Term 2 Week 5 2023
- Principal's News by Tracy Egan
- Team Mango We All Belong!
- Prep News by Michelle Alcorn
- Year 1 News by Melinda White
- Year 2 News by Kylie Vaughan
- Year 3 News by Ellaine Warner
- Year 4 News by Danielle O'Brien
- Year 5 News by Emma Crawshaw
- Year 6 News by Ben Mills
- Curriculum News
- Sporting News by The PE Department
- News from our Partners
Farewell Dallas
This week we mourn the passing of Dallas Leon who was a much-loved member of 4E. Dallas passed away earlier this week after a brief illness.
Dallas has been at Mango Hill SS since Prep and has a brother Boston in 3L. Dallas loved to have a joke and always had a big smile on his face. He loved learning and school and he particularly enjoyed drawing with his friends and playing Pokémon. Dallas enjoyed watching the State of Origin and was an avid Queensland fan. He loved showing photos of his dog and sharing stories.
Dallas is the much-loved son of Anthony and Jordan and a fabulous big brother to Boston. He absolutely loved his family. He enjoyed family holidays and a highlight was his family holiday to New Zealand last year. He loved sharing photos of this experience with his teacher Ms Krosman.
This morning the Year 4 classes talked about Dallas and what they loved about him and it is remarkable what an impact he has had on so many friends. Dallas was a much-loved son, a doting big brother and a friend to all. On behalf of our school community, I extend our love, thoughts and prayers to the family and friends of Dallas. He will always be remembered.
National Road Safety Week
This week we have been focused on supporting students to learn safe travel to and from school. I encourage you to take a few minutes to watch our school’s safe travel options so you can ensure you are part of the solution and support your child to make safe travel choices.
Parent video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C6hnnnMi3Zc
Student video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=52g-b2ucnDI
May I please ask that you also show consideration of our neighbours and follow rules in the surrounding streets and carpark. Could you please take note of the following points.
- Avoid queuing at the back of the school before 2.45pm as it causes congestion for local residents.
- Follow the directions of staff and the Look Out zone. Keep moving forward and do the loop if your child is not there.
- Time your run! If your child is in year 3-6 they don’t get dismissed until 2.45pm and then have to make their way to your pick up point so aim to meet them around 2.55-3pm.
- Park with consideration – avoid disabled parks unless you have a permit, leave the bus lane for buses and do not park in people’s driveways.
- Keep an eye on the zebra crossings. Children can be unpredictable so slow down and be ready to stop!
I know most parents do the right thing however we have a small number who need a gentle reminder to be more considerate for others. Is it worth risking a child’s life to save 10 minutes?.
WE ARE TAKING IT IN OUR STRIDE ON FRIDAY 19 MAY 2023
Well it’s that time of year again when our school seriously starts talking about walking!
Walk Safely to School Day asks that we all consider our transport habits and try to incorporate more walking as part of a healthy, active way to get around. And although walking all the way to school isn’t realistic for many of us, it’s quite easy to figure out how you can build a walk into your family’s daily routine.
You can teach your child the healthy habit of walking more by. Walking with them the whole way to school. If they get the bus, walk past your usual stop and get on at the next stop. If you have to drive, park the car a few blocks away from the school and walk the rest of the way.
Regular exercise like walking with your child not only helps them (and you!) beat chronic problems like obesity, heart disease, behavioural and mental health issues. It also gives you a great opportunity to teach your child safe ways to behave around roads and traffic.
Remember, active kids are healthy kids so get planning your own Walk Safely to School Day journey for Friday 19 May or be a part of the Team Mango Walk!
JOIN US!
The Team Mango Walk will involve a range of staff, students and parents, walking to school together from the locations marked on the map below. Our walking groups will leave at staggered times are as follows.
- Group 1 @ 7.50am
- Group 2 @ 8.05am
Keep an eye out for staff in the Team Mango vests who will be leading the walk! We look forward to a wonderful morning (weather permitting)!
Free Dress Day for Koalas
Our Student Council have a free dress day tomorrow (Thursday)! Students can wear an animal print and bring a gold coin. All money raised will be donated by the Student Council to Save the Koalas!
