorded a top 4 finish in the State Large School Basketball finals.

The girls finished undefeated after their minor rounds defeating Hillcrest, Highgate (who were eventual champions), Woodend and Westminster College. We then crossed over against Glenelg Primary School and were caught napping early going out in disappointing fashion as our play throughout the day saw us as heavy favourites.

The side was led by Quba who proved she was the top player in the tournament with her strong defensive game coupled with her athletic and relentless efforts on the offensive end. We had Lily who was solid all day against some very tall opponents, Lily does her job each game to perfection. Lacey was active on both ends of the floor and proved to be our motivator with her great encouragement. Ariah never gave up on any play, she pushed the ball hard and was strong and physical defensively. Poppy hit some very timely shots for us and proved to be hard for opposition teams to match up on. Our two pocket rockets in Neveah and Ainsley would have covered some kilometres chasing opposing players from one end of the court to the other. Ainsley's rebounding was superb. Addison has developed into an exciting player for the group and we look forward to seeing her lead the side next year as a Year 6.

Thank you to our parent cheer squad, Emma for her managing on the day, Mr K and Mr S and Bridgett for scoring our games.

Team 28 Term 4 Update

In Room 28 we have been conducting our own science experiments. We have been following the science I wonder process. We have had a lot of fun with our experiments and learnt some things along the way. Like, did you know that millipedes leave footprints or that acacia blossom likes being in salt water once it has been picked or that broad bean plants grow well in sand or that you can change the colour of a feather by soaking it in food colouring. We have discovered so many new and cool things.

Since the beginning of the year we have been catching up once a week with our buddy class, Mr Foureur’s Year 6 class. We have such a great time catching up with them. Throughout the year we have practiced new and developing skills ranging from reading, to craft, to Sports Day practice, to practicing new ball skills. We love catching up with our buddies.

For Gala Night Team 28 are making hot potatoes, so come and grab a hot potato with either spaghetti bolognaise sauce or coleslaw or you can get a potato with the lot. Looking forward to seeing you all there.

Strathalbyn Gala Night

What a wonderful night! This year staff handed over the planning to the students, from risk assessments to stall design, advertising to stall placement, our Celebration Committee took the lead ably supported by Heidi Yard and Ben Smith. The weather was perfect, and a huge crowd enjoyed many food options, sideshow games, student made creations and musical items. The staff dunking stall was very popular as was the Haunted House. All stalls were linked to student learning within our Deep Learning framework. Students shared confidently the learning they had experienced and solved any issues that arose. An amazing $10800 was raised on the night and will go towards completing our canteen mural and resurfacing our basketball court.

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