Phone: 8847 4227 Fax: 8847 4003 www.saddleps.sa.edu.au

Newsletter No 4

Tuesday 10th March 2020

Dear Families, After today we have 22 school days left till the end of term 1, time is really flying. In the classrooms our teachers are focussed on delivering quality differentiated learning for all of our students. Our Site Improvement Plan (SIP) has us focused on improving our reading comprehension and building our vocabulary using an Oral language approach. The main vehicle for this improvement is a teaching strategy called Literacy Circles or Reciprocal Teaching.

RESPECT

ACHIEVEMENT

KINDNESS

Principal - James Bryant Governing Council Chairperson - Renae Plueckhahn

DATES TO ADD TO YOUR CALENDAR Mon 16th Mar Governing Council Meeting Fri 20th Mar RSMU Football/Netball Clinic Fri 3rd April Year 5&6 Bowls Catering Fri 3rd April Jump Rope for Heart-Jump Off Thu 9th April LAST DAY OF SCHOOL Fri 10th April GOOD FRIDAY

This approach creates structured student to student discussions about the text they are working on. Last week our students from year 2 up did a PAT test called ‘Vocabulary Skills’ which we will do again later in the year or early next year to measure improvement. Last Friday all students competed in the Gilbert Valley Swimming Carnival at Hamley Bridge. Of the 4 teams there on the day we came 3

rd overall but

there were some very good performances and some very courageous effort from individual students. Everyone enjoyed the day and it was good to be involved in the competition and social interactions with teachers, students and parents across our school communities. Both Hamley Bridge and Owen schools took home a shield for the day. Also last Friday afternoon we had a Working Bee at the school to put a border around our playground equipment area. Grace and Kym Herrmann, Jason Gooden, David Miller, Zach Dixon and Kym Vandeleur all put in a big effort to get the border done in one afternoon. This is all about safety, the theory is: If we maintain 300mm of soft-fall chips under all equipment there should be no serious injury to anyone that falls off the equipment. Having the border in place stops the chips from spreading and thinning out. Next Friday we are hoping to get even more parents and friends to come and help us fill the area with soft-fall chips and spread them around evenly. If you have time to help from about 4pm please come along. If you can bring a rake, shovel or wheel-barrow with you, even better. Cheers Principal James Bryant

JUMP OFF DAY

FRIDAY 3RD APRIL

Have you registered your child to fundraise for our Jump Off Day. All

instructions are on the note, their are great prizes for fundraising goals and the

school receives new skipping equipment for fundraising for the Heart Foundation.

PLAYGROUND BUSY BEE

Friday 13th March

4:00pm

MP News

Camp at Night

I slept in a bottom bunk at night and I had a

sleeping bag and a pillow. I fell off my bed

and I was really tired in the morning. The

next night we had a movie and when the

movie was done we went to bed.

By Siena

Moonta Museum—Schooling

Everyday in the afternoon the boys went to

the big school. School rules: don’t talk for the

whole day, and they had to bow to the

teacher whenever they saw the teacher. When

they got in trouble they got hit by the cane.

The teachers gave the kids little coins that

they gave to the picking room once they were

allowed to work and do picking at 12 years of

age.

By Kieran

Sandcastle Sculpture

Archer, Kieran and I built a sandcastle which

was big, but not bigger than William’s.

William’s sandcastle was massive! We named

it lava castle. It had a moat that we put water

in. Albie tripped over it. Mrs Kenny took a

photo of it.

By James

Playground

I liked the one that makes your legs go

different ways. I also like the slide that curls

because when you go down it goes really

fast. I also like the bike track; I played bikes

on it and there were signs that said stop and

speed signs.

I played on the balancing surf board because

it helped you balance.

By Taniesha

Sandcastle Sculpture

My sandcastle was a big mermaid island with

a big razor fish as a flag for the kingdom. I

used a piece of bark for the bridge and some

shells for the wall. We made a big barrier

around the castle and two volcanos with lava

coming out of it. My sandcastle broke 2

times. We all had fun in the wet sand!

By Elsie

Sandcastle Sculpture

We had a sandcastle competition and

everybody had to make a sandcastle.

My sandcastle looked like a turtle, it had a

head which we used shells for the eyes. For

the body we made patterns on the shell and

four big flippers.

By David

UP News We are busy completing HASS research projects. Year 6/7 are researching life on the Gold Fields and are focusing on the Migration story of the Chinese. Students are completing research tasks, then making a model that shows their knowledge of some part of the Gold Fields History and Ben has made a model of the Eureka Hotel which was where the incidents happened that contributed to the start of the Eureka Stockade occurring. Year 5 are learning about the reasons why the Endeavour journeyed to Australia and what the conditions were like on the ship, where they stopped on the journey and who travelled to Australia on board the ship. We are also learning about the history of the Afghan Cameleers who came to Australia to help with expeditions, build the telegraph line and also the railway from Port Augusta to Darwin called the Ghan. This is Erica’s camel and research about Afghan Cameleers. After the Aquatics Camp students used their writing skills to write about the activities that would engage a reader. Here is Tyson’s fabulous descriptive recount of snorkeling. I could hear the sound of my own breathing in and out under the shining, glistening water of the sea. The bright sun shone over the water as I snorkeled looking for marine animals. The slimy, scaly fish were darting around and the crabs were defending themselves with razor sharp claws. Clams had their mouths locked shut. When I got out I was shaking, icy cold and getting warm and dry was better than the salty taste of sea water in my mouth. We are also at the publishing stage of our Reducing our use of Plastics Expositions.

Let’s reduce our use of plastic How would you like to choke on plastic you thought was food? You wouldn’t want to choke, so why let marine life choke and die a slow, painful death. There’s so much rubbish in the ocean,

microplastics are everywhere and there are many things everyone can do to save our planet Can you imagine an innocent fish coking on a little colourful ball it thought was food. Microplastics are microscopic plastic bits that are found in face wash and broken down plastics. Sometimes you can even find microplastics in fish that you eat! There is a big, disgusting pile of rubbish in the ocean call the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. The G.P.G.P is a hazard to the environment and it is big as New South Wales! They put a barrier around it so it doesn’t spread around the ocean, this is so disgusting and it is full of plastics. Plastic is everywhere, it’s in balloons, shopping bags and take away containers. We use plastic

every day and we need to use alternatives to plastic like using bubbles instead of using balloons at parties and using reusable shopping bags instead of plastic bags for shopping. Balloons are especially bad, they float as high as they can go then pop and the little plastics float down to the ground and end up in a bird’s stomach because they mistake it for food. If you’re at a party try using bubbles or lanterns to stop the death of poor Innocent birds. What can I do? I can use biodegradable things, I can use reusable bags, and I can use metal water bottles and metal straws. I don’t use plastics and I explain to people that using plastics is bad. I want to help marine life so I’m going to do my part in helping the environment. I am absolutely certain that plastic is ruining our world, so let’s take a step in the right direction and use plastic alternatives, and save our planet! Todd Swimming Carnival at Hamley Bridge Well done to all students who competed in the swimming events on Friday! Well done to those students who showed resilience and confidence, especially the students who filled in for upper age events!