CLEVELAND WEEKEND MASS TIMES: Saturday 5:30pm Sunday 7:00am Sunday 8:30am

STUDENT PROTECTION CONTACTS - Star of the Sea School;

Karen Bakon ----------- Principal

Kylie Williamson ------- APRE

Kathy Casley ----------- Guidance Counsellor

Click on link below for Brisbane Catholic Education's Student Protection Process

www.bne.catholic.edu.au/students-parents/Pages/StudentProtection.aspx

2014 TERM DATES

TERM 4 October 7 – Dec 5 12noon

2015 First Semester

TERM 1 Jan 28 – April 2

TERM 2

April 20 – June 6

Our theme for 2014 is

“Reach out, Speak up!”

Our theme song for 2014 is

“Roar” – Katy Perry

Star of the Sea Primary School 53 Passage Street Cleveland 4163 PO Box 1867 CLEVELAND DC 4163 Ph: 3286 2377 Fax: 3286 2677

PRINCIPAL: Mrs Karen Bakon e-mail: pcleveland@bne.catholic.edu.au website: www.staroftheseacleveland.qld.edu.au

OSHC: Centacare - 0477 551 066 e-mail: clevelandoshc@bne.centacare.net.au

NEWSLETTER 16th October 2014

PCG MEETING Our next meeting will be Monday 27th October from 9:00am to 10:00am.

ENROLMENTS FOR 2015 Term 4 becomes even busier as we endeavour to finalize year level numbers and staffing for the new year. It is very important that administration is advised if students will not be returning in 2015. Some changes may be due to work changes or changes in residence. Some may be for other reasons and I always value feedback in regard to these reasons. We are receiving a number of enquiries about vacancies here for next year in a number of year levels. For example, we have 8 students on the waiting list for Prep 2015. Please communicate directly with Administration if your circumstances change for next year.

PUPIL FREE DAY NEXT MONDAY Staff will be on site at St Catherine’s School Wishart next Monday. We are joining with Wishart and Dutton Park staff to undertake further professional development in the area of Reading.

SCHOOL SPONOSRED PARISH MASS Although Year 3 and 4 are organizing this mass on Saturday 25th October at 5:30pm, all families are invited to participate.

FROM THE SPORTS DESK OF MR B Primary All-Schools Touch Football The final selections for the Star of The Sea Touch Team have been made. The 12 players and 1 shadow reserve that were selected will compete in the QLD Primary All-Schools Touch football tournament which will be held at the Redlands Showground on the 1st and 2nd of November.

The All-Schools Touch Tournament consists of multiple divisions including girls, boys and mixed. It was decided that Star of the Sea would enter one mixed team into the competition, with the possibility of entering more teams into the competition in 2015.

A big thank you to the 30 plus children who trialled for the team. A big congratulations to the 18 children who made the extended squad. The commitment to training each week has been incredible.

The final team that was selected is:

Year 6/7 ..........Navrin Karklis, Ainsleigh Karklis, Meaghan McGill, Lleyton Bennet Year 5 .............Jacob Persson, Ryan Gough, Ben Rutberg, Year 4 .............Tali Karklis, Charlie MacArthur, Lily Searston, Seb Wingad, Alanah Le Bherz Year 3 .............Ella Searston

We have a young team and it will most probably be the smallest team in the competition, but they come with plenty of experience at club touch level as well as plenty of Redlands Rep team experience.

Also, a massive thanks must go to Sharon and Craig Searston for giving up their time to coach the team.

Inter-House Swimming Carnival All students from Prep to Year 7 will participate in this Carnival on Friday 7th November. The Carnival will be conducted at the Cleveland Aquatic Centre. Parents and grandparents are invited to cheer on our students.

All children will need to be dropped at the Cleveland Aquatic Centre before 9am and picked up before 3pm. The carnival is scheduled to finish before 2:30pm.

As a number of children take learn to swim lessons and squad training outside of school, we believe, in the first instance that it would be safer if parents, in consultation with their children, nominated for the events. A final check will be made by staff before the program is completed.

