Wendy's Class

Wendy’s Class Week 5 Term 3

Our Maths unit on data has been filling our days with very real information to graph in a range of ways. The data collected about how Currambena people travel to school was fascinating. Last week, Elaine ( our Scientist in Residence) helped us to collate and then analyse the data and to calculate that we generate about 170kg CO2 per day as a school in our travels. Next step is to figure out what we might do to reduce this! The walking bus sounds like a  good start!

Then we had our Rubbish Free Lunch on Wednesday where we audited the lunch waste in the afternoon. We have graphed the results which were very interesting. We managed to reduce our rubbish significantly between the two waste audits… see the report in this Newsletter.

Our third graphing exercise started this week with some daily times tables practise after which we are  graphing our individual results.  We have a whole group of emerging statisticians!!

This week we are also reading and writing poetry with great enjoyment. Please send in any books of poetry you would like to share with us. I hope you will read some of the original creations – and some transcribed for the joy of it -  in this Newsletter.

As well as all this, our friend Moses Aaron, story teller, is coming to our group this Friday for his final story-telling performance. He is retiring from storytelling and has asked us to hold a Soiree, where he will not be the only performer. Quite a few of the kids will be performing songs, reading poetry or stories or dancing. Then we will all walk up to Lane Cove for lunch together. Should be a fun day.

The piano players will also have the chance to perform on Friday at School Meeting. Good thing that lessons are back to normal schedules this week! Keep playing and practising and bring your books on Friday. We will take the keyboard down to the spare room for the meeting.

In other areas, Personal Interest Projects are now underway. Due date is Friday 18th September. Art/craft lessons with Chris are producing some wonderful creations on Thursdays. Colour mixing, charcoal drawings and special glazes have featured over the last few weeks. The children are learning some great new skills. Our Science Experiments have recently given way to our other activities but we still have a list of experiments to conduct… Bubble experiments are next!

Thank you to everyone who has come in for Parent Interviews. I have very much enjoyed talking about each of the children with you. Speak to me about making a new time if you were unable to make your interview.

Please also speak to me if you are interested in the possibility of going to Moree for the Y@G Aboriginal dance festival there in the week starting 21st September. It might be possible to go just for the first day or so to get the feel for it with a view to a future Currambena excursion/camp.

That’s all for now, except to thank Margaret, Peter’s mother for her donation to the school of an “Eye Clops” magnifier which can be plugged into the Tv and used as a microscope! That will be great fun for us all!

Have a great week.

Love,   Wendy

Posted August 27th, 2009 in Wendy's Class by wendyp

Wendy's Class

Wendy’s Class Week 4 Term 3

Hi everyone.

Firstly, thank you to Rowena for taking the group last Friday when I was away. The kids all seemed to have a   great day.

This week in Wendy’s class we are running a Rubbish Free Lunch Day to raise awareness about the amount of rubbish generated by school lunches. Last Wednesday we conducted the first audit of lunchtime rubbish and today we are doing the same…. after an education program with each class about how to reduce, recycle or re-use instead of just chucking away! We will write  a full report about our findings for next week’s newsletter. If we are able to substantially reduce the amount of rubbish, we may be eligible for a grant from Lane Cove council to purchase more worm farms and compost bins.

Also this week is the 40 Hour Famine which starts at the end of the week. Some children are giving up technology or talking and some will be fasting. Please give generously for it’s all in a good cause. The funds this year are going to assist famine victims in Africa.

We are choosing a new book to read aloud this week and there are many suggestions! Children in our group read widely and have strong opinions about what they would like me to read to them! We are completing comprehension questions and mini projects about our new pet rats to ensure we all know as much as possible about their needs. In Maths, we are completing a unit of work on data, graphing and some beginning  statistics. Elaine (our scientist in residence)  is working with us this morning on the statistics we collected about how children travel to school each day.

Our unit on science (chemistry and other experiments) has been on hold with so much else going on but we’ll be doing more of that next week and possibly visiting CSIRO for a science excursion later this term.

