2014 Book of the Year Short List

CHILDREN'S BOOK COUNCIL OF AUSTRALIA and BOOK WEEK

Each year, Term 3 lessons in the library are dedicated to the CBCA short listed book of the year award texts. The children read and have read to them a variety of books from the short listed categories Book of the Year Early Childhood, Picture Book, Information and Young Reader. Lessons focus on text features, themes, visual literacy and appreciation of quality literature.
After reading a book at the beginning of the lesson, the children then take part in ICT lessons based on the book read, using the school computer lab, laptops and ipads. Also, as part of the terms work, the whole school community takes part in the Book Week Parade and Book Fair. Much fun is had by everyone!

This years theme for Children's Book Week is "Connect to Reading." Book Week runs from August 16th to 22nd. During this time the Scholastic Book Fair will be set up in the school library. Children and parents are able to choose and purchase books, posters and a variety of other things.

Visit the CBCA website to view the short listed books. Click the link below. The link can also be found in the Gate21 library virtual classroom.

CBCA Website

 

National Simultaneous Storytime

​National Simultaneous Storytime is an important annual campaign that aims to encourage more young Australians to read and enjoy books. Now in its 14th successful year it is a colourful, vibrant, fun event that aims to promote the value of reading and literacy using an Australian children's book that explores age appropriate themes, and addresses key learning areas of the National Curriculum for Grades F to 6 and the pre-school Early Learning Years Framework.

This year it takes place on Wednesday 21st May at 11am. Kindergarten classes Koalas and Bilbies will be attending the Cessnock City Library to listen to this years story “Too Many Elephants In This  House.” All other classes in the school will be encouraged to have a reading session at this time too.

Library News

It is with excitement that I write my first post for the library for 2014. Mrs Ramage has commenced her maternity leave, with myself now taking over teaching in the library for the remainder of the year. It is a position I am quite familiar with, having relieved for Mrs Ramage during her previous maternity leave and continuing in a job sharing role with her last year.

This first week working in the library has been wonderful. Our school library really is an inviting, vibrant learning space which is refreshing to work in. The children and staff are very lucky here at St Patrick’s. It is terrific to have teaching and learning time with all of the children in the school. Working with each class weekly allows myself to build relationships over the year with every child in the school which is very rewarding. All the children love coming to the library for lessons, to borrow books and to play or be creative during lunch times.

I look forward to keeping the school community informed about any initiatives, coming events or special achievements of the children in the library.

Library Borrowing

Library borrowing is an important part of the school week and all children should be borrowing books to read both at school and at home. Each class has a borrowing day and the children with the help of parents need to remember to bring along their library bag so that they can borrow books for the week. Books can be returned at any time before the next borrowing day by placing them in the boxes that are left on the seats outside the library. If children are away or forget, they can always pop into the library during break times and myself or Mrs Woods are more than happy to let them return books and borrow new ones. With the encouragement of parents and teachers, children have the best chance to foster a love of literature and reading.

Cameron Dilley

Stage 2 Excursion

A bus trip to Sydney and an educational cruise on Sydney Harbour was the adventure for Stage 2 on Wednesday September 4th. Flinders, Burke, Cook and Lawson classes and their teachers had a wonderful time on a beautiful, blue sky day experiencing a cruise aboard a ferry with the Lessons Afloat crew. The children were able to see and listen to commentary about things to do with topics learnt about this year - State and National Parks and British Colonisation.
The ferry departed Circular Quay and then passed famous landmarks such as the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Sydney Opera House, Farm Cove, Mrs Macquarie's Chair, Garden Island, Barangaroo and Darling Harbour. A walk on Shark Island, a national park, was lots of fun and a great way to stretch the legs.
After lunch at Mrs Macquarie's Chair and some play, a final stop for an ice cream was enjoyed by all on the way home. A wonderful day out was had by teachers and children.

Library Lessons Term 3

Library lessons for the children throughout Term 3 are programmed around the Children's Book Council of Australia Short Listed Books.The Short Listed Books are those which have been nominated in certain categories as the best books for the year. Each category has 6 books.
The children will be exposed to many of the different stories and texts during the term from the Early Childhood book section, Picture Books, Information / Factual books and The Young Readers category.
Some books which the children will be exposed to this term and able to borrow later are shown below.

Athletics Carnival

The school athletics carnvial held on Friday 17th May was a wonderful success.
Teachers, children and parents were treated to a blue sky day and fairly mild weather with just a few blasts of cold wind.
Each of the four sport houses, Eucalypts, Waratahs, Wattles and Bluebells looked fantastic in their colours during the march past and events throughout the day.
The children had great fun competing in 100m age races, 800m and 200m running, long jump and a variety of fun tabloid games set up by the teachers.
Competition was close between sport houses, with Waratahs coming out winners in the end.
A great day was had by all.



