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Dear mums, dads, carers and colleagues
When school resumes next week, summer will have officially passed - although I expect that the warm weather will stay with us until ANZAC Day. Just as surprising is that we are halfway through Term 1 already. There is still so much to do at school so please make sure your children are at schgool each day.
Air-conditioning petition
At the P&C last week we spoke about the government's air-conditioning plans for schools in our region. The executive has been in communication with the Minister of Education regarding the Coomera Rivers position. Consequently, the meeting chose to not petition at this stage. Thank you to the P&C executive who have been pushing this agenda with the government for many months now.
The mozzies are fierce
As a result of recent wet weather, there has been a huge increase in the numbers of mosquitoes and midges in this area.
Queensland Health has advised that:
- Personal insect repellents containing Picaridin or DEET are recommended to protect children from insect bites,
- Only a thin, even coverage of repellent is required on the skin (do NOT apply an excessive amount), and
- If your child requires assistance, you should apply repellent to your hands first, then to the exposed skin of your child.
Our school encourages children to have their own personal repellent. As Queensland Health recommends that young children should not be allowed to apply their own repellents, our staff will be available to help those students who need assistance.
For your child to use their own insect repellent at school, you are required to provide consent.
Please complete the consent form that was sent out in a separate email from me and return it to your child's class teacher. If you have any questions about this initiative, please contact the school on 5596 8333.
Queensland Health advises that anyone with known allergies to personal insect repellents should not use these products. Parents should check the manufacturer’s recommendations before use. If you have any concerns regarding your child’s use of insect repellents, you should consider seeking medical advice prior to giving consent.
Click here to find more information on insect repellents.
Good at learning
Our Year 6 Kidfit Leaders have been out this week doing some great activities with our Preps.
John C Maxwell stated that 'A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way and shows the way' and our student leaders are certainly doing this. Great work!
1D who have been working together in many ways this week. In Maths, 1D are learning to compare the length, height and width of objects using direct and indirect comparison. Students were having fun arranging themselves from shortest to tallest. For myConnections they have been working together to build a city. Their creations were impressive. The skills learned from working together are important to personal and group development.
Well done to 6K this week. Recently they had their training in the Conversational Reading strategy and this week, they had their first session with 1C, successfully putting their skills into action. 6K did a fantastic job at supporting their Year 1 buddies with reading. Awesome work!
Student leader's morning tea
Congratulations to the following students who demonstrated they had been courageous and shown grit when it came to their learning. Students who demonstrate grit are resilient learners who perservere to acheive their goals. This is a character trait we are working on as a whole school at the moment so that our students can be 'Good at learning ~ Good at life'.
This year, Coomera Rivers will once again enter 4 teams into the 15km Kokoda Schools Cup Challenge which takes place at Brookfield in June. The first few training sessions will involve all students who are interested in taking part, but in the end, we can only choose 16 students who will race on the day. Students will not only need to show they are committed to the team and to getting fit, but also demonstrate the Kokoda values of Courage, Mateship Endurance and Sacrifice.
Mt Warning provided the perfect training ground for our first Kokoda training session on Saturday morning. It was an early start for teachers and 28 students who formed a convoy from Coomera Rivers car park at 6:00AM, making their way down to Mount Warning where the cloud covered the top. However this group did not let the rain dampen their spirits. While some students and teachers powered up the 170 or more flights of stairs, all students made it to the top of the mountain in less than 2 hours to enjoy the ...... Cloud. Yep, there was no view, they were up in the clouds. There was mud, leeches and rain, but this only made the walk more enjoyable. The chain section where the team needed to climb the steep rocks proved challenging but each and every student embraced the challenge and made it up the mountain to the summit.
A really big thank you to Mr Burrows who organised the session and to all teachers who gave up their Saturday morning to train with our students. Thank you must also go to the parents who joined the team on the walk which made it feel like a community boot camp. Those stairs certainly had muscles burning and lungs bursting. With training sessions like this, our Coomera Rivers Crusaders will be more than ready for race day.
Beginner Band’s first rehearsal is next week!
Students who started learning their instrument with Mr Owens this year are up for another challenge - playing in an ensemble! Next Tuesday morning at 7:30am is the first time all beginning students will come together and play as a group. The first rehearsal is always a blast so please make sure your child is there bright and early! 7:30am in the Music Centre…be there or beware!!!
Year 3 Drama
The year threes and Mrs Blyth have been having great fun in drama so far this year. The students have prepared a speech all about themselves and we are working through each member of the class presenting them so we can all get to know each other better. We are focusing on our presentation skill and giving each other green or growth and tickled pink feedback. Mums and Dads, ask your child to do their speech for you - it’s on their iPad! Each lesson we always finish with a drama game. The pictures below are of students playing the game 'Mirror Mirror’.
Year 3 Music
In Music students have been practising the names of notes on the lines and spaces of the music staff. Each lesson we play a game - who can name the note the fastest and it’s so much fun racing to the whiteboard against classmates! We are becoming quite quick at recalling note names which will help us learn to read and play songs from the staff later in the year. We also love playing the game ‘Charlie Over The Ocean’.