Please ensure that the nomination form is returned by Friday the 24th October. Students have been given this form in class this week, but in case it has been misplaced, it is also attached to this newsletter.

DANCE LESSONS Dance lessons kicked off on Monday and from what I observed, students were really enjoying them. Parents can look forward to a performance on Thursday 4th December from 5:00pm as part of our end of year break up.

SPORTS UNIFORM TO BE WORN MONDAYS, WEDNESDAYS AND FRIDAYS FOR THE FIRST

3 WEEKS OF TERM 4. THEN MONDAYS AND FRIDAYS FOR THE REST OF THE TERM.

SAVE THE DATE! Our Parent Retreat Day last year was such a success and we are offering this opportunity again this year. On Wednesday 12th November, at Santa Teresa Spirituality Centre at Ormiston, we invite you to join us for a day of reflection. Life is so busy, and in order to be our very best selves, we need to take some time out to just stop.

The theme for our retreat this year is “At the End of the Day…” and we will be focussing on what really matters ‘at the end of the day’ – relationships, gratitude, forgiveness, peace of mind, hope.

A delicious morning tea and lunch will be served. The cost for the day is $25. Please email pcleveland as soon as possible to indicate your intention to attend, so we have an idea of numbers. Final RSVP’s and payment will be required to the office by Friday 7th November. We can promise this will be an enjoyable, relaxing, inspiring and social day!!!

BOOK WEEK Book Week will be held next week. The Book Fair will arrive on Tuesday 21st October and will be open from Wednesday 22nd to Monday 27th at 8:30am – 9:30am and in the afternoon 2:45pm – 3:30pm. There will be a box of selected books in the Lighthouse should you wish to pay for any and donate them back to the school. A donation sticker will be put inside the front of the book acknowledging your donation.

The theme for this year is “Connect to Reading.” Our Book Week Parade will be held at 9:15am on Thursday 23 rd

October in the O’Dea Centre. Prizes will be awarded to the best dressed boy and girl in each learning area. Costumes can fit the theme or be favourite book characters or reflect a favourite book.

STAR OF THE SEA MOTHER’S GROUP Mothers’ Group meets once a fortnight during school terms for a cup of tea, chat and for the children to have a play. Mothers’ Group is held fortnightly in the McKinlay Centre from 9:00am – 11:00am.

Please bring morning tea and a drink for your child/children. Tea and coffee will be provided. Everyone is welcome! For more details contact Therese Staley - 0420306774 or Michelle Mair - 0407 700 322.

Dates for the term are Friday 17th and 31st October and Friday 14th and 28th November.

A MESSAGE FROM THE GUIDANCE COUNSELLOR It is great to be back at Star of the Sea after an extended break. What is instantly apparent is how much the children have grown! In particular the students in Grade 5 seemed to have shot up so much. Clearly this age is a period of significant growth for most and these students have gone from being 'little people' a year ago to now looking me in the eye!

It is heartening to hear the stories of progress from teachers about so many students. There's a lot to be said for providing children with a sense of stability matched with high expectations and limitless opportunities to explore their strengths and passions, all part of the SOTS community.

A big thank-you to all the students and parents who have taken the time to welcome me back. In my role this term I will be continuing on from the hard work of Anita Katajamaki which included supporting individual student needs, small group sessions, as well as facilitating whole class social emotional learning.

This term I will be visiting learning areas to facilitate sessions based on the Daniel Morcombe Curriculum. More information on this important program will be provided to parents in future newsletters. Kathy Casley Guidance Counsellor

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SCHOOL PARKING The small carpark outside the Child Care Centre is for parents dropping off and picking up their children from the Centre. Please do not park on the grassed areas in Longland Street and Queen Street. These nature strips are fiercely protected under State Government legislation and we are regularly advised by Council Officers that it is a $50 on the spot fine if you are caught.

UNIFORM SHOP NOT OPEN MONDAY 20th OCTOBER (Pupil Free Day).