 



 

Welcome Back Mrs Ramage

St Patrick's children, staff and school community welcomed back Mrs Ramage from the start of Term 2. Mrs Ramage has been on maternity leave, enjoying her time away from school over the last year with her son Matthew.
Mrs Ramage will teach Monday to Wednesday in the library, with Mr Dilley continuing to take library lessons on a Thursday each week.
As always, the library is a very busy and always fun place of learning at the school. The children and staff love the beautiful environment and terrific computer room.

Mrs Woods during borrowing time with year 1

Sporting Success

St Patrick's are proud to announce the recent sporting achievements of four Year 6 children.
Blake Archbold, Seamus Donohoe, Harry Whitfield and Pheobe Oakford have performed admirably in the sporting arena, progressing to Polding level. Blake and Seamus have been chosen as part of the Polding soccer team after successful trials at Diocesan level. Good luck boys when you attend the trials in the first week of Term 2.
Harry and Pheobe were successful in reaching Polding level for swimming. Pheobe swam in the 13 yrs 50 metre freestyle, winning a gold medal. A fantastic effort by Pheobe.
Unfortunately for Harry, he was unable to swim at the Polding carnival after  breaking his thumb training for the upcocming rugby league season. No wonder you are successful Harry, always training.
Well done and congratulations children. St Patrick's school community is very proud of you.

Seamus, Phoebe, Harry and Blake

NBN Weatherman Gavin Morris Visits School

NBN television weatherman Gavin Morris held a talk in the school library for the Stage 3 children on Wednesday 13th March. Mr Morris spoke very enthusiatically to the senior children about his passion for the weather and his role at NBN. Part of Mr Morris' presentation involved a slide show of his trip climbing Mt Kilimanjaro. Mr Morris talked in detail about the trip and the weather and environment changes that were evident as he climbed higher up the mountain. The children left with a greater appreication of the climate and weather after a very informative and entertaining hour with Mr Morris.

 

 

 

 

 

Resources Arrive At School

This week both the Coles Sports For Schools and Woolworths Earn and Learn Resources were delivered to the school. Thanks to the wonderful suppport from the school community in 2012 collecting vouchers, St Patrick's now has lots of fantastic new sport and classroom supplies.

 

Each of the 14 classes and the library were given a variety of resources and games and the sport shed now has a new supply of balls, ropes, ribbons and other sporting goods. The students and staff are very lucky indeed. Many thanks to yr 6 Diamonds class and the Sport Captains who helped unpack and distribute the equipment.

Woolworths Earn and Learn resources waiting to be handed out to classes.

Back in Full Swing

Already the weeks of Term 1 feel like they are ticking away.
The library, as always at St Patrick's is a very busy place. Computer and library lesson are held Monday to Thursday and all the children are really enjoying spending some time in the library reading and working on the computers. Library borrowing is always popular too!
Here are some photos of Year 1 Venus on their borrowing day.

 

 

Welcome Back For 2013

 

Oh..... how the holidays seem so long ago!!

 

Like all the children and teachers at St Patrick’s, Mrs Woods and myself are working hard at setting up the library for another year of productive, fun learning.

Programs are being created, books catalogued, class folders put together and the list goes on.

Just like last year, St Patrick’s children attend the library at least twice each week, once for a library lesson and a second time for borrowing. Class teachers can also take their children to the library when it is free, such as on Fridays, for extra computer lessons or research work.

I look forward to sharing our fantastic library with the children and school community in 2013.

Keep checking back regularly for future posts.

Resource Website

The Federal Government in conjunction with the ABC has launched a new website full of resources linked to the new National Curriculum.
The site is easy to navigate and has a range of resources like videos, audio and images that can be used during lessons or by the children at home.

 

Click on the link to access the site.

http://splash.abc.net.au/

Kindergarten in the Computer Room

During Term 3 and into Term 4, Kindergarten have been learning how to use programs such as Microsoft Paint and Tuxpaint. Both programs allow the children to use drawing, clip art and text to create wonderful pictures.

Koalas and Bilbies have had lots of fun learning to log on, find and open programs and  use the mouse and keyboard to draw and type. Smiling faces are always present in the library and computer room.

 

 

 

 

Read To Remember

Coming up on the 11^th November is Remembrance Day. St Patrick’s has been registered to take part in the Read to Remember initiative. Read to Remember is a free event designed to promote the wellbeing of children and young people by engaging them in the importance of Remembrance Day. This years theme is courage. As a part of the package, the school received a book to read to the classes called “A Quest for Courage” and access to study guides, lesson plans and activities. As Remembrance Day draws closer, classes may take the opportunity to read the story and complete some of the activities. Parents and carers could possibly take some time with their children to discuss the importance of Remembrance Day and the significance of Australia's current involvement in military and peace keeping missions around the world.

Welcome Back for Term 4

Term 4 in the library is shaping up to be very busy from start to finish.

