Avondale Herald

The last week has been another enriching one for the children at Avondale Grammar School.

Last Friday the children in Years 3 to 6 had an impromptu visit from a number of visiting artists from the Central Coast of NSW. Brett Parker, along with Marcia Staples and Madeline Anderson were involved in the Journey of Dreams Exhibition at the Australian High Commission on the 22nd October and their collection of works depicted their identities and cultures. Besides sharing the history of their aboriginal ancestory, they also demonstrated some fascinating brush stroke techniques for the children. This was a wonderful opportunity for the students and a real learning experience that I am sure they found most interesting. Brett also kindly donated one of his paintings to AGS which has won numerous awards in Canberra. The website for Brett Parker is www.billyara.com

On Tuesday the children across the school were involved in a smorgasboard of fun and educational hands on activities with our exciting Maths Day. Activities were organised inside and outside of the classroom and catered appropriately for the different grade/stage levels. I would like to thank Ms Vernon (and the Year 4 children) and the teachers for doing such an excellent job in organising the day and in providing practical opportunities in learning within the all important realm of mathematics.

The children were also fortunate to have an outside performance group from Australia (Loose Cannons) come to Avondale this week.  Loose Cannons were most entertaining with their two performances for the children and we hope to have them back to Avondale for 2010.

I hope the families who attended the Next Step Program on Thursday evening found it informative. Making the transition from Preschool to Kindergarten is an important and exciting chapter in a young person’s life (something many of us as adults I am sure can still remember) and thus we aim to make it as smooth as possible for the children. I am sure the Preschoolers will enjoy the different activities organized in the Kindergarten classroom, as well as joining the rest of the school, at some of the other activities, throughout the term.

SRC Charity Information – UN Day at AGS

The Student Representative Council have organized Avondale’s first charity day for Term 4. The Global Charity we have chosen for the school is the United Nations World Food Programme. This charity feeds 108 million people in 74 countries. It desperately needs 3 billion dollars, as from October they are having to cut their services, due to lack of money. United Nations World Food Programme will tie in perfectly with UN Day from the 24th October. UN Day, October 24th, marks a special day for the United Nations: the day 50 countries signed the United Nations Charter in 1945. Since that day, the United Nations has helped put peace and security, human rights, education, and sustainable development on the international agenda. As UN Day is on the 24th October, we will celebrate it at Avondale on Friday the 6th November, due to other events occurring in the first few weeks of school.
When: Friday 6th November (ties in with United Nations Day in which we have planned country stalls in the multi-purpose hall)
What to Bring: Gold coin donation for dressing up as a chosen country. The money raised will go towards supporting United Nations World Food Programme. We will also have numerous food stalls (of course nut free) where children can purchase – need to bring in lots of coins
What children need to do: Dress up as creatively as possible with their chosen country for Avondale’s UN Day– it must be clear which country you have chosen – some ideas are looking at the flag, national dress, colours that represent the country, identifying yourself with noted personalities who have made a difference – let your creative juices flow
We will have a variety of UN country stalls set up on the day to signify the chosen countries.
I would like to thank the parents who have willingly volunteered their support and time in setting up the different country stalls.
For further information and ideas on United Nations World Food Programme please look on http://www.wfp.org/about/donors

Upcoming Events

Friday 6th November
UN Charity Day at AGS

Have a good weekend.

Martin Tait
Head of Avondale Grammar School

On Tuesday of this week students from preschool to Year 6 participated in a number of activities related to mathematics. The day began with a trivia quiz across the school. Students were grouped in small groups containing students from K-6 in each group. Teachers asked maths questions targeted at age group, giving every student the opportunity to answer questions. Teachers from the 12 groups tallied the scores and the winning group was ‘GROUP 1′

The middle session provided opportunities for students to engage in activities across their stage. Kindergarten had stations set up within the classroom and in small groups students rotated through the various activities. Some tasks proved harder then others, but all students worked hard.

Year 1 and 2 students rotated across the 4 classrooms experiencing a different activity each time. The hands on nature of the activities allowed all students to achieve success.

Years 3 and 4 also rotated across 2 30 min activities. Students were challenged with tasks such as reconstructing their picture following the line of symmetry.

Year 5/6 were challenged by Ms Hand, with the students stepping up to the challenge.

Our Preschool students had an active day which included cooking and rotational activities in their classroom. Their maths day continued throughout the week to ensure all students had an opportunity to participate. The rumour is they had a lot of fun.

Our guessing competition proved a challenge for some. The winners were -

Prechool – Guess how many marshmallows – Sabrina Best

K-2 – Guess how many lollies – Joshua Coombs (Yr 2)

3-6 – Guess the weight – Bryony Pratt (Yr 6)

A big congratulations to the Year 4 students, who provided fun mathematical activities at lunch time for all students to participate in. They put a lot of thought into their activity and enjoyed the experience of leading a program.

Thank you to all the staff who helped the day run smoothly, the students gained much knowledge from the experiences you offered.

Kim Vernon – Curriculum Coordinator

The internet is a medium which can provide some wonderful learning opportunities. Below is a list of maths websites which you may find of benefit.

