Thursday 28th May, 2015

FROM THE PRINCIPAL Nihon (Cultural Day) and Grandparents/Special Person Morning Once again our Grandparents’ Morning was HUGE and was our biggest one to date. It was great to see so many Grandparents and Special Friends attend the morning. The children looked fantastic in their costumes and were very excited showing their special visitors around the school. The Grandparents really enjoyed watching the children perform and seeing their classrooms. I received many positive comments about how wonderful the students were and how great the school looked. They also thought the morning tea was delicious and they were spoilt for choice. A huge thank you to all the parents who baked for the morning tea. Thank you to PPA and parent volunteers for organising and running the morning tea. Thank you to Mami Sensei, Ms Meek and Mrs Clough for putting together a wonderful morning full of colour, music and dance. Thank you also to Kate, Sanuj, Tom and Anna for hosting the morning. Forest Edge Camp The Grade 3 and 4 children leave for Forest Edge Camp next week. Grade 3/4 Mr Hendricks, Ms Ulrich, Mr Blacklaw and Ms Anderson are on camp from Monday 1st June to Wednesday 3rd June. Grade 3/4 Ms McKenzie, Mrs Boreham and Mrs Patel are on camp from Wed 3rd June to Friday 5th June. World Environment Day World Environment Day is Friday 5th June. To celebrate, the Kingston Council’s Waste Education Officers are running their ‘Wipe Out Waste’ sessions with the Grade 2’s, 3/4 H, U, B, A and the Grade 5/6’s over Thursday and Friday. The students will learn about ‘Waste Wise Shopping’, conduct a Waste Audit, understand how litter can travel to the rivers from stormwater drains and learn ways to ‘Reduce, Reuse and Recycle’. Our school’s Environmental Leaders will run sessions with the Preps and Grade One students on ways to reduce and reuse plastic bags and the importance of looking after our environment. Camps, Sports & Excursions Fund (CSEF) For those families who previously received the Education Maintenance Allowance (E.M.A.) or new school families who hold a Centrelink Concession Card - you may be eligible to apply for a new allowance. CESF will be provided by the Victorian Government to assist eligible families to cover the costs of excursions, camps and sporting activities. Please read the information in this newsletter, as CSEF applications are due by 25th June 2015. Leanne Bradney Principal

June

Mon. 1 - Wed. 3 Camp: 3/4 H,U,B,A

Wed. 3 - Fri. 5 Camp: 3/4 M,S,P

Tuesday 2nd

Gr. 5/6 Exc. - Imax

Wednesday 3rd Divisional Cross Country

Thursday 4 & Friday 5

World Environment Day Activities

Friday 5th

Stomp - Gr. 5/6

Saturday 6th School Aerobics Com.

Monday 8th

Queen’s Birthday Public Holiday

Wednesday 10th PPA 7.30pm

Thursday 11th Athletics Trials

Thursday 11th & Friday 12th

Prep Incursion

Friday 12th Stomp - Gr. 5/6

Monday 15th

School Council 7pm

Friday 19th Stomp - Gr. 5/6

Wednesday 17th Gr. 3/4 Have A Ball

Fundraiser

Tuesday 23rd Parent Teacher

Interviews

Friday 26th End of Term 2

Early Dismissal 2.30pm Finish

WHAT’S HAPPENING?

PREP Japanese Cultural Day and Grandparents/Special Visitors Day was a huge success! We loved everyone’s Japanese themed outfits and were super impressed with the performances!

We hope all our special visitors had a lovely day and enjoyed their special morning tea.

Thank you to all the children that have already brought in food for the food drive. Collection is tomorrow so please bring in cans of food or other non-perishables if you haven’t already done so.

Next week we are learning about the letter ‘L l’ and will be writing and posting letters to friends in our class. We need each child to bring in a stamp to make this possible. Thank you to those that have already done this.

GRADE 1 What a spectacular turn out we had for our Grandparents/Special Friends Day! The students loved taking their special guests on tours of the school and then showing off their knowledge of Japan with a song and artwork. Thank you to all the guests and students who helped make the morning very special!

An enormous big thanks to Mrs Clough, Mrs Meek and Mami Sensei, who worked with the students in Art, Music and Japanese.

In Literacy we have begun learning about verbs and our CAFÉ focus of ‘Using punctuation to enhance reading’ continues.

Our Maths topic of Money is coming to an end, and we will be moving onto Addition next.

GRADE 2 What a wonderful morning we had celebrating Japanese Cultural Day and Grandparents’/Special person Day on Wednesday! The samurai hats, carp kites, performances and children’s costumes were fantastic!

In Maths this week, we started our new topic, ‘Fractions’. The children are learning to use ‘fraction language’ as they identify and compare fractions of collections and whole objects.

Our CAFÉ focus this week is ‘Comprehension: Infer and support with evidence’. An inference is ‘reading between the lines’ to understand things not directly stated by the author. At home, ask your child open-ended questions about the storyline, characters and their actions. See link on website page for more information.

GRADE 3/4 We are all excited about Camp next week and trust that the children are learning to pack their own items and roll their sleeping bags.

The weather is likely to be changeable at this time of the year so please ensure that your child has a warm coat.

Campers need to be at school by 8:45am on their camp day. We will be leaving school just after 9:00am.

A reminder that ROAR reading will not be held during camp week.

