Newsletter 16 ~ Wednesday 18th October 2017 Truganina College 55 Clearwood Drive Truganina VIC 3029 03 9368 9800 www.truganinap9.vic.edu.au Truganina Times Last Friday the 13 th of October was Hispanic day at Truganina College. Students were immersed in the culture of various Spanish-speaking countries through a range of activities. Some of the Year 2 classes created maracas, a Latin American instrument that originated from Puerto Rico and are usually made from a tree fruit. Our students created these maracas out of plastic bottles, craft rolls, dyed rice and decorations. Some of the Year 1s and one Year 2 class created Dia de los muertos skull masks, which is a main part of the tradition that originated in Mexico and are usually made from ceramic or sugar. Our students created them out of paper plates and icy pole sticks. The remaining Year 1 classes created Mosaic flags of the 21 Spanish-speaking countries. The students used Spanish to ask their teacher for the specific coloured paper they required. Our Year 7 & 8 Spanish students made nachos, a popular Mexican dish now known all around the world. They were split into 3 groups, one making La salsa fresca (the fresh salsa), another making Guacamole and the last group cooking the chips de maíz (corn chips) and el queso (cheese). Students loved being in the kitchen for their Spanish lesson! Lastly all the Year 1 & 2 students with the Year 7 & 8 Spanish students gathered for a special dance in the gym! Our Mexican dancers Manuel & Carolina brought along some traditional Mexican costumes, which caught the student’s eyes instantly! The students immediately started clapping as the traditional music began playing and Manuel & Carolina began dancing! This event would not have been a success without the support of all the staff involved, so a huge thank you to all of the Year 1 & 2 teachers for the support leading up to, and on Friday. The students were very excited to tell me how their classroom teacher had been speaking Spanish all day! To Fred and Mark who lent a hand in decorating the gym in ‘ papel picado’ for the Dance incursion and an extended thank you to Ms Pernar for sharing the Food Economics kitchen to the Year 7 & 8 Spanish class and to Ms Smart for being an extra support throughout the day! Tania Fota Spanish Teacher Hispanic Day
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Newsletter 16 ~ Wednesday 18th October 2017
Truganina College
55 Clearwood Drive
Truganina VIC 3029
03 9368 9800
www.truganinap9.vic.edu.au
Truganina Times
Last Friday the 13th of October was Hispanic day at Truganina College. Students were immersed in the culture of various Spanish-speaking countries through a range of activities. Some of the Year 2 classes created maracas, a Latin American instrument that originated from Puerto Rico and are usually made from a tree fruit. Our students created these maracas out of plastic bottles, craft rolls, dyed rice and decorations. Some of the Year 1s and one Year 2 class created Dia de los muertos skull masks, which is a main part of the tradition that originated in Mexico and are usually made from ceramic or sugar. Our students created them out of paper plates and icy pole sticks. The remaining Year 1 classes created Mosaic flags of the 21 Spanish-speaking countries. The students used Spanish to ask their teacher for the specific coloured paper they required.
Our Year 7 & 8 Spanish students made nachos, a popular Mexican dish now known all around the world. They were split into 3 groups, one making La salsa fresca (the fresh salsa), another making Guacamole and the last group cooking the chips de maíz (corn chips) and el queso (cheese). Students loved being in the kitchen for their Spanish lesson!
Lastly all the Year 1 & 2 students with the Year 7 & 8 Spanish students gathered for a special dance in the gym! Our Mexican dancers Manuel & Carolina brought along some traditional Mexican costumes, which caught the student’s eyes instantly! The
students immediately started clapping as the traditional music began playing and Manuel & Carolina began dancing!
This event would not have been a success without the support of all the staff involved, so a huge thank you to all of the Year 1 & 2 teachers for the support leading up to, and on Friday. The students were very excited to tell me how their classroom teacher had been speaking Spanish all day! To Fred and Mark who lent a hand in decorating the gym in ‘papel picado’ for the Dance incursion and an extended thank you to Ms Pernar for sharing the Food Economics kitchen to the Year 7 & 8 Spanish class and to Ms Smart for being an extra support throughout the day!
