1 November 2019

Newsletter Articles

SLC Report

Dear families,

I would like to take the opportunity to personally welcome everyone back for another fun-filled term of learning, playing and growing. I can’t believe how quickly this year has gone by. We are very quickly approaching the end of the school year! I hope that everyone has been able to get out and about on the weekends in this beautiful weather. Personally, spring is one of the many things that I love about living in Canberra – the sunshine and all that goes with it brings true happiness and contributes to positive health and wellbeing! Having wonderful community spaces to enjoy and cultural experiences on our doorstep makes it even more fabulous.

Next week our teachers will be taking some of their learning outdoors as part of the official Outdoor Learning Day. There are proven powerful impacts of taking learning outside. When adults think back to their own happiest memories of childhood, they frequently recall the joy of playing outdoors. Play is not only central to children’s enjoyment of childhood, but teaches critical life skills such as problem-solving, teamwork and creativity. Please ask your children about different experiences that they have participated in throughout the week.

World Teachers Day

Last Friday, the 25th of October was World Teachers Day. The day is a great opportunity for everyone to recognise and appreciate teachers and the important role they play in shaping the next generation. I have fond memories of some of my teachers at school as would many of you. Teachers leave a footprint on the hearts and minds of their students. Our teachers work incredibly hard to ensure that your children can explore, learn and thrive in a safe and supportive environment.

A special thank you to the Franklin P & C who provided the most amazing morning tea to show their appreciation for not only the teachers, but all staff within our school community who nurture and ignite the learning of the children.

Floriade awards

Many of you who attended Floriade may have seen our “Franklin in Bloom” garden gnomes on display in the Early Childhood Schools section. We thought they looked marvellous and so did the judges of the competition. During the holidays, I received a lovely email from the Canberra East Rotary Club letting us know that we had won a prize for our category! Lorenza, Hayley and I went along on the final weekend for the presentation. We received a certificate and a voucher for a local early learning store. Congratulations must go the students, the teachers and the educators – they all did such a fantastic job of painting their gnomes. Each class painted and decorated a gnome according to the cultural backgrounds of our students and families. If you would like to see the gnomes up close, you will find them hiding amongst the garden beds and plants in our piazza space.

Term Overviews

Term 4 overviews have been prepared by our teachers and were distributed to all families last Friday. These overviews explain the content focus, excursions and events that will comprise the planned curriculum for each class for Term 4. The breadth of learning at Franklin Early Childhood School is excellent and I thank all staff for their dedication to learning outcomes for all our students. Please take the time to read the information provided by teaching teams.

Scholastic Book Fair

“The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you'll go.” Reading is essential in developing vocabulary and children’s writing, not to mention creativity and imagination. This week we were lucky enough to hold our Scholastic Book Fair once again. This time there was a bonus – it was two for one! If you bought one book, you could choose another for free. I know that many of our families took the opportunity to stock up on some fabulous titles. Happy reading!

Chief Minister’s Reading Challenge Awards Ceremony

On Thursday, I met two of our students and their families at the National Library for the Chief Minister’s Reading Challenge awards. Throughout the year, each of our classes recorded books that they shared in class. There were goals for the number of books read and each class met and exceeded their reading targets! Alexander Washington and Annabel Plunkett accepted our awards on behalf of the students of FECS. They displayed our learner dispositions beautifully throughout the ceremony.

Walk and Ride to school

This Wednesday saw many of our families choosing to walk, ride or scoot to school. I was positioned on one of the corner streets and was so impressed to see so many happy, excited faces wishing me a happy morning and lovely day. What a great way to start your day! Special thanks to our families for continuing to support this initiative. Thank you also to Tanielle Peate, one of our wonderful teachers who ensured the morning ran smoothly, contacted small businesses within our community to help out, and organised our colouring competition and prize packs.

Lost property

As the seasons change, so does the amount of lost property at the front office. Spring tends to bring an increase of lost property as students remove their jumpers, tracksuit pants etc. Our lost property is certainly following this trend. If you are missing any items be sure to sift through the lost property. It is located next to the black couches in the front office.

Expansion meeting

As you would be aware, this week we welcomed part of the Directorate’s expansion team to our school to talk with families and friends of FECS about the expansion plans. Thank you to all who were able to attend. There was a lovely video played which included some of our students. The Directorate informs me that it should be on our school website by the end of this week. Make sure to go the website and have a look – it is beautiful!

We will be sure to keep families up to date regarding the expansion through newsletters, P & C meetings and the School Board.

AIS Swimming (Kindergarten, Year 1 & Year 3)

Just a reminder that the permission note for AIS Swimming was due back last Friday the 25th of October. Payment is not required just yet; however, we need the permission notes to confirm numbers with the AIS program co-ordinators. Thanks to everyone who has already returned these permission notes (school and AIS). If you are yet to do so, please return them as soon as possible.

Thanks for taking the time to read through the happenings around the school and in our community. Have a great weekend!

Rebecca

Achievement Awards

Preschool: What’s in an egg?

We started out this term with a provocation, What’s in an egg?

Our pre-schoolers shared their imaginative ideas including; chicks, dinosaurs, dragons, unicorns, crabs and crocodiles to name a few! It wasn’t long before our queries were answered, as a crack in the egg gave way to a tiny baby chick. Over the week we were excited to discover 6 chicks had hatched from the eggs and then we were very surprised when 2 ducks hatched out over the weekend! We enjoyed observing the chicks and ducks, drawing our observations, investigating how the chicks were formed and learning about their life cycle. We had another arrival at Franklin too, a tank with tiny tadpoles! We can’t wait to see them grow bigger and watch as they change into frogs. We have so much more to investigate in the coming weeks!

