Term 4 Week 5 2021
- Principal's News by Tracy Egan
- Whole School News
- Prep News by Melinda White
- Year 1 and Year 2 News by Michelle Alcorn
- Year 3 News by Ben Mills
- Year 4 News by Ellaine Warner
- Year 5 and Year 6 News by Martin Winney
- Inclusive Education News by Ellaine Warner
- Curriculum News by Suzette Holm and Danielle O'Brien
- Sporting News by Nick Hills and Tyson Newell
- News from our Partners
- Community News
‘Team Mango’ Values on Display
Over the past month we have had some wonderful student success!
- Fantastic effort and commitment by students at the Battle of the Brains last night. Both teams had lots of fun and performed well with one team finishing 2nd out of the 25 school teams across the district. Special thanks to Mrs Koch for leading this work and Ms Balaam for assisting.
- Congratulations to the debating teams who have improved so much this year. I had the pleasure of attending last week to see them arguing their points fiercely and with respect to their opponents. It was great to see them win two of the three debates. Special thanks to Ms Balaam and Ms Stacey for providing support to students.
- At the Lions Public Speaking Awards, we saw the commitment and innovation of finalists as they described someone who inspires them. Congratulations to Michaela, Ngan, Aliyah, Ipshita, and Areesha who courageously spoke on the night. Special congratulations to Ngan who won second place in Year 6 and Areesha who won third place in Year 5. A huge thanks to Mrs Koch who supported our students and to Ms Balaam who was on the judging panel.
- We only recently found out our school were the equal Pine Rivers Champions for the Cross Country held earlier this year. Great work all students who participated. They trained with commitment and demonstrated excellence with some outstanding results. Special thanks to Mr Hills and Mr Newell for their efforts getting our Team Mango ready for action!
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Recently a large number of students demonstrated excellence at the ILC/MLTAQ Italian Speaking Competition. We are proud of the commitment of all students who entered. Special congratulations to Thalia. ho achieved a Gold Award in the Junior Non-native Year Six category. Thalia used the Italian language to speak about herself, her family, her home, her subjects, her interests and her likes and dislikes. Congratulazione!
Let us congratulate the following students who entered the speaking competition as we had stupendous results. Special thanks to Signora Connie and Signora McEvoy on their teaching of Italian.
Year 6
Anja- Gold Medal 1st Place
Pabasaree- Silver Medal 2nd Place
Sophia- Bronze Medal 3rd Place
Thalia- Highly Commended
Angelina- Highly Commended
Year 5
Ipshitha- Gold Medal 1st Place
Roma- Silver Medal 2nd Place
Ann- Bronze Medal 3rd Place
Areesha- Highly Commended
Jesani- Certificate of Participation
Anika- Certificate of Participation
Year 4
Macey- Gold Medal 1st Place
Rutendo- Silver Medal 2nd Place
Wontaa- Bronze Medal 3rd Place
Kaylee-Highly Commended
Year 3
Rocco- Gold Medal 1st Place
Sesini- Bronze Medal 3rd Place
Sai- Highly Commended
- Our Wakakirri Team were outstanding a few weeks ago. Special thanks to Mrs Kostoglou, Ms Sheehan and all the parents who assisted. We recently received the comments from the judge (below) and are so proud of the teamwork and commitment of our students!
It’s Tuckshop Day on Friday 5 November. We are so fortunate to have a great team at MHSS Canteen and SOLE Café and we recognise the hard work, dedication and contribution of our school canteen and café staff and volunteers. They provide healthy and tasty food and drinks with a smile to students and staff. I encourage you to send thanks to these terrific people for all their efforts!
P & C Meeting
Our final P & C Meeting for the year will be held on Monday 8 November at 6:30pm in the studio. Agenda items include:
- P & C Financial donations to the school
- Credit Policy
- Student Code of Conduct
- Events for the start of 2022.
All parents and carers are welcome to attend.
Have a wonderful week
Tracy Egan
Principal
tegan4@eq.edu.au
Focus of the Week
The Care Class focus that will be delivered this Friday is ‘Personal Values’. We will be consolidating this focus throughout next week.
Students will be learning about “personal values” which are beliefs and attitudes that guide behaviour. Our values are a core aspect of a person’s character and by knowing these values and following them, you can be the person you want to be.
