Dear Parents and Caregivers Sleep is more important than you may think. Can you think of a time when you didn't get enough sleep? That heavy, groggy feeling is awful and, when you feel that way, you're not at your best. An average child has a busy day. There's school, taking care of pets, helping on the farm, running around with friends, going to sports practice or other activities, and doing homework. By the end of the day, every body – of any age - needs a break. Sleep allows your body to rest for the next day. Most children between 5 and 12 get about nine hours a night, but experts agree, that most need ten or eleven hours each night. Sleep is an individual thing and some children need more than others. When your body doesn't have enough hours to rest, you may feel tired or cranky, or you may be unable to think clearly. You might have a hard time following directions, or you might have an argument with a friend over something really silly, a school assignment that's normally easy may feel impossible, or you may feel clumsy playing your favorite sport or instrument. Researchers believe too little sleep can affect growth and your immune system, that helps keep you from getting sick, weakens.

The Stages of Sleep (www.healthdirect.org/kids)

As you're drifting off to sleep, it doesn't seem like much is happening . . . the room is getting fuzzy and your eyelids feel heavier and heavier. But what happens next? Your brain swings into action, telling your body how to sleep. As you slowly fall asleep, you begin to enter the five different stages of sleep: Stage 1 In this stage of light sleep, your body starts to feel a bit drowsy. You can still be woken up easily during this stage. For example, if your dog barks or you hear a car horn outside, you'll probably wake up right away. Stage 2 After a little while, you enter stage 2, which is a slightly deeper sleep. Your brain gives the signal to your muscles to relax. It also tells your heart to beat a little slower and your breathing to slow down. Even your body temperature drops a bit. Stage 3 When you're in this stage, you're in an even deeper sleep, also called slow-wave sleep. Your brain sends a message to your blood pressure to get lower. Your body isn't sensitive to the temperature of the air around you, which means that you

won't notice if it's a little hot or cold in your room. It's much harder to be awakened

when you're in this stage, but some people may sleepwalk or talk in their sleep at

this point.

Stage 4 This is the deepest sleep yet and is also considered slow-wave sleep. It's very hard to wake up from this stage of sleep, and if you do wake up, you're sure to be out of it and confused for at least a few minutes. Like they do in stage 3, some people may sleepwalk or talk in their sleep when going from stage 4 to a lighter stage of sleep.

R.E.M. R.E.M. stands for rapid eye movement. Even though the muscles in the rest of your body are totally relaxed, your eyes move back and forth very quickly beneath your eyelids. The R.E.M. stage is when your heart beats faster and your breathing is less regular. This is also the stage when people dream! While you're asleep, you repeat stages 2, 3, 4, and R.E.M. about every 90 minutes until you wake up in the morning. For most children, that's about four or five times a night. Who said sleep was boring?

Dream a Dream People dream during R.E.M. sleep, the period that follows the deepest stage of sleep. Everybody has dreams, although some people have a tough time remembering them. When you wake up can affect whether you can remember your dreams. If you wake up during R.E.M. sleep, you might remember everything about your dream. If you wake up during another stage of sleep, you might not remember a thing. No one knows for sure why people dream. Many scientists today think that dreams are linked to how our brains organise memories and emotions. Some scientists think that dreams are your brain's way of making sense of what happened during the day. Others think that dreams allow your brain to sort through the events of the day, storing the important stuff and getting rid of the junk. Some scientists say that dreams are a clue to what you're worried about or thinking about. For most children, sleeping comes pretty naturally. Here are some tips to help you catch all the ZZZs you need:

Try to go to bed at the same time every night; this helps your body get into a routine. Follow a bedtime routine that is calming, such as taking a warm bath or reading. Limit foods and drinks that contain caffeine. These include some soft drinks and other drinks, like

iced coffee. Don't have a TV in your room. Research shows that children who have one in their rooms sleep less.

If you have a TV, turn it off when it's time to sleep. Don't watch scary TV shows or movies close to bedtime because these can

sometimes make it hard to fall asleep. Don't exercise just before going to bed. Do exercise earlier in the day — it

helps a person sleep better. Use your bed just for sleeping — not doing homework, reading, playing

games, or talking on the phone. That way, you'll train your body to associate your bed with sleep.

If you have a hard time falling asleep for more than one or two nights or have worries that are keeping you from sleeping, tell your mum, dad or a trusted adult. They can help you solve your sleep problems. In fact, just talking about it with them could help you relax just enough that you'll be ready to sleep. Regards,

Trish

Parents Club News

Order forms for our next Uniform Order

will be sent out at the end of this term,

however, if you require anything urgently,

please contact the Front Office or

Lauren Philp, and we will organise for you.

Welcome Eva Yard and her family to

Manoora Primary School. She will be

joining the Junior Primary classroom

as a Reception student.

We also welcome Kitahrna who joined

us last week as a Year 2 student.

Bonjour à toutes les familles de Manoora Primary School!

The JP class has begun learning how to describe people’s appearances. We’ve

been having fun with our songs about parts of the body, like Si tu aimes les

dinosaurs, frappe les mains! (to the tune of If you’re happy and you know it

clap your hands) and of course Tête, épaules, genoux et pieds (Heads and

shoulders, knees and toes). Get your child to give you a demonstration!