Have a wonderful week
Tracy Egan
Principal
tegan4@eq.edu.au
Cybersafety Parent Information Session
Our school will be hosting a ThinkUKnow cybersafety presentation tonight at 5:30pm in the Wandani Centre. All parents and carers are encouraged to attend.
ThinkUKnow Australia is an evidence-based education program delivered nationally to keep children safe online.
ThinkUKnow Australia is a partnership between the Australian Federal Police, Microsoft Australia, Datacom and the Commonwealth Bank of Australia. The program is delivered in collaboration with policing partners New South Wales Police Force, Northern Territory Police, Queensland Police, South Australia Police, Tasmania Police, Western Australia Police, as well as Neighbourhood Watch Australasia.
This is a fantastic opportunity for you to learn more about young people and the online environment, and how you can help them to be safe and responsible users of technology.
For more information, you can visit www.thinkuknow.org.au
Parent Chit Chat Channel in YouTube!
Get excited… we now have a Parent Chit Chat Channel on YouTube!
We’ve filmed some short footage around the kinds of questions and topics raised by parents who attended our recent Parent Chit Chat at the Café morning. This term we’ve had one about reading and another about sight words and letters. We’ve combined common questions and concerns from these sessions into this first clip: Reading Hints and Tips.
This Friday we have another Parent Chit Chat morning around Writing. These chats are supposed to be exactly that – a chat. They are guided and directed by parents and carers and we respond to your questions. We learn from each other! Sometimes one parent might have a question about their child and that provokes thinking for another parent about their own child. It’s a relaxed environment. All welcome! And, the coffee is on us.
After this Friday’s Chit Chat, we will put together another clip with the common themes of discussion around writing. We will put the YouTube link in the newsletter when the new one is ready.
We hope you find these little snippets of information useful. If you’d like any information about a different topic, please reach out and make the suggestion to us by emailing mwhit37@eq.edu.au
Focus of the Week
The Care Class focus that will be delivered this Friday is ’Deep breathing’. Subconsciously our body breathes for ourselves. Our bodies develop shallow breathing patterns and we rarely take advantage of our lung capacity. Deep breathing stimulates our relaxation responses and when we consciously breathe deeply we can create a focus for our minds and stop being distracted.
Next week, students will learn the benefits of deep breathing and participate in various breathing exercises that help with calming and our work stamina.
Playgroup Fun
We love spending our Friday mornings with our Playgroup friends and engaging in a range of hands-on playful experiences. Our playgroup meets every Friday morning at 8:45am in the Prep undercover area. Each week we have new and exciting activities on offer and are based on the interests of our little playgroup pals.
This week we are super lucky as our PE teachers will be coming to join us. They are going to take us through some fun activities and be available to talk with mum’s, dad’s and carers about the importance of movement! We hope to see you there.
Exploring Shapes
We have had so much fun in Prep exploring and learning all about 2D and 3D shapes. This week in Prep J we named 2D shapes, identified their attributes and used a range of shapes to create a real world image. We used mathematical language to explain and describe our constructions. As you can see Group 1 decided to make a rocket with stars. Group 2 were so inspired by their design that they extended on their idea to not just construct a rocket but added extra details to include the universe with all the planets included. Such clever use of shapes and ideas. I loved that both groups were able to explaine the use of the particular shapes in their objects.
Well done PJ!
Have a great week
Michelle Alcorn
Deputy Principal- Prep
malco14@eq.edu.au
Writing in Year 1
We are putting all of our learning together over the next week, to complete our writing assessment.
We are learning to introduce a new character in a story to entertain our friends. This character could be likeable or unlikeable. Sidenote: we’re having lots of fun creating unlikeable characters!
There’s a bit to this learning including these tricky things.
- Having original ideas. Our character isn’t in the story – yet! But our character needs to fit within the story. So if the story is set on a farm… we probably wouldn’t have an astronaut as a character.
- Cohesion. Everything needs to fit. The character we create needs to fit within the existing story. Our descriptions of the character traits need to flow. We can’t talk about what they look for five sentences and contradict ourselves with each sentence.
- Sentence construction. We have to take our ideas and create sentences. These sentences have to be interesting – not boring. We’re trying to entertain. We want different starters and joining words (so we have a range of simple and compound sentences).
