Charters Towers Central State School

Time goes so quickly when there is so much to do. Over the last week I have had the opportunity to visit and speak with many of our parents and students.

We have a very talented group of students in our midst being lead by a very capable staff team.

Did you know!!! Our year 7 students achieved the best LOTE test results in the Charters Towers Cluster of primary  Schools. Congratulations Hiroko, Mrs Staub and year 7, overseas ambassadors of the future.

But Wait there’s more!!!! At the interschool athletics carnival held on Friday last week, Central State School achieved 3^rd place overall. Millie Beckett won the honour of being 13 years age champion and along with Dempsey Currin, Rex James, Matthew Stagg, and Tate George will represent our school and cluster at the   North Queensland Primary Schools Athletics Trials to be held in Townsville.

I have to say the events were quite thrilling, especially the relays where I witnessed four first places. All students were very well behaved on the day and were wearing full school uniform. Thanks to those parents and families whom attended. It was a good time had by all in this, The Year of Physical Activity. Thanks Deb, Ruth and Romana.

Last Tuesday I went to the Charters Towers Show and was made feel so welcome by the all of the students who came up to greet me and tell me about the great time they were having. We were well represented in the school display with lots of very good quality class work. Thank you Gloria, Bev & Melissa.

In the playground and classrooms I have noticed a big improvement in the wearing of the school uniform. We are keeping a record of those students whom are always in full school uniform and rewarding them with the chance to win movie tickets. To have a chance to be in the draw, a student is required to wear shoes and socks, a school shirt, school shorts and school hat every school day. The first draw was this

week and the winners were, Chelsea Reid, Tedi–Annah Pehi and Ruth James,

 

Congratulations, you have shown school pride and commitment.

On Wednesday last week students participated in the University of New South Wales Mathematics Competition. The school supports this type of assessment as an outside gauge of student performance. The results will be released to parents as part of the school overall assessment process when they become available.

Up and coming events include the school swim and survive program and swimming carnival.   The carnival will be a school interhouse carnival and I expect lots colourful banners, streamers, war paint and Pom Poms. Matilda, Billabong and Coolabah have their work cut out for them. I will be awarding special points for effort and commitment. Go the Red, Blue and Green!

 

Last but definitely not least I would like to say I am very impressed with how our school students and staff contribute to the community by creating awareness and fundraising for important causes. On Friday the staff had a bake off and students donated coins for, Jeans for Genes Day.   Last Saturday Chris Fink, Kaylene Rogers, Erin Taifalos, Kirsty Menzies, Kate Bowe, Leila Parry, Tracey & Troy Barath (and their 3 kids Ivory, Griffin and Harmony), Melissa Harris and Lisa Wheeler participated in Relay for Life to support the Queensland Cancer Council. The event started at 3pm on Saturday and continued on until 9am Sunday.  Our team was called the Central Sentinels, our motto was, Crusading For The Future and we had a King Arthur costume theme.  Team members took turns at walking around the basketball courts at Columba Catholic College, Mt Carmel campus. Central State School was the only state primary school to enter a team.   Well done Central winners through and through. I am proud to be the leader of the Central State School team.

Principal.

Emma Wallis, a second-year prac student from James Cook University visited us last fortnight. She spent time observing teaching practice, compiling a profile about the types of learners in our class and teaching some lessons she had planned with me. The students really enjoyed having her in our classroom and especially enjoyed making fairy bread shapes with her!

 

The Prep students are continuing to care for their vegetable garden, by weeding, watering and checking the plants for insects or damage. While some of the seedlings planted did not grow too successfully, the Prep students were very excited this week to discover our first tiny, green tomato on one of the plants. The Prep students have even started weeding the herb garden as well. They were very interested in the smell of the lavender, rosemary and lemon grass, although they didn’t really enjoy sniffing the garlic chives!

Instead of literacy groups this week, the Preppies completed the sentence “When I grow up …” with some amusing results! These writing samples are displayed in the Prep classroom and families are more than welcome to come in and read them. Literacy groups are on Monday from 11.45am – 12.30pm and if you would like to supervise a small group of students each week, please see me for more details.

