Archive | May 2015

Aerobics Stars!

May13

http://www.rasaint.net/ - Glitter Graphics

This year, our school implemented a new and exciting CAPA program. The program is focused on the Schoolaerobics competition series. An aerobics team was formed from Yr 5 & 6 students students, now known as The Sapphires, featuring Elsie, Sophia and Sia from the OC!


The aim of the program is to incorporate fitness, fun, choreographed aerobics moves & teamwork culminating in entry into the NSW Schoolaerobics Competition, held throughout Australia. The Sapphires entered the NSW Preliminary Finals, held in Sutherland on Sunday 3rd May. After a term of dedication & commitment to training during lunch, recess and school holiday breaks, the team were ready to perform their routine and compete against other schools from various regions in NSW.
The nervous energy, giggling, anticipation and excitement brought smiles to the faces of all the girls, their teachers and their family members who had travelled to watch them compete. Taking to the stage for the first time in an aerobics competition, the girls were ready to give it their all and performed an absolutely fantastic routine. So good in fact, they were awarded 1st place in the Primary Stage 1-Classic Section. (A section specifically for schools who are new to the Schoolaerobics Competitions)

The 1st placing means that The Sapphires will progress to the NSW STATE FINALS to be held on 21st June, in Sutherland. With a berth into the Australian National Championships at stake, the team are now working towards improving upon their routine and aiming for stronger synchronisation and strength in their aerobic moves.

Finally, THPS and The Sapphires would like to acknowledge the wonderful contributions of our sponsors for the aerobics program – TANTOS IT, Hamilton Doctors & Newcastle City Holden. The assistance of these businesses has been paramount in helping The Sapphires with their competition gear, training materials & entry fees. A huge thank you must also go to Ms Brown and Miss Elley for all their effort, dedication and hard work coordinating Schoolaerobics.

IMG_6029

Electrifying Science!

May12

A big thank you to Nathan from the University of Newcastle who joined us yesterday to present his amazing science show to Stage 3 students. Nathan works with the team who develop the Science and Engineering Challenge, which we attend each year. He kindly offered to present his science show to us which was all about electricity. Students enjoyed some exciting experiments including the Van De Graff generator, a plasma ball and a coal fire demonstration. Students also got to spend some hands-on time using some of the equipment. 

Sport Captains

May11

Congratulations to our Year 6 students who were elected to represent their sport house during last week’s house meetings. I know they’ll do a wonderful job leading their house teams at next week’s Athletics Carnival!

William – Indigo and Gill               Bryant– Ameliah and Joe;

Elizabeth – Adrian and Mikayla       Mitchell – Jaden and Sydney

IMG_6152

Students are preparing for our Athletics Carnival coming up in Week 5. Please remember to bring in your permission note and payment this week!

Art Cave

May10

On Friday our class began our art unit the Hub of Democracy with Jane Lander in the newly created Art Cave. A big thank you to Jane, who is an artist, art teacher and Tighes Hill parent, for volunteering her time with us. I look forward to seeing what our clever students create during these sessions. Stay tuned…

IMG_6147

IMG_6145

Term 2 Overview

May3

 

Term 2 is certainly well under way! Below is an overview of some of the opportunities and learning programs students will be involved in this term.

Reading

This term students have begun studying the interactive multimodal text Inanimate Alice. In the coming weeks we will begin work on our class novel Skellig by David Almond.  We will also be starting our Literature Circles this term, guided to begin with. Towards the end of the term, students will have the opportunity to choose a text set for their Literature Group to read.

Our OC Book Club text this term is Endgame by James Frey.

Writing

Each day students participate in D.R.A.W – daily reading and writing. Students will be learning about a variety of concepts and devices to enhance their writing skills and will use these to produce imaginative, informative and persuasive texts. Part of this process involves students sharing their work with peers for critiquing and publishing finished pieces of writing on their individual blogs.

Last term our students demonstrated great skill and flair for writing imaginative texts. This term our focus will move towards producing persuasive texts. I will continue to showcase quality examples on the blog.

