Thank you and Merry Christmas!

What a marvellous finish to the year! The children had a wonderful Picnic Day; loving their pirate endeavours during the Treasure Hunt and successfully discovering the icy-pole loot, enjoying some fun Christmas activities and sharing in a lovely picnic near the lake to enjoy each others' company.

Groceries were purchased for the Chelsea Uniting Church Christmas Hamper Appeal using the children's fundraising money. These were collected on Wednesday and they will be distributed to families in need, no doubt helping to make their Christmas a little brighter this year. 

Thank you all so much for the very generous and thoughtful gifts and your very kind words! We feel completely spoilt. It has been an absolute pleasure working with your children this year. They are so much fun and we are really going to miss them. We look forward to watching their continual development and success in years to come.

A MASSIVE thank you to you, the parents and grandparents for your help and support throughout the year. We loved having you listen to the children read, come on excursions, help during MAD Week, watch them in their sporting endeavours, be there for assemblies, special days and performances plus everything else you have done. So many of you also contribute your valuable time to other areas of the school community and we really appreciate your commitment and effort. Thank you for making this year wonderful!

Finally, we wish you all a fantastic Christmas and a safe and happy holiday.

2015 Final Week

Thank you for supporting our Christmas Celebration on Monday evening. The children looked great and sang beautifully!

A big thank you to Allison (George's mum) for bringing in 'World of Maths' on Tuesday. The students had a wonderful time working through all of the puzzles!

Thank you for all of your support in assisting your child to fundraise for the Chelsea Uniting Church Christmas Hamper Appeal. The Year 1s proudly raised a combined total of $424.10! What a marvellous way to make a difference!! 

Thank you to everyone for supporting our class Secret Santa. We know the children are very excited about opening their gift next week. A reminder that your child needs to bring in their gift wrapped for their classmate by next Tuesday 8th.

We will start to send home books that the students no longer need. If you could send in a plastic bag next week for their gumboots to go home in that would be great. Their Portfolios, headsets (provided by the school), reading pouches and dictionary will follow them into Year 2 and therefore will not be coming home.

Take home reading will finish this weekend so that a stocktake of books can occur. Your children's reading has improved dramatically this year. Please ensure they continue to improve by reading every day during the holidays.

Next week's schedule is as follows:

Monday and Tuesday are normal school days. The children must bring their iPads to school each day this week fully charged.

Wednesday is our Picnic Day and the students can wear sunsmart casual clothes and runners. There are no lunch orders on Wednesday so please pack a snack, lunch and a drink.

On Thursday the children must be in Summer uniform. At 3.20pm there will be a whole school farewell to Mr Bolger on the grass area by the lake. School finishes at the normal time of 3.35pm.

Have a great weekend!

Week 8 Wrap-up

We have had another jam-packed week! The students had a great time completing the Swimming Program. They also loved their Orientation experience and came back extremely enthusiastic and excited about their classes and teachers for next year and the opportunity to make new friends and experience new things by being open-minded risk-takers.

On Monday during the school day we will be having a Dress Rehearsal for the concert that night. The children need to bring their black pants and t-shirt to school in their school bag and they will change into this before the dress rehearsal.

On Monday evening the Prep - Year 4 Christmas Celebration Concert starts at 7.00pm. Our classrooms will be open from 6.30pm. Students need to meet at their classroom dressed in their black pants and black t-shirt and girls with their hair in a high bun (if possible). Once you have dropped your child at their classroom please go and seat yourselves ready for the concert. We will bring the students over to the gym as a Year 1 group. At the conclusion of the concert you can collect your child directly from the hall. Please make sure you have told your child's classroom teacher before you leave with your child so that we can mark the roll to ensure everyone has been collected.

Thank you for supporting your child to undertake chores to earn their $10 for the Chelsea Uniting Church Christmas Hamper Appeal. We hope you have been enjoying the extra help around the house!

Shhhh! This time of year is all about giving and each child will be a Secret Santa for one of their classmates. The children in Year 1 will give one another the gift of reading. In line with Cornish's focus of sustainability, please choose one gently-used book to give to their nominated classmate. The children will find out who their nominated classmate is early next week. Please wrap up the book and leave it under the tree in the classroom by Tuesday 10th December.

After such a mammoth few weeks the children are understandably incredibly tired. Please make sure your child has a very restful weekend so that they're ready to enjoy their final two weeks of Term 4.

Show & Share for the next two weeks will be free choice.

Enjoy a wonderful weekend!

Exciting times!

We have had yet another busy and wonderful week! 

The students excitedly participated in the Swimming Program. This will continue next week on Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. 