Tania Fota Spanish Teacher
Hispanic Day
2017 Truganina College Events Calendar
Date Event
Tuesday 24th October Year 7 Aquarium Excursion
Thursday 2nd November Year 6 Science: VSSEC Mission to Mars Program
Tuesday 7th November Melbourne Cup Day Public Holiday
No School
Monday 20th November School Council Meeting
5.00pm
Monday 27th November – Friday December 1st
Year 8 School Camp
Wednesday 6th December School Council Event
Friday 22nd December End of term 4 1.30pm finish
Staff Profiles Get to know Isperee Singh - Foundation Teacher in Room 8
What is your favourite colour? Red.
What is your favourite number and why? Three, because I have three children.
What is your favourite book and why? A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry. It shows how people can overcome adversity.
What is your favourite food? Grilled prawns.
What do you like most about teaching and learning? To see the joy in student’s faces when they learn and understand new concepts and ideas.
Get to know Anjali Dhaka - Integration Aide
What is your favourite colour? I don’t have any specific favourite colour, but I like all light shades. What is your favourite number and why? My favourite number is 4 because all the good things happened in my life related to this number. What is your favourite book and why? I love reading anything. I don’t have a favourite book but I do have a favourite author; John Green. I find him very fascinating because he is an amazing story teller. What is your favourite food? I like most of the vegetarian food, but my favourite is Indian stuffed flat bread with cottage cheese/paneer curry. What do you like most about teaching and learning? I enjoy seeing the excitement on students’ faces after they accomplish a task which they originally thought was really hard. I also like to see students building their confidence when trying new things.
The Year 1 students have begun Term 4 by investigating ‘What makes a good narrative?’
We have created a rubric collaboratively as learners to assess our narrative writing. Students will be able to check their own progress during writing to improve their narrative writing skills and create new and exciting narratives for their audience. This important learning experience incorporated student voice and provided students with the opportunity to have a say about how their writing will be assessed. In order for the students to write interesting narratives they have created their own writing goals, based on the rubric and will strive to achieve these.
During the unit students are going to add many different types of ‘writing tools’ to our Writer’s Toolbox that they can use to create and publish their narratives. Students have added the first ‘writing tool’ to learn how to make our narratives more interesting for our audience. By investigating how to Show Not Tell to describe how our characters are feeling and describing a setting without telling their audience where their characters are.
The Year 1s are looking forward to creating and illustrating a range of different and entertaining narratives to share with our readers.
Students are working as 21st Century learners and focusing on communication with one another, completing their work creatively, thinking critically about their learning and collaborating with their peers.
By Kristine Farrugia, Lauren Smith, Narelle Archer and Brad Robertson Teaching and Learning Team 1.2
Year 1 Narrative Writing Learning Intention: What makes a good narrative?
Success Criteria - I will be successful when I can:
Build a rubric with my class to assess my writing.
Write a goal for my narrative writing.
Describe what my character is doing and saying.
Describe how my character looks and is feeling.
Describe my setting using the five senses.
1H Playground Experience
On Tuesday 10th October, 1H went to experience our new playground. After experiencing the playground, we all wrote letters to either Fred (our Facilities Manager) or to the people who built the playground. Students’ loved the experience and enjoyed completing the writing task within the playground environment.
We have sent out letters to the respective people and are very excited to hopefully receive some mail back.
By the students of 1H Miss Evans Class - Room L3
Learning Intention: We are learning to write a letter.
Success Criteria - I am successful when I:
Thank someone for their work on the playground.
Record my thoughts and feelings about the playground.
Record 1 suggestion for our next playground.
Use 5-star writing.
iPad Apps to be downloaded on to student iPads
21st Century Learning
Base 10 Blocks Math
Mad Math Lite Dictionary.com Doodle Buddy Pic Collage
Star Walk 2 QR Reader Reading Eggs – Sight Words Show Me Tell Time
Mathletics Student
Stop Motion Studio
Popplet Lite
How Stuff Works
Book Creator Free Grammar Fun Free Phonics Rhyming Bee Google Earth
Discover Mworld Number Line Plastic Bee Bot
Kahoot! GeoGebra Seesaw
Students should be bringing their iPad to school EVERY day, fully charged and with all of these FREE apps downloaded onto their iPad. Teachers plan lessons using various apps and they have an expectation that students will have the app downloaded and ready to use during class. If your child brings their iPad and they do not have all of the apps, then they could be missing out on an opportunity to use their iPad to support their learning. The list of apps is also listed on our school website. Thank you for your support in eLearning & 21st Century ICT skills. Leanne McNaughton & Kirstin Molloy – 21st Century Learning Leaders
Showbie
EntreprenHer Program
An Inspiring Program for Truganina College’s Year 8 Girls
Building Individual Pathways
A small group of Year 8 girls embarked on a weekly Entrepreneurship Program with the goal to establish the foundations of their future pathways. The sessions focussed on increasing knowledge of the workplace and business, problem solving and building self-confidence.