- Details. We need to be able to craft the piece. This means choosing our vocabulary very carefully to paint a picture in the minds of the reader. Choosing descriptive words helps us to add detail and paint this picture.
- Grammar and punctuation. Our writing needs to make sense. Our spelling doesn’t have to be perfect, but it needs to approximate what we are trying to say, so we are conveying meaning to our audience (our friends).
And now you can see why writing in Year 1 is tricky! We don’t want our students copying the ideas of others. Writers create original ideas and make purposeful decisions about the words they use, to be entertaining and paint images in the minds of our readers.
Aren’t we clever to be able to do this?
Have a great week
Melinda White
Deputy Principal- Year 1
mwhit37@eq.edu.au
Measurement in Year 2
This term the students in Year 2 have ben exploring measurement. They have been comparing and ordering objects based on their length, capacity and area.
When students are measuring:
- length, they are focusing on whether an object is longer or shorter, longest or shortest.
- capacity, they are exploring how much space a container holds.
- area, they are investigating how much space a surface covers.
In Year 2 students do their investigating not with measuring cups, rulers or tape measures but with informal units like unifix cubes, ice cream scoops, paper clips, pegs and post-it-notes. The manipulation of informal units helps prepare students for when they do come to use standard units in later year levels
When students are given opportunities to work with informal units, they start to understand the importance of starting at the edge of the object that they are trying to measure and then making sure there are no gapes when lining up a unit or filling an object.
Look at these super stars in 2P measuring the capacity of different containers by filling them with rice.
Here are some fun ways to measure at home…
- Use playdough to roll snakes of different lengths. Talk about which snake is shorter or longer. Ask your child to explain their thinking.
- Trace your child’s hand or food onto a piece of paper. Use this to measure the length of things such as the dining room table or their bed. Before measuring, ask your child to guess how many hands long the object will be.
- Walk around objects and talk about how many steps it takes.
- Fill up different containers in the bath with water. Talk about which container holds the most/least.
- Discuss different types of measures when cooking with your child e.g. cups and spponfuls.
- Record your child’s height on a height chart. Compare the height of different family members.
- Measure the area of a table top by using sheets of A4 paper to cover the table.
- When wrapping presents, talk about the size of the paper and if the paper will be wide and long enough.
Animal Print Free Dress Day
On Thursday, 18May children are invited to come dressed in their best animal print clothes or nature themed outfit. Children are asked to bring along a gold coin donation. All monies will be collected by the Student Council who will hand over donations to the Moreton Bay Koala Rescue.
Have a wonderful week
The Year 3 teachers and I want to express our deep sadness at the devastating loss of Dallas Leon. Dallas’s brother, Boston, is in Year 3 and he is an absolute treasure to our Year 3 team. Please hold the Leon family in your thoughts.
Learning in Year 3
This term in Science, students are exploring how everyday items can change state from a solid to a liquid and from a liquid to a solid by adding or removing heat. They are linking this knowledge to everyday scenarios to provide suggestions and support their reasons with scientific language. It’s so interesting and fun!
Playing in Year 3
Soccer, ball games and our other play time at school is all about fun, fitness, and friendships. This is another opportunity for our students to develop their fair play, social skills and resilience. Sure, it is nice to score a goal or be the person who tags the most people. It’s even more impressive to be gracious at the same time. And yes, it’s disappointing to lose the point or miss the goal. It’s even more disappointing to blow your lid, lose a friend or miss out on other turns because you have been red carded.
We appreciate every time you teach good sportsmanship, a lifelong positive character trait, to your child at home and we promise to teach it at school. When you see your child display it, please notice and praise it. It’s just that valuable!
Date claimers
Parents, mark your calendars for Friday 2 June as we will be participating in Colour Explosion that day. Parents are very welcome to attend and watch their child complete the Colour Explosion course. Another day to mark off is Friday 16 June when Year 3 will have their Stay and Play. This is your invitation to join us in your child’s Year 3 classroom to celebrate the start of NAIDOC week and all of our students’ successes and joys in Term 2. We hope to see you.