The children did a marvellous job during the Student-Led Conferences in sharing their learning progress and insight with you. We're sure you are just as proud of them as we are!

As part of our current unit of inquiry we have identified the importance of people working in order to contribute to their community. As the children may have already told you about, during this unit the students will be raising money for the Chelsea Uniting Church Christmas Hamper Appeal by doing chores around the home. With this in mind, the children will be negotiating with you some chores they can complete to earn money. Each child will have a goal of raising $10. We are hoping the children will be using and honing their skills in negotiation, following through on responsibilities, being reliable, as well as developing their numeracy skills involving the days of week and counting money. We would like the children to have completed all of their chores and to have brought their $10, their letter and their chore record sheet to school by next Friday 27th November. We would also like each child to have a photo of themselves on their iPad undertaking their fundraising chores.

Orientation Morning is on next Tuesday. Students will come to their Year 1 classroom in the morning, where we will take the roll and then head to the gym as a whole class. They will then learn of their Year 2 class for 2016 and will spend the first half of the day, up until 12.30pm, enjoying the orientation program.

The students are busy preparing for the Prep-Year 4 Christmas Celebration. Please encourage your child to learn and practise the words to the songs (located on the Christmas Songs page on this blog) so that they will be confident on the night.

Have a lovely weekend!

Communities

What an eventful fortnight it has been!

We had a great Junior Sports Morning last week with plenty of sportsmanship and personal bests on show.

The Year 1s were also involved in the Smart Start learning session run by the Commonwealth Bank. They learnt all about the differences between a need and a want and the importance of wisely spending your money on things that you need and saving.

This week we have been very lucky to have not one, but two, wonderful guest speakers!

Our first guest speaker was Rev. Claire Dawe from the Chelsea Parish of the Uniting Church. Claire explained the many community services that the parish offers, such as a community breakfast, benevolent society, a food van and a Christmas Appeal, to help members of the community that may not otherwise be able to afford to buy enough food. The children realised that there are often people within our wider community who don't have the resources they need.

Our second guest speakers were Matt (Jake's dad) and Marnie who talked to the children about the role of the police force in helping our community. The children loved hearing about the resources that the police use including the police car complete with siren! 

The Year 1 Swimming/Water Safety Program begins next week. Each day the children need to come to school wearing their Sports Uniform with their bathers on underneath. In a separate bag they need to bring their towel, cap, goggles and underwear. Students need to wear their normal shoes to and from school, but they can change into thongs to wear to the pool.

All children must wear a swimming cap in the pool. You are more than welcome to come and meet your child's class at the pool and watch the swimming session. Please be mindful that we are encouraging responsibility and independence so please allow your child to organise themselves and their belongings as much as possible.

The Prep - Year 2 Music Recital is on next Tuesday 17th November from 9:15 - 10:20am in the Sustainability Centre. If your child is performing in the recital they need to wear their School Uniform including blazer to school on that day. There will be plenty of time for them to change into their Sports Uniform before we go to Swimming. Please feel free to attend if your child is performing.

Student Led Conferences will take place next Thursday 19th November from 4 - 8pm. You are required to book in online for this. We look forward to seeing you all there! 

Over the next two weeks we need each student to bring in a junk mail catalogue for the store that your family does their weekly grocery shopping at (Woolworths, Coles, IGA, Aldi).

Enjoy the sleep out and have a wonderful weekend!

Mid Term Wrap-up

The students have done a wonderful job completing their summative assessment tasks for our unit exploring light! They have each produced an informative poster about light. The sheer size of many of their posters means that we won't be able to display them all at once. Instead we will be putting each student's poster up on display outside the classroom for a short time over the next few weeks. Stay tuned as we will send you an email to let you know when your child's work will be on display.

There will be no Show & Share until further notice as we will be using that time for the students to present their Light posters.

Next Friday is the Prep - Year 2 Sports morning from 9.30 - 11am. Students will need to wear their Sports uniform on this day.

A reminder to please return your child's permission form for the Primary Water Safety Program.

Enjoy a lovely relaxing long weekend!

Moving into Week 4

The students have been working really hard on their summative assessment task for our unit of inquiry exploring light.

There will be no Show & Share for the next fortnight whilst the students complete and then present their summative assessment tasks.

In anticipation for the Prep-Year 4 Celebration Evening on 30th of November the children are also busy learning several songs that they will perform. It would be wonderful if you could help your child to practise the words at home too. Please see the Christmas Songs page on the blog for a Youtube clip of each song as well as the song lyrics.

Have a wonderful weekend!