The UP class has completed our unit on buildings and giving directions. The

wrap up activity was to create and label a French street scene, using

the buildings we have been working on. Here are some great examples

from Tim and Alicia.

MUSIC

Last week I asked the UP children to compose some music

for body percussion in small groups, making use of all

they have learnt so far about notation and rhythm. Half

the class had stick on musical notes they had to organise

on a board, making sure each bar was 4 beats.

The other half of the class played “Roll a Rhythm”, using

dice and a chart to create their rhythms. It was a lot of

fun, and great to see how much everyone had learnt

about counting musical notes.

Today the JP class were in pairs or small groups with a short

poem for each group. The task was to use 4 instruments

(tambourine, triangle, hand bell and small bells) to tell the

story of the poem by creating appropriate sounds with

different instruments. They did a great job!

Mme Thwaites

Science We are busy planning our micro-herb investigations as part of the Food and Fibre Investigations for the Adelaide Show. We have had a practise session growing micro-herbs and are looking at the best conditions for growing them. We are using recycled containers and experimenting with different varieties of seeds and mediums to grow micro-herbs in. The health and nutrition benefits are fantastic and children and teachers have been nibbling micro-herbs as they go past them every day. Micro-herbs also have zero food miles and you don’t need a garden to grow them in, small spaces are great for micro-herbs. We have many ideas to investigate and are using control variables, data collection, observations and photographic evidence to enhance our displays. Belinda Cay from AG. Communications will be, once again, helping to choose those entries suitable for the Adelaide Show. We are also busy researching facts about space and the planets, how eclipses occur, phases of the moon and space exploration. We have complied a list of questions for research about space.

Choir Students have put in a fabulous effort to learn the songs and perform the choreography for the songs, as well as learn the AUSLAN signing for the Matilda song, When I grow up. We had to design a banner for one of the songs and we wanted to do the Himeji song about a beautiful white palace in Japan that has survived many earthquakes in the past hundreds of years. We particularly like the strength and force of the Taiko drumming in the song and we are looking forward to the group practise at Starplex on September the 4th.

Literacy Students have been busy writing a Choose your own Adventure story after composing one together as a class. We looked at the learning intentions which are to: entertain the reader and make the choices exciting and mysterious so the reader wants to keep reading until the problem is solved, choosing descriptive words and sizzling starts to enhance writing, editing independently and publishing correctly. Students wrote a first draft on a planning sheet and then chose the way they wanted to publish their writing.

Zoe wrote a fabulous adventure that had lots of interesting choices and excellent descriptions of both characters and the setting.

Maths Our Maths graffiti wall is becoming covered with new Numeracy words and concepts as the year progresses. Students are becoming more fluent at explaining their learning and making I CAN STATEMENTS……….at the end of each maths session. Each year level has been completing their Investigations and Year 6 had a great time designing an animal friendly Safari Park. They were given some information about the required area for an enclosure for each animal type, amount of food needed per day and the amount of time the carers would need to be with the animals when they were fed. They also needed to work with scales, areas, time frames and justify the size and position of the enclosures.

Year 5 Students had to try to complete a journey around Australia in under 24 hours visiting all the capital cities and they had to take into account the different time zones of states and territories and needed to be very good at using the 24 clock times. Well done to Boston who completed the task with great enthusiasm, showing excellent understanding of the Australian time zones.

Year 4 Year 4 students had to go on an Aussie Adventure visiting Australian landmarks and icons such as Uluru, Coober Pedy and the Stockmen’s Hall of Fame and find out how many kilometres of travel it would take to visit all designated land marks. This required students to add large numbers accurately and also use mapping skills, including coordinates, compass points, degrees and Australian time zones.

The Family Competition is to build a moon buggy with a robotic arm that can pick up rock samples off the moon’s surface. Students can make their moon buggy out of any recycled materials at home eg. egg cartons, boxes, lids, alfoil. Students can also construct their moon buggies from Lego if they wish.

News from SRC We are now testing Nude Food day on Wednesdays. Please do your best to

use unpackaged foods.

We have purchased new sports equipment, Netballs and bounce back Cricket wickets.

We are looking at purchasing a Friendship bench that we will decorate and

use in the yard.

Reminder that Book Week is in Week 6. Dress up day is on Tuesday. The theme is ‘Reading is my Superpower’.

Bread Tags will be sent off in Week 6, so if

you have any at home, please send them in to the Front Office soon.

The Clare Show is fast approaching and it’s time to look at the children’s exhibits. All schedules and entry forms can be found on the Show Society’s web site. www.clareshow.com.au Juvenile Craft Categories: Prep and Year 1, Grades 2 & 3, Grades 4 & 5, Grades 6 & 7 Cooking: 12 years and under, 8 years and under Produce (eggs): Junior classes Fruit and Vegetables: Reception – Year 7 Art: Student classes Under 8, Under 13 Contemporary Craft: Junior Section Floriculture: Children 17 years and under, 13 years and under Colouring Competition open to the following: Rec & Yr 1, Yr 2/3, Yr 4/5, Yr 6/7 Entries can be submitted via the email page clareaghsoc@gmail.com Show Office open form 8th October. For more information, contact Cheryl Koglin 0407 472 107