Week 2, Term 2

Dear CNPS Community,

Last Friday, our School Captains represented CNPS proudly by joining the march for the Castlemaine ANZAC Service and laying a wreath at the RSL.  Thank you to Remy, Lula, Jasmine and Adelaide (and their parents) for supporting this important ceremony.

LOST PROPERTY

We have a lot of items in Lost Property - most of it is either un-named or has the name of former students (so has been purchased from our second-hand shop).  Can you please assist us in returning lost items, by clearly naming jumpers and hats with your child/ren's names?  Thank you.  Any unclaimed items are added to our second hand shop at the end of each term.

IMPORTANT REMINDERS:

• Photo Day next Wednesday - please see this flyer for more information on how to order photographs, including family portraits.

• Parent-teacher meetings next week - bookings will close at 5pm on the day before your class meetings.

• District Cross Country - Grades 3-6 - next Friday.   There are lots of students who have not returned their note and money yet - can this please be attended to on Monday?

• Working Bee - Sunday 18th May - we are hoping for a big crowd to get some important tasks completed, including the fixing of the summer house, planting of new garden beds and moving soft fall under our monkey bars and play equipment.  

UNIFORM:

It is pleasing to see most students in uniform; however, a number of items are still not compliant:

• Plain navy or black shorts/trackpants please.  No logos (Adidas/Nike/stripes).  No bike shorts or activewear leggings.

• Socks - can they please be navy, white or black?

• Please make sure your child's shorts/skirts/dresses are mid-thigh or longer.   Beleza has a few different styles in stock.

Thanks for your support of our uniform policy. 

SENTRAL PARENT PORTAL

If you are not able to access the parent portal, please email me for your login details; it is an important communication tool, for reporting absences, receiving reminder messages, and booking teacher interviews. 

Have a great weekend,

Sam

LOUISE O'BRIEN - An article by Henry C

Louise is a kind teacher with many hobbies such as gardening, horse riding, reading and hiking/bush walking. She has a lot of pets: four horses, two sheep, two dogs, two cats, twelve chickens, three guineafowl, seven guinea pigs and one rabbit. 

Louise’s favourite foods are her dad’s family famous roast lamb, lemon meringue and big, juicy succulent grapes that explode in your mouth! If she had a choice to go to any place in the world, she would go to the Maldives! 

Louise has lived in a lot of homes in many places such as: Melbourne (born there), Moama, Echuca, Seymour and Bendigo. The people in her family are her parents, Lyn and Terry, her brothers Steve and Matthew, her sister Jenna and her daughter, Victoria. The footy team that she goes for is The Bombers.

Hello from the Prep room!

In Literacy this week, we met two more of Milo’s friends: Eddy the Elephant and Queenie Quail. We continued to practise writing our letters and focused on using capital letters, finger spaces, and full stops to form complete sentences.

In Maths, we have been learning our number pairs that add up to 10. We also practised counting and writing our numbers from every day to build confidence and accuracy. A highlight of our week has been welcoming parents and grandparents into the classroom to listen to students read each morning and to assist with PMP sessions. We are very grateful for their involvement.

For our Big Question “What makes us happy and healthy?”, students enjoyed a visit from Oliver’s mum, Amy, a local doctor who brought in some models of body parts and answered their questions about how a doctor can help us to stay healthy.  

We ended the week with a fantastic time at the Interschool Tabloid Sports Day with the Grade One and Two students. It was wonderful to meet children from other schools and enjoy a variety of fun games together.

Next week in Literacy, we will be introduced to two more of Milo’s friends—bringing us even closer to meeting all 26 characters! In Maths, we’ll continue building our addition strategies by exploring doubling and halving facts. We are also looking forward to next week’s Parent-Teacher Interviews, where we will have the opportunity to discuss your child’s progress. If you haven’t already booked a time, please do so via Sentral.

Hello from the Golden Wattle building! 

Well, it’s been another fun-filled and busy week for the Grade 1/2 students. This week, we’ve focused on the ‘Finding Out’ stage of our inquiry into "What makes us happy and healthy?". This included reading texts about healthy eating in Literacy and going on a community walk to see what facilities we have in Castlemaine that promote health and happiness. Thank you to our parent and grandparent helpers who assisted with our walks. We also looked into Bush Medicine and how Aboriginals use plants to keep healthy. A special thanks to Bonnie (Nina’s Mum) for bringing in some native plants for us to look at. We even made some tea out of Native Penny Royal (mentha saturoides) leaves, which are traditionally used to treat fever, coughs, colds and stomach cramps.

When writing this week, we’ve continued to focus on including extra detail to make our sentences more interesting – with a particular focus on using more specific nouns and including ‘when’ and ‘where’ details.

In Maths, we’ve continued to build upon our place value knowledge. This week, we have compared and ordered 3-digit numbers, been ‘number detectives’ to work out missing numbers or target numbers on a chart, expanded 3-digit numbers into their parts (e.g. 572 = 500 + 70 + 2) and used base-10 blocks to make 4-digit numbers.

In Wellbeing, we have been learning about respect from Aboriginal perspectives. We read the stories Respect, written by Aunty Fay Muir and Sue Lawson, and illustrated by Lisa Kennedy, and An important message from Mr Beaky, written by Cassie Leatham and Sue Lawson. We then made a class book showing the different ways we can show respect for ourselves, for other people and for Country.

