During the COVID-19 pandemic, many have become familiar with the concept of being muted in conversations. Many voices are muted in public discourse around climate change and the ethics of Earth-keeping.

These are voices of those who suffer the impacts of climate change. These are voices of people who hold generational wisdom about how to live gratefully within the limits of the land. These are voices of a diminishing diversity of more-than-human species. It is the voice of the Earth.

This year’s symbol: the burning bush

“I have heard their cry…I know their sufferings…Come, now! I will send you…I will be with you”
(Ex 3: 1-12)

The burning bush is the Symbol for the Season of Creation 2022. Today, the prevalence of unnatural fires are a sign of the devastating effects that climate change has on the most vulnerable of our planet. Creation cries out as forests crackle, animals flee, and people are forced to migrate due to the fires of injustice. 

On the contrary, the fire that called to Moses as he tended the flock on Mt. Horeb did not consume or destroy the bush. This flame of the Spirit revealed God’s presence. This holy fire affirmed that God heard the cries of all who suffered, and promised to be with us as we followed in faith to our deliverance from injustice. 

In this Season of Creation, this symbol of God’s Spirit calls us to listen to the voice of creation.

Learn more at https://seasonofcreation.org/

Holiday Time!

With school holidays and kids to entertain, why not start getting ready!

Holidays can be a great time to bond with your children, but it can also be a stressful time when kids can get really bored. It’s best to put a little bit of advanced planning into the spring holidays and prepare yourself with a list of ideas.

Start by planning each week in advance. If the kids know they have things to look forward to it will make for happier more relaxed children. Make sure to get the children involved in the planning. They will be less likely to complain about the activities chosen if they have taken part in the decision-making. Have a range of activities to select from: stuff to do at home, in the garden, outdoors, and the odd activity that costs money to do.

• Cooking and baking. Once a week plan a cooking or baking day. Involve the kids in the process from the beginning — let them choose from a selection of recipes that you have ingredients for. If the child can read, get them to read from the recipe book. Step by step, help them to work through the instructions.
• Make a ninja course. Design and assemble a ninja course in the back garden. Old pieces of wood, boxes, buckets, garden chairs — anything that can be jumped over, gone under or through or around. Time each other around the ninja course.
• Build a garden patch. Dedicate a small patch in the garden to the kids. Plant flowers, herbs, lettuce — anything that grows quickly and gives them the satisfaction of having produced something.
• Go camping. Build a tent indoors or outdoors with blankets and sheets. Once the tent is up, give them a torch and a picnic to take with them.
• Go on picnics. You don’t have to go far to have a picnic — Head out into the garden, down the river or to the park with a picnic rug and a picnic basket full of goodies.
• Have a treasure hunt. Make a treasure map with clues to find some treasure you have hidden somewhere in the garden.
• Create a Diary. Encourage the little ones to keep a holiday diary or scrapbook. They can take photos of special days and write about them.
• Get jamming. Grab some musical instruments — things like bongos, shakers or tambourines, and get jamming. Get your kids to sing and dance along.
• Make a movie. Use an iPad create a movie or documentary and then edit it. Preview it as a family with some popcorn.
• One of the nicest ways to express your creativity is to use paint. Get large sheets of paper and lots of paint. You can use your hands and feet for some extra fun.
• Get into jewellery making. Go to a bead shop and stock up on beads, wire and clasps, and get busy making your own jewellery.
• Sketching. Go to a local park or down to the river to sketch. Encourage them to sketch what they see around them.

 

The Foundation class thoroughly enjoyed our excursion a couple of weeks ago, and we were super excited to see Addison chosen to go up on stage!

This term we have been learning about push and pull forces during our Science lessons, and today we will begin designing a toy using recycled materials that require pushing and/or pulling. 

The Foundation students did a fantastic job presenting assembly last week, they were a bit braver this time and more willing to talk into the microphone which was great to see.

We have been learning about gifts from God, and looking more closely at how we can look after all of His creation. One of the ways we have been talking about is recycling. We are going to focus more on this and try a bit harder to make sure we are separating our rubbish and recycling as much as we can.

Students in the Year 5/6 class have completed their entries for the Lions Club International Peace Poster Contest. The theme this year was: ‘Lead with Compassion’. We look forward to hearing the results of the competition later this year.

