From the Co-Principals … 16th October 2014 We welcome all students and their families to an exciting last term for 2014! Several new families have joined our school community again this term and we hope they quickly feel part of our larger school family. Students throughout the school are already immersed in our theme – “Superheroes” – as you will see from some of the activities reported on in this newsletter. Weekly newsletters are a great way of keeping in touch with children’s classroom activities so that parents can discuss them further and build on school experiences. At School Assembly yesterday we loved seeing the first instalment of the Kinder Superheroes’ costumes. They have made and decorated their arm cuffs and new items will be added each week until we have fully fledged (or at least dressed) superheroes at the bottom of the school garden! Early Learners are working towards gaining full superhero status too as they complete tasks demonstrating each of their amazing powers. Children in Prep and Group One will be enjoying the novel, “The Tale of Despereaux” – a beautiful story of a mouse who is in love with music and stories and on a quest to save the princess he loves! They will also investigate outer space (clearly the habitat of many superheroes) and reflect their enquiries through artwork. Middle primary students are developing super vocabularies as they enjoy their rich English experiences based around their shared novel, “Flora and Ulysses”. These children will also be investigating the “superheroes” we have in our community – people who are extraordinary in the services they perform for others. Senior students will be inventing superheroes and delving into their lives, considering the rules and laws that all people have to follow (even superheroes) and investigating the scientific principles around their special skills like flight! All of this will culminate in our end-of-year production based around the theme. Get ready to hear superhero songs and some very dramatic performances! We look forward to sharing with you a very enjoyable and interesting term. In “Truth and Happiness” Leonie McNair and Susan Wright Co-Principals “At the beginning…” Superhero Science! The Early Learners were faced with a challenge! We discovered our Ninja Turtles had become stuck in blocks of ice! How could we rescue them? Charlie – “We can use our hands” Zara – “Yes, we can dig him out with our hands” Charlie and Zara tested this theory. Charlie concluded, “No, it’s ice!” and Zara added that “Ice is too hard for our hands.” Iona – “We can smack it.” Arwen – “Get our sticks and crack the ice?” Percy – “Poking and pushing it will be better.” Mrs Chugg then posed the question, “What else could we try?” Charlie – “We could tip it out?” Zara – “We could put our fingernails in and scratch him out.” After trialling these methods unsuccessfully, Mrs Chugg suggested the children could try sprinkling salt onto the block of ice. After a few minutes, water began to appear on the top of the ice block. Where did that come from? Somma – “It’s from the ice!” Zara – “We’re nearly there! It’s got all melty!” Arwen – “It’s getting free! We put a bit more salt on it.” Iona – “When we put the salt on, he gets out!” Arwen – “The salt is great! It’s melting!” We left the block of ice and returned after 15 minutes to check it. We discovered that the salt had made interesting patterns in the block of ice and were also excited to be able to rescue our Ninja Turtle! This play-based experience supports learning in relation to Outcome 4 (Children are confident and involved learners) of The Early Years Learning Framework. It was also great fun! Mrs Chugg  “In the middle …” Socratic Seminar – Terrible Things Can Happen To You Terrible Things Can Happen To You is the name of the comic book Flora in our novel loves to read. It is full of advice about what to do in the event of something terrible happening to you. She has read what you would do if someone swallowed a piece of plastic fruit or what to do if you were wearing a striped shirt and a swarm of locusts descended. In our Philosophy session this week we discussed:   What does TERRIBLE actually mean? Do we often exaggerate when we are telling others about something terrible happening? The children each related a story of something they felt was terrible that had happened to them and we were on the edge of our seats at times! Our Super Novel The Group 2/3 children are very excited about our Superhero theme this term. In English we are reading the novel Flora and Ulysses by Kate Di Camillo. This is a wonderful tale of a girl called Flora and an unassuming squirrel who ends up with amazing superpowers after being sucked up in a Ulysses 2000x Super-Suction, Multi-Terrain Vacuum Cleaner. The novel is full of the most amazing vocabulary (even some words that we have never heard of). We are making a collection of these hard words on one of our display boards so please pop in anytime and see if you know some of their meanings. Mrs Harriet Thyne “Towards the end …” “Steven Lochran’s first novel is a fast-paced action text…the plot remains tense and the sense of drama and excitement are maintained until the closing pages. Lochran has created interesting and complex characters with plenty of scope to develop them further and will appeal to readers in the 10 to 14 plus age range.” This is what the Children’s Book Council of Australia says about Goldrush, the first book of the Vanguard Prime series that is the novel we are sharing in the senior groups. It tells the story of a boy who suddenly (and disastrously) develops superpowers and joins the Vanguard Prime team for training. We are only a couple of chapters into the book but already it has grabbed our attention! NIJSSA Interschool Athletics Carnival Congratulations to our Group 3 to 6 students who qualified for the interschool athletics carnival. The carnival will be held at the St. Leonards Athletics Centre on the 7 th of November from 9.00am to 2.30pm. Students will be arriving at school in the morning and departing school at 8.45am sharp, so please try to be on time. Students will be returning to school for the normal pick up time of 3.00pm. Parents are welcome to collect their children from the carnival but it must be organised (with a note to Mr Smith) by Thursday 6th November at the very latest. We are in need of parent/family volunteers for the day, so if you are able to help please let the office know ASAP (admin@lps.edu.au). Don’t forget, these