Congratulations to the students who have achieved AR Certificates this week: Lilly H, Xavier S, Kate S.

GRADE 5/6 Our students have done a terrific job with their projects and will be presenting them this week. We are all looking forward to being educated further regarding a plethora of international Natural Disasters.

We are going on our IMAX excursion on Tuesday 2nd June and undoubtedly will come away with even more knowledge about Natural Disasters.

Regarding Maths groups next week: the Grade 5 Students will be looking at Multiplication strategies and the Grade 6 students will be working on Decimals.

Our current writing genre is ‘snapshot’ and all students are learning to make their description more vivid by using figurative devices like ‘Personification’.

We enjoyed seeing all the Grandparents and Special Friends at our school on Wednesday for our special Japanese Cultural Day.

Inter-school Sport - Friday this week Team 1 will play away against Parktone and Team 2 will play at Home against St Marks. JAPANESE WEEK IN THE COMPUTER ROOM

This week the children have used their ICT skills with a range of activities that relate to our Japanese Cultural Day.

Prep - Year 2: We have read a selection of books about Japan including “ Suki’s Kimono” , “ The Bullies” and “Kimonos”.

Year 2: We have used our editing and formatting skills when we typed a poem about kites. We searched for images of Japanese kites.

Year 3/4: We have used Kahootz to make an animation about the Seasons in Japan.

Year 5/6:We have used Publisher to create travel brochures about Japan.

COMMUNITY NEWS Mordialloc Neighbourhood House We offer short term child care, Monday – Friday, between the hours of 9.15am – 3.30pm. For more information or to make a booking, please phone: 9587 4534 City of Kingston Holiday Program To enquire or enrol please contact the Vacation Care team: Julie 95814846 or Kim 9581 4875 vacadmin@kingston.vic.gov.au Enrolment forms and additional information can be found at: kingston.vic.gov.au/vacationcare

Camps, Sports and Excursions Fund (CSEF) The Victorian Government have unveiled a new $148 million initiative to ensure all Victorian students can take part in school trips and sporting activities. The CSEF will run over 4 years and provide payments for eligible students to attend camps, sports and excursions. Families holding a valid means-tested concession card or temporary foster parents are eligible to apply. $125 per year will be paid for eligible primary school students, with $225 per year paid for eligible secondary school students. Payments will go directly to the school and be linked to the student. Eligibility To be eligible for the fund, a parent or legal guardian of a student attending a registered Government or non-government Victorian primary or secondary school: • on the first day of Term 2 , or • on the first day of Term 3. a) be an eligible beneficiary within the meaning of the State Concessions Act 2004, that is, be the

holder of a Veterans Affairs Gold Card or be an eligible Centrelink Health Care Card (HCC) or Pensioner Concession Card (PCC) holder, OR

b) be a temporary foster parent, and; c) submit an application to the school by the due date. Parents who receive a Carer Allowance on behalf of a child, or any other benefit or allowance not income tested by Centrelink, are not eligible for the CSEF unless they also comply with one of a) or b) above. Applications are now open, the form can be downloaded at: http://www.education.vic.gov.au/Documents/about/programs/health/csefapplicationform.pdf and submitted to the office with a copy of your concession card by June 25, 2015. Forms are also available at the office.

Disclaimer: Any advertising accompanying this newsletter is paid advertising. The school does not endorse any company. Parents who use this information do so at their own discretion.

GREENA CANTINA

The Canteen will be closed until further notice.

PARKDALE PARENTS’ ASSOCIATION (P.P.A.)

What a wonderful turn out we had for Grandparents/Special Persons and Cultural Day. We were lucky with the weather and the children looked fantastic in their dress ups and with their colourful Japanese kites.

Thank you to everyone who supported the day. We had a fantastic response from PPA members and the wider school community for bakers and helpers on the day. Thank you to everyone as it really does make the day very special having so many people involved.

Our next meeting is Wednesday 10th June in the school Staffroom at 7:30pm, please come along.

Samm Hughes, President (0414 927 205); Emma Salah, Vice President; Paula Fleming Treasurer and Kate Ashley Secretary

The new 2015 / 2016

Entertainment Book

is now available from the school office or sign up for the new Digital Membership at www.entbook.com.au/186b788. The books are $65.00 each and include offers at restaurants, events, accommodation, cinemas, local attractions, retail, travel and much more.

If you have purchased these books before you know how good the value is. If you haven’t used one now is the time to start for discounts galore.

There is a sample on display at the office.

PARKDALE OSHC NEWS

Dear Parents and Carers.

We made use of recycled cardboard to create various animals or characters and painted our creations. We also were involved in weaving activities using wool and paper.

Curriculum Day saw many attend and we enjoyed a variety of games, challenges and fun races. A group constructed their own forts inside using the cardboard boxes and blankets. We made some jelly to enjoy later on. All in all the day was a great success!

Many thanks to parents for letting us know of attendances or absences. Our Tuesdays are very busy and knowing of attendance or absence as early as possible is a great help.

From Andrea and the OSHC team members - James, Laura, Georgia, Nikki, Shannon, Lien and Thuy. PARKDALE OSHC: 0425 753 729. Hours: BSC: 7:00 - 9:00am. ASC: 3:30 - 6:30pm. Account Enquiries: Rita: 0412 958601 Head Office: 87906511. Email: accounts@ylv.com.au Youth Leadership Victoria - visit our website at www.ylv.com.au