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WEEK 2

WEEK 4

A MESSAGE FROM THE PRINCIPAL

Yours in Christian service,

Brad Moss
Principal

Brad navy

Positive leadership nurtures growth, inspires strength, and illuminates the potential in everyone. It's about fostering an environment where encouragement, support, and a forward-looking mindset prevail. A positive leader empowers others, cultivates a sense of purpose, and leads by example, creating a ripple effect of optimism and productivity within their team. This style of leadership often leads to increased motivation, higher morale, and a more resilient and innovative team.

Our Students Know the Power of Positive Leadership
Over the past two weeks, we have held our captain’s speeches for 2024. The speeches were outstanding, as the candidates articulated what leadership meant to them.

I spoke to several parents about the calibre of students this year. They all agreed, it is evident that there is a clear message at St John’s about who we are as leaders at our school. There was a common theme in all speeches about servant leadership, leading by example, placing the needs of the school first and the importance of everyone having a voice. Our Year 5 students did a marvellous job and should feel proud of themselves for stepping forward as a candidate.

2024 Captains
We congratulate our 2024 Captains and Vice-Captains, voted by students and staff:
School Captains: Lara Male and Gan Ney Cole
School Vice-Captains: Annabel Johnston and Hudson Piltz

Mrs Jafari, Mrs Bothe and I met with all of the candidates and discussed the emotions that are felt with receiving positive and negative news. We acknowledged their commitment and thanked them for stepping up to represent their school. We let them know the results and our 2024 captains and vice captains rang their parents to let them know the good news. The other candidates spent time with Mrs Jafari and Mrs Bothe talking about resilience, grit and perseverance and having a strong sense of self. We were so impressed with the students’ maturity and the students were warmly welcomed back into the classroom by their peers.

We are proud to congratulate our 2024 Sport Captains, voted by staff and students:
Dight: Darcy Smith and Ella Mighalls
Goessling: Isabel McGrath and Ryder Reid
Luther: Levi Wilson and Jacob Rudd

Mrs Bothe met with all the candidates to let them know the results, congratulated the successful students, and then spoke of how each student in Year 6 is considered a leader at St John’s and we look forward to continuing to develop their leadership skills.

I am looking forward to working with our Year 6 Leaders next year!

FROM THE DEPUTY DESK

Year 5/6 Dance Ministry Chapel this Friday!
On Thursday afternoon this week, Justin Seidel from Freestyle Dance Ministry will lead a Christian hip hop dance workshop with our Year 5/6 students. Justin will also share his personal Christian journey story with the students and how he expressed his faith through dance. On Friday, Justin and the Year 5/6 students will share their dance with the whole school as part of our worship. All families are welcome to attend.

Please see information in this newsletter about Justin’s involvement in this week’s Friday Night Chapel at school. We can’t wait!

Youth With a Mission (YWAM)
This Friday, a Christian youth ministry team from Canberra (YWAM) will lead our students in fun activities at lunchtime and before our Friday Night Chapel. What a treat!
Hats and Sunscreen
Thank you for making sure students are coming to school with their hat. Sunscreen is available for us in every classroom, and it had been great to see students bringing their own sunscreen for sensitive skin to school.
Wellbeing Sessions with Kate Rotherham
This term, Wellbeing Sessions led by Kate Rotherham from Parachute Therapy have continued and will conclude this Friday. Last term, Kate worked with all of our Year 5/6 girls and this term she has led sessions with all of our Year 5/6 boys. The session content was from The Social Stencil program, devised by Dr Connie Buckingham. Social Stencil is an engaging, evidenced and theory driven program, designed to build social skills, friendship concepts and conflict management skills. The students had some fun with games and activities designed to help them work and problem solve together.
We are so grateful for the social and emotional skills and understanding Kate has shared with us, and for funds raised by Mathew West’s family that made this possible.

SPECIAL EVENTS

FRIDAY NIGHT CHAPEL
Our last Service for 2023 is this Friday, and we can’t wait!

Do you like to dance? Justin Seidel from OM Freestyle Dance Ministry will be teaching us some hip-hop moves and sharing about his life.