ST VINCENT DE PAUL BOOKFEST This fundraiser will be held in the O’Dea Centre on Saturday 18th and Sunday 19th October. Everyone is welcome.

Our immersion in our toy discovery has continued this week with a Toy sleep over. On Tuesday we brought in a favourite toy from home and we completed a painting of our toy and wrote,

“This is my toy…. It can… I like….”

We got to play with our toys at choosing time and then at the end of the day it was time to say goodbye. Our toys were placed around the room and they were told to use their manners and behave for their sleepover!

On Wednesday morning when we came in there were monkeys swinging from ladders, a frog still dressed up in his tutu and a rabbit in a police hat. A group of toys had fallen asleep while they were playing tic-tac-toe. There was a group of toys that fell asleep before they put their toys away and a bird that was staring into Snowflake’s fish bowl. (We don’t think Snowflake liked that!) A group of toys also fell asleep while they were playing tic-tac-toe.

Using catalogues we went shopping this week in maths. Using dollar amounts we added up how much it would cost to buy the toys of our choice. The hardest part was remembering we were only pretending to buy! Mrs Van De Meer also showed us a great way to work out if a number is odd or even. If the number hasn’t got all partners it is an odd number. In literacy we have been looking at the word family ‘og’. Looking forward to book week dress up next week!

We are watering our vegetable garden nearly every day and each time we do this we are amazed at how quickly everything is growing. We are looking forward to our Market Day when we harvest what we have grown and put our

labels and signs on display.

This week we have been learning how to write Acrostic Poems. We choose a noun for the title and then have fun writing something about each letter in the word. Today we wrote an Acrostic Poem about Grug!

In mathematics we are learning about 2D and 3D shapes and about location. We went on a walk to the church and counted each step we took, how many turns there were and took note of the direction we were travelling. We discovered it took us about 190 steps and 6 turns going either left or right.

Our immersion box was opened on Tuesday and we found treasure maps inside. We had to follow the directions on these maps to locations around the school. On completion we discovered treasures inside our learning area. This term looks to be full of wonderful activities.

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This week in year two we had our first Dance Fever lesson! We had so much fun and have learnt so many cool new moves.

In Discovery this week we were able to explore the immersion box which had all sorts of interesting Aboriginal artefacts. We have also been looking at Aboriginal art, in particular different interpretations of the Rainbow Serpent. Studying the elements of art that are used in these art pieces for example the colours used, the lines and dots has been very interesting. We have been working on creating our own version of the Rainbow Serpent.

In literacy this week we have been able to make all sorts of fun and exciting things using procedural texts. We have made fairy bread and Halloween bunting flags and are very proud of ourselves for being able to follow the steps to create something new!

In numeracy we are working with money! We have been looking at Australian coins and notes and describing the differences and values of each and sequencing them in order of their value. Now, we are working on making $1 a variety of ways and are really starting to get the hang of it.

Next we are going to learn how to count small collections of money! You can help us by asking us to count your spare change, giving us jobs to do around the house where we might earn a small amount of pocket money, helping to do the groceries and looking at the money we need to buy small items. This would help us to have an even better understand of money!

Have a lovely weekend! We are tired after a jam packed week of fun learning!

This week in Year Three we have been environmental scientists! Yesterday we walked down to Santa Guiliana Way to

gather data about living, non-living and once living things.

Before we left we made predictions about what type of things we might see. Later on in the week we will compare the two and see how accurate our predictions were!

We saw heaps of cool living things such as trees, plants, bushes, spiders, birds and ants. We saw lots of once living things such as logs, picked flowers, fallen branches and even a bee caught in a spider’s web!

There were some non-living things along the way such as cement, cars, and also sadly some rubbish. Seeing the rubbish was a huge eye-opener for us and shows us how important it is to put our rubbish in the bin and care for the environment. Aidan H found a feather, and Laing noticed a timber fence which created some great discussions! Are they non-living, living or once living? What do you think?

