Term 1 Week 10 Newsletter
From the Principal
Dear Calwell Community,
Its hard to believe that Easter and the school holidays are upon us. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the staff for their hard work and dedication this term. It has been so lovely seeing our community onsite for a number of events this term. As always it is important for us to reflect on events and make adjustments for future events. If you have 3 minutes spare please click on this link to complete a short a survey about community engagement https://forms.gle/FHj6acDhYjU3AhMx5
The weather is shaping up to be fine and partly sunny for our cross country carnivals tomorrow. If you would like to join us please meet on the blacktop at 9:15. Students aged 8 years and older will be walking to the Calwell playing fields to run. Younger students will be staying at school for their run and some games.
The 2023 parent representative of the School Board has been finalised. Congratulations to Tanya Goodman who was successful in gaining the position. The 2023 School Board members are Tanya Goodman, Megan Fox, Rebbecca Nudelman, Lauren Lutton, Tamara Player and Jennifer Cross.
Families are reminded that no supervision is provided before 8:45am. This means children who are dropped to school before this time are unsupervised, although staff are required to be onsite by 8:30. Please ensure you do not drop your child/ren too early and that if you need before school care you can arrange this through Camp Australia. Vacation care is also available onsite through Camp Australia.
Works around the school continue this week with the shade structure over the basketball court nearing completion. This will make a great covered space during play and learning time for our students. During the upcoming holidays the preschool toilets will be refurbished, minor work is being completed in the staffroom and a number of other small projects are happening across the school. Next term we are hoping to install a number of additional internal gates within the school to increase safety near the carpark. These gates will be open during morning and afternoon drop off times.
Next term we are looking forward to welcoming the School Review team into the school. Over the past term the team have been busy preparing for the visit and reflecting on the past 5 years. We look forward to sharing the review report with you and welcoming the community in to talk with the review team. More details about this will be provided next term.
Below I have included an outline of major events that have been scheduled for this year. Hopefully this will allow you to plan your schedule around these events and ensure you have time to plan time off work to attend if needed. Not all events / excursions are included this is provided as a guide of major events.
I hope you have a safe and enjoyable school holiday period and I look forward to seeing you back at school on Monday 24 April.
Katie Brown
Acting Principal
2023 Major Events
Please note event details are published on SchoolZine and updated regularly. Changes to dates may occur in unforeseen circumstances. This list does not include all events and excursions, it only includes major events. Any changes will be communicated to the community as soon as possible.
Calwell CARES
Ray White Colouring Competition
Congratulations to all of our students who participated in the Easter colouring competition. We were very excited to welcome the Easter Bunny and Dan Cooper from Ray White this morning to draw the winners.
Major prize winner - Lincoln B
Runner up winners - Ruby L, Ebony Y, Charlotte O, Anita O, Logan W and Isobel A
Notes Home/Due & Dates to Remember
A reminder for parent's to please download the SZapp to view our Newsletters and upcoming events. If you access the calendar and click on the date on an excursion/incursion permission notes are attached to re-print if needed.
School photo notes were sent home with students on Tuesday 21st March.
- Cross Country Carnival Wednesday 5th April
- Principals Afternoon Tea Wednesday 5th April
- Last Day of Term 1 Thursday 6th April
- First Day of Term 2 Monday 24th April
- Anzac Day Public Holiday Tuesday 25th April
Scrivener
This fortnight in history kindergarten students have been leaning about how to effectively share their memories. They have been bringing in special items from home that help them recall important events and sharing these meaningful memories with their classmates.
Now that we have almost finished exploring all the letters in the alphabet the children are becoming more and more confident in bending sounds. They are very excited about their new ability of being able to read and write some new words.
Corin
Year One and Two have been working hard this term to learn how to partition numbers into ‘hundreds’, ‘tens’ and ‘ones’. We have used MAB blocks to make numbers, play games and practice changing ten ‘ones’ for a ‘ten’. We have been practicing counting visual representations of blocks to write the matching number. The students have enjoyed playing online games to practice this and we even made our own place value houses!
Googong
This term the 3/4 students have been learning how to write persuasive texts. We have focused on the language features rhetorical questions and modality, and how to incorporate these into our writing. As part of this unit we read the story ‘The Great Kapok Tree’. The book is based around the theme of deforestation. Students created persuasive responses from the perspective of their chosen forest animals. We think they were very convincing!
