NEWSLETTER

LARDNER & DISTRICT PRIMARY SCHOOL

Dates to Remember

Monday, 1st September - School Council

Wednesday, 10th September - School Concert

Friday, 19th September - End of Term 3

BBQ Lunch 2:30

dismissal

Principal : Anne Southall Website: www.lardnerdps.vic.edu.au 22nd August 2014

From the Principal’s Desk

We’re on the web www.lardnerdps.vic.edu.au

Meet Wally the Wombat who has been moving around the school helping with the learning and getting to know everyone. Wally is part of our Sister school pro-gram and he is about to jet off to China to Taqian Pri-mary School in Changshu which is in the Jiangsu Province. Wally will take our photographs with him and introduce our children to the students in our sister school he will then visit each one of them in their home and accompany them back to school everyday. We will be able to follow his adventures on our Wiki space and ask him questions about all that he is learning. Good luck Wally we will miss you.

CONCERT RAFFLE

This year we thought we would run a raffle on the night of the concert both to raise money and have some fun. We have had a large basket of Teddy Bears donated for first prize and we thought it would be great to have a hamper of donated food as the second prize. If everyone could look into their pantry and choose a non perishable item or two, a full and invit-ing hamper can soon be collected. Please send your food item to school as soon as possible so that our wrappers can decide whether it will make one prize or two.

We also have a tradition at Lardner of bringing a plate of food for eve-ryone to share after the concert so instead of rushing off we catch up and have a look at the showcase of displays of student work. A simple supper dish in a container that you take back home is all that is re-quired.

Page 2 Senior Room News

In our Writer’s Workshop we have been busy finalising our narratives for publishing. Many students are now using quotation marks (speech or talking marks) to signal dialogue in their stories. They are learning the appropriate conventions such as including all other punctuation within the quotation marks, and starting a new line for each character talking. This is helping to make their writing easier to read and understand who is doing the talk-ing! In Maths, we have been looking at 3D shapes and begun work on angles. We also looked at tessellations of 2D shapes with students creating their own repeating patterns using blocks and also an interactive website.

Tristan and Sabine are shown making models of 3D shapes such as a cube, rectangular prism and triangular pyramid with toothpicks and marshmallows. Students were able to count the number of vertices (corners) and edges in each 3D shape.

In number groups we are continuing work on multiplication and the related division facts.

In inquiry students have been working on their inquiry projects researching a planet in our solar system. Students are learning important internet research skills such as how to search with key words and decide if a website if useful to them by evaluat-ing if it is relevant, reliable, up to date and most of all, they can read and understand the information! Kind regards,

Laura Castello

Shantal’s dogs Aggie and Oliver

visited our class last week. Ag-

gie is showing off her ‘high five’

trick with Indy.

Jeffrey making a tessellation online

Connah’s fantastic

tessellating pattern

Community Corner

Would you like to knot a pouch for Max the orphaned swamp wallaby? Here’s what to do:

Knit 2 squares, each 30cm by 30cm

Join the squares together face to face on 3 sides

Give these to Zali Musgrove in grade 2 and she will make sure it gets to Max and his friends.

Any questions phone Kim on 0411 248 251

Page 3 Middle School This week we are going to focus on highlighting some REALLY IMPORTANT reading

tips for the nightly home reading task.

We understand that, in this busy day and age, many parents find it difficult to find the time to sit down and hear their child read every night. As parents ourselves we realise that this task is often dreaded (especially if you have lots of kids!) and the last thing that you feel like doing af-ter a busy day. However, that said, reading every night for students in Grades 2 and 3 is EXTREMELY important. As a student moves through their schooling years, the ability to read and understand what they are reading is vital. The point is, reading is an essential skill for life and the hard work at this level will pay off handsomely in years to come.

REMEMBER: that getting meaning from print is what reading is all about. It’s not just about reading books – being able to read is a skill needed for many of life’s day to day activities such as filling in forms, reading timetables, reading the paper, surfing the internet to name a few. So here are some tips to help you work in partnership with your child to become proficient readers:

Talk about the book before you read it Look at the pictures, the cover, the title Ask: “What do you think it is about?” Go through the book page by page Talk about the pictures and words or ideas that might be in the book. If a mistake is made when reading, ask your child if what they read makes sense. Help

them to look at the beginning and end of the word, stretch it out and see if they can work the word out.

Discuss interesting words to help your child increase their vocabulary. After reading: Ask: “What do you think the purpose of this book is?” “Is it to inform, enter-

tain?” “Who were the main characters? How do you think they felt? What did you find in-teresting about this book?”

But most of all have FUN when you are reading! Let your child know that you value hearing

them read. Reading together is NEVER wasted time.

Thanks

Janice and Karyn

LARDNER’S LUNCHBOX A Big Thankyou to Liku Mallett who has run our canteen for the last few years. Liku has been the bright and hard working face behind our healthy and delicious lunches every fortnight. We have so ap-preciated this commitment and wish her well in her new gardening enterprise with her brother who has also been known to lend a hand in our canteen.