Congratulations to Katie Lamont who came second overall in the Prep-Year 3 division of the school’s Jeans for Genes Day colouring in competition. Congratulations also to those students (and thank you to their families!) that have been coming to school in their uniform and with their sunsafe hat. Please remember that students are required to bring a sunsafe hat in everyday so that they are able to participate in outdoor activities during both class and play times.

 

Year one has something very mysterious to report... Our Gingerbread man escaped!!! He has been spotted running around the school, taunting the teachers and staff who have been taking photos of their sightings. So far he's been photographed in the grade 3 room, in the staff room, in the office, at the front of school and in the library. We are gathering this data as a class and individually marking where he has been on a school map. We are hoping to predict where he's headed so we can catch our naughty friend.
Thank you to those people who have donated junk boxes to year one. We seem to have enough now so we won't be needing any more.

Congratulations to Chejuana Simpson who won First Prize in the Jack be Nimble poster competition at the show. Well done to everyone who entered a poster or handwriting sample.  It was great to see all of Central's fantastic work on display.  We have started our unit on Simple Machines and have been investigating how things move - some students brought in moving toys so we could see the effect of push and pull on them.  This week we will be completing our first science experiment on the effects of

 

 

 

 

gravity on paper helicopters.  Year 2 have been writing some fantastic stories - we are proudly displaying them in a folder.  We are visiting the computer lab each week and learning about Microsoft Word and the Internet.  Most students can log on by themselves now, which is great.  Some students still do not have their Targeting Handwriting 2A book - please purchase this from the newsagent as it is very important in helping your child's handwriting.  Some students need new lead pencils also.  Thank you and please give me a call if you have any questions/concerns.

Hello Parents and Carers, we have had an exciting time over the past week! Students attended an excursion to the Ambulance Station which offered them a ‘real-life’ insight into First Aid and Safety. Paramedics shared information about their role in the community, and demonstrated first aid methods, such as applying bandages (one student was treated as the patient!) The highlight of the trip entailed exploring the ambulance vehicle and viewing first aid equipment e.g. heart monitor, stretcher etc. Flashing lights and sirens ended our trip as the paramedics turned on the ambulance truck! All students enjoyed the visit and are enthusiastic about developing their knowledge of first aid practices over the coming weeks.             

 

It is already week 4 of term 3 and the students are getting into the kitchen chemistry unit. We have made slime, made milk and coke explode and explored some experiments on an interactive computer program. The students are interested in the experiments and some are wanting to complete them at home. 

This term the students are completing their homework differently. They get one sheet a week and on there, they complete different activities, including spelling and maths. Some of the other activities include helping out around the house and completing a sport activity at home. On this sheet there is a space which enables the parents to write a small comment to me. 

 

I have been on leave for the last week but returned at the beginning of this week. I apologise for any unmarked homework from last week, it will be marked this Friday. Thank-you to those parents who are supporting their child with their homework at home and encouraging them to complete it.

In class grade four have been learning/revising multiplication facts. So far we have covered 0x, 1x, 2x, 5x and 10x. It would be terrific if this could be reinforced at home. 

Over the last two weeks we have been discussing our fears and written a poem about how we feel and what happens to our body when we feel fear. We have read several stories about fear and created an art piece using colours that represent fear. Over the next two weeks we will be viewing a movie with the theme fear and we will be discussing the music, colours, camera angles etc. used.

 

 

 

Hello everyone and welcome to term 3! My name is Lynda Ladd’s and I will be taking Miss Day’s 5/6 class until the end of the year. So far I have had a great welcome from many of the students and parents. If

we have not met please feel free to drop by and say hi.

This term year 5 is working on a Rich Task all about narratives. In this task we will be evaluating books for emergent readers (about a year 2 level). Students will then be writing and illustrating their own books. Currently we are looking at books that are designed for emergent readers. It all sounds very exciting and students can’t wait to make their own book!