Throughout the sessions, the girls built confidence, explored their potential and began to create pathways for their future success. Alongside discovering their own individual potential, the girls shared and explored their future aspirations and the obstacles that they may need to overcome on the way.
A team project focussing on a collaborative business idea was developed. The project, named ‘EATT’ by the group explored the various components to building a business idea. It was a pleasure to see our Year 8 girls work equally as a team and to see them share enthusiasm, work in a positive collaborative climate and complete the problem solving to make the business idea viable.
EATT (Eating All The Time) was an idea designed to provide healthy, fast and affordable food to schools. Azariah, Stephanie and Raiha developed logos for the business venture. Kaureen was our research expert, collecting data to identify the needs of consumers. Taylor, Claire and Jasreen were pivotal to our discussions in problem solving, whilst Chelsea brought creative ideas to the project. Although the girls demonstrated their individual strengths throughout the project, they all worked
together to complete the business plan, supporting each other with every aspect of the project.
On Wednesday the 11th of October the girls all presented the business venture to our Assistant Principal Ms Helene Refuerzo and celebrated their success afterward with a special lunch. They would like to thank Nina (our mentor for this program) as she has guided them through confidence building activities and helped them to identify their future opportunities.
Truganina College will continue this program in Term 4 and looks forward to supporting more of our girls in building confidence and awareness of their future potential.
Angela Field Year 7 Coordinator English and Humanities Teacher
How to help your child with their Reading?
Strategy: Check for understanding
Even as an adult reader, there are times when I am reading a story and I get lost and am not sure what has happened. Fortunately, when this happens, I have strategies I use to help me understand the story. The same thing happens when children read. However, with children they often keep reading and do not realise when they lose comprehension until the end of the story. They are too concerned with reading accurately and forget to take the time to think about what they are reading. How can we help them gain comprehension? We can teach them the comprehension strategy: check for understanding because good readers stop frequently to check for understanding or to ask who and what.
How can you help your child with this strategy at home?
1. When reading to your child, stop periodically and say, “Let’s see if we remember what I just read. Think about who the story was about and what happened.” Do this 3 or 4 times throughout the story.
2. When reading to your child, stop and have them practice checking understanding by saying, “I heard you say…”
3. Ask your child the following questions:
Who did you just read about?
What just happened?
Do you understand what was read?
What do you do if you don’t remember?
Thank you for your continued support at home!
Justine Ryan & Vanitha Sujith Pedagogy Coaches
Pedagogy Coach Report
College Attendance Data Our college continues to focus on improving student attendance data for 2017. For students to learn, they must be at school and arriving on time. We appreciate the support of families when it comes to
student attendance.
What to do if your child is absent If your child is absent you must provide an explanation or inform the school in advance of upcoming
On Tuesday 19th September, we attended the Spiral of Inquiry Professional Development seminar at Bastow Institute, for 21st century learning and innovation. Linda Kaser and Judy Halbert presented their research, which looked at a disciplined approach to professional inquiry, aiming to transform how educators learn and lead within teams and across networks.
As part of the scanning and checking stage of the Spiral of Inquiry the following four questions are used as a powerful way to gather evidence about what is really going on for our learners:
Can you name two people in this setting who believe that you will be a success in life?
What are you learning and why is it important?
How is it going with your learning?
What are your next steps?
These questions explore the extent to which the learners are connected to their school community and their capacity for metacognition and self-regulation.
It was a very informative day, where we were exposed to how curiosity can be encouraged, developed and sustained as an essential key to opening up and thinking, changing and creating dramatically more innovative approaches to learning, teaching and leadership.