•  http://www.smartkiddies.com.au/ Smart kids mathematics linked to the NSW curriculum
• http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/4_11/numeracy.shtml
  This site is for students aged between 4 and 11 years. Best for the younger end of this age range. It contains links to a range of sites and activities.
• http://www.amblesideprimary.com/ambleweb/mentalmaths/protractor.html
  A great site to practise protractor use. Easy to use. Best for Primary Years and Middle Years.
• http://www.abc.net.au/countusin/default.htm
  Games designed to help children understand basic number concepts.

Kim Vernon – Curriculum Coordinator

As a warm-up to United Nations Charity Day at Avondale Grammar School, the Year 3s  designed their own Peace Flags last Friday. Then they brainstormed ideas on what they like about the world now, and how they think the world could be improved to make it a better  place.  They researched past United Nations Day meetings where world leaders got together  to discuss ways help could be spread around. They then each had to write a letter to these world leaders, using their voices to hopefully make a difference. Here are some excerpts from the letters they wrote……

• “Hello ladies and gentlemen, I think you’ve done a great job already, but why not save all this money you spend on your lunches? Why not have sandwiches for lunch instead of all this posh food? You could save this money for the countries with no food or rain. You could help make everyone in this world happy and enjoying life. Thank you world leaders.” (Alyssa)
• “My name is Matthew Butler. You need to stop people smoking so the world can smell clean.”
• “Hello world leaders, how are you? Well I’m good. You all are doing good BUT!!! You have to get more policemen disguised as normal people and when someone litters the sea, you have to fine them $50 for maybe killing innocent sea creatures.” (Anthony)
• “Dear World Leaders, if you can be more  like a world leader, try to spread peace in the world. A leader doesn’t mean you’re only a leader, it means you help people and be kind.” (Lucas)
• “World leaders, please listen here! I think you’ve done a good job of taking care of our planet BUT think how much money you spent to get here  HUH!! A fair bit I bet! Maybe if you bring the expense rate down and stop the drug smugglers then the world will hopefully be a prettier place.” (Hamish)
• “To world leaders. Making the world a better place will take a lot of money. Help the world by giving them jobs and giving the children education. If the poor have money they will pay money for food and things like that and the money will spread around the country and it is like donating to EVERYONE! Recycling saves money. You pay money for cutting trees and saying bye to nature.” (Thomas)
• “I like what you have done to make the world a better place, but if you want to improve it more, maybe try to tell the people that when they’re done with lights, turn it off!” (Demi)
• “”Create more jobs. Recycle and reuse, Give more money to the poor.” (Matthew Bridger)
• “Hi! Please look after the world for me! I really like Earth and people on it. Like me, Adele, Demi, Alyssa and WAY more!” (Olivia)
• “Dear Leaders, You have been nice to the world but I have some good suggestions. You are not just people who help the world. You are supposed to give money to the poor that’s why you earn money.You bring peace to the world. Thank you for being here.” (Sam)
• “Hello World leaders. My name is Eilidh and I like what you have done to make the world a better place. You have built houses and buildings for us to live in and roads for us to drive on and I think it is great but you could help people not as fortunate as us like giving them more water and more food.”
• “Dear World Leaders, You’ve done a good job saving the world but I think you should stop spending so much money. You can get more tsunarmi alarms and tsunarmi hazard zones.” (Joseph)
• “Hello! My name is Adele. Today you are going to learn how to stop people from littering. Throwing cardboard in recycling bins. If you do, the world would be a better place. Thank you for listening.”
• “Dear Leaders,  I think you have done a good job of the world. But I think you could save some money for poor people. It doesn’t matter about first class on the airplanes. Just go on economy. But also thank you for taking care of the world.” (Imogen)
• “Hello World Leaders, Get money for more poor people, get health supplies and food for people. You need to stop people from smoking. Not only will they get sick, it pollutes the air. So see world leaders you should change the world.” (Ben)
• “Hi! My name is Sage.You should give the poor more money because if you don’t one day all of us might turn into homeles people.”
• “Please world leaders, to make the world a better place we should try very hard to stop racism. I think people with dark skin should have all the rights that people with fair skin have. I think you have done very nicely already but I think you need to think about this. Thank you” (Emilia)

Incredible! Fantastic! And nothing but the truth, saying exactly what they feel and think!

-Some really thought-provoking ideas from a very lively bunch of Year 3s-

Ms. Ann Prior-Lim

Dear Parents,

Bonjour et bienvenue dans la classe de français. Welcome everybody! We hope you all enjoyed your term break . French has been very exciting since the begining of new term. Many children joined new and the older children are helping them settle quickly.

This week:

Year 2 have started working on the theme” Ma Maison”where they are learning about different rooms in a house and daily routine activities.

Year 3 and Year 4  is learning about ” J’aime aller…….” different places to go .

Kindergarten is learning ” Les animaux” wild animals and pets  this week .

Year 5 and Year 6 learnt the verb” Louer- to rent” and designed an advertisment  to rent a property.

Have a good weekend!

A Bientot

Savneet Bali

French Teacher