Charters Towers Central State School

 Welcome to week two, Term 4. I hope everyone has had a great break and is feeling refreshed and ready for the busiest term of the school year. Several events and activities will culminate over the next nine weeks, including the visits to State High by year seven and SEU students. These visits have been designed to facilitate the smooth transition of students into year eight in 2009. 

Last week we started our swimming lessons for PE and from where I was sitting, it looked like everyone had a blast! There is no swimming this week, however it will resume next week and go through to the last week of the term. If you have not paid for next week’s lesson already, please give Kaylene at the office the money as soon as possible, so that we can update our records of who will be attending. If your child brings a plastic bag to put their wet things in, please label it (and any items of clothing) with their names so that we can quickly find the owners of misplaced items.

 

Towards the end of last term, the Preppies started showing an interest in giving each other letters they had written. This week, we read Alex’s book about a letter being sent, watched Mrs Green’s video called ‘A Journey of a Letter’ and on Wednesday, we went on an excursion to the Post Office. Students were asked to write a letter to someone in Australia, to put it inside an addressed envelope and to bring to Prep. Wearing our sunsafe hats and our closed-in shoes, we walked down to the Post Office in the morning. The Preppies lined up inside and bought a stamp for their letters, before posting them in the mailbox outside. We then got to go inside to have a look at how Mrs Fredericks stamps the local mail and how it is sorted to be put into the mail boxes or into bundles for the posties to deliver, and at how all the other mail is sent to Townsville to be processed. We got to see what the mailboxes look like from the insideand even managed to scare to some people who checked their mailboxes and who did not expect to see Preppies staring back at them!! J Carmel the postie showed us her motorbike and told us about the special things she needs to wear to deliver the mail. It was a long walk for us and it got a bit hot, but all of the Preppies behaved really well and represented our school well.  

Our seeds are growing!!! We planted our broad bean seeds at the beginning of last week and a root started growing from it soon after. We came back to school this week after the weekend and most of our seeds now not only have a big long root, but a stem shooting up towards the top. Students are fascinated by their plants. We've learnt that taking one of the plant’s needs away (water, soil, sunlight, air or space) causes the seed to really not grow very well at all.
 I'm still looking for donations for our Fete. These could be small prizes such as small toy cars, groovy pencils, hair accessories, small chocolate bars, packets of jelly beans etc. Our stall will be a 'Lucky Stick' game and a 'Jelly Bean Jar Guess' game. Thank you very much to the Davis family and the Foster family for their donations.
 

Year 2 have lots to remember at the moment.  Firstly, thank you to the 6 students who have so far brought in packets of snack size Cadbury chocolates for our stall for the fete.  They have had their week off homework - if you haven't sent your chocolates in, please do so as soon as possible; it would be appreciated.  A big thank you to Noeleen Paterson/Norton's for their donation of chocolates which will be arriving soon.  Mrs. Pankhurst, our religion teacher, has brought in a box which is going to be filled with things to give children from poor countries for Christmas.  Things such as school supplies, small toys, hygiene products or coin donations would be appreciated.  We will be starting our mosaics soon - if you have any old tiles at home, please bring them into Miss Reid so they can be broken up and used.  This week we are having a visit from a pottery expert to show us some examples of her work.  Next week we will be having a mosaic expert. Many of the Year 2 students are involved in Showcase at the World Theatre.  A note will be coming home about that shortly with further details.

Welcome back to Term 4! I hope everyone had a safe and enjoyable holiday. This term students will be learning about waste management. The 3 R’s (Reduce, Re-use and Recycle) are part of this unit, and we will focus on the ‘recycling’ component throughout the term. Students have expressed an interest in creating a ‘recycling plant’, therefore, if you have any recyclable items at home please feel free to send them to school. It would be greatly appreciated! We also have an excursion to one of the local Opportunity Shops’ to further investigate “re-using” consumer items. 

Welcome back to term 4. This term the students are investigating the historical and social aspects of craft. As part of their assessment, students will design and make a mosaic and present their art in a stall. 

There is so much happening this term. Today students were involved in the  sports education tour  which came to visit our school. Cricket, life saving, rugby league, soccer and sporting wheelies were some of the activities. 

We have also been practicing for showcase, which is only 2 weeks away. This year’s theme for Central is ‘physical activity’. 

Every Thursday, we have swimming from 11:45 – 12:30. Money needs to be paid by Wednesday and the students must remember to bring their swimming gear. This week swimming is cancelled, as another school has their swimming carnival on. 

We also have our school fete in a few weeks time. The grade 3’s will be conducting a cakes and sweets stall. It would be greatly appreciated if you could kindly donate cakes or sweets for our stall. As a reward for your donations, you child will have a week off homework. 

Homework sent home this week needs to be returned on Friday or Monday. 