Parent interviews are proceeding well… remember to come and speak to me if you are having trouble finding a time to suit. From Monday next week, piano lessons will be back to normal. I am sorry for all the disruption and I hope everyone has continued to play, play, play!!

I think that’s all for today. Please feel free to come in and look at our new pet rats. The agreements about handling them are on a poster on the door.

Have a great week.

Love,  Wendy

Posted August 20th, 2009 in Wendy's Class by wendyp

Wendy's Class

Wendy’s Class Week 3 Term 3

There are many very important things happening at the moment, among them Parent Interviews. Thank you to everyone who has signed up for a time already. Please speak to me if you have trouble finding a suitable time.

Thanks also to the people who worked on saving the trees from the encrouching tanbark at the weekend, and thanks also to those who came to our Laura Presentation night last night. It was good to revisit that wonderful experience and share photos and thoughts. There is certainly some enthusiasm for doing the trip again in 2011 when the next festival will be held. There is also interest in the idea of attending a dance festival in Moree in September, the first to be held in NSW since 1938! The details of this are in this Newsletter. Because this event is so soon, families who want to go should contact the organisers and make their own arrangements.

Several of the children have written about the new pets in our room. I hope you will read all about them.

Also, I have made the booking for Jervis Bay at the end of the year for the week commencing Monday 30th November. This is our week long end of year camp so please put it in your diaries!

With Parent Interviews most days, please make sure that children check the time for their piano lesson is not taken for an interview.

That’s all for today.  Have a good week. 

  Love,   Wendy

 

RATS!!

Wendy’s class now has rats in their class so you need to be quiet and do NOT put your fingers through the gaps or they will bite you and we will have to get rid of them. Only Wendy’s class can open the cage. Wash your hands before and after you hold the rats and also you have to ask Wendy and one of Wendy’s class has to get it out. Use two hands to hold them.   Always keep the cage closed. Only hold one at a time. The rats’ names are Ellie and Sooty and you can play with them. By Lillie .   picture to go near this please Tracey…!!

In our class we just got some pet rats and we have some class agreements. You can come in our classroom to have a look at the agreements if you want. The rats have personalities, like Ellie is known for being very adventurous, but quiet at the same time, she is brown with white near her tail, and Sooty is also known for being  adventurous, and she also loves her food, she looks a lot like a dirty chimney sweep covered in soot, that’s probably why she is called Sooty. By Holly .

Wendy’s class have now got pet rats! There is, Ellie, and Sooty. There are some agreements for the rats. First of all you have to be quiet. Rats are nocturnal and are not used to such loud noises. EspeciallyEllie.If you want to hold them, you have to ask Wendy first. You MUST WASH HANDS before AND after handling. ONLY Wendy’s class can take the rats out of there cage. ONLY hold one rat at a time. Hold the rats GENTLY and you must always hold them on you. Be sensible with them. If you are scared of holding them, it would be best NOT to hold them. Make sure you share rat time. ALWAYS keep rat cage closed! Use two hands to pick them up. Sit downwhile holding. That’s about it! Enjoy the rats! By Jody

Posted August 12th, 2009 in Wendy's Class by wendyp

Wendy's Class

Wendy’s Class Week 2 Term 3

Today I have put up a timetable for Parent Interviews to start next week. Please write your name in a time slot that suits you and come and speak to me if you are unable to find one that does. It is really important that everyone makes time to come in and talk about their child’s progress in all the Key Learning Areas. As usual, we will have written reports as the basis for these interviews. PIANO STUDENTS WILL NEED TO CHECK THE LIST ON THE DAY BEFORE THEIR LESSON  to see if that time has been taken for an interview. I hope to have the interviews over in a reasonable time so that piano is not disrupted for too long.

