St Joseph's Primary School Newsletter

Last week we held our Ash Wednesday Mass and received Ashes on our foreheads to symbolise the sacrifices we take up during the Lenten season. As a Catholic community we look to Jesus as a model. He spent 40 days and nights in the desert contemplating what it means to be a follower and believer of God. He was tempted by the devil, but each time Jesus responds to the devil with Scripture. When the devil says, “Turn these stones to bread,” Jesus quotes Deuteronomy 8:3: “One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes forth from the mouth of God.” When the devil tell Jesus to throw himself down from the temple, Jesus replies with Deuteronomy 6:16: “You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.” When the devil commands Jesus to worships him, Jesus replies with Deuteronomy 6:13 (10:20): “The Lord, your God, shall you worship and him alone shall you serve.”

By uniting ourselves with the mystery of Christ’s trial in the desert, we’re reminded that the 40 days of Lent are like our journey through the desert in this life. If we remain faithful, following Jesus Christ, we too will enter into the true promised land of heaven.

On the evening of Friday 8th of March, Juliet Maxwell, Nate Dewson, Jaxon Gray and Byron Tully represented our school in the Rotary Charity Swimming Carnival. St Joseph’s finished in 3rd place after the Wee Waa High School teachers and Burren Public School.

Congratulations on all your efforts! A special mention to Carli Gray for organising this team at the event.

The “Mother’s Day Fashion Parade” is back for 2019. Can we all add the 10 May to your social calendars. The Fashion Parade will be held at the Wee Waa Bowling Club. More information regarding tables, costs, prizes and how this night runs will be sent out to school families in the coming weeks.Thank you to Ashlee Valentine for coordinating this event.

If you can assist in any way, please get in touch with Ashlee on 0417458510.

Kindergarten has been hard at work the past fortnight, learning how to write our first recount! After deconstructing our learning intention, ‘I am learning to plan and write a well-structured recount’, and identifying what we need to be successful, students were able to construct a piece of writing related to their weekend. With much enthusiasm, we have also been learning the story of the Good Shepherd, and how he loves, protects and knows his sheep by name. Reflecting these learnings, we have made a religion display in the classroom showcasing our masterpieces.

On top of this, we have also been busy bee’s, making a home for our class alien, practicing new skills when playing cricket, learning our first sounds (‘m’ and ‘s’), introducing new sight words, identifying reading goals, learning about the duration of time and most importantly, learning about our history and how special every one of us are!

Miss Brooke Theobald

Stage One have been developing their understanding of Lent and Holy week during our religion session with many engaging discussions. It has been wonderful to hear students talk about the importance of making sacrifices and giving during Lent. In Maths, the students have been working with concrete materials to create, represent and continue a variety of different patterns. They have been involved in small guided groups and individual learning experiences to investigate a variety of shape, colour and number patterns. The literacy block this week has involved engaging sight word activities, as well as decoding words and developing fluency when reading a text. Students have been learning the correct structure of an exposition and discussion, demonstrating their knowledge and skills during our Big Write sessions each week. Stage One students have thoroughly enjoyed the T20 cricket sessions provided by NSW cricket each Friday during the sport sessions. Through these coaching sessions, they have been developing their bowling, catching and batting abilities whilst gaining important sportsmanship and teamwork skills. It has been exciting to hear our Stage One students express their responsibilities as learners and engage with all their group activities and learning experiences so far this term.

Miss Lucy Suttor and Miss Elise Vinson

Wow, what a term we are having so far! Stage 2 have been learning how to present a balanced argument through the discussion text type. This week, we are now moving towards learning about expositions and presenting our point of view through strong arguments and emotive language. Learning about the purpose and features of an exposition have been our main focus this week to prepare the students for their Big Write. We look forward to “sharing our success” after the Big Write on Thursday.

As part of Talk Homework this week, parents can discuss how to present a strong argument and add wow words, which create emotion in the reader. Words such as cruel, appalling, tragic, must and urge are some ideas you could discuss with your child.

Mrs Karlee Hatton and Mr Mark Rottger

Stage 3 has made our debut in the Wee Waa News! Go and check out our hilarious photos.

We are currently writing expositions, aimed at persuading readers to agree with our point of view. Mr Stewart and parents should expect some passionate debates using persuasive devices. The students are getting impressively convincing every day, where they are often convincing me to play an extra GoNoodle, or two.

Year 5 have begun their first Maths Investigation, racing around Australia in 24 hours, while also landing in each capital city. I wonder who will make it? I predict some world travelers in our group. Meanwhile, Year 6 are working on multiplying decimals (see if they can teach you!) and converting metric units of measurement. 

We have also been playing Cricket in the past week, and it has shown great sportsmanship and proven that we have some fantastic bowlers, batters and fielders. In Health, we have been using dramatic skits to problem solve social scenarios; chances are this will become a favourite activity this year!

It is very hard to believe that we are already half way through the term, but we have settled into a good and fast rhythm of learning. 

Miss Olivia Robertson