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It is very nice to be back after three week’s sick leave. No, not due to Covid but another nasty virus. Thankfully we have a great team at SPS and everything continued on as usual.
Focus on Learning Assets – Self-Managers
Throughout the start of the term all classes have been establishing their orderly learning environments and strategies to be successful learners. One of our learning assets that plays an important role here, is being a good SELF-MANAGER.
I interviewed a group of students from Prep to Grade 6 and some of the common characteristics they described for being a good self-manager included:
- Never giving up and trying your best
- Listening when others are talking
- Eyes and ears to the teacher when they are talking
- Don’t sit where you will get distracted
- Keep track and have things organised for your learning
- Completing your tasks on time
- Stop talking and be focussed on your work
- Set goals
Please listen to the video below to hear the students talking about self-managers.
Importance of Sleep
Last week the leadership team looked at the data from the Grade 3-6 wellbeing check-in survey that we now do twice a term. It is a great way for us to monitor student’s wellbeing and put things in place to support children at school and home. One thing that the data highlighted was that only 34% of students feel they regularly get 8 hours of sleep each night.
We all know that sleep is important for children’s growth, learning, mood and development and I have included some information from the Raising Children’s website Sleep for kids & pre-teens: 5-11 years | Raising Children Network that you may find helpful.
Why sleep is important for children aged 5-11 years
When your child sleeps well, your child will be more settled, happy and ready for school the next day. Good-quality sleep helps your child concentrate, remember things and regulate emotions. This all helps your child learn well. Getting enough sleep also strengthens your child’s immune system and reduces the risk of infection and illness.
Sleep: what children need
At 5-11 years, children need 9-11 hours sleep a night.
How to help children sleep well
A good night’s sleep is about getting to sleep, staying asleep and getting enough good-quality sleep. Here are some ideas that can help your child get the sleep they need.
- Bedtime routine
A bedtime routine is very important at this age. It helps your child wind down from the day.
For example, a child who normally goes to bed at 7.30 might have a bedtime routine that looks like this:
- 6.45 pm: put on pyjamas, brush teeth, go to the toilet.
- 7.15 pm: quiet time in the bedroom with a book and a bedtime story or quiet chat.
- 7.30 pm: goodnight and lights out.
- Relaxing before bed
After a big day at school, your child might still be thinking about the day’s events and worries. If your child’s mind is still busy at bedtime, it can cause a restless night or bad dreams. You can help your child settle and relax for bed by keeping activities quiet in the hour before bed. For example, you could play gentle music or read a story together. Making a bath part of your child’s bedtime routine can also help with relaxation. - Good sleep habits
Your child might sleep better at night if they:
- keep regular sleep and wake times, even on the weekend
- turn computers, tablets and TV off an hour before bedtime
- have a quiet and dimly lit place to sleep
- avoid sports drinks and chocolate, especially in the late afternoon and evening.
Introducing the Admin and EFA Teams
Cindy Tatlow – School Business Manager
Part of my role at SPS is to work alonside our EFA and Admin Teams.
Another Fun Fact: I enjoy going on long motorbike rides and have been all over Australia on the back of a bike. I haven’t yet been to Darwin however, but I am hoping to do that this year!
Alison Dallas - School Admin Clerk
I love working at Somerset Primary with our amazing Admin Team and all of the wonderful staff and students. I have been lucky enough to watch some of our students grow from Kinder to Grade 6 (yes I have been here that long ?).
Fun fact: I love scuba diving in our wonderful oceans, watching all the little fishies, I have been lucky enough to see a leafy sea dragon.
Nicole Norton - School Admin Clerk
I enjoy being a part of the Somerset Primary Admin Team and getting to work with some great people. I love getting to know the kids and all of their unique personalities. Every day is different and you never quite know what each day will bring.
Fun Fact: I once didn’t drive my car for a week because there was a large spider hiding inside.
Julie Ellis – Education Facility Attendant in Pods 2 and 3
Working at Somerset Primary brings me so much joy knowing that I'm part of a fantastic team that can give our teachers and students a safe and positive environment everyday.
Fun fact: I love spending time with my family playing games and doing jigsaw puzzles. I was born in an elevator and I was a twin!
Margaret Grieve – Education Facility Attendant in Pods 1 and 2, Prep and everywhere else!
