Parents and community volunteers participated in a 3 hour training workshop, conducted by Lisa Boland from Learning Links. The program, Reading for Life, provides 1-1 reading tuition for selected students in years 2-4. The program is funded by Campsie RSL and would not operate without the valuable contribution made from our parents and community volunteers. The students and teachers at Belmore South are grateful for the commitment they have made to provide this worthwhile learning opportunity for our students.
S3 Morse ‘Sing Out Loud’
S3 Morse had their first visit to Leigh Place to sing with some of the residents and build community connections. The residents were so excited to see their little buddies, and the singing director described how much they loved working with Belmore South Public School.
Everyone sang some classic jingles, and some traditional Australian songs. The residents shared some of their memories and connections, and helped our students work out what some of the tricky words meant. When we sang ‘Kookaburra, Kookaburra’, Mary did an amazing kookaburra impersonation, and when we sang ‘Waltzing Matilda’, Harold described his mother, who was named Mathilde. While chatting, about food, two residents shared how they were born in 1926, the same year Vegemite was invented. Another resident discovered she had the same birthday as her Belmore buddy, just ‘a few’ years apart!
There will be a concert at the end of the term, so lots of practice ahead! Students also get the chance to prepare some group talent items at the concert, and their Leigh Place buddies are very excited to find out what Belmore students can do. I wonder what skills they will discover? Music? Magic? Dance? Gymnastics? Impersonations? Poetry?
Thank you, Leigh Place, for this fantastic opportunity!
Farewell Mrs Pericles!
We are very sad to farewell the amazing Mrs Pericles, who has been teacher at Belmore South PS for “about a hundred years”. She has accepted a new teaching position, and we wish her lots of luck in her next adventures!
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- “We’ll never forget you” from Banks
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- “See you l8r, alligator” from Bell
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- “Good luck” from Braille
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- “Bon Voyage” from Darwin
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- “Thank you” from Da Vinci
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- “Farewell” from Einstein
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- “<3 <3 <3" from Galileo
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- “xoxo” from Kindy
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- “It’s hard to say goodbye” from Morse
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- “Au Revoir” from Tesla
Our first 2016 debate!
Today, the debating team challenged Campsie Public School to determine if “competition is a bad thing”. We were affirmative, which means we agreed that competition is a bad thing. Some of our arguments were that:
- competition can be stressful and can lead to low self esteem as there is a 50% of chance of being the loser
- low self esteem can lead to depression, which leads to bullying, which leads to suicide
- rivalry and tension is caused during competitions
Our feedback from the adjudicator was that we used high modality words, had strong arguments, and were very confident speakers. After a very close debate, we were unfortunately defeated, but we made our school and teacher very proud!
Harmony Day is almost here! By Class Banks
Harmony Day is on 21 March, 2016 and it is a day to celebrate Australia’s diversity. BSPS will be combining Harmony Day with Crazy Hat and Hair Day next Thursday (24 March).
Class Banks are preparing for Harmony Day by joining in activities that explore the ideas of belonging and inclusivity.
You can learn more about Harmony Day here.
Thank you to Ms F who worked with Banks students in creating a diversity display (see below).
Captured in the CAPA class!
So far in CAPA (Creative and Performing Arts) students have been learning about sound and voices. We have learned that we have 4 voices (calling, speaking singing and whispering) which are made by vibrations in our vocal chords. We know that if we make instruments vibrate, by tapping, shaking, or plucking them, they have their own musical voices too. K-2 students have been using their voices to sing, learning the percussion instruments and how to make their ‘voices’ heard, moving to a beat, and becoming different animals to respond to music they hear.
3-6 students have been changing their voices to create entertaining musical effects and creating new verses to songs; and have used voice and movement to perform and adapt short skits. Finally, they have scientifically investigated how to make the vibrations in sound visible, by making sugar/salt or rice ‘dance’ on a stretched plastic skin.
BSPS Year of Science and Invention
For 2016, all classes at Belmore South have been named for a notable scientist or inventor. We selected:
2-3 (Joseph) Banks
Who would you have chosen?
New BSPS Website Launched!
You might have noticed our school blog has had a makeover to get a new look. All the content you know and love have been moved into our new website. You’ll also find some new photographs of our school community and facilities, calendar, newsletters, policies and news updates directly from the DEC, and more. But we will continue to use our established blog to share student learning and celebrations, and our Facebook page for school updates. The link to our new website is at the top of the page, or go directly to www.belmoresth-p.schools.nsw.edu.au.
Leadership Reflections…or ARE they?
2015 Leaders Reflect from Ms Salmon on Vimeo.
Ms Hionis’ Stage 1 ESL Group
Ms Hionis’ Stage 1 ESL group have been learning about how Living and Non-Living things move. In this week’s lesson we experimented with some of our favourite toys by examining the way they moved. Sarika had to push and pull a toy car for the wheels to rotate thus enabling it to move. Kyhana had to pull a lever on “The Hulk’s” back for his arms to move and smash his fists together. Irfaan had to pull down on a lever for the dinosaur to open and close it’s mouth. Finally, Lana pulled the string from ‘Captain America’s’ shield for the round disk to propel and take off!
At the end of the lesson, the children discussed their findings and then wrote about it in their writing books.