Left to right; Judy Halbert, Tiffany Rock, Linda Kaser, Thilini Marasinghe
By Thilini Marasinghe and Tiffany Rock
Spiral of Inquiry
Community Invitation Dear families,
You are invited!
The School Wide Positive Behaviour team needs your help in creating our new expected behaviours matrix to align with our new Values.
Tuesday 24th October 2:15pm until approximately 2:45pm in the Staffroom.
Snacks and refreshments will be provided.
From the School Wide Positive Behaviour Team (SWPBS Team)
A special Dollarmites visitor is coming to school to collect School Banking books. Pat the Dog is excited to see you all on Tuesday 31 October from 8.50am – 9.30am for Foundation to Year 3 Students. Remember, School Banking day is every Tuesday.
Getting involved in School Banking is easy!
All you need to get involved in the School Banking program is a Commonwealth Bank Youthsaver account. You can open an account for your child in one of two ways:
1. Online
Visit commbank.com.au/schoolbanking and click on the link to open a Youthsaver account.
2. In branch
Visit a Commonwealth Bank branch with identification for yourself and your child, like a driver’s licence and birth certificate.
If your child has an existing Commonwealth Bank Youthsaver account they can start banking straight away. They just need to bring their deposit in every week on School Banking day using their Dollarmites deposit wallet.
If you would like to know more about School Banking, please ask for a 2017 School Banking program information pack from the school office or visit commbank.com.au/schoolbanking
School Banking - Pat the Dog!
In term 3, the Truganina school community collected stickers for every $10 they spent at Woolworths stores. The Woolworths Earn and Learn program has
now finished and I would like to thank everyone who was involved who helped to collect the stickers each time they shopped.
We collected 9600 stickers!!!
That’s 5000 more from 2 years ago when the program was last on. These stickers will now get converted into points for us to purchase resources for the
school.
Well done again to everyone involved and I look forward to collecting more stickers next time the Earn & Learn Program is on.
Keep a look out in future newsletters for an update on the resources the school was able to purchase.
Open to: School children aged between 9 and 13 years of age. Categories: The Children’s Picture Book category involves writing a short, structured story and can be fiction or non-fiction. The Children’s Short Story category requires students to create a work of short fiction. No illustrations are required for either category. Cost: Free. Prizes: There will be five authors shortlisted in each category. The winner of each category will receive a $250 Redgum Book Club Voucher; the winning story will be proofread, edited, illustrated and published by Redgum. The other four shortlisted entries in each category will receive a $150 Redgum Book Club voucher and a certificate. Closing Date: Sunday 10 December 2017 More information is available on the Young Writers Award website; https://www.youngwritersaward.com.au/ Find the entry form here; https://www.youngwritersaward.com.au/form (Please also provide a printed copy of your entry to Pedagogy Coaches; Ms Ryan and Ms Sujith)
We have held our annual Cadbury Chocolate fundraiser again with all money raised going towards building a playground for our students.
The eldest child in each family received a Cadbury Chocolate Fundraiser box with chocolates at $1.00 each and a total of 50 chocolates inside each box.
Thank you to the families that have sold their chocolates and returned their raised funds of $50 to the office. A number of unsold boxes have unfortunately also been returned. If any families are interested in helping out and selling more boxes, please contact the Administration Office on 9368 9800.
Those families who are yet to submit their raised funds are asked to please submit their $50 to the office as soon as possible as this is now overdue.
Please make sure that your child’s name and class is clearly written on the envelope when submitting it to the office.
Cadbury Fundraiser update
Enrolments for 2018 opened earlier this year and will continue to be accepted for the rest of the year.
If you have a child that is due to start school next year, please visit the Administration Office at your earliest convenience to collect an enrolment pack. Please return this pack promptly so that we can recruit the very best staff to work with your children.
2018 Enrolments - siblings must enrol
Tissue Drive
Playground Supervision
Truganina College will be holding a ‘Tissue Drive’ for the rest of the year and kindly asks any families to donate tissue boxes to the school to be used by students in the classrooms.
We thank you all in advance for your donations and assistance.
All parents and families are reminded that school commences at 8.35am. Any students that arrive prior to this time are not supervised in the school yard. This now particularly applies to students playing on the school playground before school starts.
If you are dropping your children at school prior to 8.35am, please remind them that they are not to play on the playground unless they are supervised by an adult.