Bendora
In 5/6D we have been working very hard to finish off our narratives. Most students are at the final stages of editing. We have been experimenting with 'ai art generators' to create our front covers. Here are some of the ones we have created so far.
Art
Students in kindergarten have been learning all about themselves and their families. This fortnight students drew a family portrait and painted a watercolour heart. They had to answer – “What fills your heart with happiness?” and share something that makes their heart happy. Check out our happy hearts in the kindergarten windows.
1/2 students have been learning about different types of lines and how they are used in art. They created their own line and pattern rhinos using wavy, zig zag, diagonal and vertical lines. We completed our rhinos by using watercolours ensuring we used a solid colour for our background so they would stand out.
Senior art program
Throughout term 1, 3 to 6 students have been busy learning as they explored the fundamentals of creating art. This term, the focus was on line and colour. Students started by learning about the various types of lines and their uses in art. Afterwards students created their own line bank to refer to throughout the term. Students discussed how lines can be used to create texture and movement within a piece. They then used this knowledge to create various pieces such as self-portraits, fruit bowls and a pop art-style advertisement. To help build their foundational knowledge of art students created a colour wheel and discussed the effect hot and cold colours have on the viewer. They put their knowledge into practice when making their fruit bowls and pop art ads. Overall students have shown continuous growth in art and have created a range of wonderful pieces that showcase their knowledge of line and colour.
PE and Indonesian
In Indonesian students have been learning how to say "all about me" - Tentang Saya. They have been writing down things they like and simple introduction such as 'my name is' and 'I am XY years old' and we have been practising using the language.
In Physical Education junior classes have been practising their throwing and catching with various types of equipment and practising running, jumping, and throwing for the upcoming athletics carnival.
Senior classes have been playing Buroinjin and Oztag games and started practising running, jumping, and throwing techniques for the upcoming athletics carnival as well. Year 5/6 students ran a Beep test and recorded their fitness levels to be able to compare their scores each term.
Chief Minister's Reading Challenge 2023
Calwell Primary is proud to be joining the tens of thousands of ACT participating in the Chief Minister’s Reading Challenge again this year. Your child’s class teacher will decide how their class will participate in the challenge, but you are also most welcome to complete your own individual challenge at home.
To complete your challenge:
- Read and record at least 30 books by Friday 11 August 2023. Choose your own books or ask your parents, carers or teachers, for their suggestions
- Remember to record each book you read on your Individual Student Reading Record, and ask a parent, carer or teacher to initial/verify your entry
- When you have finished reading all the books from your challenge and have recorded them, give your completed Individual Student Reading Record to your class teacher.
For more information and resources about the 2023 Chief Minister’s Reading Challenge visit https://www.education.act.gov.au/public-schoollife/additionalprograms/chief_ministers_reading_challenge/how-to-meet-the-challenge
Challenge yourself to read something different- Primary (P-6) Challenge
Calwell Little Athletics
Calwell Little Athletics Club season was wrapped up last weekend with the Under 9’s- U13’s ACT state Championships, held at Woden Athletics Track. The State championships gives athletes the opportunity to participate at the Territory’s highest level. Medals are awarded for 1st,2nd and 3rd placings for each event. The weather was extremely hot, but all 22 of the Calwell athletes had a rewarding day with most recording personal best performances and some even winning medals. Some amazing personal best performances were achieved by Calwell primary school students. These included: Logan Ashcroft (100m, 70m, 800m), Emily Goodman (100m, 70m, 200m, Shot Put), Grace Gardner (100m, 70m, Discus ), Felix Botticchio (Discus, 800m and 1100m Race walk), Kaden Fleming (100m, 70m), and Isaac Steele (400m, Discus, 200m, 800m). Kaden also won GOLD in the U10’s shot put and Felix won SILVER in the U10’s 1100m race walk.
The club would like to extend a very deserving congratulations to all the Calwell Athletes who represented the club not only at the State Championship, but throughout the season. We would also like to extend a big thankyou to Miss Lizzie (Front Office) who was also at the carnival and was there demonstrating true sportsmanship and cheering on the Calwell athletes all weekend.
Junior Basketball Programs
