Pelican Flat Public School

Ph: 02 4971 1543 Fax: 02 4972 1380

Email: pelicanflt-p.school@det.nsw.edu.au

Karog Street, Pelican NSW 2281

Principal: Mrs Louise Dunn

Thursday, 31 August

2017

Term 3 - Week 5

Principals Message Mrs Louise Dunn

Our school seems to just keep growing and growing. We welcome Summer and her family into our community this week. It’s also that time of year when we welcome our new friends starting Kindergarten in 2018 into the school. We are so excited with the number of students starting school at Pelican Flat Public School next year. Our first transition session is being held on held Tuesday 19 September. If you know of anyone who is yet to enrol for next year could you please ask them to contact the school.

Mrs Heath has decided to continue her leave for the remainder of the year. Mrs Simm will continue on the K/1/2 class next term.

Last week was a big one here at school. All students attended our Taronga Zoo Excursion on Tuesday and everyone had a beautiful day learning about all the different animals and their habitats. Our Stage 3 students then went on to the Swansea High School STEM night which was very exciting. Students in Years 5 and 6 completed the Newcastle Permanent Maths Test last Wednesday and our week concluded with our annual Book Week Parade and Book Fair.

Congratulations to Beau, Amarlie, Cherron and Ava who competed in the Galgabba Spelling Bee at Blacksmiths Public School on Wednesday.

We are excited to have our Karong Karong Playgroup up and running again. Playgroup will run fortnightly on Fridays from 11am until 12.30pm. Children will also have the opportunity to eat and play with the ‘big kids’ if they wish. Our playgroup facilities are by far the best I’ve seen and our community is extremely blessed to have this facility. The playgroup is open to all members of the community regardless of whether they intend to send their children to our school so be sure to bring along all of your little friends for a morning of fun and creative play.

I was privileged to get a visit to my office this week from two very talented Kindergarten students, Poppy and Reigan. Both girls had completed some beautiful writing that they wanted to share with me. Not only was their writing very impressive they both were able to read their stories to me with great fluency. Well done girls!

Louise Dunn

Principal

‘Education is the key to unlocking the world, a passport to freedom’ Oprah Winfrey

Term 3 Calendar

Week 8

Monday, September 4 Assembly

P&C Meeting – 6pm

Thursday, September 7 Gymnastics

Friday, September 8 Playgroup – 11am-12.30pm

Week 9

Tuesday, September 12 CAPA Night Rehearsal

Wednesday, September 13 Regional Spelling Bee

Thursday, September 14 Gymnastics

Friday, September 15 Commonwealth Bank Smart

Start

Week 10

Monday, September 18 Debating Gala Day – Pelican

Flat Public School

Assembly

Tuesday, September 19 Orientation Information

Session

Wednesday, September 20 Touch Football Gala Day

CAPA Night – Swansea High

School

Thursday, September 21 Gymnastics

Friday, September 22 Rewards Day – PJ Day

Last Day of Term 3

Playgroup – 11am-12.30pm

Playgroup – Friday

The Karong Karong Playgroup is open fortnightly on Friday

mornings from 11.00am. Anyone is welcome to attend.

Thursday, 31 August 2017 Term 3 - Week 7

Certificate of Excellence Congratulations to Ella who was awarded the Certificate of Excellence at our last assembly. Ella was recognised for the maturity she is continuing to show towards her learning and the caring that she is showing towards her peers. Ella works well independently and should be commended on her effort and application to all aspects of her learning. Well done Ella!

Week 5 Award Recipients Congratulations to our award recipients from our last assembly.

Share Ziggy: Kindergarten Poppy: Kindergarten Luka: Kindergarten Amy: Kindergarten Kiannah: Year 1 Ashton: Year 1 Archie: Year 1 Isis: Year 1 Alia: Year 2 Chase: Year 2 Jade: Year 5 Amarlie: Year 6

Learn Charlie: Year 3 Layla: Year 3 Ella: Year 3 Cassie: Year 6

Taronga Zoo Taronga Zoo - Cherron Last Tuesday the whole school went to Taronga Zoo to have a look at all the amazing animals that are there. The bus trip took 2 hours and 30 minutes. The first thing we did was a private pat an animal lesson. We saw 5 small animals; a spiny stick insect, a possum, a blue tongue lizard, a long neck turtle and a snake. We got to pat each animal. I think the highlight of the trip was definitely the tiger trek. On the tiger trek the first thing you did was a simulated plane ride and a man on a video talked to you about Samaritan tigers. When the simulated flight ended you got to walk around a small pretend old village. We ended at an enclosure with one Samaritan tiger laying in a little hut made from a large box. There was half of a safari truck stuck into the wall that you could climb in and have a closer look. There was about 4 groups and each group got a photo in the truck. In conclusion that excursion was fun and the whole school enjoyed it.