Kindergarten Joyful Jackalopes

This term in our English unit we are reading and writing about Fairy Tales. So far, we have read The Three Billy Goats Gruff, The Gingerbread Man and The Little Red Hen.

We have really enjoyed using fairy tales to learn new, and practise some well-known, reading strategies to help us decode tricky words and understand the text we are reading. We have been making connections, predicting, comparing and contrasting, reading on, re-reading to develop fluency and expression, chunking parts of the word and stretching out the sounds.

One of our favourite things to do with the fairy tales is to retell the story using puppets, felt boards, figurines and masks. We make sure we have included details about the characters, setting, the problem and the resolution.

Last week we looked at a recipe for Gingerbread Men and then had a go at making them. They were delicious. Luckily ours didn’t run away when we cooked them!

Our Year of Learning with the Kindergarten Magical Dragons

Wow! What an exciting year we have had! It’s hard to believe that it’s already term 4 and we will soon be coming to the end of our jam-packed year. We have had so many amazing learning experiences together, from developing our reading and writing skills, to building our understanding of mathematical concepts, to exploring our community through excursions and local walks.

We would like to share some highlights of our learning in the Kindergarten Magical Dragons:

Sulaf – I really liked when we went to Floriade because I loved to see the flowers and smell them.

Kasper – I loved space learning because it was interesting.

Asha – My favourite thing has been learning about space.

Noah – I enjoyed galleries of learning because my Mum and big sister came.

Minhal – I loved learning about the Moon because it is fun and I like how the Moon moves and changes.

Asher – I loved going on trips because it is exciting.

Jaxon – I have enjoyed doing science experiments because it’s usually fun.

Ariana – I’ve loved learning about space because it is my favourite.

Ricky – I liked presenting assembly because I get to speak.

Year 1 STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Maths) Challenges

This term the year ones will be involved in a range of exciting and engaging S.T.E.M based challenges within the classroom. Each class will be working on a different challenge each fortnight. The challenges are designed so that the students have opportunities to work in pairs and in small groups. This teaches them the importance of collaboration, sharing ideas and working together to achieve a common goal.

Through STEM based tasks, children are given the opportunity to foster and further develop key skills in problem solving, communication and creative thinking through an inquiry-based approach.

The students have followed the design process and worked through the following steps;

Ask – What is the problem you need to solve?
Design – Draw a plan or diagram. List and gather your materials.
Build – Build your design based on your plan.
Test – Was it a success?
Improve – What can you do to make your design better. Test again.

During these sessions, one of our challenges have included ‘Toy Troubles’, where the deign brief was to make a toy from recyclables and everyday objects, so that a child could play with it. It was great to see the designs that the children came up with and the originality of some of the toys.

The year one students are looking forward to working through the different challenges over the term.

Community Coordinator

Dear FECS families,

I hope you are all well.

I would like to say Happy Diwali to all our families who celebrated this very special day at the end of last week. Also, a big thank you to our parents who came in and decorated the entrance to the Piazza with Rangoli patterns this week. This has become a tradition at FECS and it is so wonderful to see children and families enjoying the designs and decorations as they move through the school.

Our Friday playgroup started last week, and it was lovely to see some new FECS families joining us. We started off by playing inside with some craft and other activities and then we headed outside to the great outdoors for some run around time. Friday playgroup runs from 9-11am in the community room and is open to all our FECS families so if you would like to join us, please do.

If you have any questions about any of our community programs or would like to make suggestions about programs we should run, please get in contact via email on Hannah.freyne@ed.act.edu.au or 6142 1136.

Have a great week,
Hannah

P & C News

Crazy Camel Fundraiser

Orders are now OPEN for our Crazy Camel artwork fundraiser!

VIEW your child’s artwork and ORDER keepsakes at:

Orders are open from 1 to 18 November 2019

(Delivery of orders expected by 6 December)

Your child’s brilliant artwork will be featured as the star attraction on a range of items for you to choose from. You can even create your own photo products! Relatives and friends will love receiving these personalised gifts and you can do all your festive shopping in one place online! Do check out the Crazy Camel product samples at the front office.

Community Market Fair – Call for volunteers and donations

The P&C will be holding our inaugural FECS Community Market Fair on Friday 22 November from 3 to 6pm in the school hall and piazza.

We need volunteers to help make the event a success so please consider signing up to run a stall or to help out. The sign up roster is located at the front office, or email us at: franklin.parents.and.citizens@gmail.com

Donations of any pot plants and second hand clothes, toys and books in good condition are most welcome in the donation tubs located at the front office. Thank you for supporting this P&C event.

Uniform Swap Shop

We have many second hand school uniforms, clean and sorted by size in the Community Room. You may swap school uniforms, or pick something up from the shop for a gold coin donation. We also welcome donations of pre-loved school clothes that are washed and in good condition. The Uniform Swap Shop is open during school hours.

Community Notices

ThinkUKnow Cyber Safety Presentation

The ACT Education Directorate has partnered with the Australian Federal Police to host a ThinkUKnow cyber safety presentation, and all parents, carers and teachers are encouraged to attend!

When? Tuesday 26 November 2019 @ 6:30pm-8:30pm

Where? Gungahlin College Lecture Theatre, 23 Gozzard Street, Gungahlin Town Centre ACT

ThinkUKnow Australia is a cyber safety education program that educates parents, carers and teachers on how people are using technology, the challenges they may face online, and how to help them overcome these in a safe and ethical way.

The presentation covers issues relating to children and young peoples’ privacy and security online, their relationships with other users, and their online reputation. It provides insight into the devices young people are using, as well as the popular websites, apps and social networking sites they’re accessing.

This is a fantastic opportunity for you to learn more about young people and the online environment, and how you can help them to be safe and responsible users of technology.

The event is FREE but please register your interest on Eventbrite.