Wow, this term if flying by so fast! Last Friday we walked to the Ambulance station and had a wonderful time learning about safety - Chelsea did a great job pretending to be a victim of snake bite - luckily the ambulance officers were there to bandage her and fix it! We learnt a lot about what to do in unsafe situations and when it is important to call 000. The ambulance officers also took us outside to look at the new van and we got to sit on the stretcher, they turned the lights and sirens on - very exciting! I have been very proud of the efforts all of our class have been putting into their learning as well as their behaviour. Well Done! Also, congratulations to Chelsea for getting two awards at assembly this week for always doing her homework and for wearing her school uniform all week.

 

Over the last couple of weeks the year 6/7 class have been learning all about the Solar System. We have learnt about individual planets. Our planet fact files were beautifully displayed at the show. Last week we learnt all about Space spin-offs, which are inventions or products designed for space that are now used on Earth. There are many space spin-offs that we use regularly like smoke detectors and eye charts. If you ask your child they will be able to tell you some more information about the spin-off that they researched and describe to you the poster that they designed to display this information.

Last week in science, students created ‘goo’ which they made by mixing cornflour and water. This ‘goo’ had unusual properties to investigate as when it is held it turns into a liquid, however when a quick force is applied the ‘goo’ turns into a solid. This week in science, students have been observing an experiment involving vinegar and eggs. For this experiment, students placed an egg in vinegar and have been observing the changes over the last week. They have observed that the egg shell has been eaten away by the vinegar, leaving a membrane around the uncooked egg. This membrane holds the egg together, but feels very ‘squishy’ to touch, much like a water balloon. Students will then test how high these shell-less eggs can bounce.

On Thursday this week I am leaving with some students from Central, and other state schools, on the Canberra Trip. Students that remain at school will be in either Mrs Staub’s year 7 class or in Miss Ladd’s year 5/6 class for the week. Those students coming with me on the Canberra Trip, I hope that you have a fantastic time and don’t freeze too much! 

Over the last few weeks we have also begun buddy reading every Thursday afternoon with Miss Menzies’ year 1 class. The grade 6/7 students display confidence and maturity as they listen to and read with the year 1 students. Both classes really enjoy and look forward to the weekly shared reading experience.

 

The students who are heading off to Canberra this week are all starting to become very excited. We all hope you have a wonderful time and have packed all of your warm winter clothes.

A reminder to all students: Keep working on your space model for homework. Spelling Essentials also needs to be completed each week along with the Core spelling word list.

Congratulations to the 7S students who were very successful at the interschool athletics carnival. We are pleased to see Millie and Tate heading off to the next level of competition along with other Central students.

A final note to inform parents that I will be on long service leave for the final four weeks of the term and will be replaced during this time by Miss Rebecca Finn.

Term 3 and week 4 – and all is good. The class is learning a new letter and sound every week this term. This is a lot faster than last term, when we were doing a letter every fortnight. The boys are very well. I was also pleasantly surprised at their recall of all the sightwords we learnt last term over the holidays. We just finished doing a mini unit on horses and have some beautiful peg horses hanging in our room. In Maths we are learning about graphs and representing information in picture form. In cooking last week, we made some delicious rock cakes with Miss Anderson (the prac teacher). They turned out to be smooth creek peddles – didn’t look like rocks at all. Our parade awardee last week was Jack Smith for counting confidently to 20 and this week was Bradie Harrison for coming to school in his uniform, including a hat.

The senior SEP students are working on the beginnings of our two major projects for the term which are the marionette puppet show spectacular and a comprehensive animal study which will be presented in its final form as a slideshow. Our marionettes are in the final stages of production and our next step is to write the script for our play. We have begun researching our animals and are placing the information under the subheadings of description, habitat, diet and interesting facts.

Unfortunately, I can now confirm that the Athletics carnival for students with a disability, The Challenge Games, has been cancelled for 2008. As mentioned in last fortnight’s newsletter the money collected for this event will be used for another excursion later in the year.