Students will be exploring their Personal Values, to help them:
- Make choices and follow their goals to support who they want to be as a person.
- Helps them to identify times when a behaviour or action may not be consistent with their values.
Below are some examples of values and scenarios.
A great dinner time conversation starter could be…
Yarn and Eats invitation
On Monday afternoon of Week 7, we will hold our 2nd Yarn and Eats afternoon for the year. We welcome all of our students who identify as Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander and their families along to the afternoon as we continue to build connections with each other and within the community. On this afternoon, there will be activities for the kids, food, tea and coffee available, as well as a local artist creating the mural in the hall. We look forward to having another great turn out!
Instrumental Music Concert
The end of Semester 2 Music Concert will be held in Gigum Hall on Thursday 18 November at 6:00pm.
The choir and all of our string and woodwind groups will be performing. If you child is involved in the concert, information will be sent out this week by individual Instrumental Music teachers.
There are no tickets for the concert and we welcome all families to come and listen to the Mango Hill Music groups on this evening.
If you have any questions about the event please contact the relevant Instrumental Music teacher Mr James - mjames38@eq.edu.au, Mrs Bogdan – axbog1@eq.edu.au or Mrs Claire Morrell clmor0@eq.edu.au.
Italiano a Mango Hill!
Term 4 Italian
Preps are preparing a gift to send to Pinocchio in Italy describing Australian items in the Italian language and using language and gestures to exchange gifts across cultures, saying “per favore, grazie and prego”.
Year 1 students are speaking about their favourite family outings, transport and destinations, eg. Vado al mare in macchina con mia mamma.
Year 2 students are re-creating the Italian fairy-tale of Riccioli d’Oro e I tre Orsi discovering that the bears eat soup and not porridge. They are enjoying dramatising the fairy-tale.
Year 3 students are role-playing everyday community interactions including shopping. They have been learning the numbers and quantity, ready to go shopping with Euros, at the Mercato!
Year 4 students have explored the fairy tale of Cappuccetto Rosso identifying the characters and sequencing the story. They are creating another villain for the story describing its physical features and personality traits.
Year 5 students discovered that the first boardgame, Il Gioco dell’Oca, originated in Italy. They are creating an Italian game for Year Twos based on the fairy-tale of The Three Bears.
Year 6 students analysed the fairy-tale of Giacco e il Fagiolo focussing on how emotions are associated with personal experiences of change; on the use of negation, repetition and the past tense. Using the fairy-tale structure, they are creating a new story with new characters, dramatising the story with intonation to show emotion.
Italian Excellence students are planning for a holiday in Italy discovering what each region offers, and how to budget for transport, food, accommodation and sightseeing. They are looking forward to their incursion.
By Signora Connie and Signora McEvoy
Starting our Reading Assessments
Prep Transitions for 2022 are well underway, with two visit and parent sessions over the past two weeks, with two remaining. It has been wonderful to see our new little Preppies mixing with each other. It helps us to get to know them, and them get to know us, so they can be comfortable in our environment to start Big School. If you have a child in your family whom you are yet to enrol, please do so as soon as possible, so your child doesn’t miss all of these valuable transition sessions!
Our current Preps are working very hard to be the very best learners they can be, as they move to Year 1. Ms Holm our English Guru was speaking with our Prep teachers yesterday and there’s research that says if students leave their first year of school believing they are readers and writers, they are more likely to pick up that book over the holidays, read a sign, write a note to their parents and continue that learning over the break. This is so very important to us! So our Prep Teachers are working very hard to ensure each of their Prep students believe in themselves and have a go.
We are starting our reading assessments this week; both Shared Reading and Independent Reading. Shared Reading assesses our students’ ability to understand whole texts, that big comprehension. These are books the students cannot read for themselves, but they develop understanding of the plot and the characters and they make inferences about what could happen next. Independent Reading assesses where our students are at with their decoding and comprehension skills independently. To be good readers, students need to have a bank of sight words, know their letters and sounds, know some beginning reading strategies AND be able to put it all together, to make sense of what they have read. Complex, right?
You can continue to help your child at home by reading TO them, reading WITH them and reading BY their side as they read to themselves. You can also model what it means to be a reader by picking up a book, magazine or newspaper and showing your children what reading stamina looks like.
Have a lovely week… and – happy reading!