Taronga Zoo Excursion - Olivia On Tuesday 22

nd of August the school went to Taronga zoo

and we saw amazing things. The sad thing was the bus trip was 2hrs and 30mins! Once we arrived we got a private lesson. We saw 5 different animals up close including a spiny stick insect, blue tongue lizard, turtle, snake and a ringtail possum. We got to see elephants but unfortunately we didn’t see them eat!! We got to go on this mission called the tiger trek. There was a plane(it was simulated) and there was a pilot on the big screen at the front of the plane saying we had to see if we could spot all different animals outside the window. Then we got to see giraffes and we took a photo of the whole school with the giraffe. And that was our Taronga zoo excursion!!

Taronga Zoo - Jade Last Tuesday the whole school went to Taronga zoo. We caught a coach down to the zoo. When we arrived we went to a private lesson and the teacher showed us a snake, lizard, possum and turtle that we got to see up close. After the lesson we walked around the zoo and saw all the different animals. One of our personal favourite animals was the chimpanzees and in particular the baby chimpanzee. He was really funny to watch.

Playgroup – Friday

The Karong Karong Playgroup is open

fortnightly on Friday mornings from 11.00am until 12.30pm. Anyone is welcome to attend.

Playgroup dates for Term 3:

Friday 8 September: 11am – 12.30pm Friday 22 September: 11am – 12.30pm

Thursday, 31 August 2017 Term 3 - Week 7

Book Week – Friday 25 August Escape to Everywhere

Thank you to everyone who came along and celebrated Book Week on Friday. It is always such a fun day for students dressing up as their favourite book character. The Book Fair was a huge success, raising money for our library. Thank you to the families who donated books to the school. Your generosity is much appreciated.

Thank you to the P&C for providing the delicious morning tea for all of our students and visitors.

Look at all the books that were donated to our school library from the Book Fair! Thank you to everyone who generously

donated a book on the day.

Library Library lesson are conducted weekly. Please remember to send library bags to school so students can borrow from the library.

K/1/2: Wednesday

3/4/5/6: Tuesday

Last Friday we had the Swansea Library visit Pelican Flat and share

some new books with our K/1/2 class. Mrs Simm’s favourite was a

book called ‘Chip’ about a seagull that ate hot chips.

Birthdays

Happy Birthday to the students and staff who have celebrated a birthday in the past two weeks!

Kaiden – Year 2

Charlie – Year 3

Ella – Year 3

Naomi – Year 5

Miss Shannon

Thursday, 31 August 2017 Term 3 - Week 7

K/1/2 with Mrs Simm

What a great time we have had this week! We had the perfect day for our excursion to Taronga Zoo. All of Pelican Flat Public School had their best manners and enjoyed a wonderful day exploring. Max was very excited and was happy to spend some time with relatives. Max also enjoyed the bus trip. Book Week was so exciting and everyone looked fabulous in their costumes. It was lovely to see so many family and friends join in the celebrations. The Book Fair was a huge success with everyone very excited with their purchases. K/1/2 were also lucky enough to have a visit from two lovely ladies from the Swansea Library who read us some great new books with enthusiasm which was also lots of fun. WOW!! You should see how well we can write in our class. Our story writing is amazing. Keep up the great reading as lots of people in our class are zooming along the reading race track. In Maths we are looking at time and patterns. Kindergarten have been very clever making up body percussion patterns as well as

number and picture patterns. Year 1 and 2 are working on half past time and how long things might take us (minutes, seconds, hours etc) Max is very excited about his home visits and we all love reading about his adventures on Fridays. Thank you to K/1/2 for working so hard and making my time at your school so enjoyable.

3/4/5/6 with Miss Ippolito

In 3/4/5/6 we have been looking at and studying the author Shaun Tan and in particular his picture book ‘The Lost Thing’. This week the students began designing characters and writing a plan for their own picture book. They have been working fantastically on this task and all came up with great ideas on what to base their picture book on and what characters to include/illustrate. Furthermore in literacy we have been working hard at researching a topic to write our informative text about. We have been working in the computer lab researching about our topic and starting to write a first draft. The amount of different topics and research the students have been finding/writing about has been great. On a Monday afternoon the students are involved in a dance session where we have been working on a grease inspired dance. They have all been working really hard on this and the results that have been produced so far are wonderful, especially from our new students in the class who have learnt the dance steps in a small amount of time. We are all very excited to see the end result!

Spelling Bee

Congratulations to the following students who represented Pelican Flat Public School at the Galgabba Spelling Bee at Blacksmiths Public School yesterday.

Stage 2:

Winner: Cherron Runner Up: Ava

Stage 3:

Winner: Beau Runner Up: Amarlie

These students will also be representing Pelican Flat Public School at the upcoming Premier’s Spelling Bee Regional Finals at Hamilton Public School on 13 September.