On Wednesday 21^st September, Brad travelled with students Aurora, Harley, Georgia and Noah to Waikerie to attend the Youth Environmental Leaders Forum. They participated in group activities and were presented information about frogs and the many different species, the wetlands and rivers and how they work, and Waterwatch, which showed them how to conduct river water tests.

The Foundation class held our mass this week and what a wonderful job they did. 

Puppets

Foundation to Year 2 Puppets

Students in Foundation to Year 2 have explored role and dramatic action through the use of finger puppets and hand puppets. More recently, they have created their own puppets. Students had to come up with a name, personality and facts to go with their puppet.

Year 4-6 Puppets

This term, students in Year 4-6 learnt to sew. They designed and sewed together their very own hand puppets. They demonstrated great enthusiasm and skills in learning to thread their needles, tie knots and use a running stitch. Students also created a profile about their character and will use their puppets to create a puppet show next term.

Here are a just a few of their amazing creations!

Austin: Made by Ishmeet.

Age – 5​

Species – Cow crossed with Bear​

Gender – Male

Appearance: Austin has white and brown splotches, a cheeky smile, red tongue, purple eyes and one brown patch on his left eye.​

Austin’s fur is brown and soft.​

Personality: Austin is cheeky but also forgiving. If Austin does something wrong he’ll apologise. But when Austin is really hangry he might gobble someone up and he’ll apologise after a month. If you do something wrong to Austin he will forgive you, but sometimes he holds a grudge. Austin is also really loving a will care for everyone who does the right thing.​

Fun Facts: Austin's’ favourite colours are blue and green.

Austin has one job it’s to be nice to anyone who is right and just.​

He likes to be cheeky, although he is smart.​

Austin’s favourite hobby is dancing and in second is colouring.​

Austin absolutely dislikes when he does something embarrassing in front of someone. ​

Austin doesn’t know who his enemies and friends are, but he does know 1 thing I’m his BFF.

Assembly was held by the year 5/6 class last Friday. They shared some of their work from The Arts, Writing, Stem and Comics. 

The Arts

In the arts we have been learning how to sew and have created puppets. We would like to share the profiles that we have created for our puppets.

Police Potato also known as spud; Spud is a potato that Graduated from the potato police academy. His gender is a vegetable his pronouns are vege and table. He hates boiling water as his family jumped into boiling water never to be found again. His worst enemy is robber potato who robbed several banks on his day of so everyone blames it on him.  He likes his family and wife; Mrs Cabbage pronounced Cabarrrrrrrrge. He protects the city and everyone in it.

Isaac about his puppet:

My puppets name is Robber Potato, his species is vegetable. His age is 34 and his gender is unspecified. He has a black hat, a duffel back full of money, facial hair plus he’s very short. He’s always getting annoyed and doesn’t trust anyone not even himself. He likes onions but hates potato, vending machines but worst of all his worst enemy Police Potato. 

Georgia about her puppet Stella: 

Name: Stella

Animal: cat

Colour: black and white

Age: 3

Gender: female

Fact about Stella: she loves exploring and having fun with her puppet friends, my puppet is based on Claire’s cat. 

Favourite food: smoked salmon

Evelyn about her puppet:

Name: Puppsle

Age: 3

Gender: male

Puppsle is a beautiful baby seal pup he is brown and has thin fluffy fur. Puppsle is a cheeky little pup he slides around the wet wooden boards in his zoo enclosure. He loves the rain but hates storms. He has a sibling named Zoozie. He and his sister love fish. As I said Puppsle loves to be mischievous he will jump off stairs that are in his enclosure and he can even open doors he can clap and lastly he is so fast and will jumps up out of water high into the air to catch fish.

Kenzie about her puppet:

Spots is a Dalmatian which a type of dog. He is 4 years old and is a boy. He is a white dog with black spots, he has floppy ears and a purple collar. He is a cheeky dog but is very loveable, he always wants a pat. He loves peanut butter and bacon, not together though. He loves playing fetch but is always keen for a sleep.

Charlize about her puppet:

Hello I’m brad or you can call me bread and bread is my preferred name. Did you know I love drinking my daily coffee or you could say my 5th coffee for the day.  I have a big brown beard, brown eyes, brown hair and wear a puffer jacket and I work at OLOR. I always plays with bob the turtle when I works in the 5/6 classroom. I really enjoys working with the younger students. 

Writing

In writing we have been exploring informative writing. We have researched and begun writing about our dream career. 

