Katoomba North Public School Community News

Miniature Snowmen! Making miniature snowmen sculptures from frost! Great to see students experimenting and playing with found objects. Ms Abela Barton Street, Katoomba 2780 Website: www.katoomban-p.schools.nsw.edu.au Office Hours: 8.30am – 3.00pm Email: katoomban.school@det.nsw.edu.au Principal: Cathy Clark Phone: 4782 2743 Fax: 4782 3871 Facebook: KatoombaNorthPS

23rd June 2020, Term 2 Week 9

999999

July

3rd Students last day of Term 2

20th Staff Development Day

21st Term 3 - Students return to school

Dear Parents and Carers, After such a tricky term with all the changes we find ourselves close to half a year finishing. I hope you were able to view our students who performed on “Sunrise” at Echo Point on Friday morning. Our ensemble sang beautifully and of course behaviour was exemplary waiting for the timeslot. My thanks to parents and family who came so early and supported not only their child/ren but also our school. We didn’t receive much notice of the event so that was an added part of the preparation. Thanks also to Catriona McKay who pulled the proverbial rabbit out of the hat and planned the song to last 15 seconds. Teachers are completing reports and they should be out to you next week. These reports will be very brief as I know most of you have been assisting your child/ren at home for quite a few weeks. We hope to be able to offer some time next term for you to catch up with your child’s teacher. Our lost property is developing a life of its own. We have a variety of lunch boxes, drink bottles and jumpers. Please ensure names are in clothes so we can return them to their owner. If your child has lost something that is fairly distinctive we will endeavour to locate it if you can let us know. We are excited that Miss Bottomley will continue to be on year 5 for term 3. Miss B has settled into our school and is doing a fine job teaching year 5. I know most of the year 5 girls “love her”. Through conversations with students, it has been brought to our attention that while students were at home, gaming was a very popular interest. It would be unrealistic to think most of the day was concentrated on completing school work packs. The flip side of gaming though seems to be the subtle and not so subtle online conversations. Some students have expressed they did not enjoy sharing online time with friends who put them down, insulted them or generally made fun of them. Perhaps a conversation on how to communicate over the internet with friends can be had at home. There are many hints and tips available for parents on how to support and supervise children while they are on the internet. If your child has a recorder at home could you please ensure it is returned to school so Miss Catriona can continue recorder groups at school? Also, for stage 3 parents if you have one of our dictionaries that is taking up room at home feel free to return that too. I do hope you have a safe and healthy holiday. It is nice to be able to stay in pyjamas or inside when the weather is cold. Winter holidays also is the signal that our days are becoming longer and spring is on the way. Regards Cathy Clark Principal of the Best School in the Mountains.

Principal’s Log -

Puppet Making!

Stage two had an amazing time making human crossed animal puppets during their Opera House lesson. Lots of fun and laughter was had putting the puppets together. Students presented their puppets to the class and our Opera House artist Sophie Kelly. Ms Abela and Mrs Cullen

3/4 Drama with artist Sophie Kelly

Language Classes

This term I have enjoyed working with all classes- years 2-6 three times a fortnight, and kindergarten and year 1 once a fortnight. We did a short course in ‘Languages Appreciation’. We discovered the diverse language and cultural background of students at KNPS. We discussed some of the many words that we already know from different languages, including familiar culinary dishes and musical terminology. Years 3-6 brushed up

on the colours and design of international flags and matching nationalities with countries. We start every lesson with a ‘Hello song’ using greetings from French, Japanese, Italian, Spanish, German, Chinese and Hungarian. Year 5 heard the Japanese folk tale of Urashima Taro, and year 2-6 practised Japanese kanji characters with our whole bodies, finishing with creating our own beautiful ink scripts using the days of the week. Stretching our imagination, we could see the meaning in the characters of sun, moon, fire, water, tree and earth.

Kindergarten and year 2 learnt the colours in German using funny objects and coloured some Regenbogen which are decorating the wall in the library.

I have loved hearing the enthusiastic singing of the traditional French song Jean Petit qui danse ringing through the playground. I received a lovely warm welcome from the staff and students and have loved getting to know everybody. What a beautiful school! I think the children are lucky to be part of such a lovely community, and the school is lucky to have such lovely students. Ms Preston Languages teacher

Story Time This photo was for telling the old Japanese folktale of Urashima Taro today with yr 2, and year 5 heard it during a previous lesson. Other classes will be hearing it soon.

Sunrise Superstars!! Last Friday morning some of our Katoomba North Public School singers were at

Echo Point for a very early live television performance!

Students performed during the weather report and met the

presenter known as Sam Mac. As usual we were praised for

being such well behaved and talented students! If you

missed the performance you can watch it via 7plus on catch

up television.

Congratulations to all the

students who braved the

cold to make their

television debut! Thank

you to all our wonderful

parents who managed to

have their children at

Echo Point before 7am.

**Thank you once again

to Miss Catriona for

pulling this together with

only a day’s notice.

Well, we are getting back into the 'swing' of things in music. Pardon the pun! (Some classes explored swing time in our Blues unit) Apart from an early morning performance last week, many students have been playing some cool percussion in our Rhythm Recap unit. Other students have been arranging some well known songs on xylophone and percussion and we even have some students working on their own musical projects during lunchtimes and recesses. Ukelele Club is back on at recess on Wednesdays in the music room and we look forward to picking up where we left off with other music groups next term. Bye for now...

BREAKFAST PROGRAM

The Breakfast Program has been suspended till further notice. Donations of jam, vegemite, honey, marmalade, long-life milk, fruit and milo are always welcome. Contact Caroline (mobile: 0426 399 355) if you are interested in helping to run our breakfast program or drop off donations to the school office or the community room.

Music News

P & C News

TERM 2 & 3 CALENDAR 2020 Term 2

9

22 23 24 25 26

10

29 30

July 1

2 3

2020 Term 3

1

July 20 Staff Development

Day

21 Students return to

School

22 23 24

2

27

28 29

30 31

3

August 3 4 5

6 7

4

10 11

12

13 14

5

17 18 19 20 21

6

24

25 26

27

28

7

31 September 1 2 3

4

8

7

8

9

10

11

9

14 15 16 17 18

10

21 22

23

24 25

SCHOOL BANKING

School Banking has been suspended for Term 2.

SCHOOL CONTRIBUTION

The school contribution is a small yearly contribution that is used towards the cost of classroom

resources, arts and crafts, materials, books and sporting equipment. If you can pay your contribution,

could you please do so through the school office?

Fees are as follows:

$42.00 per year for 1 child

$75.00 per year for 2 children or

$90.00 per year for 3 children or more.