REQUEST! We are going to participate as a school in the North Sydney Region RUBBISH FREE LUNCH CHALLENGE. We will need some adult helpers for this and it will involve some time spent at school during a couple of afternoons in August. PLEASE speak to me if you are able to help. It is a very worthwhile exercise which aims to reduce the amount of rubbish generated by school lunches each day!

We also have the 40 HOUR FAMINE in August. More on this next week.

In class at the moment, we are concentrating on writing descriptions and working on fractions, decimals and percentages. I hope that some of the descriptions will appear in these pages! We are also doing science experiments and beginning to plan our class play for this year. On Monday, we had the first PE session for the term and the choices available seemed more than adequate to satisfy the interests of all the children. The meditation session I led was a great success with about 14 children learning and practising two types of meditation, one  based on breathing and one walking. the children will have another 2 sessions of this choice before changing to another activity.

I think that’s all for today! Have a great week.     

 Love,   Wendy

Posted August 5th, 2009 in Wendy's Class by wendyp

Wendy's Class

Wendy’s Class Week 1 Term 3

It was great to see all the children back yesterday, looking taller, rested and well! There was so much sickness around at the end of last term. Let’s hope we all stay well for a while now!

Thank you so much to the parents who came and cleaned up at the Maintenance Day on Sunday. It was gorgeous to come in and see everything looking so good on Monday!

We have started making plans for the term and we are very keen to go on lots of excursions, mainly to Museums and maybe to CSIRO Science Labs as well. We also have the 40 Hour Famine this term, Tree Day this Friday and a Rubbish Free Lunch event later in August. We also intend to write our play for the concert which is in week 4 of next term so we are definitely going to be busy… nothing new there!

On TUESDAY 11 TH AUGUST at 7 pm we will have a presentation about the Laura trip. We’ll show the photos and talk about the whole experience. We will also discuss the possibility of going again in two year’s time. There is another Indigenous Dance Festival, this time in Moree in NSW, this coming September and I will pass on information about this to anyone interested.

Another important feature of Term 3 is our Parent Interviews. I will put up a timetable for these in the next few days. Please talk to me if you are unable to find a time that suits you.

This week we are finishing off our Project Presentations from last term and completing some work on fractions and decimals. We are also starting a unit of work on description in English. The children are very keen to do lots of science this term so  that will be another focus in our planning. PE is going to be a bit different without Luuk and Willem but we are planning to offer a range of choices on Monday afternoons including dance, basketball skills, team ball games, bushwalking and meditation! Should be fun.

This term we are continuing with the Free Friday concept, which involves School Meeting at 9:30 and then a very flexible day with opportunities for 1:1 work, reading, times tables tests and catching up on anything incomplete  at the end of the week. Chris is here for the whole day and so the craft room is open and available to everyone. We all enjoy it very much!

Enjoy your week, too!               

 Love,  Wendy

PIANO AND GUITAR  lessons will start again next week. Thanks.

Posted July 29th, 2009 in Wendy's Class by wendyp

Wendy's Class

Wendy’s Class Week 11 Term 2

Thank you so much to Karen and her hard-working team for the great success of Currambena’s 40th birthday party/reunion celebration on Sunday. The weather was glorious and so was everything about the day. The kids loved singing their song and there was just such a good atmosphere. It was simply wonderful for me to catch up with so many very special and precious people from so many years of Currambena’s history.  A real treat. Thank you very, very much.

Thank you also to Rowena who took my group while I was away yesterday. I finally succumbed to the nasty cold that has been going around. I hope no-one else comes down with it before the end of the week.

This week we have all the Personal Interest Project presentations to see and we will be finishing off and filing work samples for portfolios. Early next term we will have our Parent Interviews and I hope you will all have the chance to look through the portfolios before then.

During the holidays, I would like all the children to continue reading every day and to practise their times tables regularly. We had Lucie visiting on Monday (Lucie left Currambena for High School at the end of last year) and she reinforced how important it is to know times tables in High School! A timely reminder! Spelling and maths text books could also be taken home if any children want to do so.

