November 6th 2009
LESLEY’S REPORT
Our school grounds are looking lovely (for the time being!), thanks in no small part at the moment to the efforts of a small group of hard working parents. A big thank you to those families who helped out at the working bee a couple of weeks ago: Lloyd, Haynes/Murray, Cumberland, Supple, Stewart, and Wilson families. A special mention in particular to the Stewart family who have been putting in additional landscaping work around the shed.
Some of you will have noticed that we have a new school website (www.donvalleyps.vic.edu.au). The site is easy to edit and we plan to regularly update sections of the site including: the calendar, news items and photos. Sections of each fortnights’ newsletter will also be included (ads will not be part of this). We hope that the site will be another way in which parents can keep informed about school activities and of course we hope the wider community can find out about our lovely little school as well. So have a browse of the site and check out what information is available.
At present all government schools are being asked to develop a new Student Engagement and Wellbeing Policy. Part of this policy includes a section on student attendance. Obviously there are occasions when children are too unwell to attend school (or need to be excluded given the nature of an illness). I can’t stress too much however, how important regular school attendance is in the development of your child’s academic skills, successful interactions with peers, engagement and connectedness to school and the development of positive habits and behaviours common to successful lifelong learners. Please have a look at the following section of policy on Attendance and provide any feedback/comments. We hope that by clarifying and revisiting our policy that we can raise awareness and streamline our procedures at school.:
· If your child is absent on any school day the school needs to be notified. Communication can be by phone, by email or notifying the teacher or the office for a planned absence. We will keep a record of this communication at the office to assist with our record keeping. (Thank you to those parents who already do this.)
· Any absence of more than a day (or if you have been unable to communicate with the school about a single day’s absence) requires a note on the child’s return to school.
· With any unexplained absence of more than 3 days the school will make a follow up phone call to the child’s home (hopefully everyone will have followed the first two steps!).
· And yes, birthdays, end of year etc. are still school days!
NEWS FROM THE CLASSROOM
PREP/ONE
Over the last couple of weeks we have been working on writing some information texts about plants. This focus has also included carefully observing different plants and making accurate, detailed drawings. Have a look at some of the displays in our room.
In Maths we have worked on money. There has been a very pleasing development of skills among all of the Prep/Ones while working on this unit. Remember sorting, exchanging, counting and adding coins at home or giving your child the opportunity to handle money when you’re out are really important ways to further skills and knowledge.
Next week each of the Prep/Ones will need a jar lid (peanut butter lid size is ideal) to make a small ‘cress garden’.
TWO/THREE
Our grade has been working hard on our integrated studies unit “Australian Animals and their Habitats”. Everybody is working on a scientific report about an Australian animal which will be presented in a poster format. Excellent scientific research and detailed sketching of the animals are helping to create some of the best pieces of work produced this year. I can’t wait to see the final results.
We’ve also been working on developing our story-writing skills by writing some narratives about our animals and their habitats.
The following two pieces of writing are Jarrah’s scientific report about the Frilled Neck Lizard and Houston’s narrative about a Buzzard.
The Frilled neck Lizard (Chlamydosaurus kingii)
Classification:
Frilled Neck Lizards are reptiles.
Description:
Frilled Neck Lizards have a frill around their neck and they can run very fast along the ground on its back legs. It can climb trees. When it gets scared it opens its mouth wide and the frill of skin around its neck and shoulders fans out.
Location:
They live in the deserts of Australia.
Diet:
The Frilled Neck Lizard eats insects and other small animals. They are omnivores.
Lifestyle:
Frilled Neck Lizards usually spend their nights in trees.
Conclusion:
The Frilled Neck Lizard is not as fierce as it looks. It is an interesting animal and I like it.
By Jarrah.
Blazer the Buzzard
Once upon a time there was a buzzard called Blazer. One day he was soaring high in the air. Then he got shot in the wing. He fell to the ground with a thud. His wing bone was snapped in half.
A vet came along. She took the buzzard home to give him an x-ray. Later on that day he woke up. Then he saw a pin in his wing. He was getting scared so the vet gave him another x-ray. The bones were healed.
