DRAGON TALES

Principal: Mrs Andrea Taylor T: 5594 3298 Fax: 55943333

Email: simpson.ps@edumail.vic.gov.au Website: www.simpsonps.vic.edu.au

SCHOOL COUNCILLORS W Van Eck (President), A Whiting,, S Clark,

J Murray, T Robb, J Bowman, N Booley & R Vogels

SCHOOL MISSION Provide high quality education in a positive, supportive environment,

enabling all students to achieve their potential.

Thursday 17 October 2019

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THE FORTNIGHT AHEAD

22 OCTOBER SWIMMING PROGRAM

23 OCTOBER UPPER DEPARTMENT HEALTH ED PROGRAM BEGINS

24 OCTOBER 11.25AM ASK GRAN NOT GOOGLE DAY

25 OCTOBER YR 5/6 CRICKET EVENT KINDER TO SCHOOL TRANSITION LIBRARY SESSION 11AM

29 OCTOBER SWIMMING PROGRAM

31 OCTOBER WALKOBER BREAKFAST PARENT CLUB HALLOWEEN DISCO FUNDRAISER 5—6.30PM GOLD COIN DONATION SILBLINGS WELCOME

5 NOVEMBER MELBOURNE DAY HOLIDAY

12 NOVEMBER SWIMMING PROGRAM

9.30AM FINANCE SUB COMMITTEE MEETING 10.30AM BUILDING & GROUNDS SUB COMMITTEE MEETING

12.30PM EDU/CIR SUB COMMITTEE MEETING

13 NOVEMBER SURF SAFARI CULTURAL PERFORMANCE

15 NOVEMBER PD DAY STUDENT FREE DAY

19 NOVEMBER SWIMMING PROGRAM

20 NOVEMBER SCHOOL COUNCIL (WEDNESDAY)

26 NOVEMBER SWIMMING PROGRAM

3 DECEMBER SWIMMING PROGRAM

10 DECEMBER STATEWIDE TRANSITION DAY

13 DECEMBER GRADE 2 SLEEPOVER

17 DECEMBER SWIMMING PROGRAM

18 DECEMBER TERM 4 FINISHES 3.15PM GRADE 6 GRADUATION

FROM OUR PRINCIPAL

Term 4 promises to be an action packed 11 weeks. We have

already had visits from Victoria Police, St John’s First Aid, Life

Education and held our Bike Ed program. These events fitted

beautifully into our Walktober & Safety Unit helping our stu-

dents to understand their responses to different situations to

keep them safe.

Next Thursday we invite all our Grandparents to come and

join us for “Ask Gran Not Google” session. This year the

theme is “Wacky World of Words.” The home work for our

Grandies is to come along to school with an old saying eg: -a

stitch in time saves nine, and a sample slang term that was

common place when they were growing up. There will be

lots of word activities and games for everyone to enjoy. The

session will begin at 11:25.

This term we have welcomed two new families to the Simp-

son school community. Stephanie, Renae, Joshua and Harley

have enjoyed joining us and learning about what it means to

be a member of Simpson Primary School. The fact that we

know about these families now is really perfect because we

are busy finalising our grade structure for 2020. At this point

it looks like our 3 classrooms will be 2 infant and one upper

department grade.

I would like to congratulate our Miss Carrigan-Walsh who has

picked up a permanent teaching position in her home town.

Ashlee has been with us since her graduation Nine years ago

and is really looking forward to her reduced travel. (Needless

to say her horses will appreciate the extra 6 hours weekly

too.)

Our School Parent’s Club is holding a Halloween Walk and

Disco event on the 31st of October. It won’t be a late night

but it will be a great night. Please support this fundraiser in

any way possible.

A big thankyou to Joyce Salas and her friends on the Pamper

& Swap fundraising session that was held on October 5th,

Joyce and friends raised $130.00 for our school.

It’s no hat no play term and our kids are doing beautifully

remembering that hats are needed at school. If you need to

purchase a new hat we will be placing and order in the next

few weeks just let Tabatha know at the office.

Grade P/1/2 News

Welcome to term 4 and what a busy term we have ahead of us.

Last week, all students completed a holiday recount in the form of a postcard.

This week and next week, we are reading and writing procedural texts. We are learning about the authors purpose being to instruct, the requirements and order of a procedure and how to use instructional verbs. We have planned a Big Write for Friday, October 17th – ‘How to plant a seed’. Please be advised that there will be no Big Talk Homework as students will be planting their seeds on the day.

In Maths, we are continuing our topic of Fractions. We are learning to identify and name parts of a whole object and parts of a set of objects e.g. halves, quarters, thirds, eighths etc.