We will also be joined by a YWAM (Youth With A Mission) team from Canberra! They’ll be running fun activities for us before the service at 6!

We’d love to see you there!

Thank You!
We’d like to say a huge thank you to all the staff, students, parents, grandparents, and volunteers who’ve been a part of our Friday night services this year! We can’t wait to see this ministry grow next year!

If you have ideas about how to improve the services, or ideas about small groups/activity etc. we could run, please talk to Chappy Peter Reed! - peter.reed@stjls.nsw.edu.au

St John’s Chapel now has a Newsletter!
If you would like to keep up to date with Chapel events, please click here

SNOW CONES
This Thursday the 16th of November we will be doing snow cones, Viv's dad will come in and provide the snow cone machine for us.
We are doing this instead of ice poles, it will cost $3.
By Ben W, Viv, Zoe. P. Money Raised will go to Lutheran World Service.

CREATIVE ARTS

This fortnight in Creative arts we looked at the story ‘A colour of his own’ by Leo Lionni. All students were asked to draw a chameleon with white crayon and then we put a wash over it with different coloured edicol dye. We found it fascinating how we could make our invisible picture come to life with some dye, and how the chameleon could blend in with the background. We also did some painting of Autumn trees.

We watched a clip of how to use your paint brush to create the leaf pattern on paper. All students did such ana amazing job making their autumn tree, they all looked brilliant!

CREATIVE ARTS

It's already Week 4!
Which means we only have 5 more weeks until concert. The students are getting very excited and are having an amazing time. Concerts create such a fun atmosphere as the students love to get up on stage and perform with their friends. We can't give too much away but it is going to be spectacular!

STUDENT INFORMATION
WHAT'S HAPPENING IN CLASS

KINDERGARTEN

It is crazy to think that it is already Week 6 of Term 4! Over the last couple of weeks, the Kinders have been exploring force and motion in our PBL unit. We have been looking at the way objects and toys move, how we move and how things move outside/in nature. One of our challenges was having to think of a way to move a marble without pushing or pulling it directly. The Kinders are a very creative and imaginative class, so they thrived with this challenge to come up with creative solutions. Some of these involved blowing through a straw to move it, using the motion of a ramp in creative ways, tilting a cup or box to move it and developing new and different contraptions.

Now we are about to start creating our very own toy, that needs to involve either pulling, pushing, bouncing, sliding, rolling and spinning. The Kinders are SO excited! They have started by brainstorming some ideas of what their toy could look like and how it could move. They didn’t just come up with one idea, but had to think of how they could make their original design better and better- coming up with four different designs. Next step is to start making our toys and then to present them to some of the Little Saints students. We will keep you posted!

YEAR 1

Over halfway through the final term, time is flying, and we are having so much fun!

This last fortnight we have been looking at big multisyllable words and how breaking them down can make it easier for us to hear the sounds and spell them out. We have also learnt the prefix ‘un’ and how that can make a base word mean the opposite.

In maths we have been looking at different volumes in containers and sorting out objects from lightest to heaviest. We also looked at different sized boxes and worked out the best sized box to cover with 1 piece of paper as a challenge. The students did so well!!

In PBL we have been learning about the Christmas story and how Jesus was born. We have been reenacting the Christmas story so that we can remember it. We have also been starting the designing process for our final PBL project.

Excited for the next few weeks! 😊

YEAR 2

It is hard to believe we are already halfway through the term! The students have continued to show great determination and persistence with all aspects of their learning. Go Year 2!

As we head towards the end of the year, it is important to reflect on how far the students have come. During Week 4, the students completed a Cold Write where a topic was chosen for them to write about. It provided them with an opportunity to demonstrate and apply everything we have been focusing on with writing and in particular grammar and spelling. It also allowed us to celebrate and reflect on each child’s achievements and create individualised goals to continue with, even as we finish off the year.

In Mathematics, we have moved into understanding measurement and how to find the volume and mass of a variety of objects. They have been comparing and determining the largest and smallest containers using informal uniform measurements. Through the hands-on activities, they have been able to predict and consider what would and wouldn’t be an appropriate material to use to measure with.