I enjoy watching the students laughing, playing and helping if needed when they are in the blue zone. I look forward to working with our EFA Team each day.
Fun fact: I love spending time with my grandkids and being involved with the Somerset Basketball Club
Stephen Haines – Education Facility Attendant (grounds and general maintenance)
Fun fact: My hobbies are camping and wood- chopping.
Bec Evans - Education Facility Attendant in Kinder, Admin and all over the school!
Really enjoys helping out in Kinder on Friday mornings before work.
Fun fact: I love baking...... alot!!
No Mother’s Day Stall
At our School Association Meeting last week we unfortunately made the decision to cancel the Mother’s Day Stall for this year. Due to lack of participation by parents and only one or two people attending meetings, things have not been organised or ordered.
We understand that parents and students really like this service but we do need greater support to offer these things in the future. The School Association, to minimise some of the impact from this, are giving each class $30 to go towards purchasing materials so all children can make a gift to take home for their mum or special person for Mother’s Day.
We are trying to attract more people to join the parent group. By joining you do not have to commit to every meeting but be available with ideas and to help when required. If you would be interested in being added to the Parent Group Messenger, please let the office know and your details will be passed on.
In Kinder A we have been learning about the Zones of Regulation, this involves recognising and naming emotions and assigning them to the four coloured zones, red, blue, yellow or green. The photos show the children involved in an activity that required them to decide what emotion the people on the card were feeling and what zone that it fitted in. The most desirable zone to be in at school is the green zone which is calm, happy and focussed. The children have discussed strategies that they can use to get into the green zone if they find themselves in one of the others zones (we all are in the other zones at various times). They have come up with five strategies to use to help you get back in the green zone, these are:
- Going to the calming corner
- Taking deep breaths
- Having a pause and a drink
- Finding a friend to talk to
- Finding an adult to help you
Grade 1A and 1B classes enjoy working together to explore STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Mathematics) on Friday mornings. This is an opportunity for both classes to work collaboratively through a design, make, test and refine process to directly address each STEAM challenge they are given.
Throughout the term, we have provided a range of challenges that integrate key learning concepts within a meaningful context. Students have eagerly made slides for a Lego man, aquarium dioramas, newspaper bridges for the Three Billy Goats Gruff, puppets for a puppet show, nature patterns outdoors and impression printing art works.
STEAM challenges are an engaging way to promote the development of important life skills such as critical and creative thinking, inquiry, communication, teamwork, collaboration, problem solving, resilience and persistence.
For our second library display, we have 3 books about being a ‘word collector’ in the spotlight. Our key idea is that words are built of meaningful parts, and these are called morphemes. We can use word sums to clearly show each morpheme which can help with spelling by breaking a word into more manageable, and meaningful, parts. So, when we look at the word ‘collector’ the word sum to help us explain the structure is: collect + or à collector, where ‘collect’ and ‘-or’ are both morphemes. Each part holds meaning. Students have already learned that the base holds the main meaning in a word, but prefixes and suffixes also hold meaning. The ‘-or’ suffix in ‘collector’ holds the meaning of ‘someone who’, so a ‘collector’ is someone who collects something.
Some further examples are:
- the ‘-s’ in ‘dogs’ tells us that there is more than one dog.
- the ‘re-’ in ‘replay’ tells us we are going to play again.
- the ‘-ed’ in jumped tells us that we have already done a jump.
Making morphemes obvious through word sums helps us to spell the word correctly. You could have a go at writing word sums for these words:
- musician
- playful
- reaction
- joyful
- rainbow
(and the answers are: music + ian à musician, play + ful à playful, re + act + ion à reaction, joy + ful à joyful, rain + bow à rainbow)
**’rainbow’ has two bases, making it a compound word
A very big thanks to the Lions Club of Wynyard for the kind donations of these author signed books (author: Gina Dawson) for our library. We know our students will enjoy them for many years to come.
Katie Miller Prep A
I am so excited to be back on Prep three days a week. I love teaching Preps and can’t wait to see their growth and what they can achieve this year. In my spare time I love going on outdoor adventures, walking Dexter my dog and bushwalking.