Next week we will be beginning our new topic of Volume, Mass and Capacity.

In Integrated Studies, we have introduced our new topic – ‘Plant Life’. Students are learning about what a plant needs to survive, the life cycle of a plant and the parts of a plant. We will be planting seeds this week and documenting their changes as they grow over the term.

A big thank you to those families who have donated the ‘Pots of Fun for Everyone’ from Woolworths.

Over the past 2 weeks we have had a focus on Safety. We have learnt about all things traffic safety and had a visit from a local police officer. Students also visited the Life Education Van, where Harold the Giraffe educated the students about healthy minds and bodies.

Swimming started this week, and all went ‘swimmingly’. Please ensure that asthmatic students have their own asthma pump in their swimming bags on Tuesdays.

Could all 1/2G Learning Diaries please be returned ASAP.

Thanks Mrs Green and Miss Gappa.

Grade 3 / 4 News

Last term has come around so quickly and there is already a very busy timetable of events coming up. Grade 4 students are busy improving their cycling skills and the grade three students are producing an interactive farm safety resource for the junior members of the school as well as 3D quad bike poster. All students will be working on aspects of farm safety throughout the next two weeks.

Our first assignment for the term will begin this week and the theme is invasion. The first part of the assignment will be based around the invasion of feral animals in Australia.

We will be continuing with our STEM program and there will be a focus on moving models, some by pulley and wire and others involving motors.

Place value will be the focus in maths and some revision work will be sent home to consolidate classwork and assist with their learning goal achievements. A pre assessment was given last week to target areas and provide individual assistance. It was great to see so many students complete tasks at home, they showed a lot of improvement this week in class work based on extending and reading numbers.

I will continue to send home the class reading text that will be required for assignment and class work. Strategies to assist

include; reading it to your child and discussing content, highlighting important information and key words, attempting new vocabulary by breaking up into sounds or syllables and reading parts or all of it independently.

Regionals On Friday 11/10/19 Lila and I went to Ballarat. We competed in all sorts of sports. I competed in long jump and 200 metres. In long jump I jumped 3.24 metres and in the 200 metres I wasn’t sure where I came but overall it was a good day.

Lucy Jones

On Friday 11/10/2019 I went to Ballarat. I competed in triple jump and I had three jumps to show how far I could jump. I got third with a personal best. I jumped 7 metres and 37 cm.

I felt the glory standing on the podium.

By Lila Bennett

5-6 News

Term 4 is shaping up to be very busy! We have started the term with a focus on safety. The grade 4/5’s will be participating daily in Bike Ed, covering all aspects of bike and traffic safety, while the grade 3/6’s will be learning about Farm Safety.

We have had special guests in to talk to our grade about safety. We had a member of the Victorian Police talk about traffic safety and an instructor from St. Johns teach the key elements of first aid for bites and stings and CPR.

Our writing focus for the first two weeks is procedural writing. The first task requires students to write the procedure for giving first aid to someone who has been bitten by a snake. Place Value is our focus for maths for the first two weeks. Students have all completed a pre-test and from those results will be taught any gaps in their knowledge. During reading sessions students have been identifying the author’s purpose for each text read. They decide if the text is to inform, persuade or entertain and justify their answer.

This week we attended the Life Ed Van. Our grade participated in the program called ‘Think Twice’. This module tackled the topic of

drinking alcohol in an age-appropriate context. Students explored concepts such as:

Myths and facts surrounding the use of alcohol

Strategies for responding to encouragement or pressure to drink

Physical, social & legal consequences of alcohol use

Strategies to reduce the harmful effects of alcohol on themselves and others.

We are attending a Cricket Tournament in Terang next Friday. Per-mission forms and more details will be coming home soon.

Junior School Council

Junior School Council would like to thank all the students and fami-lies that supported their fundraising event which was held on the last day of term 3. Enough money has been raised to adopt an Orangutan for a year. We will be sending away the adoption money ($157.40) as soon as possible and will keep the school community informed as to the progress of our baby orangutan.

Book Club

Book Club order forms went home on Monday, please return any orders and payment by Thursday 24 October, you can also order us-ing the Scholastic Loop Online. Visit scholastic.com.au/LOOP or download the app.

Parents Club

1st Friday of the Month Raffle Roster

November 1st Bek Vogels & Nicole Booley

December 6th

January 3rd

February 7th

If you would like to help, please contact Nicole Booley or

the school office.

School Uniform Order

We will be placing a school uniform order next week, if you require

any uniforms please contact the office.