Mathematics

During our maths sessions, students will work in group rotations. The maths content we will be covering this term includes: Fractions and Decimals, Volume and Capacity, Patterns and Algebra, Chance and Data, Whole Number and Time.

During this term and next, the OC will be participating the in annual Maths Olympiad. The entry fee is $6 per student. Students are able to access past Olympiad papers as part of the homework options. The Olympiads are quite challenging, but a great way for students to develop their problem solving skills.

Students selected to take part in the AMT Challenge will begin working on their problems this week.

Excursions

The first event for OC students was the Interschool Chess Challenge held last Friday – we came 3rd! Thank you to all the parents who helped out with transport.

We also have our visit to the Civic Theatre this Wednesday for the Combined Schools ANZAC service. The cost is $2.50 to cover the bus.

I am also hoping to organise an excursion to the museum at the end of this term to compliment our HSIE unit. I will send details home once this is finalised.

Homework

Homework for students began last week (Week 2). Again, homework consists of a choice menu, where you can negotiate with your child what activities to complete at home. There is a speaking and listening task for all students to complete – due Week 4. The top 3 speakers will be invited to compete in our Speak Off in Week 5. Parents/carers are invited to attend this event.

Newcastle Herald writing competition

Students have begun generating story ideas and writing for this year’s entry. Thank you to Jarvis’ mum, Jenny, who has kindly offered to help us out with this competition. Our entry – The Tighes Hill Tribune – will be published on the 16th June.

HSIE/History

This term students will be covering the topic Enigmas – Mysteries of History. Students will have the opportunity to investigate a variety of historical and scientific enigmas from around the world including Stone Henge, Ancient Egypt and the Bermuda Triangle.

Aerobics

Congratulations to our school Aerobic team – featuring Elsie, Sia and Sophia! The girls competed in Sydney this weekend and won! They will now compete in the State finals. Well done to the girls, who have been practising non-stop for the last 10 weeks.

NAPLAN

The national assessment program for Reading, Writing, Language Conventions and Numeracy will be taking place in Week 4 of this term for our Year 5 students. Students will look at some past papers leading up to this to help familiarise themselves with the assessment format.

Writing Buddies

Last term our class worked with 1E for our Reading Buddies program. This term we will be doing Writing Buddies and I am looking forward to seeing them share their amazing writing skills with our younger students.

Events

The UNSW ICAS competitions begin this term starting with Digital Technologies in Week 5, Science in Week 7 and Writing and Spelling in Week 9. Entries for Writing, Spelling, English and Maths are still open if you haven’t yet entered.

Our whole school Athletics Carnival is coming up in Week 5 on Wednesday 20th May. Notes about this event will be sent home soon.

In Week 4, our Stage 3 students will enjoy a Science Show presented by Nathan Burke, as part of our T2 unit Change Detectives.

Our Hall of Fame assemblies will take place on Monday afternoon in  Weeks 6 and 10.

Our SRC will be organising a Disco to take place in Week 6 – Wednesday 27th May. Special guest DJ Mix-a-lot will be back! Tickets on sale soon.

A note was also sent home last week about BYOD. Students may now bring in their devices every day.

Permission notes and information was sent out last week about our Term 3 major excursion to the Great Aussie Bush Camp. Payments can be made at the office or online. *For those considering a nomination for the Creative Arts Camp, please be aware it takes place during the same week as our school camp.

Finally, well done to the students who have had a terrific start to the term. Please feel free to contact me with any questions regarding OC learning programs or events.

Chess Challenge!

May1

free glitter text and family website at FamilyLobby.com
Today we went to the Hunter School of Performing Arts to participate in the Interschool Chess Challenge. We had a great day and students played valiantly against a variety of tough opponents.

Congratulations to Jack, who was awarded our top scoring player and 5th overall. The point totals were extremely close with only half a point separating the top 3 schools. Well done THPS – finishing 3rd at the end of the day!

Our top players will be invited to compete in the semi-finals in Term 3. Thank you to all the wonderful parents who provided transport today – events like this wouldn’t be possible without your help! All the photos are below and you can visit the Sydney Academy of Chess website for all today’s results.