Where did the time go? First term is coming to an end but what a successful term ithas been!We have been working hard to develop positive relationships with one another and havebeen learning to practise the skills that are necessary for developing and retainingfriendships and good peer relations. We have talked about what makes a good friend.We are learning how to be good friends and to forgive our friends and peers theirfaults. We are learning to play and work cooperatively with one another anddemonstrate respect for each other. We are also learning how to listen respectfullyand patiently to others, to acknowledge and engage with people who are talking while wewait for our turn to speak and to contribute constructively to a conversation.Our theme this term ‘Me and My Place’ allowed us to spend some time talking aboutourselves and our families, getting to know one another as well as learning about andexploring our school and understanding our place within the school community. We havemade little booklets about ourselves and have discussed our similarities anddifferences.We have carried out many graphing activities in order to get to know one another.Through these activities our group has had experience in:• collecting information• counting and making tallies• surveying peers• sorting objects• making picture graphs• reading graphs• making observations from a graph• working with tally marks and comparing their results• asking questions about graph resultsWe have learnt how to use a digital camera and have taken photos of our peers. In thislast week we will be taking photographs of our favourite places at Village School.We have donned our hats, sunscreen and gardening gloves and spent some afternoonsoutside working on our very special gardening project. We have used shovels, diggingforks, rakes and watering cans and have had a wonderful time weeding, digging, planting,and watering our very own pizza garden. Growing in our garden are tomatoes, peppers,chillies, mushrooms and basil. We have also made our very own plant identification signsas well as decorative ‘pizza flower’ garden stakes to add instant colour to the garden.We have been using the Letterland system to introduce the alphabet, correspondingsounds and correct writing technique. Each sound has a pictogram character with a10special story. We have met a new character from Letterland each week, with somechildren learning spelling patterns for long vowel sounds.Looking at just some of what we have accomplished it now comes as no surprise howquickly time has passed.I would like to take this opportunity to thank all those parents who have volunteeredtheir time to assist in the classroom. Thank you.

As you will know, some of the children in Mary’s group have been raising money for the Leukemia Foundation’s World’s Greatest Shave. Jascha and Nick both raised over $500 each, and Alice and Abbey both raised $20 with their hair colouring activities.

Well done all of you!

With term 1 already drawing to a swift close we are busily trying to complete the various tasks we have started. Our puppets are beginning to take shape as a number of layers of paper mache are put over the plasticine heads. The goal is to have them painted and clothed by the end of term! Hmmmm. Sounds like it might need to carry over to next term somehow.

As you walk around the school you may notice the odd reporter interviewing a celebrity and being videoed in the process. The children love seeing the results of this on the TV later and are learning the art of both filming steadily and speaking up as we discuss each segment. I think we have a few talented performers budding here!

The children are again enjoying the guided games in our Learning Centres on Thursday mornings. Both maths and language games and sometimes typing on the computer are activities that we enjoy. Having an adult for each group ensures that the focus of the game is accomplished and any needs for extra help are identified. Anyone that can help from 9am to 10.30am on Thursdays (and has a Working With Children Check) is very welcome to assist.

With such a short term (only eight weeks) we are starting our personal projects but don’t aim to finish until the second week of next term. Topics were offered to the children but they were also free to come up with their own ideas on the subject of food. So far the most popular topic has been to research traditional foods and dishes from six different countries of your choice; the end result also needing to include a cooked dish from one of these countries.

We hope to have this coincide with our own celebration of Harmony Day when the whole school, including available parents shares a very multi-cultural lunch. Other choices have included finding out about Australia’s most important food crops and researching a country that has a food shortage problem. Some are still to make a decision about their project choice.

Our biscuit packaging exercise was a great success and became an extremely tasty feast spread over a couple of weeks. Almost every person elected to cook their own biscuits, initially to present their packaging in the most realistic manner, but also of course to sample the products!

Another culinary delight was the blackberry jam exercise. We’re fortunate to have some unsprayed blackberries on site and thanks to help from a couple of parents we picked, cooked and packaged our own jam which was a great hit at the Friday afternoon market.