Louise Lowe Prep A
I love my work at Somerset Primary, especially in the mornings when watching the children come to class full of smiles and happy. Listening to their stories and the excitement they show when retelling a special event.
My favourite past time is going for walks with my dog Bentley after school on the beach in Somerset to unwind from a busy day.
I love to travel and have lived in many different countries - my last 2 trips away included climbing the Great Wall in Beijing, China and watching the sun set over the Grand Canyon in Arizona, America.
Kinder A Julia Hill
My name is Julia Hill and this is my third year at Somerset Primary School. I live in Ulverstone and am lucky to have family and friends that live nearby and that I see often. I have a big fluffy ragdoll cat named Maestro. I enjoy singing and am in a choir that performs along the coast. I love teaching Kindergarten as there is no greater honour than helping little people have a good start to their school life.
Kinder B Susan Archer
I enjoy setting up enticing learning environments in Kinder so children can learn using their whole body. It makes my heart smile to see children laugh while they are learning, that means I have to do some crazy things in my classroom to find or catch a smile.
I live really close to the beach and enjoy collecting love heart shaped rocks with my fur baby ‘Truffles’.
Kinder/Prep Melinda Hyland
I like working at Somerset Primary and seeing all the smiling friendly faces. When I am not at school I like spending time with my family and my dog on our farm.
Cass Schwebel
Lecia Cooper
I like it at Somerset Primary school because everyone is so friendly and that makes my heart smile. I like to have my grandchildren over and look after my animals when I am at home.
Levies
Levies for 2022 have now been issued. Levies can be paid at Service TAS, via bPay, via the QKR app, over the phone with credit card or in person cash or EFTPOS. Payment plans are available, please contact Cindy in the office to set a payment plan up. Levies can also be paid via Centrepay. Centrepay deducts your chosen amount from your Centrelink payment and pays it directly to the school until fully paid. Centrepay forms are available from the office.
Validation Forms
If you haven't returned your Validation Form please do as soon as possible. With our school photos being taken early in Term 2 if we don't have your forms back we do not have permission for your child to have their photo taken.
Term 1 in Digital Technologies
During this term we, as a school in Digital Technologies, have been trying our hand at Stop Motion Animation and 3D printing.
So What is Stop Motion Animation?
Stop motion is an animated filmmaking technique in which objects are physically manipulated in small increments between individually photographed frames so that they will appear to exhibit independent motion or change when the series of frames is played back.
Any kind of object can be animated, but puppets with movable joints or plasticine figures are most commonly used. Puppets, models or clay figures built around an armature are used in model animation. Stop motion with live actors is often referred to as pixilation. Stop motion of flat materials such as paper, fabrics or photographs is usually called cut-out animation.
This term, from Preps to Grade Six we have been developing our skill in this area.
First we have looked at:
- What is Animation and the different types of Animation?
- Types of Stop Motion
- The equipment used in Stop Motion Animation
- Then seven weeks of skill-based learning using the HUE program
- So, what is stop animation? Its manipulating objects to make them appear that they are moving on their own.
- Anything can be used clay, toys or any household object.
- Getting started. The basic tools to make your movie are a camera, Computer and software.
- Creating your story. You need to come up with an idea for your story, Make it simple.
- Storyboarding: You next need to plan your story, this is very important if you want to make a good animation, what happens in each screen and what will the background look like? Will you need any props or sound affects?
- Casting your characters, now you will need to think what your characters will look like. Clay is always a fun medium to work with. Make sure your characters are a bit chunky and can stand up on their own.
- The set: what will your set look like a cardboard will work well. You can draw a background or cut out pictures
- Audio this is about sound and another time during the term.
- Animating your movie. Always take a number of shots at the beginning and end of your movie and only move your characters a few millimetres at a time. Remember to use your onion skinning to see where your character was taken remember 12 frames is about one second of film.
- Publishing, once you have finished you need to save your project to the student drive and show your teacher.
So why are we teaching children this?
- Stop-motion animation can help children learn about, visualize, and explain a variety of math concepts. From addition and subtraction to algebra and graphing.
- Having children use stop-motion animation to solve and explain math problems gives children additional math practice and supports differentiated instruction.
- It provides helping in developing problem-solving skills, Patterns, sequence, order, working together, following instructions, using software, supports all learning types, and supports creativity