Term 3 Week 10 2021

Learning Update

What an impressive term from our Year 3 students! I am incredibly proud of watching their progress this term and seeing them challenge themselves in new ways. The past week has really highlighted this. There have been opportunities for teachers to celebrate with students and their parents during parent-teacher interviews their successes for the term. Over the past week, students have been showing what they have learned throughout the term, completing a range of assessments. One of the more exciting tasks that classes have taken part in, is their speaking and listening activity. Students have been working in teams to participate in a debate on a given topic. It has been inspiring listening to the passionate delivery and convincing language used by Year 3. Well done!

Electives

Electives wrapped up for the term this week. It is always fantastic to see the way our students participate in learning about areas of interest such as coding, sports and digital media. Thank you to our teachers for sharing their passion in these areas with our students.

Celebrations – Growth Mindset and Homework

At the end of this week, Year 3 will be participating in celebrations to recognise their successes in homework completion and demonstrating a growth mindset. Growth mindset was our schoolwide theme this term. Our Year 3 students have worked hard to enact this theme each and every day, by setting and working towards their goals. I look forward to visiting classes as they celebrate their success this term. I am sure we will continue to see our growth mindsets on display in Term 4!

PCYC presentation

Next term, Year 3 students will be attending the PCYC at Redcliffe to learn about bike safety. On Wednesday afternoon, a guest speaker from the PCYC came out to share with our students some prior learning before they attend the excursion in Term 4. Parents are encouraged to speak to their children about this experience to hear about what they learned.

Term 4 events

Term 4 is a very busy term for everyone across the school. In Year 3, we have our PCYC excursion, swimming lessons once a week, swimming carnival and school concert towards the end of term. Term 4 always goes quickly, but is a lot of fun! I hope that all of our students and their families have a safe and restful holidays in preparation for a big final term!

Year 4 News

Our Year 4 students are finishing Term 3 strong - still learning and showing their growth mindsets. It has been a pleasure this week to see students completing their Speaking and Listening assessment. Students are participating in discussions, reflecting on several ebooks created to retell an Aboriginal Dreaming story. Students have the opportunity to take on different roles in the discussion.

I was with one of the classes this week when students reflected as a class on their participation and success in the task. It was amazing to hear the students demonstrate their insight and recognise the strengths of their peers contributions.

Classes are continuing to focus on Connection too. I took a couple of “snaps” in a class yesterday to share with you, when students were doing a mindfulness activity and then preparing for break time by reviewing clubs and play choices. 

Best wishes for a happy and safe break over the next two weeks. I look forward to seeing all our wonderful Year 4 students in Term 4 for another term of learning and exciting opportunities!

Connection and Clarity in Year 5 and 6 

As we complete our final week of Term 3 we reflect on what has been an extraordinary term for our Year 5 and 6 students. Our term begun with our Year 6 students venturing off to Tallebudgera for their Heroes’ Adventure Journey; a great opportunity for them to connect with their peers and develop interpersonal skills vital for adulthood. We look forward to our Year 5s experiencing this opportunity in 2022. As the term progresses our teachers and students focussed relentlessly on ensuring every student had clarity of what they needed to do to be successful in their learning. As we collate our final data for Term 3 I am excited to celebrate our results as we ensure every student experiences success and progress. Have a wonderful holiday and I look forward in coming back together for Term 4.

Year 6 Graduation 

Thank you to all of the parents who volunteered their time and money to support the Year 6 Graduation fundraising during the Arts Fest. I take it as a privilege to work in such a great community and in partnership with so many great families. Early next term I will organise our next Graduation Committee meeting to commence the final touches for graduation.

Electives – Drones

This term Mr Olsen has facilitated the cutting edge elective, Drones. Students have spent the term being exposed to concepts and skills needed for the 21^st Century such as coding to achieve a purpose. Students I spoke to have really enjoyed connecting with one another and supporting each other to learn new things that they may need to know in the world of the future.

Have a terrific week.

Inclusive Education

23 September is International Day of Sign Languages. This day acknowledges the importance of sign language in the full realisation of the human rights of people who are Deaf and hard of hearing. Around the world there are approximately 300 different sign languages used by more than 72 million people, including Auslan (Australian Sign Language) used here in our community every day. You may have seen Auslan being used at Press Conferences, interpreting for ministers and health officials and also here at school in classrooms and whole school parade.

Here are some facts about sign languages:

• Sign language varies from country to country and also within different regions in a country.
• Sign language includes facial expressions, hand movements and position, gestures and body language. Any change in one of these components will change the entire meaning of the sign.
• Sign languages have their own grammar.
• The direction of the palm of the hand can change the meaning of the sign.
• Two movements of the same handshape can have different meanings.
• People who use sign language often use name signs to refer to specific people. These signs are specific to each person and do not require fingerspelling.

Happy International Day of Sign Languages! For more, please go to: https://youtu.be/_qO-ybCQQFI – International Day of Sign Languages and https://youtu.be/efWCGjikFu8 - How to sign ‘Happy International Day of Sign Languages’.

Have a great week

Italiano at Mango Hill in Term 3!

By Signora Connie and Signora McEvoy

What we learned

Preps introduced and described their class mascot in Italian.

Year One interacted and conversed in Italian about their likes and dislikes of food with their peers while participating in a class picnic.

Year Two developed their Italian language skills through a real-life experience of interacting, ordering and paying for a gelato from an Italian native speaker with his Gelato cart.

Year Three contributed to a "Dov’e`Orsetto?" class picture book by writing in Italian and illustrating to show the use of prepositions and adjectives.

Year Four communicated about eating practices, asking and responding to questions in Italian.

Year Five wrote a magazine article about their dream home and labelled the text features and language features used on the magazine page.

Year Six created personal timetables and consulting the timetable, planned outings over the phone, expressing preferences, availability and unavailability, with friends.

The Italian Excellence Group maintained a spoken conversation in Italian about themselves for five minutes.

Pine Rivers Show Display and Gigum Arts Fest

Our Italian work was on display at the Pine Rivers Show – a wonderful way to showcase our Italian Languages program.

Our Year 1 and Year 4 Carnevale masks, and Year 6 Mosaic work featured at our very own Gigum Arts Fest – a striking display of students’ Italian work.