I hope you all have very safe and enjoyable holidays. Keep well!

Love,  Wendy

Posted July 8th, 2009 in Wendy's Class by wendyp

Wendy's Class

Wendy’s Class Week 10 Term 2

First this week is to welcome Codey and Michelle and their families to Currambena and to our group! Codey visited last Information Morning and is joining us this week. Michelle is Jody’s cousin and she will be with us til the end of the year. It is great to have them both with us. We are now 19 in our group!

Secondly, thank you so much to Rowena for taking the group while I was at Laura and Cairns with the group of 25 parents and children who were lucky enough to be part of this amazing experience. The three days of the Laura Indigenous Dance Festival were filled with the colours and sounds of aboriginal dancing in the beautiful valley of the Laura River, impassable in the wet season, but a tent city of 5000 people for the festival. We saw rock paintings of quinkins and timaras, swam in the river, watched dancing by day and night and made some great contacts. Next time we go, we have been invited to visit a school in Cairns which is a Centre of Excellence for indigenous dance and sport. Our days in Cairns were filled with trips to Kuranda, Cape Tribulation, Mossman Gorge, the Daintree River (complete with crocodiles!) and the Barrier Reef and, of course, Marco Polo in the hotel pool!  We have a wonderful collection of photos and will make sure we set aside an evening early next term to give a presentation about it and begin planning for next time in 2011.

I am still catching up with all the activities of the children who stayed here at school. Particularly stunning is the huge canvas they made… I am hoping we can get it up to the Lane Cove Library for the NAIDOC Week display.

This week we are all looking forward to the Reunion/BBQ/40th Birthday for Currambena on Sunday and hope many of you, our current families, will be there. I need to know which of the piano and guitar players will be there during the afternoon and wish to be part of the entertainment… so please make sure your children know their availability. The opening performance of “We’re the Believers” will be at about 1pm and the other performances from  3pm.

This week our Personal Projects are due on Friday and many children have requested extra class time to work on these. We will certainly be doing this. It is a great help if children can have their information in print form with them (books or pages printed from Wikipedia) and they can use that to create their first draft.  Some children are also bringing their partially completed projects on portable storage devices (USB) so they can change or add things at school then take it home easily as well.

Please remember to help with times tables practice at home and encourage reading every night. It will be important to continue this through the holidays as well.

Have a great week … see you on Sunday!

With love,   Wendy

Posted July 1st, 2009 in Wendy's Class by wendyp

Wendy's Class

Wendy’s Class Week 8 Term 2

Hi everyone! It is hard to believe that, after all these years of thinking and planning, the Laura trip is about to happen at last! We set off tomorrow morning on this great adventure… many thanks to Lynne for all her hard work in getting it all together. Fran will be joining us for the weekend at the festival and we are sure to bring back many stories… not to mention photos!

Those staying here at school will also be having a great time, starting with the excursion to Berry Island on Thursday. I will look forward to hearing their stories, too, when we return! Rowena will be assisting Olivia and taking the stayers in my group for the week.

The social on Friday night was a great success and a fitting tribute to our two Dutch PE teachers (jam, toothpaste and all!) This week is being dominated by the need to say goodbye to them. All the children will miss them both so much and personally, I can’t thank them enough for all the fun they have brought us this year with their lessons and games. Farewell, Luuk and Willem!

Because I’ll be away, there will be no guitar lessons next week and I will start piano again on Friday 26th.

Look forward to seeing you all again then.    Love, Wendy

Posted June 17th, 2009 in Wendy's Class by wendyp

Wendy's Class

WEndy’s Class Week 7 Term 2

Thank you to everyone who was patient and helpful with the survey takers at the gate yesterday. And special thanks to the survey takers themselves, especially Isla and Lillian who remembered to come in early after the long weekend to do their shift at 8am! Children will be conducting the survey today and then again on Friday after which we will begin to collate the results.