So she took out the pin and tried to make him fly away. “Go away’, said the vet. “No”, said Blazer. “I want to stay with you”, “Please go”, said the vet. “Okay”, Blazer said. And he flew off as high as he could. “Bye”, he said. Then he went to play with his friends.
By Houston
Stars of the last 2 weeks: Daylan, Billy & Imogen
FOUR/FIVE/SIX
Dear Karen, Cara, Michelle and Patrick,
We had a fantastic camp and want to say a big thank you for all that you did to help organize it. A very big thanks for re-scheduling it so that we didn’t miss out.
Thank you George for your yummy food. I just wanted more and more of it. I liked it when you tricked us and put ox tongue on the menu when it was really pasta.
I really enjoyed going to the restaurant on Sunday night. Thank you for organizing that. The food was nearly as good as George’s.
The Eureka Sky Deck was really cool. I liked how the elevator went really fast and my ears went funny.
The Vietnamese Fresh Food Marked was very interesting and I got to taste foods I had never even heard of. The fried squid tentacles looked really disgusting but tasted great.
At the African Drumming with Shaba, I learnt how to play a djembe drum and some African dance steps. I hope he gets to bring his family to Australia soon.
Thanks for bringing our lunches to us where ever we were. It was so much better than having to carry them around and then having squashed sandwiches.
Vic Market was great and I really liked being able to buy cheap Pokemon cards.
It was interesting at the Zoo being able to see animals that I don’t normally see.
I loved the Aquatic Centre most because the Water Slide and the Wave Pool were really fun.
The shrine was really impressive. It was so much bigger when we got up close than it looked from the road.
At the Museum I saw an aboriginal possum skin cloak. It was really soft and would have been very warm.
St Paul’s Cathedral was very beautiful and calm. I liked spotting all the different creatures in the wooden carved archway.
At the Ian Potter Centre, I learnt that the aborigine’s paintings were often maps that helped to find the water holes and camping places.
The Public Transport experience was really exciting and useful to help us to get around Melbourne when we are older.
Once again, a big thanks. We looked forward to Urban Camp after the older kids told us about it and we know the next kids in 2011 will enjoy it just as much.
Yours sincerely
Grade 4/5/6 Don Valley PS
Viv Pottage
VOLUNTEER WANTED URGENTLY.
Thank you so much for answering our call for a volunteer to do Scholastic Book Club. We had a number of enquiries and Catherine (Connor’s Mum ) and Amanda (Carly’s mum) were first in to volunteer their services and will be taking over and sharing this job in the new school year.
SCHOOL PHOTOS
These arrived and were distributed on Wednesday. We have a whole school photo on display at the office. These are available by order for a cost of $10.00. If you are interested please see
Teresa. Orders must be in by 27th November.
OUR FARM
Spots are filling up but we still need some volunteers to fill our farm roster for the weekends. Thanks you to all those who have volunteered.
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Weekend Beginning |
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10/10/09 |
Jackson |
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17/10/09 |
Emma |
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24/10/09 |
Imogen and Seth |
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31/10/09 |
Jennifer |
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7/11/09 |
Luca |
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14/11/09 |
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21/11/09 |
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28/11/09 |
Lenny and Adam |
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5/12/09 |
Tahlia |
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12/12/09 |
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Holidays |
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· Chickens · Rabbits · Guinea pigs |
Matilda Matilda Jai |
ASTHMA MANAGEMENT PLANS
If your child has asthma we need to have an asthma management plan completed by parents (in consultation with their GP) that we can refer to if necessary. Occasionally asthma can be a life threatening condition and even in less serious circumstances we need to be kept fully informed at school so that we can continue to meet our duty of care. If your child does have asthma and you have not filled in a management plan/unsure if we have a plan/the plan needs updating, please see us at the office so we can facilitate this.
SEVILLE FESTIVAL
Don Valley P & F will be running a snow cone stall at the Seville Festival on Sunday November 8th, so if you can check out the festival and buy a snow cone!