On Friday, we enjoyed participating in the district Tabloid Sports. This involved playing games in groups with students from other schools. A big thank you to our parent helpers who helped supervise the activities. We really couldn’t do it without you!

Next week, we will finish up our inquiry into "What makes us healthy and happy?", looking particularly at physical health. In writing, we’ll be identifying and including adverbs (words to describe actions). In Maths, we’ll be moving into measuring length and, in Wellbeing, we’ll be exploring knowing and showing respect. Don’t forget we have school photos on Wednesday and parent-teacher meetings on Thursday. You can book a time to meet with us through Sentral.

We hope you have a great weekend,

Wendy, Laura, Claire, Sarah and Andrew

In Literacy, we have been analysing texts and the symbols that we find in literature. Our main text for the week has been The Red Tree by Shaun Tan, which has allowed us to explore our visual literacy skills. This helped us in our creative writing this week, as we wrote stories with the theme of a ‘quest’, where the characters had to go on a quest in search of a happier and healthier place. Their writing is always a joy to read.

In Maths, we have been working on multiplying two digit numbers. We have demonstrated this skill through using different methods, such as extended or contracted algorithms, or the area model. By the end of the week, students were showing strong preferences for the method for which they solved the problems.  

Our wellbeing has been a focus this week with our Big Question "How can we be happy and healthy?". The students have started a gratitude journal, which is an activity designed to encourage the skill of looking for the positive aspects of their lives and appreciate many of the things and people that surround them. We have had some fun team-building activities, such as attempting to make a paper chain in a group. The catch was that each student had to have one hand behind their back and they couldn’t talk. This led to excellent teamwork and impressive leadership skills demonstrated by some of our quieter students.

It was an exciting week for many of our Grade 6 students as they had the opportunity to tour Castlemaine Secondary College. This was coupled with a visit to the Phee Broadway to see the CSC production of Mamma Mia. Our students were very impressed and looking forward to when they can participate! A reminder to Grade 6 families, the Year 7 placement pack form is due back at the end of next. Please see your student’s teacher if you do not have one.

District Cross Country

On Friday 9th May, all of our students in Grades 3-6 will participate in the District Cross Country at Wesley Hill, along with students from other primary schools in the Castlemaine District. This event is usually run in two sessions. The 3km events for students who turn 11, 12 or 13 in 2025 are in the morning at 10am-12pm, while the 2km events for students who turn 8, 9 or 10 in 2025 are in the afternoon at 12-2pm. Please return your permission note by Monday. We will require the assistance of parents/carers to help supervise our students and act as marshals. Students who place in the top 20 in this event, in the 10, 11 and 12/13 year old age-groups only, will receive an invitation to the Division Cross Country the following Friday 16th May, also at Wesley Hill.

3km events schedule:

10:15 - 12+ Boys / Mixed
10:40 - 12+ Girls
11:05 - 11 Boys / Mixed
11:30 - 11 Girls
11.55 - Presentations.

2km events schedule:

12:30 - 10 Boys / Mixed
12:50 - 10 Girls
1:10 - 8-9 Boys / Mixed
1:30 - 8-9 Girls
1:50 - Presentations

Prep E

Tato G - for your concentration and focus each day when we are practising our letters and numbers on whiteboards.

Prep N

Edie H - for the way you contribute to class discussions with enthusiasm.
Archer M - for the positive attitude and confidence you show during Maths tasks.

1/2 L

Ollie A - for your entertaining and well written Big Write - your writing just keeps getting better!
Mahlee C - your caring and helpful nature makes our classroom a better place.

1/2 CS

Austin T - for the way you are making strong choices in the classroom and focusing on instructions.
Jude K - for your creative input to our BQT discussions and the way you share your engineering knowledge with the class.

1/2 WA

William E - for the perseverance you show working on your handwriting.
Rosie W - for the thoughtful way you created your clues for a mystery number in Maths.

3/4 PS

August B - for the outstanding way you expanded your sentences in your lion report.
Maxle P - for working hard to improve your multiplication fluency.

3/4 L

Henry C - for being an outstanding role model both personally and academically.
Aysha M - for the positive and friendly energy you bring to the classroom.

3/4 S

Erica N - for your eagerness to share your Maths strategies with the class.
Kulapat M - for showing compassion and empathy for a friend who was upset.

3/4 H

Beatrix N - for your well thought out and written SPO.
Caitlyn Y - for always presenting your work beautifully.

5/6 H

Chloe O - for confidently sharing your understanding of the -ly suffix.
Freida B - for your continued effort and improvement in Maths.

5/6 J

Sophia M - for making sure you include units of measurement in your answers.
Ava M - for going above and beyond when practising punctuating direct speech.

5/6 BC

Luca S - for your neat and insightful responses during reading.
Clem E - for being such a great example to others by displaying a calm, quiet leadership and readiness to learn.

5/6 BN

Oscar T - for your ability to analyse symbols in our stories about hope in Literacy.
Evie R - for your growing skills in paying attention in Maths, leading to increased success.

Indonesian

Albertine C - for the consistent way you try really hard, participate with positivity and model excellent behaviour.

Performing Arts

Frances W - for the enthusiasm you bring to every Performing Arts class. Your energy is contagious!

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