On Monday 24th May we will celebrate our school and parish feast day.

  We will begin the day with a liturgy at 9.15am in the church which family members are welcome to attend.  After recess the children will be entertained by David Enever.
David composes Christian music and is also a Grade 6 teacher! 

You can read his bio at https://davidenever.com/bio   

In preparation for the concert, he has requested that the students are familiar with his music. So, you might want to make the time as a family to check out his music.  https://davidenever.com/lyric-videos 
He has recommended focusing on the top three videos particularly: Be the Light, Let Your Hearts Take Comfort and Come Join the Dance.

The children will receive an ice cream on the day as a special treat.

We will also still have our usual afternoon assembly from 2.20pm in the hall. This assembly will be hosted by 1/2N.

Family members are welcome to attend.

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The P-2 teachers and students have been enjoying the Little Learners Love Literacy (LLLL) program which focuses on sounds and sound blends to assist students in the reading and writing.

You can see more about the program on this website

Preps

The Prep students are starting to use their decoding strategies to read words and are quite proud of their achievements. They are learning the sounds for the letters b,n,d,l,h,o,g,v and the heart words I, the and my.  As they progress with their sound knowledge, students will be starting to take books home to read (some Preps have already so be sure to check their bags). We have found that the spelling session for LLLL is a great gateway to prepare students for the SMART Spelling program used in Years 1-6.

1/2s

The 1/2s are also finding that LLLL has linked wonderfully to the Literacy Program, allowing students to practice their weekly sound focus in SMART Spelling and during the whole class big book focus. The students are particularly enjoying the sound box, word and sound games and being ‘sound detectives’. Year 1/2s students will continue to take home the LLLL decodable texts that align with their level each week. We are currently learning the sounds for ar, or, aw, ir, ur and er. Although it might seem like the book is easy to read, we are building student’s abilities to read with fluency and automaticity. It is important for your child to read the books as much as they can to consolidate their understanding of each stage so their sound knowledge is easily transferred to other skills - we have already started to see Year 1 and 2s use their knowledge of phonemes and graphemes in their writing! 

A great idea for reluctant readers is to have them be a ‘sound detective’ at home by having your child look for the sound focus from their book in other books around the house! 

The LLLL program was featured in an article in The Age this week, take a look at what they had to say: Primary schools dump ‘predictable’ picture books as reading tools 

Thanks for your support at home with this program! 

Brenda Lycke

Literacy Leader

blycke@smaltona.catholic.edu.au 

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My name is Stella Solarino.

I started working at St Mary’s in 2016 as a teachers aide, I love my job and the beautiful children I work with and our amazing staff at St Mary’s.

I'm also a qualified hairdresser, which I do from home on the weekends.

I grew up in Altona North, I come from a Maltese background, I am the youngest of 2 children.

I have 2  beautiful girls Mia who will be 13 in June who is already taller than me and Sienna who is 11. 

Things I love to do are listen to music, going away with my family and shopping.

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If our diet lacks essential nutrients, it can hurt our ability to concentrate. Eating too much or too little can also interfere with our focus. Students who are not hungry and are hydrated perform better in the classroom, are less disruptive and have higher levels of engagement and concentration. 

Incorporating a healthy snack break into our daily classroom routine is a great way to reset students’ focus as well as increase their fruit and veg intake but what are good choices for brain foods?
• All fresh fruit such as bananas, apples, berries or watermelon. These can be whole or chopped up.
• All fresh vegetables such as carrots, celery, some seeds and cherry tomatoes.
• Dried fruit in small amounts (due to its concentrated sugar than can increase tooth decay).

Many berries contain flavonoid antioxidants. Research suggests that these may make the berries good food for the brain. Antioxidant-rich berries that can boost brain health include: strawberries, blackberries, blueberries, blackcurrants and mulberries.

What about pumpkin seeds? Richer in zinc than many other seeds, pumpkin seeds supply this valuable mineral which is vital for enhancing memory and thinking skills. They’re also full of stress-busting magnesium, B vitamins and tryptophan, the precursor to the good mood chemical serotonin. 

Why not prepare some dried fruit snacks the night before or even make up a small selection for each day of the week, this is something your kids can help you with. Since fruit is a natural source of sugars, such an option will definitely satisfy their cravings while remaining on the healthier side. Dried apple, pineapple, and mango are usually very common among students.

Whatever you decide to send to school for brainfood, it should be:

• fruit or vegetable
• clean and mess free
• cut small and ready to eat
• preferably in a reusable container that would fit unobtrusively on a student's desk

Some things to avoid that cannot be brought as brain foods include:

• Fruit products (eg fruit leather, fruit roll ups, fruit bars)
• Fruit canned in syrup or jelly with artificial sweetners
• Fruit jams, jellies, pies, cakes
• Chips, vegetable pastries, cakes, quiches, breads
• All processed/ packaged snacks

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Please click on the links to find out more about news from around our community including this week's Church Bulletin. Church Bulletin 16th May
Emmanuel College News 

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Congratulations to our Principal's Award winners for Week Four, Term Two.  They are:-

PREP HT:

Ruben Jimena for his amazing efforts creating words from the letter sounds he knows.

PREP S:

Alice Heffernan Morales for her positive attitude towards all her learning especially her writing.

YEAR 1/2B:

Adelaide Derham for her fabulous enthusiasm and vibrant approach towards her learning.

YEAR 1/2G:

Kobe McGuane for his wonderful reading during 1/2G’s assembly. 

YEAR 1/2N:

Keanu Le Roux for his positive attitude towards learning. 

YEAR 3/4A:

Isobel Mercer for her great reading at the Mothers day mass.

YEAR 3/4B:

Roland Hicks for his enthusiasm in exploring subtraction strategies.

YEAR 3/4S:

Gracie-Ella Antonaras for showing persistence and giving things a go. 

YEAR 4/5L:

Luca Buttazzoni for his enthusiasm and participation in whole class learning sessions.

YEAR 5/6C:

Lexi Robertson for your effort and success at describing your camp highlight 

using the five senses.

YEAR 5/6F:

Ryan Tucker for writing an interesting and detailed Narrative.

YEAR 5/6KC:

Isabelle Cassar for her positive approach to all learning tasks. 

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  Click here to read more

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Victorian Premier’s Reading Challenge

How many books can you read before the 17th of September?

With just under 100 days to go, it's not too late to join the Premiers' Reading Challenge!

 

The students with the most books read in the Junior, Middle and Senior buildings will win a prize, and all students who meet the Challenge will receive a certificate. 

See or contact Milly on asiebring@smaltona.catholic.edu.au to register!

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