Take care and have a wonderful week
Ellaine Warner
Deputy Principal-Year 3
ewarn23@eq.edu.au
Stay and Play
Thank you to all our loved and cared for family members who attended our Stay and Play last week. It was so wonderful to see so many family members attend Friday’s event and spend some quality time with the students in our classrooms. There were a range of activities hosted across Year 4 including letter reading, games, dancing, pamper parlour and showcasing of student learning. It was wonderful to see so many smiling faces. For those who were not able to attend we very much hope you had a very special weekend!
Please enjoy some of these lovely photos from the morning.
Learning Together
4E this week did a super job working in pairs to improve their learning. Students worked collaboratively to solve multiplication and division problems in different ways, using mathematical language to explain why their strategy was the most efficient. It was great to hear students justify their answers and use different strategies to check their answers were correct. Well done 4E!
Danielle O'Brien
Deputy Principal- Year 4
dxobr0@eq.edu.au
Care for Learning
Our Year 5 students have been hard at work ‘bumping up’ their writing. I had the pleasure of spending time in 5C this week, watching them use all the elements they have learned to make sure their writing was engaging and informing. As I spoke with students and asked them how they were going with their learning, they were able to explain their learning and progress to me, by self-assessing against the lesson success criteria.
EcoMarines showing Care for the Environment
Last week our EcoMarine Ambassadors had the opportunity to visit Tangalooma and continue their quest in caring for the environment. On the day students collaborated with environmental experts and learnt how to care for the environment, in particular the marine environment. They had a fantastic day!
Emma Crawshaw
Acting Deputy Principal – Year 5
ewils209@eq.edu.au
Learning in Year 6
This week I had the privilege of visiting 6D during their Maths lesson on justifying the placement of fractions on a number line. It was amazing to hear from the students in 6D about their understanding of the difference between explaining and justifying in maths. They then applied this understanding to write their own justifications about the placement of fractions on a number line. I heard examples of mathematical language including words like benchmarks, increments, equivalent, related and unrelated denominators, improper fractions and much more.
It was also great to see the innovation on display in 6D, as they used their iPad to support with collaboration of ideas and to access supporting resources through their digital learning wall. Well done Mrs Drummond and 6D!
In 6M, I caught a glimpse of some of the writing work they were doing with Mr McGregor along with some help from Ms Vaf. Students in 6M were working to identify great example of different levels of modality that were used in a text. As they are writing their own text to persuade, understanding the effect of modality on the reader will help students create texts that achieve this purpose.
Graduation
Last week I emailed an EOI for our Year 6 parents and carers to join the Graduation Committee for 2023. Thank you to everyone who has responded. Our first meeting will be held on Thursday 18 May at 5pm in the Wandani Centre. If you would still like to join the Graduation Committee for 2023, please RSVP your attendance at our initial meeting to Jasmine Benfer at jbenf10@eq.edu.au .
.
Ben Mills
Deputy Principal –Year 6
bxmil3@eq.edu.au
AR Millionaire Readers
Congratulations to Leah who late last week joined the AR Millionaire Readers’ Club! We are so proud of Leah who has worked hard to reach her goal. We have added her photo to our special display and look forward to seeing some more students join this club in the coming months.
Premier’s Reading Challenge
Don’t forget that the Premier’s Reading Challenge continues. Forms are attached here and also available from the Hub. Once you have finished your form, drop it into the Hub so we can add it to our database. All successful participants will receive a certificate from the Premier once the Challenge has finished. There is still plenty of time for everyone to join as we have until August to read, read and read some more!
As part of our English program, students have the opportunity to write a range of texts across the year. For most tasks, teachers model and scaffold the learning over several weeks, ensuring that students have plenty of time to become experts with particular texts. As part of Writing Café students also have a chance to write about something of their own choice. This part of English provides students with a chance to show their creativity and to explore a range of different ideas.
In some classrooms students could be writing recipes, letters, instructions, poems or perhaps even a novel. All of these texts are added to each students’ Writing Café folio – a celebration of all their great ideas across the semester. You might like to ask your children about their favourite piece of writing or you might even like to try your hand at home to collaboratively write a family piece. Could you write a family poem or a family story, or perhaps you’ll need to write a movie script? The more we write the better we get, and Writing Café also helps us to build a positive attitude towards this important skill. Happy writing!
