4 September Dear Parents and Carers,

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1 4 September 2017 Dear Parents and Carers, We hope that all Fathers and Grandfathers had a wonderful day on Sunday filled with joy and surrounded by loved ones. Kindergarten have really enjoyed exploring the new play area in the Adventure Playground and have welcomed Year 1 into their space beautifully. Some students have also found joy in being able to run around and play soccer on the bottom oval each day with the rest of the students at St James. We are very proud of the way they have transitioned and played cooperatively throughout the week. Well done Kinder! Catholic Identity: A message from the Mini Vinnies This term the Mini Vinnies team are focusing on raising awareness for the local homeless community in the Tweed region. Our focus until the end of the term is to collect donations of toiletries. All donations will be divided between the local charities, You Have a Friend and Fred's Place and distributed directly to those in our local community. The toiletries not only provide the basic necessities that are needed for daily hygiene and health but also help to provide a sense of dignity and self worth. We are asking for donations of: * Toothpaste/ Toothbrushes * Shampoo/ Conditioner * Baby wipes * Soap * Deodorant * Tissues ( pocket size) * Brushes/ Combs * Women's sanitary products * Face washers etc We truly appreciate the generosity of the St James School Community and thank you once again for all your support. You Have A Friend (YHAF) Below are the student s families who have been rostered this week to donate food or toiletry items to YHAF for the homeless in our area, if they wish to. Items may either be brought to our classrooms or left at the office. Many thanks for your generous support. Date Students/Families September 4th Tayla, Temperance, Bodhi, Josie, Kiana, Thomas

2 Learning and Teaching: English Congratulation to the following students who have reached their Term 3 Reading goal for the Term. - Josie McDonald - Cooper Hall - Sierra Stephens - Jake Coates - Ron Rony Joseph - Olive Randall - Seth Prendergast - Matilda Philip - Peter Eller - Aiden O Donoghue Homework Thank you for your support with the homework tasks last week. This week our homework task is to write an imaginative story. This imaginative story will be shared as your child s news in week 9. For this week s news it is your child s free choice. We are also continuing to assess tricky words each week and ask that students keep practising these at home. Reading Strategy This week s reading strategy is asking someone to define a word for you. Please see attachment at the bottom of this page for more information on how you can support the learning of this strategy at home. Administration: Dental Assessments: Following the recent dental assessments conducted by the Northern NSW Local Health District Oral Health Services at our school we can report that 69 Kinder and Year 2 dental/oral health assessments were conducted. 28 students were found to require dental treatment. All Kinder and Year 2 students were given a toothbrushing chart to take home. The aim for this was to stimulate discussion and establish good oral health habits at home. Disney Spectacular Kindergarten students will require a costume of any character from Peter Pan. They may choose to come as any of the Peter Pan characters with the exception of 4 girls who will require a fairy costume:- Temperance, Olive, Nyah and Matilda and 2 boys, River and Blake, who will be pirates. School Community: We are participating in a 5c challenge. Both Kindergarten classes have a jar for all 5c pieces that we collect. The class who collects the most coins will win a Pizza Party. This challenge will finish on the 12th September. Dates to be aware of: - Kinder excursion to the Gold Coast Art Centre: Diary of a Wombat September 13th - Disney Spectacular - September 14th at 7pm in the Doyle Centre Sincerely, Mandy Barone, Liana Bordin and Michelle Clarke

3 Reading Strategy : Ask someone to define a word for you As adult readers when we come to a word we do not know the meaning of we have many strategies we use to help us figure it out. Most of the time we use the context of the sentence to help us or we take the time to look up the meaning of the word. Sometimes we are fortunate enough to have someone close by that is able to assist us in understanding the unfamiliar word. Asking someone to define a word is an easy way to get information without taking a lot of time away from the text being read. This can give readers a sense of the general idea of the word and allows them a chance to return quickly to text for meaning to be preserved. It is important that readers go back into the text and use all their knowledge to confirm the definition given. How can you help your child with this strategy at home? 1. Model for your child various ways to ask for help. Remind him/her to ask one or all of these questions when asking for help: What is the word? What do you think the word means? What are some examples of this word when used in a sentence? Be sure you don t rush to answer these questions for your child to quickly. We teach the children that they must do the work! 2. After asking the above questions, have your child do the following: Go back to the text and substitute the definition that was given for the word. Read the selection again, using the definition. Ask: Does the definition of the word make sense in the sentence? 3. Have a fun contest at home to see who can use the word correctly the most that day. See who can get to five uses first or keep a tally until the end of the day. Thank you for your continued support at home! Thank you for your continued support at home!

4 We have reached our Term 3 reading goal!

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6 Grandparents Day and Book Week

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