Melinda White
Deputy Principal - Prep
mwhit37@eq.edu.au
Solving Money Problems
Our Year 1 and 2 students have really stepped it up this week as they have taken their learnings about money and started to solve some tricky problems. This week students really had to show their knowledge and understanding of money by explaining their answer and proving how they knew they were right. Students were able to draw pictures, make number sentences and demonstrated money values in multiple ways. Mrs Huston’s class loved their shopping this week whilst poor Mrs Olsen, she needed a little help from her trusty students to help make her favourite mistake a right. What clever mathematicians! They really helped Mrs Olsen get her finances back in order.
Donations Needed
Our Imaginative Play lunch time club is on the hunt for some wonderful dress ups as part of our imaginative play corner. If you have any dress ups that you are willing to donate and are in good condition, we would love to add them to our dress up box. Please send any donations to Ms Walters in 1W who will gladly make great use of them at play with her club friends.
Have an excellent week.
Michelle Alcorn
Deputy Principal – Year 1 & 2
malco14@eq.edu.au
Year 3 News
Year 3 can definitely fit a lot into a short week! With no school last Friday, our teachers and students have been working especially hard. In between our regular learning, Year 3 have fit in additional swimming lessons this week, with 3 classes also attending PCYC bike safety excursion. The fast-paced nature of Term 4 will continue over the next few weeks. We are nearly there!
This week, I was lucky enough to observe 3L in action as they participated in a poetry lesson where they were developing examples of language features to match the scene of a haunted house. Students collaborated to develop examples of similes, personification, noun groups, verbs groups, alliteration and more. Following their collaboration time, students then worked individually to write a poem that included some of the language features that they had developed. Mrs Langman challenged her students to create a consistent mood through the deliberate selection of specific language features. It was amazing to see our 3L poets crafting such amazing texts. Well done 3L!
Lunchtime clubs
Across the school we are so lucky to have many lunch time clubs. This term, we have seen Gigum Hall open up to our students in Years 3-6, who are loving this new play space during break times. We also have some wonderful parent volunteers who support lunchtime clubs including arts and crafts, and meditation. Check out some of the photos of the amazing art work created recently in our art and craft club.
Respect
This term, our school-wide theme is all about respect. Our students have been learning about how we show respect through our actions and our words. We can show respect by speaking nicely to peers and adults. We can show respect by listening and being kind to one another. Asking your children what examples of respect they saw at school that day is a great conversation starter as they reflect on their school day.
Ben Mills
Deputy Principal – Year 3
bxmil3@eq.edu.au
Our Year 4 students continue to show care for learning and positive growth mindsets in our Term 4 learning. Students have been working on “bumping up” their unit writing with complex sentences, and making those complex sentences persuasive. They have been displaying their creativity in Writing Café, writing in response to props, prompts or other stimulus. You would all be so proud of your children in Math as they solve problems using addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. Teachers are providing that “last push” so each student in Year 4 succeeds. In every learning area, your children are reflecting on their learning and thinking about their next steps. I have included some photos so you can see too …
Electives
After a break for camp and a public holiday, Electives start up again this Friday afternoon. There are just three more weeks of Electives as we head into the last half of Term 4.
Respect
Across the school, our Term 4 theme is “Respect”. I had the pleasure of being in 4B yesterday and seeing Respect in words and action as our students welcomed a wonderful visiting teacher for the day. Congratulations to all of 4B on their display of this important Mango Hill State School value.
Have a fantastic week.
Ellaine Warner
Deputy Principal - Year 4
ewarn23@eq.edu.au
Care for Learning in Year 5 and 6
Thank you to all of the classrooms that have invited me to be a part of the learning in Year 5 and 6 this week. I have had the pleasure of working in 6C, 6K, 5P and 6P as they continue to engage and stretch their learning of the current English and Maths units. It has been great to see so many students using their scale to self-reflect on where they are currently sitting in terms of their achievement and pinpointing their next best learning move. I also have really appreciated observing teachers embedding opportunities for students to collaborate, debate, discuss and defend their thoughts and opinions with their peers. It has been great observing so many engaged students talking about their learning.
2022 Student Leadership
Well done to all the Year 5 students who have successfully completed and submitted their Student Leader Passport. A reminder to all students that if they want to be considered for a leadership position in 2022 they need to have their passport completed and submitted to the office by Friday 5 November. Good luck future leaders!