Liku has handed on the baton to Dianne Sydenham who has kindly offered her extensive experience in a much larger canteen to run our fortnightly Lardner’s lunchbox. The canteen will run on Thurs-days with the orders to be in by Wednesday ( the day before).

Our first lunch this term will be homemade Minestrone Soup with a roll to warm our insides during this incredibly cold weather. Order forms will be attached to this newsletter along with a roster calling for help. Please put your name down and return it as soon as possible to the school so that Dianne can get her roster up and running .

Anyone wanting to talk directly to Dianne to discuss the program or offer their support can ring her at home on : 5627 5787.

Thankyou Dianne, we look forward to enjoying your wonderful recipes.

Junior Primary News

Juanna, is investigating comets and asteroids while Ella learns about Uranus and Lara investigates Nep-tune.

Timothy is positioning the stars that comprise the Southern Cross constellation seen on our Australian flag.

Flynn, Shardei, Linc and Olivia are in a huddle as they plan the sequence of their jointly constructed narrative.

Last week we explored the well loved tale of The Gingerbread Man. Koda illustrated the front cover. Thankyou to Shardei, Juanna, Frances and Lara who baked gingerbread men during Investigations with Michelle's assis-tance. They were delicious and we were very glad they didn't run away!

This week the tale of Goldilocks and the Three Bears has been our fo-cus text to examine, sequence and retell. Repeated reading and conse-quent familiarity has allowed early readers to participate in reading the story aloud to the class. Other readers have worked on developing their expression when voicing characters. Maxx illustrated the front cover of the story retold by Junior Primary.

In Maths, students have been learning to tell the time using both analogue and digital clocks.

In inquiry learning, students have learned about the planets and the stars. They have investigated the different planets and identi-fied similarities and differences between them. They have found out how stars are created, investigated our galaxy the Milky Way and identified the Southern Cross con-stellation. They have begun researching a particular area of interest. Please talk to your child about their topic and help them to pre-pare for a News presentation about facts learned. Students will then use this knowledge to create an information fact post-er to be displayed at our concert.

Science Melbourne Water has been to Lardner and District Primary

School today to support learn-ing about creating a healthy

water habitat.

We have collected baseline information about the macro-invertebrates in our new wet-lands area. See the next news-letter for details about what we discovered.

Later in the year, we will again examine the wetlands water. We hope to find evidence of a greater number and variety of macro-invertebrates as they are a valuable food source for high-er order animals such as frogs and insects.

Kind regards

Vanessa Castle

Page

POOWONG-LOCH

JUNIOR FOOTBALL CLUB UNDER 10 UNDER 12 UNDER 14

FOR MORE INFORMATION

poowongfc.sportingpulse.net

03 5659 2476

poowonglochJFC@gmail.com

A new and exciting junior football club is coming to the region, with the announcement of a plan to form the :

Poowong-Loch Junior Football Club.

Playing from Poowong & Loch, the Poowong-Loch JFC will provide a great opportunity for local kids, especially our existing Auskick participants to transition into competition football through Under 10, 12 & 14’s in the Warragul & District Junior Football League (WDJFL).

After 22 years, we would like football to return to Loch in 2015 at our historic Loch Memorial Reserve.

The information night will shed light on the Poowong-Loch JFC’s plans in 2015 and beyond. Information packs, light refreshments and nibbles will be provided on the night.

FIRST INFORMATION NIGHT Monday August 25th

5.30 PM—7.30PM Poowong Football Club

Energy Drinks and Your Health ‘Energy’ drinks contain caffeine or taurine & guarana which are a natural from of caffeine. The companies who sell these drinks claim they increase your energy even though caffeine is not a source of energy. ‘Energy’ drinks are not recommended for children under the age of 18, a few of the many reasons for this are outlined below:

Caffeine is a stimulant and excess intake can lead to restlessness, anxiety, sleeplessness, rapid heartbeat and even hospitalisation

Caffeine can be addictive Excess caffeine can cause loss of calcium from

the bones leading to weak and brittle bones ‘Energy’ drinks are not necessary in a healthy

diet. They are full of sugar and do not offer any essential nutrients.

Excess sugar intake can cause weight gain and tooth decay

For more information:

http://www.ncah.com.au/news-events/dietitians-call-for-tighter-regulation-on-marketing-to-children/2052/

http://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/bhcv2/bhcarticles.nsf/pages/Caffeine

Lizzie O’Callaghan- Community Dietitian

Lardner and District Primary School’s Supervoice are hosting our first ever

Pyjama Party Day on September 4th, 2014 The money raised will go towards buying outdoor resources for the school.

Everyone is invited to wear their finest PJs to school for a $2 donation.

We will also be running a pyjama party café at lunch time, where students can order:

POPCORN $1 FRUIT SALAD AND YOGHURT SUNDAE $2

HOT MILO $1 (ADD MARSHMALLOWS FOR 20c) Order forms were sent home yesterday.

Orders must be received by Wednesday 27th August and need to be returned to your child’s teacher with money enclosed.

Thank you!