Newsletter January 2009 Welcome to semester two! We have had a busy start to The excitement of Ms Doris’ wedding caught up with all of us. We had some interesting discussions about marriage and love. Thank you to the parents who were able to send in their own wedding photos for the children to look at and discuss the different traditions.

Thank you to the children and parents for your good wishes and gifts- Doris Chen.

What do we know about marriage? January 6, 2008 Why do people get married? Minna They get married because they will have a baby. Graciana Because first they married then the baby will come. Jared Because they have a baby. Minna They hold hands, hold flowers. The boys give flowers to the girls. What else do you know about weddings? Nicholas People wear beautiful clothes. Minna That person holds a book, he listens to it so he knows what to say. Mia You get flowers, get pretty shoes and the man is a prince. Sunghyun Pretty hair. Mia My Mommy wore a white dress. Graciana My Mom wore pink gloves and a blanket that’s pink on her head. Christine My Mom wore pink when she got married. She wore white gloves. Mia My Daddy wore black clothes. Michal When my Mommy got married my daddy kissed her. January 7 What is love? Sunghyun Love you. Mia Getting a kiss. Graciana Love is you hug her. Anya Fall in love. Minna You are falling in love, they blink, they get married and they get a ring. Megan Friends. Jared They are friends. Grant You have a heart shape. Jozef I love my sister. Michal Daddy loves Mommy. Megan My Mommy and Daddy hugging. Nicholas People kiss.

At the end of last semester the children finished off their books they made about growing the pumpkin seeds. They used photos of what they saw and had to sequence them into the correct order of events. They also told the story of what happened. The children have continued making books on their own as they develop the ideas of how a story begins, has a middle and ends. These literacy experiences encourage the children to experiment with letters and words as they develop their own writing.

The growing plants also gave the children an opportunity to measure and compare the growth. They became aware of taller, shorter, faster, slower and were able to talk about why the plants grew at a different rate.

Who is the man who is always sitting in the lobby? We thought we would find out. Nicholas Is he made of rock? Minna He’s bored. He hasn’t got a face just a head, that’s why he’s sad. Grant I think he’s just resting. I always see him. Jozef He’s just a statue. Nicholas Everyone rests here and he’s resting too. He rests at night, everyday. He may be dead! Grant No, he’s a statue; he just always does that, (hand holding his head). Anya He’s making up a book. Ms Nixon What do you think the book would be about? Nicholas It’s only one chapter. Mia When the police caught him he was wiggly so they made him out of rock. Jozef He’s feeling bad. Grant His head hurts, he might have just had a shot. Nicholas Maybe he’s reading too much and his head hurts. Minna Maybe he’s tired. Mia If we took off the rock he would be alive. Megan He is sad, I think he is tired and so he is crying. Graciana This is a man, he is thinking, thinking about something tomorrow. Michal I think he found this book and he’s thinking what to do. Megan Maybe in time out, maybe ‘cos’ he’s not very good. Sunghyun I sit on his book, he’s somebody. Christine He’s made from stone. Nicole He’s reading a book, he’s got no eyes so he is pretending he is reading. Sunghyun He don’t have nose, mouth, eyes, hair. He don’t have shirt. Nicole He don’t have pants or hair band. Sunghyun He’s feeling sad. Nicole He’s sad because he don’t have friends or a brother.

What do you think the story he is writing would be about? Nicholas About triangles, what shapes are. Grant Planet heroes. Jozef I don’t know yet. Anya It’s about a robot. Nicholas He is riding, something about police, a car hurt him and an ambulance took him to the doctor. Anya He’s thinking about what he should do. Ms Nixon Why do people think? Nicholas So they can be good thinkers. Ms Nixon What does it mean to think? Graciana I know what time I wake up. Ms Nixon Is that what thinking means; to know something? Graciana Yes. Michal Your head helps you to think. Grant I think that’s right. Why do you think he has been put in the lobby? Michal Because it’s nice in here. Graciana Because it’s nice and warm and cold in here.

Nathan decided to make his own from clay.

Chinese New year preparations

MESSAGES Thanks you to everyone for coming to the market. Thanks to Teresa and Kirsten for organizing the dumpling makers and the party food. Please see the photo galleries for more photos. With the change in weather you will all need to send in some warmer spare clothes for the children to have here at school. Parent participation; Parents are welcome to be part of our morning program. If you would like to come in any morning from 8.30 until 9.30 to see what your own child is doing, get to know the other children and join in with our learning and activities, please me which day you would like and I will confirm by . We would like only one parent at a time, thanks. Our investigation into who the man is in the lobby continues. We invited Mr Weislow, our assistant Superintendent to tell us what he knows………