This term in library lessons the children will continue learning how to be more skilled with age appropriate computer applications, take part in cybersafety lessons and learn how to use the library inquiry database to locate books and research information. As always too, stories and books related to lessons will be shared and enjoyed with the children.

Mid Term 4, as part of library / computer lessons, Children in years 2 to 6 will also be taking part in the online ACER (Australian Council for Educational Research) Progressive Achievement Tests as part of St Patrick’s data collection and assessment program. The online assessments for reading comprehension, vocabulary and mathematics will provide assessment data for teachers which will be used for planning purposes for 2013.  

Woolworths Earn and Learn and Coles Sport For Schools

Many thanks to everyone who collected and returned the Coles Sports for School and Woolworths Earn and Learn Vouchers last term. Thanks to the effort of the school community, St Patrick’s had a total of 39000 Coles voucher points and a 73000 Woolworths voucher points. In the last two weeks I have been having great fun over many hours online shopping to redeem the points for sport and school resources. With such a large amount of points to use, St Patrick’s sport shed, classrooms and library have been well resourced again for 2013. As in previous years, I have ordered a wide variety of equipment and resources that the school needs to update on a yearly basis as well as ordering new items that will be able to be used in the school for years to come.

Once again, thank you very much to the school community for your support with these initiatives.

Public Speaking Championships

Congratulations to the winners in Public Speaking. Each of these students made their speeches before an audience of parents, siblings, grandparents and teachers. The Infant students also had their classmates present. The Infants competition was held in the morning and the judges were Mrs Anne Fitzgibbon & Mrs Jackie La France.

The Primary competition was held in the evening and the judges were Mr Warren Parsons & Mr Chris Quinn (Asstt.Director from the Catholic Schools Office).

It was amazing how confident each of the speakers were and how varied the topics were. They kept the audience engaged with information and humour.

The Championships were awarded to:

Stage 1 Ethan Burgess

Stage 2 Ellie Ryan and

Stage 3 Harry Whitfield

Finalists and their topics:

Early Stage 1 Topic

Jack Hillliar - Spiderman

Tyler Jifkins - My Family

Harper Williamson - My Holiday

Cleo Hunt - My Brother

Stage 1

Jade Unahi - Justin Bieber

Angelina Sater - My Bunny

Ethan Burgess - 10 Minutes More at Recess

Grace Wells - Cooking

Bianca Hewitt - How Annoying my Family is.

Laine Meyers - Motorbike

Stage 2

Joel Benkoe - Dementia

Kurtis Allan - My sister Skyla

Ellie Ryan - Hair

Mikaylah Alchin - Storybook Characters

Seth Eagleton- - Shopping

Alexia Vowles - Bratty Children

Stage 3

Harry Whitfield - Socks

Jade Eagleton - Newspapers

Hayden Davies - Underpants

Charlie Willis - Heroes

Joseph Barber - Phobias

Emily Murphy - Stranger Danger

 

Thank you to everyone that made it such a special day.

Success at Polding Athletics

On Friday the 7th September, one of St Patrick's talented athletes took part in the Polding Athletics Carnival. William Garland of Flinders class travelled to the Hunter Sport Centre at Glendale to represent the Maitland Newcastle Diocese. William competed in the 8 year old 100m event. To make it to the Polding Athletics Carnival, William had to progress from school level, through to All Saints Regional, then Diocesan level and finally Polding.
In his event, William ran third in his heat, progressing to the final where he came 6th overall. A wonderful achievement.
To top the day off, William's time in the final was a personal best of 15.30 seconds for the 100m. Very quick indeed!!
Congratulations William, St Patrick's are very proud of you.

Book Parade A Great Success

The book character parade on Friday 17th August was a terrific way to start Book Week celebrations. Students and staff joined in the spirit of the day dressing up as characters from many different books. Book Council of Australia short listed books were popular for costume inspiration. 
 The Last Viking proved a hit with quite a few children and Mr Dilley, all dressing up as Viking warriors and The Dream of The Thylacine story was turned into a walking book by Joel Benkoe and his family. Very creative!!
As always, there were lots of princesses and fairies. Spiderman, Batman and the Hulk made an appearance. Little Red Riding Hood and other fairytale characters were popular. Where's Wally was spotted a few times as were some Kindergarten teachers impersonating blue Smurfs.
Great fun was had by all.
Post a comment saying what you thought of the Book Week Parade.

And......Don't forget that the Scholastic Book Fair is on this week. So pop into the library, have a look and perhaps buy a book.

Book Week

With Book Week only two weeks away, the excitement is building as teachers and children discuss favourite books and characters. Creating and organising costumes for the parade on Friday 17th August is a high priority for the children and staff. Past book character parades have been lots of fun with wonderful costumes on display. Some families go to very creative lengths to stand out as these two photos show.

What is a favourite book of yours? Who would you like to dress up as?