Have a fantastic week
Suzette Holm, Jessica Rivett
shol0@eq.edu.au
Term 2 PE
Well this term is all about Sports Day (Prep-2) and the Athletics Carnival (Yr3-6). All students in PE from Prep-Year 6 will focus on preparing for these big events which are held at the end of Term 2.
More information will come out later in the term but at this stage our confirmed dates are as follows.
- Week 10 Monday 19 June – Junior Sports Day (all Year Prep, 1 and 2 students compete)
- Week 10 Tuesday 20 June – Senior Athletics Carnival – Discus, 200m/800m Finals (Some Yr 3-6 students compete)
- Week 10 Wednesday 21 June - Senior Athletics Carnival – 8 & 9 Year Old students (Year 3’s and some Year 4’s compete)
- Week 10 Thursday 22 June - Senior Athletics Carnival – 10,11 & 12 Year Old students (Some Year 4’s, all Year 5’s & 6’s compete)
Due to large student numbers at Mango Hill SS, we have a split Senior Athletics Carnival. This is to ensure students get the maximum opportunity to participate, students have enough space to compete safely and we have enough room for all spectators who attend. It will be a busy end to the term but we are thoroughly looking forward to it!
Interschool Sport (Year 5-6)
A reminder that all Year 5 and 6 students will get the chance to participate in the Pine Rivers Interschool Sports Competition. Students compete against teams from other schools in a variety of sports. The confirmed dates for Pine Rivers Interschool Sport in Term 2 are as follows.
- Friday 26 May (Term 2 Week 6)
- Friday 9 June (Term 2 Week 8)
Pine Rivers District Sporting Trials (10-12yr Old’s)
Pine Rivers District School Sport offers 10-12 year old students the opportunity to try and make the Pine Rivers District team for a variety of sports. If successful, they compete at Metropolitan North trials and carnivals, with the possibility of selection into teams competing at State events. Students must be nominated by their school in order to attend a district trial or carnival.
District trials are held at various venues within the Pine Rivers District (e.g. Les Hughes Sports Complex) and are not attended by MHSS staff. A Pine Rivers District Coach and Manager will facilitate the trial.
Students who express an interest to trial can collect forms from our PE office. They will be given the Pine Rivers District forms and the relevant trial information. Completed district forms are to be returned to the PE office by the due date. Once the forms are collated, students will be nominated for the trial. Forms are then handed back to students and must then be taken to the coach/manager at the District Trials. Students will NOT be allowed to trial if district forms are not handed in completed. Unless specifically organised by the school, it is the parents’ responsibility to transport students to and from district trials.
Most Pine Rivers District trials are limited to students turning 11 or 12 years of age and who are considered at a high level in the sport e.g. Div. 1 or A Grade. Cross Country, Athletics and Swimming trials however are open for students turning 10, 11 and 12 years of age. Sports that students are able to trial for include the following.
- AFL
- Basketball
- Cricket
- Football (Soccer)
- Golf
- Hockey
- Netball
- Rugby League
- Rugby Union
- Softball
- Squash
- Tennis
- Touch
- Triathlon
Mango Hill can normally nominate up to three students for each district sport trial. If more than three students wish to be nominated Mango Hill will select the three best candidates for the trial. The selection of these students may be either based on past performances/current club form or through a selection trial at school.
If you are interested in your child trialling for Pine Rivers District more information can be obtained from the Mango Hill State School newsletter, with regular trial updates listed. You can also contact Mr Nick Hills - nhill96@eq.edu.au (MHSS PE Teacher) so he is aware of your intention to attend the trial.
Mr Hills & Mr Newell, Miss Richards and Mr Lisha
Physical Education Teachers
PCYC Update
Last Thursday morning Sergeant Jeremy came and visited the children at PCYC and the students had a fantastic time engaging with him. Together they were having breakfast, playing games and getting to know each other.
P & C
COLOUR EXPLOSION MEAL DEAL - Friday 2 June 2023
Mini Pizza - Cheese or Ham and Cheese
Jelly Cup or Cookie
Fruit Salad
Fruit Juice
$12.00 - Order through QKR. Orders Close 5pm Monday 29 May 2023.