Welcome back to Term Four! Wow, what a busy term this is going to be! The fete is not far away (1st November) and if you haven't already donated items, could you please do this as soon as possible. Any small prizes including toys, lollies or even just a bag of packaged chocolates - for example Freddos, Mars Bars etc would be much appreciated. There is no swimming this week. Congratulations to Michael Harrison for receiving an award at parade for great behaviour.

This term grade four is participating in a science based unit. We will be looking at different forms and sources of energy. We will be conducting experiments to see how each form of energy works. For these experiments we will need items such as milk bottle tops (or juice/cordial tops), small cardboard food boxes and food tins (milo tins, large spaghetti/baked bean tins etc.). If you have any of these items, please send them to school.

 Homework has changed. The new format has been sent home this week. It has been explained to students in class and is to be handed in on Friday. Don’t forget to bring in 2-3 prizes for the grade four fete stall. Thanks.

Hello everyone! Term four is definitely underway. Students are busy with everything from swimming to showcase.

It is very important that your child learns to swim so please bring in the forms and money and encourage your child to take part. Please remember that all money must be in by the Wednesday before swimming. Money brought in on Thursday morning will be counted towards the following week’s lesson.

A group of students from year 5/6 are involved in showcase. They have been dancing up a storm. By all reports they are having fun and looking forward to the performance.

The fete is fast approaching. The 5/6 stall will be a throwing contest. Customers will pay to receive three sponges. They will have three chances to hit a lucky volunteer. I am looking for parents to help man our stall and volunteers to have sponges thrown at them. All money raised will go towards the school so please give up some of your time to help. The fete will be on November 1^st. If you wish to help please contact me or leave a message at the office and I will ring you back.

Welcome back to Term 4, the final term for the year and for some of our class the last term of primary school. This term our year 7 students will be working with Mrs Staub and her class to create our year 7 Yearbook and to organise the year 7 graduation dinner. The year 6’s are working on a Leadership unit, helping to prepare students for the responsibilities of year 7 students.

This is going to be a very busy term for our class. The majority of our class attended swimming lessons last week and hopefully all students will be attending next week. The swim program is beneficial to all students whether they already know how to swim or not. Showcase is also coming upon us fast. Shortly after Showcase we will have the school fete. If there are any parents that can help out on the day or with fete preparations, please send a note to school with your child.

We have reached the final stage of this year. This event-packed term will go by quickly, so please be informed by reading newsletters and notes sent home via the children. 

We are continuing to cover the Jolly Phonics sounds and letters. It is hoped that the boys will know all of the alphabet and its sounds by the end of the year. This is no easy task, but I am sure the boys are up to the challenge!

During Maths, we have been “Exploring Position In Space.” We have been learning about left and right and describing a location on a grid.

 This term, we will have the assistance of Mr. Lesley Elliot. Lesley is studying to be a teacher aide and part of his studies is to help in a classroom setting. We welcome Lesley and look forward to having him work with us.

I would like also to remind parents, of our swimming day and time Thursdays at 10:30. However, this week swimming has been cancelled. Please remember that the boys require a sun shirt to wear; this could just be a T shirt.

This term the senior SEP will be out and about on a number of excursions. We will be taking our weekly trips to high school for transition which will eventually culminate in a full day. We will also be heading off to Billabong Sanctuary with the rest of the SEP as a make-up excursion for the cancellation of the Challenge Games in Townsville. Finally as part of our focus on Charters Towers and gold we will be heading out to the Venus Battery to have a tour and possibly up to Towers Hill.

We will have two major focuses this term. As mentioned before we will be looking at our local community of Charters Towers and the gold mining process. We will also be examining maps and mapping techniques with all students having produced two maps already ; a map of the school and a world map that they traced and transferred to their books.

Headlice have been reported in the Senior class and it would be appreciated if all parents could check their children’s hair as regularly as possible. Headlice are common in all primary schools and spread quickly if not managed. If everyone has a quick check and treats the lice accordingly we should have no problems. If you are unsure as to how to treat the lice you can go to your local chemist or come into school and pick up an information sheet.

As the class begins the final term, it is extremely important to make the best of the experience. I am excited to be working on our final task which is completing a yearbook and planning a graduation party. I am sure the students will call on parents for some support throughout this process.

All students have been informed that non-participation in the task and failure to submit required components will hinder their opportunity to attend the final graduation event.

I have noted the increased number of students who are arriving on time and in their Central uniforms. It is noticeable and it is great to see the year seven kids setting the example across the school. I do have some concerns with the large number of our students who are not bringing morning tea and lunches. Several students are getting food from other classmates and although I am not one to discourage sharing, it is a health issue if the child becomes ill or has an allergic reaction. Please check to see that your child has something to bring for breaks.

The school fete is not too far off and due to a prior commitment I will not be available to assist this year. Our class will be running the Softdrink Lotto game and we ask if all students could bring along 1.25L bottles of softdrink for our stall. We really appreciate any donations.