A huge THANK YOU to everyone who donated goods or food for our Mini Fair last Friday… and thanks to everyone who came and spent some money with us! We raised over $300 for Pias and his community in Uganda. A great effort!

Friday’s more relaxed timetable worked very well for the Mini Fair event and also allowed me time to hold a conference/interview with each of my students about their work and current progress in all the curriculum areas. We will probably trial this again this week.

Next week, on Thursday, the travellers will be off to Laura in central Queensland and those remaining at school will begin a very special week of Aboriginal studies activities with Olivia and Rowena. It is hard to guess who will be having the best time… but we will certainly have a lot to share when we get together again on Friday 26th!

In our class time at the moment, we are studying fractions in Maths, beginning Personal Projects and reading recounts in English. We are  working on our Spelling and Maths text books, writing stories and plays and investigating cultures. We are also having very long Class Meetings…a situation we are attempting to remedy… suggestions are welcome!!

I hope everyone is coming  along to the social on Friday night to say farewell to Willem and Luuk who have been such a  delight to have as part of the school community for the past six months. I have it on good authority that there will be some VERY special entertainment….

Entertainment is also being planned for the big 40th Anniversary Reunion BBQ on Sunday 5th July so I hope you all have that date in your diaries already.

And lastly a reminder that school does start at 9am for all children. It helps immensely if children have had that first half hour to settle in and re-connect with friends before Inside Time.

Have a great week.    Love,   Wendy

Posted June 10th, 2009 in Wendy's Class by wendyp

Wendy's Class

Wendy’s Class Week 6 Term 2

There is a wonderful amount of energy at school at the moment. What a thriving community we are! Building Committee and Reunion meetings and, of course, we have the AGM this Thursday at 6pm. This will start at 6pm and we are all asked to bring some soup and bread to share for a winter’s supper while we listen and vote.

Last Thursday we very successfully joined the Lane Cove Children’s Voices for Reconciliation event in the plaza and we have received many compliments and thanks for our contributions and for hosting the Alexandria Park students and teachers back here for lunch. They really enjoyed coming here … so thanks very much to everyone who helped with the BBQ.

Our joint PE adventure with Olivia’s group to Ice-skating and Rock Climbing was a great success on Monday (once we finally managed to organise the children and cars). Thank you so much to everyone who helped with that also. Next Monday is a public holiday so Monday 15th June will be the mirror image event. The children will go to the other activity and we will need as many drivers again… please! That will be Luuk and Willem’s last week with us… and it is also the week some of us leave for Laura!

In an attempt to make sure we look after the new sports equipment, we are now locking the spare room unless we specifically need it, so if you ever see it open, please get a key and lock it for us! We are also going to try very hard to address the issue of rubbish and lost property being left in such enormous volumes around the school. So please help by encouraging kids to pick up anything lying around… sports gear, rubbish or lost property.

REMINDER: School starts at 9am for everyone. This Friday we are trialling a new, more flexible timetable for Friday with School Meeting at 9:30am so it will be essential for everyone to be here at 9 to settle in before the meeting. Also on Friday, our group is holding a MINI-FAIR to rasie money for our sponsor child in Uganda. There will be toys, books, cakes and biscuits for sale from 11am.

Next week, we will be helping the Building Committee by conducting a survey at the school gate asking everyone how they travelled to school. This is to support the building proposal to LC Council by assessing the impact of lost parking spaces outside the school while building work is carried out. So the children rushing to speak to you with clip boards will NOT be asking for money (although the MS Readathon has also started this week …). Please help us by answering their questions as you arrive. Thanks.

In class, we have completed our unit on 2D shapes and are moving into Fractions as well as Data in Maths. In English we are writing stories and plays for the group… and talking and listening in very long Class Meetings! Today six children are coming with me to a Sustainable Leadership Forum at Riverview sponsored by Lane Cove Council. We’ll report on that next week. As you can see, we are as busy as ever.

Have a great week.    Love,  Wendy

Posted June 3rd, 2009 in Wendy's Class by wendyp