All students will receive their participation certificates and awards at assembly next Monday. We had hoped to hand them out at the last assembly however we did not receive the medals in time.

Touch Football Gala Day

The Touch Football Gala day for Stage 2 and 3 students has been set for Wednesday 20

th September at Barton Oval,

Belmont. The cost will be $2 per student and it will run from 9:30am until 2:30pm. A canteen will be running with a BBQ lunch available, along with chips and drinks. It is an expectation that all students participate in this fun day. A permission note will be sent home soon with more details.

Thursday, 31 August 2017 Term 3 - Week 7

STEM STEM Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths Expo

Students from years 5 and 6 represented our school at Swansea High school last Tuesday night for a STEM expo. The whole class has been working through the scientific process to solve some real world problems that face our local area. They programed robots, built models and presented their work to the Galgabba Community of Schools. The night was a great success and our students’ projects were absolutely awesome. Below are some pictures of the night.

Debating Team Cassie, Amarlie, Dyllan, Beau and Emma

Report by Cassie

On the 23rd

of August, Dyllan, Beau, Emma and Cassie went to debating at Blacksmiths Public School. Our first debate was on the topic ‘That skateboards should be banned’ and we were negative. The debate went really well. The positions in the team were: 1

st speaker which was Dyllan, the 2

nd speaker was Cassie,

the 3rd

speaker was Beau and the team advisor was Emma. We were debating against Swansea Public School and we won our first debate! The topic of our second debate was ‘It is better today than when our parents were young’ and we were negative, AGAIN! We had the same positions as the first debate. This time we were against Caves Beach Public School. Sadly we lost, but it was very close. Overall we had a lot of fun and are proud of our efforts.

Gymnastics

Term 3

Students will participate in Gymnastics

lessons as a part of the PD/H/PE curriculum each Thursday during Term 3. Students may bring bike pants, tights to

change in and out of if they wish.

Max’s Adventures The adventures of Max the monkey continues . . .

Max has been having a wonderful time visiting Harlee

and Teyl’s houses over the past few weeks. What an

experience it was to visit his relatives at Taronga Zoo. Students were all very excited to share this

experience with him.

Playground Trial of new morning routine

From Monday we are going to trial using our large playground for the morning play. This will mean that when the bell goes students will walk around to the large playground with the teacher on duty. If students are dropped to school after this time they will be expected to come to the playground area with their bags and when the bell goes get their bag and line up to go back to the classrooms. The reason behind the trial is to give students the opportunity to have a good run around and a play before they go into class. It will be a change from normal routine so we do ask that parents try and remind students before they get to school.

Showcase GalCAPA

Galgabba Community of Schools

All students will be performing at our Showcase GalCAPA night on Wednesday 20 September at Swansea High School. A note will go home this week with further information.

The next Debating Gala Day will be held on Monday 18 September at

Pelican Flat Public School.

Thursday, 31 August 2017 Term 3 - Week 7

Orientation to Kindergarten Starting Tuesday 19 September

We are excited with the number of students enrolled in Kindergarten next year. Our Orientation to Kindergarten Program information is starting on Tuesday 19 September. If you know someone who is yet to enrol please remind them to come to the office and put their name down.

Humans of Pelican Flat Public School

Mrs Chambers – School Cleaner

Favourite places that you’ve travelled? The 12 Apostles & Cape Otway national park Victoria are my favourite holiday places as they show natures' true beauty . People who have inspired you and why do you look up to them? My Mum has always been my inspiration. Her inner strength , courage & love through life's adversity has shown me that you can always keep going no matter what happens. Her love for the family was never ending which inspired me to keep a gentle heart through my life. What pets did you have while you were growing up? My family always had a menagerie of animals including dogs, cats , a horse, stray ducks & chooks from the bush. My Mum reared orphan wallaroos , wallaby & kangaroo joeys . One of the joeys, Mitzi , even attended my sister's wedding reception sleeping in a cloak room. What is your favourite thing to do in your spare time? I like to spend my spare time with my family, helping my Church , cooking & being in nature . What is your favourite book and why? My favourite book is April Fools Day by Bryce Courtney. This book is about the author's son being a haemophiliac . While having his treatment he contracts AIDS, this journeys leads him to learn about love & the acceptance of all. "Love is an energy , it cannot be created or destroyed . It simply means giving life & direction to goodness." This book made me aware of how important it is to love all people especially the sick . What is one interesting fact about you?

My interesting fact is I have worked at our beautiful school since last century. I have seen many changes in staff , the playground , buildings in my 18 1/2 yrs of service. In my early years I joined the school community for an exciting event. The students had made a huge welcome banner to the Olympics so we could all walk along the highway to cheer the Olympic flame runner on their journey. This day helped to bring the local community together with the Pelican Flat school students.

Mrs Chambers