Choir
For the last two weeks, students in Years 1-4 have been meeting on Wednesdays at second break for choir rehearsals but there’s so many students interested in joining choir in 2020 that it’s time to split the group! From next week, students in years 1 and 2 will practice on Wednesday at second break (no change) while students in years 3 and 4 will practice at their new time - Tuesday at second break. If your child would like to join our choirs please have them show up at rehearsals and start singing! Everyone is always welcome!
Year 5/6 Choir
Our 5/6 Choir had their first performance today and they were fabulous! We sang two songs - Ocean Eyes by Billie Eilish and All Is Found from the Frozen Two soundtrack. If you have a child interested in joining choir, our rehearsals are on Thursdays at second break in Mrs Blyth's Music Room.
STOP PRESS - Date claimer: Busking is coming!
Our annual Busking at the Cafe event is happening again! Students from all choirs, bands and string groups will perform for members of the school community as well as families at our first informal concert for the year. Taking place in the last week of term (March 30-April 2), it’s always a fun way to finish the day! More details will be in next week’s newsletter so please keep an eye out for information.
The term has really kicked off now for students in Years 2, 3 and 4 with Mrs Hadfield.
Year 2
In the first week, I got to know the Year 2s a little, with them sharing what they’re proud of, as they created a piece of art. They are now working towards gaining their iPad Licence: learning how to take care of their iPad, use their iPad responsibly as a learning tool, and stay safe on their iPad online, demonstrating good digital citizenship. Their first badge had them using tools on Seesaw, such as the camera and microphone to highlight where other students make errors in iPad care.
Year 2s have also embarked on a unit on Trash Talking. Despite what you might think, this involves examining the trash we throw away, how much can be reused or recycled, and what can we do to reduce trash in our daily lives. We’ll be collecting data on this around the school. This week students found a big pile of trash outside the classroom and had to decide what was rubbish, what could be recycled , and different ways they can reuse other items. So many great ideas for reuse – you may find new items popping up everywhere!
Middle School Digi
Years 3 and 4 shared their Big Dreams and plans for the future in the early weeks of term. I was so impressed with the ideals our students have and what they want to achieve. They demonstrated their use of the Keynote app to highlight their big plans, using Instant Alpha, masking and creating silhouettes from selfies.
The students in these middle years have now embarked on courses in coding via Code Studio (code.org). The 3s and 4s are creating their own games, art and digital stories, while developing problem-solving, collaboration, persistence, and computational thinking skills. They are really enjoying the challenges as they proceed through their self-paced course. Love the sounds of success as cheers echo through the room, and students share their strategies!
Next Friday evening (March 6)
Howdy partner!
Come along in your best Barn Dance outfit BUT never fear, whilst there might be the occasional boot scooting boogie dance opportunity, the music will still be that hip, cool and rad stuff the kids think is AWESOME!
Get those cowgirls, cowboys and sheriffs ready to come scoot along to our Barn Dance Disco on Friday March 6.
- The Junior Hoedown (Prep to Year 2) starts at 4:30pm and goes to 6.00pm
- The Senior Stampede (Year 3 to Year 6) starts at 6.30pm and finishes at 8.00pm.
Click here to organise tickets on Flexischools. The fair dinkum deadline to purchase your Barn Dance Disco tickets is Wednesday March 4 at 4:00pm.
Please refer to the flyer below for all the details.
PLEASE NOTE - Please take special notice of the information, on the flyer, around senior students NOT to be at junior disco and junior students NOT to be at the senior disco as well as the requirements for signing in and collecting students as, refusal on the night of the disco, may offend.
With healthy options at OSHC!
At CROSHC we aim to create a menu that provides the children with healthy and sustainable options for both breakfast and afternoon tea.
The children play a major roll in our menu planning and are always coming up with healthy options that they would like to see on the menu. Student input is very important and we like for the children to have a voice. Each morning for the past couple of days we have been focusing on finding out a little bit about our kids favourite food, especially their favourite breakfast and favourite afternoon snack.
Our children all come from all different culture backgrounds, their suggestions for breakfast and afternoon tea reflect the diversity of our service.
In term 2 we would love to focus on a different cultural background each week and have a recipe from one of our families feature on our menu. If you would like to send us a little bit about your cultural background with your families favourite recipe, we would love to hear from you. We value our families input into the service and what a special way to celebrate all the different cultural backgrounds.
Traditional, choc chip, apple cinnamon and mocha! No matter what your favourite flavour, we will have you covered! Watch Facebook and your emails for details on how to order to be released early next week.
Imagine having access to 3 x $25 car washes at our local Hoppy’s Car Wash for the single low price of $20.
Well, very soon, you will receive details on how to purchase your 3 car washes with total value of $75 for the low price of just $20! Voucher numbers are very limited so set your Facebook alerts now!
All volunteers must be registered and inducted to now volunteer. This is a legal requirememt. This applies to school activities, excursions and events.
Volunteers are such an important and valued part of Coomera Rivers given that their participation strengthens and improves classroom learning, programs and school activities. We are asking parents (and grandparents) to consider if they have any free time that they might be willing to use volunteering at our school. As little as half an hour every couple of weeks or so is enough to make a HUGE difference. Even if you are not available during school hours to help out - we have volunteering jobs that can be done from home after hours!
For full details please refer to the We Need You flyer below. If you would like more information, or to request a 2020 Registration and Induction form, please email volunteers@coomerariversss.eq.edu.au .
We look forward to seeing you volunteering really soon!