Kidcyber – Government what is it?

While we in Adelaide celebrated ‘The Adelaide Cup’ Canberrans celebrated their 100^th birthday. Canberra is our national capital. 100 years ago Lady Denman the wife of the then Governor- General Lord Denman announced that the name of the new Australian capital would be Canberra. Find out more about the history of Canberra by visiting

http://www.canberra100.com.au/resources/history-timeline/

or watch some videos about the history of Canberra

http://www.canberra100.com.au/resources/videos/

The 2013 theme for Harmony Day is ‘Many Stories – One Nation” The message is ‘everyone belongs’. To find out more visit

http://www.harmony.gov.au/_docs/harmony-day-2013-factsheet.pdf

Go to

http://www.harmony.gov.au/

to for resources and to see how you can get involved.

Have you ever wondered why Valentine’s Day is celebrated? Follow the links to find out.

Valentine’s Day Stories for Kids

Valentine’s History

Valentine’s Day information, facts, history, activities and poetry

Activity Village

Enchanted Learning

Valentine’s Day is also Library Lovers Day. Visit the library for a date with a book. Try a new author or revisit an old favourite.

Kung Hei Fat Choy

Welcome to the Year of the Snake. February 10th marked the start of Chinese New Year celebrations. In the Chinese Zodiac 2013 is the Year of the Snake.

Check out the following websites to find out how the Chinese New Year is celebrated.

Activity Village

A China Family Adventure

BBC – Schools – Festival and Events

Enchanted Learning

DLTK’s Chinese New Year Activities

Chinese Years – What year were you born in?

Fact Monster

The Premier’s Reading Challenge for 2013 has begun. You need to read and record on your reading record sheet 12 books to complete the challenge. 8 books must be from the Premier’s Reading list and 4 books can be 4 of your own choosing. We have labelled books on the Premier’s Reading list with coloured dots to make it easier for you to find them on our shelves. Red dots Years R – 2, Green dots years 3 -5 and yellow dots for years 6 and 7.

2013 is the 10th year of the Premier’s Reading Challenge in South Australia. This year for the first time the ‘Reader for Life Silver Award” will be presented to students who have completed the Premier’s Reading Challenge ten times. In 2012, 370 of our students completed the Reading Challenge. This year we would like to see even more students complete the Challenge. The Reading Challenge is a great way to encourage students to read and discover the pleasures of reading. The more we read the more we improve our literacy skills.

Every students who completes the challenge and hands in their ‘Reading Record Sheet’ receives an award. The awards are as follows.

First year – Certificate

Second year – Bronze medal

Third year – Silver medal

Fourth year – Gold medal

Fifth year – Champion medal

Sixth year – Legend medal

Seventh year – Hall of Fame medal (you need to elect to have your name appear on the PRC Hall of Fame Honour Roll on the PRC website)

Eighth year  – Hall of Fame Reader for Life certificate

Ninth Year – Hall of Fame reader for life Bronze award

Tenth Year – Hall of  Fame reader for life Silver award

For further information visit the Premier’s Reading Challenge Website.

Happy Reading

It is great to welcome back Mrs Amelia Balmer for 2013 as our Library School Support Officer. Please drop in and say hello.

There are lots of new and not so new exciting books to taste and borrow. Please visit as often as possible to revisit  old favourites and check out new books. Borrowing times are before school, after school and during library borrowing times. All classes have visited the library during the last week and have taken part in a  ‘Book Tasting”. Students were given a short amount of time to try several books  in order to find something new and something that they may not normally choose to borrow. Students had to choose a book, read the blurb and then read several pages of the book before before tasting a new book. We did this several times and then students had the opportunity to borrow a book they “tasted”.

During Week 9 of Term 2, the well-known South Australian author, Phil Cummings paid a visit to our school to talk to us children about his life, how he writes books and what inspired him. Phil visited classes, the senior choir and a group of eager writers to share his knowledge and passion for writing. When Phil talked to Mr. Lemmey and Ms. Gillespie/Mrs. Hisers classes he discussed his life and how and why he writes books. This was truly inspirational to all of us students. On Friday, the senior choir had a private session with Phil and he sang us a song about his brother when he was in hospital. He told us that music took a big part in his writing career, and said, “Without music I would not be where I am today”. After the choir session, it was time for our whole school assembly. In this special gathering, the choir performed 3 commissioned work songs from ‘Danny Allen was Here’. The soloists were Alannah Green as Danny, Emily Murphy as Vicki, Jacintha Smith as Sam, Ashlin Petty as Mum and Ben Francis as Dad. Phil was obviously moved by this performance, for the songs are based on his life. After lunch some lucky students got a writing session with Phil. I think we all knew that writing is not easy, so meeting an author as good as Phil, his writing brilliance is truly respected. At first we sat down and wrote about the beach and what you would feel like when you were travelling there, when you got there, when you were travelling home and when you got home. He then told us to imagine this scene that he was telling us in words and the story leaded back to the beach. This taught us how to plan and get ideas for story lines. We are very grateful for Phil for coming to our school and also to the people that organized this special event. THANK YOU PHIL!
By Alannah Green & Grant Robertson

Phil Cummings Visit on PhotoPeach

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a.s.p.i.r.e. school network, The a.s.p.i.r.e. school network is a national education program for primary and secondary educators, designed to instil in young Australians an appreciation for the values, spirit and philosophy of the Olympic Movement.There are many cross-curriculum resources for Primary Schools.

 All About British Life and Culture

London 2012 – The official website of the Olympic Movement

Cultures for Kids – Find out how children live in other parts of the world.

Flags of the World – Learn all about the symbolism of flags from other countries here.

Olympic Games – Find out more about the history of the Olympic on the official Olympic website

Olympic Sports – Learn more about the different Olympic sports here.

Mascots –

London 2012 Olympic mascots unveiled by itnnews

Ceremonies – Learn about the opening and closing ceremonies.

Interactive Olympic Games