Our PBL has moved into our creative and planning phase and the students have been busily brainstorming waterproof games that can be enjoyed in the pool. They have had to consider the previous weeks research into materials and have worked with a partner to decide on a final idea. They have all shown excellent cooperation skills, by listening and negotiating with their partner.

YEAR 3/4 PV

It is now a countdown until the end of the year, as the weeks are flying by!

In Bounce Back, our school program that teaches social and emotional learning skills, we have finally looked at the final acronym ‘K’ which stands for ‘Keeping things in Perspective’. Each week we have been looking at what each letter of BOUNCE BACK stands for. We looked at the saying ‘Don’t worry about the small stuff’. Students had to place cards with into 3 categories- Small Stuff, Middle Stuff and Big Stuff. They then compared their categories with other students to say what they agreed on and what they didn’t. It is always a good reminder to keep our worries in perspective.

In Mathematics, we have been exploring multiplication which will lead us into division this week. The students enjoy playing games with a partner which reinforces skills in number.

During our class novel, we have looked at a Tension Volcano. Students looked at all the events leading up to a complication within the novel. The class came up with a definition of what a complication is and looked at how well the author drives a plot within a narrative.

For PBL, the students are once again using Canva to create a poster for their renewable energy source. We need to persuade others the importance of their source. The students will be looking into the Pros and Cons and seeing where it may lead us into the future.

YEAR 3/4 LK

Students have shown great interest in our current class book The Thing About Oliver. Students then had to rewrite the complication in the book from a different character’s (Oliver) perspective. Oliver is missing and so the students had to use what they knew about Oliver and predict what may have happened to him. Once finished the students shared their writing with the class.

For PBL students are researching different types of renewable electricity production. Students will also find out the benefits and if there are any negative sides to their type of electricity production.
Other fun things have been happening both inside and outside the classroom. Bike Day was a great success and the students enjoyed their time riding together. However, for some students they discovered that riding on grass takes a lot more effort than on the courts.

Our class money activities have the students very engaged. Last week they wrote out job applications and negotiated pay deals. We have some creative students who came up with unique ways to earn money as pencil case sorters, tub cleaners and as bird identification officers.

YEAR 5/6

Balloon Powered Car
During week 4 we organised a competition during lunchtime and recess. We provided students with materials such as balloons, straws, bottle tops, cardboard, string, etc, and they had to make a balloon powered car. At recess the students raced the cars and tested them to see if they worked.

The following students from each group were presented a merit at assembly for the fastest car.
Benji Keen
Chad McPherson
Matthew Davis

Thank you to all the students who participated, they had a lot of fun.
Construction Boys- Billy Proctor and Matthew Davis

Ride your bike to school day
On Friday the 3rd of November the Outdoor Lads organised a “Ride your Bike to School Day, for the whole school. Students were allowed to bring their bikes to school and if unable to they used the school bikes and helmets.

During each classes sport’s lesson the Outdoor Lads spoke about bike safety and rules when riding your bike. Then the boys led the student on a track set up around the school.
Students thoroughly enjoyed the day and had lot’s of fun.
Outdoor Lads
Charlie Schilg, Axel Podubinski, Jake Anderson and Casey Feuerherdt

Yarning Circle
Uncle David Dunn, Toni Terlich and Dominique Cole from Petaurus Education Group led our Year 5/6 students in creating a Yarning Circle for St John’s. Uncle David, an educator and Indigenous artist, taught us about Wiradjuri Culture and inspired students to paint story poles and rocks for our Yarning Circle with images that represent their personal stories and connection to St John’s.

All students will be able to use the Yarning Circle (between our hall and oval) to discuss issues, solve problems and build relationships.

Thanks to our Year 5/6 staff for organising this day and Petaurus Education Group for providing all of the materials and education (we even have some new timber benches being made by the Thurgoona Men’s Shed)!