Elysia: If you want to be an Astronaut, you will need to move to the US because that’s where NASA is. Some people after coming back from space will be up to 2 inches taller. Astronauts sometimes forget about gravity on earth since they have been up in space for a while. Being an astronaut won’t mean going into space every day, you might go to space once or twice in your whole career.

Wavely: I have researched what is required to become a builder A carpentry apprenticeship traditionally takes up to 4 years to complete. However, the length of your apprenticeship will depend on how many hours you work per week and how quickly you can master the skills you need to become a qualified carpenter.

Claire: A psychiatrist is a person that sits down with someone, talks to them about their life in weekly sessions, and figures out what’s troubling them. Psychiatrists deal with people with mental illnesses, phobias and issues of all kinds.

Latesha The career I am researching is a dance teacher.

When you’re teaching dance you must be patient because your dancers might not understand what your teaching them straight  away. You need to be organised.  You need to teach dancers who are going to enter in competitions.

Kaiden: For my dream career I want to be a real-estate. The average pay check for a real-estate agent 82,900 dollars per year. There is a special licence you need to get to be a real estate agent.

STEM

In Stem, Mr. Vowles showed us how to make a steady hand game. To make this we used a jar, copper wires, a battery and a di-ode light. 

The point of a steady hand game is to try and move the wand through the copper wire without it touching it otherwise it would make the light spark. We learnt how to properly build one of these by following instructions. 

First, we needed a jar and a lid with holes in so we could fit the wires through them. Then we had to connect two wires to a battery. After that we made a wand. We also connected a diode light and a few more wires and then some people painted their jars. We all tried to get through each other’s games, and some were more challenging than others. We really enjoyed making these. 

Comics

In English we have been looking at a unit on comics and animation. We have explored the language and physical features needed to write a comic. Our task was to create a comic that addressed an ethical issue. We would like to share some with you. 

Harsimran: I wrote a comic with an ethical dilemma about how people share food.  It is about 2 girls, one of them is very hungry and the other girl offers her food to her. The girl realises that her friend only has a packet of chips.  The choice for her to make is to take the chips or ask the teacher for food. She decides to ask the teacher for food.

Ishmeet: This is my comic also has an ethical dilemma. It’s about a boy who is poor and has nothing, so he tries to steal from a money tree. He gets caught but is forgiven. The owner gives him a consequence that’s bad and good. He sleeps and eats outside.

Tom: My comic is about a boy who wants to buy a game, but he can’t afford it. A mysterious figure tells him to steal it. The boy has an ethical dilemma, then he realises that stealing is wrong and then he tells. Here is the comic

Will: I want a new bike, but I don’t have the money to buy the bike. Should I steal the money or save up for it? I finally saved up for enough money for a new bike.

Well done to the Year 5/6 Class

Footy Colours Day

Fight Cancer Foundation's Footy Colours Day is a national community fundraising event that helps kids with cancer keep up with school.

When a child is diagnosed with cancer their world is turned upside down overnight. With treatment starting instantly, they face, on average, more than 6 months away from their school and school friends.

There are education programs that help these kids when they need it most so they can return to their normal life without the significant social and emotional impacts of having to drop a year level.

By hosting a Footy Colours Day event like we are, we are ensuring these kids can put their cancer behind them, reach their full potential at school and get back to doing what they do best - being a kid!

OLOR Go back-to-Back!

Hi all,

On Tuesday, 20^th September 16 OLOR students travelled to the Barmera Tennis Club to compete at the Tennis SA Hot Shots Carnival. After winning both the 3/4 division and the 5/6 division in 2021, students were again looking to perform well. It turned out to be a very successful day for OLOR with both age groups taking out their respective divisions after going undefeated! Despite the success, I was most impressed with the sportsmanship demonstrated by all our students and their willingness to play respectfully with each other. Finally, I would like to thank Pat Perre for all his help on the day.

Congratulations to Charlie Kregar, Bode Gates, Layla Vallelonga and Mackenzie Pitt who represented the Riverland SAPSASA Athletics Team that competed in the School Sport SA Division 1 Country Championships at Bridgestone Athletics Stadium, Salisbury. All our athletes did us proud, with so many PBs combining to have our Riverland team finishing just 22 points behind Gawler in second place. Amazing work!

Enjoy a restful holiday!

Kind regards,

Tom Charlton

OLOR Sports Coordinator

Today house teams gathered in preparation for Sports Day being held at the end of week 2 next term