Year 6 Graduation
Invitations for the Year 6 Graduation went out to Year 6 students this week. We look forward to celebrating such a wonderful achievement with our Year 6 cohort. Graduation will officially begin at 4:45pm for a 5:00pm start on Wednesday 8 December in Gigum Hall at Mango Hill State School. Following the usual graduation formalities and the recognising of each Year 6 student, families and students will be invited to purchase dinner at the food vans and to have fun participating in the disco, trivia and games. Families and students are also invited to keep a memory of the event through the photobooths supplied. As per each year, each student is invited to nominate two adults to attend the graduation as their guests. We encourage families to discuss this with the student as the school will respect the wishes of each individual student. Adults who do not attend the graduation evening but wish to celebrate the achievements of our Year 6 students will be invited to attend the Year 6 parade out of the school in Week 10. I look forward to having our community come together to celebrate
Have a terrific week.
Martin Winney
Deputy Principal – Year 5 & 6
mwinn7@eq.edu.au
End of Year Transitions
Around this time of the year some of our students start to ponder the end of the year and all the changes associated with that. For some students, the unknown such as who their new teacher will be and whether their friends will be in the same class may cause them to feel worried. You might notice your child’s behaviour change over these next weeks as they try to process these worries.
As we approach the end of Term 4, class teachers and Inclusive Learning teachers prepare students for transitioning to their new year level. If you notice your child feeling worried, you might like to try the following:
- Allow your child to talk about how they are feeling
- Talk positively and “share your calm” about moving into the next year level
- Sometimes a cuddle with you and a favourite activity together can soothe worries
- Let them write a note to their new teacher about themselves – things they want their teacher to know about them.
- Reassure them that even though there will be some changes there are still lots that will stay the same. Help your child make a list of all the things that will stay the same and refer to it each time your child feels worried.
Have a great week
Ellaine Warner
Deputy Principal - Inclusion
ewarn23@eq.edu.au
Assessment
Over the coming weeks, teachers are gathering data from a range of tasks to determine which skills and understandings students have developed this term. In Maths, students will be busy demonstrating their learnings and understandings across a range of Mathematics strands.
- In Prep, students will represent practical situations to model addition and subtraction, connect events with days of the week, order the duration of events, and answer simple yes or no questions to collect information and make simple inferences.
- In Year 1, students will recognise Australian coins according to their value, tell time to the half hour, explain time durations and become fluent with a range of mental strategies to solve number facts.
- In Year 2, students will recognise the value of money and perform simple money calculations, tell time to the quarter hour, use a calendar to identify dates, months and seasons and become fluent with a range of mental strategies to solve simple addition and subtraction problems.
- In Year 3, students will represent money values in various ways and count out change, gather, organise, represent and interpret data displays, identify symmetry in the environment and recall addition and multiplication facts for single digit numbers.
- In Year 4, students will choose appropriate strategies for calculations involving multiplication and division, and recall multiplication facts to 10 x 10 and related division facts. They will identify and explain strategies for finding unknown quantities in number sentences and will solve problems involving time duration and convert between units of time.
- In Year 5, students will solve simple problems involving the four operations using a range of strategies and check the reasonableness of answers using estimation and rounding. They will explain plans for simple budgets and will use a grid reference system to locate landmarks. Students will list outcomes of chance experiments with equally likely outcomes and assign probabilities between 0 and 1.
- In Year 6, students will describe rules used in sequences involving whole numbers, fractions and decimals. They will compare observed and expected frequencies and interpret secondary data displayed in the media. Students will describe probabilities using simple fractions, decimals and percentages and write correct number sentences using brackets and order of operations.
We look forward to seeing the progress demonstrated by each student. The successes will be shared via the Semester 2 Report cards, which teachers will begin work on soon.
Number Facts
To assist with this learning, it is important that students are learning and practising their addition, subtraction, multiplication and division number facts. Knowing these facts assist students to apply this knowledge across a range of contexts.
A resource we recommend using for practising number facts is ‘Hit the Button’ (https://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/hit-the-button). This site allows students to practise a focus number fact or strategy at a time and in a variety of formats (it can also be downloaded as an app). Using this for 5 minutes a day will be an excellent way to reinforce the learning done at school. Attached below are the number fact strategies.