THEIRCARE
BEFORE & AFTER SCHOOL CARE

This week:
The week was kicked off by the smell of pancakes on Monday morning. The kids tucked in and went off to school with full bellies! While Sommer was cooking Jaimee got started on this week’s program which was all about Disney! In honour of their 100-year anniversary, we crafted and discussed a lot of topics related to this, learning about favourite characters and movies was fun. We have been busy making Minnie and Mickey paper chains which are now hung around the room. This was a therapeutic activity that the kids focused on all Tuesday morning. We have some Mike Wazowski’s stuck on the wall and little minion origami friends’ underneath which we worked hard on! Of course, we got back into our Wednesday baking, this week was honey cookies. They tasted delicious, but they wouldn’t be winning any prizes for the way the looked haha! The rest of the week we continued with Disney creations and colouring competitions which was a ball! 😊
Next week:
Week 5 is all about building and creating! With the help of observations and child suggestions our program is including a lot of hands-on activities that the kids will enjoy. We will use recycled paper to make quilled creatures, this will be a fiddly task, but I have faith in we can do it, or at least try. We will have a go at making a marble maze, we will get the popsicle sticks and paint out and see what we can create, as well as fun with recycled materials. There has been a collection building here at TheirCare and its time to see what we can come up with. On Wednesday we will take 2 with a recipe we tried earlier in the year, a bit like our honey cookies they tend to turn into more of a slice, but we will see if we can mend the recipe and enjoy some Milo biscuits on our bake day. Now that the weather is finally warming up, Friday’s we will enjoy and Icey pole and relax while we watch a movie, no better way to end the week!

Reminder
Strict no hat no play rules apply at here at ThierCare, so remember to bring one along just in case and we can enjoy the sunshine together outside.

30/10/23 – 03/11/23

06/11/23 – 10/11/23

This week:
This week we let our creativity shine through and got hands on building and crafting. Of course, we kicked off the week by making and eating yummy pancakes Monday morning. No better way to start the week! I don’t think the kids would be happy if I changed this up now. On the program we had a variety of different activities that kept us busy. We put our patience and construction skills to the test with PVA glue and whole bunch of paddle pop sticks. There wasn’t anything they had to make but it was fun the see what they could come up with. Tuesday, we had a go at quilling, to do this, we had to shred a bunch of coloured paper and roll the strips to shape flowers and swirls. These were beautiful in the end! On Wednesday we changed this week’s recipe to brownies, no one was complaining about this, they tasted great! The kids worked together as a team, and we had a successful bake! We also played and created with recycled materials that we have been collecting overtime, it is fun to see what we can come up with! 😊
Next week:
Week 6?! Crazy… On the agenda for us next week is all things galaxy and space. After starting the week right with pancakes, we will paint, draw, design, colour and compete! To be more specific, we have a variety of activities set to keep us busy. These include painting and splatting to create galaxies on Monday afternoon. We will try our hand at some origami on Tuesday morning making rocket bookmarks. We will of course cook on Wednesday, I thought I would go back and see what a success was previously and decided on honey oat slice, delicious! We will also get creative crafting and designing our own Aliens and planets, very keen to see what the kids can come up with here. It is warming up, but luckily, we can still have a run around inside the hall, so group games will continue! Bring along some new ideas and be sure to share, we would love to hear!

Reminder
Strict no hat no play rules apply at here at ThierCare, so remember to bring one along just in case and we can enjoy the sunshine together outside.

MERIT AWARDS

Year 3/4 LK
Ivy McWaters & Billie Groenewald
Year 3/4 PV
Kaithlyn Holmes & Lucas Ballentine
Year 5/6 GC
Mathew Davis
Year 5/6 FS
Axel Podubinski
Jake Anderson
Casey Feuerherdt
Charlie Schilg
Finn Condon
Billy Proctor  

Little Saints
Brantly Deegan & Harry Jones
Kinder
Piper O’Grady Moll & Jonti Noordam
Year1
Ashlynn Deegan & Eddy Allen – Cameron
Benji Keen
Year 2
Eli Johnston & Gloria Wang
Chad McPherson

Week 5 & 6 

PRAYING FOR YOU

At St John's, we pray for our students and their families and staff members.
This week, we are praying for:

Week 5
Beau & Ivy McWaters
Ella & Jack Mighalls
Grayson Cox & Finnlay Cox
Clinton Lennon
Charlene Walsh  

Week 6
Eva Eddyson & Ollie Allen – Cameron
Isabella Cameron
Eden & Ivy Lawrence
Chloe Oates
Finn Sutcliffe
Alison Perdon

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