On Monday we started Dance Fever! It was so much fun. We will be practising hard each week so we are ready for the end of year performance. In between our dance lessons and swimming lessons we have also been busy in class.

In Literacy this week we have been focusing on writing and editing our work. We know that it is so important to re-read what we write to ensure it makes sense, we have the correct punctuation and that our words are spelt correctly. We are getting really good at this and hopefully soon it will become a habit!

In Maths, we have been learning our 3 times tables and learning the multiples of 3. We love listening to the 3 times table song because it’s so funny and we all have a bit of a laugh. It’s safe to say we all know our 3 times tables now! We are still learning about fact families and this week we looked at the multiplication and division family.

Have a great weekend.

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Thank you to all the parents who were able to come and join in with our Mass this morning. The children were beautifully behaved and the Mass was really lovely.

Next week is another busy week for us. Monday is a pupil free day, Wednesday we have swimming, Thursday is the book week parade and on Friday we have both swimming and our “come try it” at gala sports.

Our literacy focus this week has been on the procedural text – recipes! You may have received a copy of the Mars Bar Slice that the children have been using during rotations. They were all keen to have a go at making it!

We have also been working in pairs to film our very own procedures such as: How to make a paper plane? How to tie a shoelace? How to make an envelope? How to dribble a ball? How to pass a football? Our maths rotations are still focussed on fractions and mixed numbers and will shortly be moving into decimals.

Don’t forget we are responsible (along with the Year 3’s) for the Parish Mass on Saturday 25th October. If your family will be attending that Mass would you please let us know so that we can allocate jobs to them. Have a great weekend!

In Discovery Learning this week we have been allowed to choose our own non-explosive science experiment. Some students have been super keen and already brought their equipment and materials in to school. Ethan freaked his teachers out by making them touch his vinegar soaked bouncing egg.

In Maths we learnt about order of operation in Algebra. We have also been doing lots of revision on all the topics we have covered throughout the year.

PE this term is awesome! Spending an hour at the swimming pool twice a week is a good way to learn. We are impressing our instructors with our swimming skills and enthusiasm to improve. In dancing we started to learn the Jive and we did a Hip Hop routine. Watch out ‘So you think you can dance’ because SOTS Year 5 are grooving!

In English we have been publishing our Information Reports. We are also focusing on editing and conferencing of our Holiday Recounts.

In the yard was a very big snake That refused to move or to shake. The farmer came out To kill it no doubt Only to find it was fake. – Kayla

There once was a man named Pat And he was extremely fat He got on a plane But the crew was insane And they threw him off with a splat. - Charlie

We’ve had tons of fun this week writing limericks. The ones above are just two of many that were easily good enough to be published. You’ve got to get the rhyme scheme right (AABBA) and it should have rhythm but most of all it needs to be silly. The best ones set up the joke in the first or second line. But they take practice and you’ve got to be willing to change and work the words until they fit the idea.

We’ve also started our science unit on materials (Water Wonderful World) with a look at what stuff is made of. Everything is made of atoms - even us!

Also, Swimming is in full swing now and will only last for three weeks. It is compulsory so, this week and next, on Wednesday and Friday, it’s either togs or a note.

Remember we learned about the Cartesian Plane last term? Well now we’re using equations to plot lines on it! Solving linear equations gives you points to mark on the plane then you join the points. You only need two points to make a line but Mr Stone always makes us plot three - to check our work. He says this is the “outer limit” of Primary School maths. How much have we learned this year?!

Thanks so much to those of you who have already sent in lanterns and baby and toddler photos. Keep ‘em coming - there’s a lot to do for graduation and it would be great to have this part completed. As always don’t forget our web galleries which will give you a peek inside our Learning Area at whatever interesting stuff we’ve been getting up to click here.

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DAY FOR DANIEL On Friday the 31st October, we will be participating in a Day for Daniel to raise awareness of the need to KEEP KIDS SAFE. Students are asked to wear something red to school on that day. As a school we will be participating in a walk for Daniel during the school day. This is one of our Light House Keeper's projects.