Have a great week
Danielle O'Brien
dxobr0@eq.edu.au
AR Millionaires
Congratulations to Prabhnoor and Zara who late last week reached their goal of 1 million words! Congratulations also to Ngan who this week reached her goal of 2 million words! These students are such a great example of growth mindset in action. We love that they are still working hard right up until the end of the school year. We are very proud of Prabhnoor, Zara and Ngan and have added their photos to our special AR display.
As the year draws to an end, this is a great time to finish with a sprint – especially if you are aiming to reach 1 million words. Pop on down to the Hub before or after school, or during a lunchtime club to find the perfect book to read next! The Hub is open from 8.15am each morning, and until 3pm every afternoon. We are very excited to now be using our air-conditioning, so even if the door is closed we may be open!
Lost Property
We have a large pile of ‘lost’ coats and jumpers in our Lost Property that we would love to return to their owners. Many of these do not have names on them, but you are welcome to visit and see if one matches your size!
Happy Reading
Suzette Holm
shol0@eq.edu.au
Big PE Dates in Term 4
A reminder of our big dates this term in PE:
- 19 November (Friday, Week 7) – Gala Day (Year 5-6)
- 2 December (Thursday, Week 9) – MHSS Swimming Carnival (8-9yrs)
- 3 December (Friday, Week 9) – MHSS Swimming Carnival (10-12yrs).
MHSS Swimming Carnival Information for Years 3-6
Later this term our MHSS Swimming Carnival for all Year 3-6 students will be held. Our goal is to ensure all students can participate in a variety of swimming races and have an enjoyable day with their peers.
In 2020, we have made the decision to split our carnival over 2 days. Students in Years 3-6 who are turning 8 and 9 years old in 2021 (Born 2012 and 2013) will compete on the first day, which will be Thursday 2 December (week 9). Students in Years 3-6 turning 10, 11 and 12 years old in 2021 (Born 2009, 2010 and 2011) will compete on a second day, which will be Friday 3 December (week 9).
Students compete at sporting events, including at representative levels, in age groups, not in year levels. Therefore, our carnival days run to align with this process.
Below is the initial parent information for both days. Students will receive more information at school in the coming weeks. This will include a permission and race nomination form, which will need to be returned for your son/daughter to attend. There is no cost for parents associated with the swimming carnival days.
State Softball Championships
George from Year 6 last week competed at the Queensland School Sport Softball Championships. He represented Metropolitan East Region who finished as runners up for the competition. We are proud of George’s efforts and the commitment he displayed at the State Championships. Well done George!
If you need to contact us regarding any sporting issue at MHSS, feel free to send an email to Mr Nick Hills (nhill96@eq.edu.au) or Mr Tyson Newell (tnewe20@eq.edu.au).
Mr Hills & Mr Newell
Physical Education Teachers
nhill96@eq.edu.au
tnewe20@eq.edu.au
Sole Cafe
It's that time of the year again!!
Are you looking for a gift idea for your child's favourite teacher??
We have the answer!
Did you know that the Sole Cafe offers gift cards? They are available for purchase online.
https://squareup.com/gift/4GTGP7J4J9XQC/order
Alternatively you can purchase a gift card over the counter at the cafe.
We look forward to seeing you
Sole Cafe
Mango Munchies
Due to circumstances beyond our control we have a few menu options that are unavailable. Please bare with us while we try to source these items elsewhere.
Have a great week
Mango Munchies
Uniform Shop
Uniform shop hours during the term are:
Monday 8:00am - 10:30am
Wednesday 1:30pm - 3:30pm
Friday 8:00am - 10:30am
Online @ www.wearitto.com.au/schools/mango-hill-state-school.
Prep Appointments - Only two more sessions to go! If you have a new Prep student starting in 2022, we have Prep fitting appointments. They will run at 15 min intervals on Friday mornings Nov 05 and Nov 12, starting at 9:45am. Bookings can be made at https://wearittomangohillss.simplybook.me/v2/
You can still purchase online, online purchases can be easily collected from our shop or sent to your child's class. If you would like it sent to class, just send an email to mangohill@wearitto.com.au with your order number, child's name and class, and we can get it to them.
To keep in line with current guidelines, can we please still have 1 customer in the store at a time.
Thank you
Zoe and Rochelle
