2022 Newsletter Issue 2 - February 18th
Principal's Message
What a wonderful, but very busy start to face-to-face learning we have had at Thargomindah State School over the past two weeks. Students have been engaged in PLD testing as well as beginning unit work in English, Mathematics, Science, HASS, Technologies, Health, PE and Languages. Learning Walls have already been established and all students have discussed the Learning Intentions and Success Criteria for each of the learning areas. The lower primary students have also started weekly Auslan sessions with Miss Tonscheck while the Year 5 and 6 students have begun weekly online French lessons each Monday through the Brisbane School of Distance Education. Ms Morgan is working with the P-Yr 6 students each Thursday afternoon to complete a range of exciting technology tasks. Swimming lessons, which are being held on a Friday, have also made for an extremely enjoyable start to 2022 PE lessons.
Homework Club has commenced for another year and it has been so encouraging to see the enthusiasm and commitment shown by all students during home work time. Mr Lovejoy, Miss Ashlee and Miss Maricel are continuing to provide Homework Club attendees with a healthy afternoon tea before supporting students to complete their weekly homework tasks. We are looking forward to another highly successful year of Homework Club.
Last week’s TSS swimming carnival proved to be an enjoyable day for all with house spirit being shown between the students of Wills and Burke. It was great to witness the sportsmanship and encouragement between competitors and the individual accomplishments that were achieved, especially of the Age Champions. We wish our selected students all the best as they participate in the Cunnamulla District Swimming Carnival which is taking place today.
The P&C AGM and first General Meeting for the year will take place this coming Tuesday (22 February). This will provide a great opportunity for parents and community members to share thoughts around priorities for 2022. I hope to see you there!
As Thargomindah SS follows the DoE COVID Safe plan, we hope to have our first whole school parade with parent and community members in attendance, on Friday 18 March. In the meantime, we will be acknowledging student achievement and celebrating successes through certificates in class as well as stories in the Newsletter and on the TSS Facebook page.
Once again if you need to catch up with me, please feel free to email jmcca133@eq.edu.au or call the school on 07 4655 3132 to arrange an appointment.
Have a fantastic weekend!
Kind regards,
Joel
K- 2 Class Message
Hello everyone!
We are finally here! First newsletter of our delayed school term. Since the extension of holidays for your children, staff were able to work for an extra two weeks before the kids came back to get everything in order for their curriculum to be delivered. So far, the K-2 class is working on track and we are looking like a successful end to the term is going to occur!
This term we are continuing with an integrated unit approach, as we did in 2021, which sees the K-2 class learning combined curriculum areas of English, Mathematics and Science with the focus being from a popular children’s story ‘The Gruffalo’ written by Julia Donaldson.
English this term focuses on exploring texts and identifying their preference for character and setting. We will be exploring the narrative of stories, meaning what happens at the beginning, middle and end, then what the moral of the story was. We will also be identifying a good and bad character in a story, discussing what attributes of their personality makes them this way and talking about whether they like that character or not. A focus on preferences will be made throughout the term and justifying their choices based on what they have read. So, if your child comes home and tells you they dislike the vegetables in their dinner… you might need to think of a compelling argument to convince them otherwise!
Mathematics content will follow the typical pattern with number knowledge of creating number, writing number, and using skip patterns. The students will also learn about location of shapes, moving/sliding/rotating them, making maps, and collecting data. Within this learning, I will focus heavily on the language they use when describing the movement of shape or the way they ask questions to collect data.
Science is another fun unit where we will be learning all about Earth’s resources. How to use them and what they are good for – this unit is great for Thargomindah children as we quite often have dry floods, and very arid landscapes. Both topics that can we can dive into inquiry for.
Enjoy your next fortnight everyone, I know we will in the K-2 classroom!
Miss T
Kindy Recap
The first fortnight of kindy has gone extremely well! Thank you very much to Miss M for your efforts with our three kindies, I have heard only positive feedback! In the photos you will see Mia, Sophie and Nathaniel enjoying lots of painting, building, reading, and some sleeping whilst attending school. We look forward to another action filled fortnight in the Kindy space!
3-6 Class Message
Greetings and a warm welcome back to 2022!
This term in the Year 3 – 6 classroom, we have hit the ground running. Students are very engaged in learning with Ms Morgan and Mr McCaskie. This term in English, students are exploring the novel "Charlotte’s Web". Students have been keenly discussing the characters, their traits and drawing pictures of events throughout the story so far. They have been discussing and exploring tension throughout the plot of the novel and how it impacts the story while also looking at the language features and vocabulary used to develop the characters, setting and events that take place. In Maths, we have been loking at a range of mathematical concepts that have included number and place value and fractions and decimals.
In Science this term, we are delving into the concept of natural disasters and the impact that they can have on people and the Earth. We have so far explored current student knowledge about what natural disasters are and discussed earthquakes and their impact on people and the Earth. To cement the learning, students conducted a STEM experiment in which they built a tower using only spaghetti and playdough. The towers were then tested to see which shapes could withstand the shuddering of an ‘earthquake’.
In HASS this semester, we are exploring identity and the things that make us all unique. We have so far built some knowledge about what makes everyone different and how those differences are special and add to the diversity of the classroom, our town and the world.
We are gearing up for a busy, yet enjoyable term; full of in depth learning and exploration of exciting concepts.
Ms Morgan & Mr McCaskie
School Swimming Carnival 2022
Classroom
Playground
Reading