types of events are truly not possible without the ongoing support and help from parents and family members. LPS Athletics Team Group 6 Group 5 Group 4 Boys Dylan Pearce Timothy Wilson Connor Barker Liam Johnston Harry Booth Pawlos Barratt Gabriel Walton-Clear Stuart Stenton Thomas Swan Lachlan Cahoon Dominic Brierley Charles Mills Connor Shephard Shaiyen Chan Brae Caplin Girls Charlotte Youngman April Coulson Gemma Wright Coco Thyne Sarah Adkins Sophie Coe Madeline Fenner Bronte Valentine Amy Florance Jordan May Shephard Alana Wright Delia Muddle Hannah Woolston Ella Chugg Ava Chugg Group 3 Ned Adkins Charles Skipper Keanu Glynn Jackson Nicholson Ted Peck Luka Cameron Dale Coulson Bella Espie Layla Anderson Zoe Armitage Charlotte Rezaie Zarah Morgan Lilith Dell Athletics Training There will be athletics training sessions held at the Greenfield for the athletics team on Tuesday afternoons from 3.00-4.00pm on the 21st, 28th, and 4th of November. These sessions will help our students to prepare for the upcoming carnival and to ensure they are feeling comfortable and confident about the events they are competing in. If it is raining on any of the three training afternoons, the training session will be cancelled so students will need to be collected at normal times, so please keep your eye on the weather forecast. Mr Lachy Smith Request for Donations of Fabric Scraps Senior Art students are making superhero puppets/dolls this term and we would love to receive any donations of material scraps to use for this project. Many thanks in advance for your assistance! Mrs Jane Brown “Other information …” IMPORTANT DATES Monday 20th – 24th October Wednesday, 29th October Thursday, 30th October Friday, 7th November Wed 12th –14th November Waddamana Camp – Group Six students Scholastic Book Club orders due Waddamana evening for parents of Group Six students NIJSSA Athletics Carnival 9am-2.30pm St Leonards Port Sorell Camp – Group Four and Five students We sadly advise that Mr Lachy Smith will be leaving our school at the end of the year. He is moving to Canada to live! Over the course of this year, Mr Smith has endeared himself to everyone and we have loved having him as our Health and Physical Education teacher. However, we wish him well for the future and look forward to seeing him whenever he returns to Australia. The school will be advertising for a new HPE teacher in this weekend’s Examiner newspaper. I hope that everyone is now aware of the All School Triathlon Challenge event that is being held in Devonport this year for grades three to six. Students are able to enter as an individual and/or as part of a two or three person team. Students are able to compete in both events on the day. Entries need to be in this Friday the 17th of October. It would be the parents’ responsibility to ensure students are able to get to the event due to the small number of students that have showed an interest so far. I truly hope that you consider supporting this event and supporting your our students involvement with it. For further information don’t hesitate to talk to Mr Smith or go to http://www.schoolstriathlonchallenge.com/ Mr Lachy Smith Help Needed Mrs Freeland would love a parent or grandparent to assist with the Multi-Lit Reading programme. This is a one-on-one structured reading programme that has provided invaluable help to many of our younger students. All training is provided. We currently need help for 1½ hours on Monday and Thursday mornings. If you are able to help out on either of these days please contact the office staff on 6334 0234 or catch Mrs Freeland at the back gate. General Reminders Hats are compulsory in Term Four. Coats should be cleaned and kept in school bags in case of inclement weather. Playground equipment should not be used unsupervised after school. Children should NOT be deposited at school before 8.15am. Whilst teachers may be at school prior to this time, they arrive early to prepare for the day and are not on duty to supervise children. *SCHOOL HAT REMINDER* Parents and children are reminded that school hats are a compulsory uniform item in fourth term. If children do not have their own hats to wear at school, they will spend their recess and lunch times sitting in a designated shady spot. We wish to make it clear to school families that this is not designed as a “punishment”; rather, our Sun Smart and Health policies provide for children to be safe during these times of the year when the sun can be so damaging to the skin. School hats are available from the office for $10.00 each. **MOBILE PHONES WANTED** We are after your old mobile phones for two reasons: Firstly, we are in need of a working phone to replace our current phone in the multi-purpose hall. It is important to keep a phone here in case of any emergency or unforseen situation that might occur. Secondly, the Australian recycling program is collecting phones to reduce the impact Coltan mining is having on the mountain gorillas. If you feel you have a phone that could be utilised by the school, it would be greatly appreciated if you could please drop it into the office. If you have an old phone not in working order then feel free to collect or have your child collect one of the recycling bags from Mr. Smith. LUNCH ORDERS – TERM FOUR (available from Friday for all students) Monday: Salad Roll (lettuce, cheese, tomato) Salad Wrap (lettuce, cheese, tomato, carrot) Vegemite Sandwich Fruit Tub $4.00 $4.00 $2.50 $1.50 Friday: Banjo’s Pizza Banjo’s Vegetarian Pastry Roll Fruit Tub $3.50 $3.50 $1.50 *For your convenience, lunch orders can be charged to your school account. Please email the office if you would like this to occur (if you haven’t already done so): admin@lps.tas.edu.au * LOST PROPERTY Each week at assemblies, the Leavers hold up in front of all students those items that have collected in the Lost Property box over the previous week. It’s amazing what we find – sports bags and equipment, single socks and gloves, tubes of lip balm, hair clips and ties, pairs of trousers, shirts and rugby tops! When items are named, it is so easy to return them straight to their owners. However, this is not commonly the case so many items are thrown out or put in our spare clothing pool. This week there were three rugby tops unclaimed after being displayed to students since last term. One bears the name of former student, Seb Wright (size 14); the other two are unnamed (both size 8). If these belong to your family, please collect them from the school office.