Our Lady of the River School eNewsletter

Year 1 & 2 Mass

Yesterday, the Year 1 and 2 students reminded us of the power of forgiveness at their whole school Mass. Forgiving someone who has hurt us is hard, but holding onto the pain only fills our minds with negativity and anger. When we forgive, we free ourselves from the past and find peace. We can look to God as a perfect example of forgiveness, as God forgives us out of love. Forgiveness leads to peace, which allows us to share God's love with others.

Mini Vinnies

Our Mini Vinnies concluded their Vinnies Winter Appeal Campaign with a Winter Woolies casual day and a Soup for the Soul Day and a Choir performance. The students, along with Mrs. Perre and Mel, worked together to prepare the soup, which was much appreciated on a cold winter's day. Local businesses Woolworths, Subway, and Sprouts Café generously donated essential food items, showing the power of community collaboration.

The campaign raised a total of $408.50. Students spent some money to purchase essential items, such as blankets, pillows, pillowcases, and yoga mats. They donated these items and the remaining funds to the President of St. Vincent de Paul, Maureen Voorendt, Anne Yabsley, and Sandra Quirke. We commend Ms. Moll-Short, Mel P, Brad and the Year 5 and 6 students involved, their inspiring journey demonstrates how their commitment to serving others in the community brings them fulfilment and satisfaction. Thank you to all the families that have supported this worthwhile initiative.

MGL Visit

Last Monday, OLOR warmly welcomed the Missionaries of God's Love team, who travel across Australia spreading positivity and celebrating God's love. They spent the morning playing games, sharing inspiring stories, and creating memorable interactions that had a big impact on our students.

The highlight of their visit were the soccer and chasey games they played with our students during lunchtime. Laughter and joy filled the school grounds as the sisters and brothers joined in, creating a lively atmosphere of friendship and togetherness.

OLOR extends a heartfelt thank you to the Missionaries of God's Love for sharing their faith with us in a refreshing and engaging way. We are excited about continuing our journey of faith and fellowship together.

SOUTHERN CROSS

The current edition of the Catholic newspaper put out by the Archdiocese called,' The Southern Cross,' is available at; The Southern Cross, July 2024

As we leave for our two-week break, I wish all families a fun and rewarding time with their loved ones, whether you are travelling, camping, or just enjoying time at home. I hope you make memories that will last a lifetime. May God bless you and keep you safe, and may you have a rest-filled break so that you will be recharged and ready to face the second half of the year.

God of profound peace,

We thank you for this school break that gives us a chance to rest and spend time with our loved ones. We ask for your protection over our students and their families, and for wisdom to make good choices and stay safe while having fun.

May our families be a source of love, support, and joy to one another.

As we get ready to return to school, may we feel refreshed and ready to learn with open hearts and minds.

We ask these prayers through Christ our Lord,

Amen.

Rosemary Perre
APRIM

As we finish Term 2, I am filled with pride about the efforts put in by staff and students this semester. We have had many great learning experiences and opportunities this term including Catholic Education Week, Walk Safely to School Day, Mother’s Day, First Communion, various SAPSASA events, Year 3 Monarto Zoo camp, performances, and visitors, as well as all of the learning happening in classes. I would like to thank all of the staff for their tireless efforts at making sure that our students have great opportunities in all learning areas.

This week we welcomed Senior Constable David Garner from the SAPOL Road Safety Section who spoke to our students about Road Safety and the role that they play in keeping themselves and others safe. The topics covered for our younger students included an introduction to road safety, playing in safe places, the importance of learning to stop, look, listen, and think, as well as seatbelt safety and wearing a safety helmet. Our older students learnt about Australian Road Rules, the appropriate use of cycles, skateboards, scooters and roller skates, and calling Triple Zero (000) when there is an emergency. Many students were surprised to find out things like that e-scooters are illegal on SA roads and footpaths, and can only legally be ridden on private property. I encourage all families to chat with their children about road safety as there were many misconceptions and things that students do frequently which put them at risk of an accident or a fine.

We have also enjoyed two performances in the last two weeks. Last week we enjoyed the performance ‘The Bully is Back’ which dealt with resilience, how to help yourself when things are hard and staying positive by thinking about ‘I Have, I Am, and I Can’ statements. This was followed up this week with the performance of Young Mary, which highlighted the early days of the story of St Mary MacKillop. This was a great experience for our students and a great insight into the early days of the Josephite sisters and the schools that they founded, including ours.

Next term we look forward to numerous events and activities to complement the learning program. These include Wakakirri and Riverland Music Festival Choir performances, which students have been working hard on for much of the year. These will both be great opportunities for our students to share their artistic creativity with an audience. We also look forward to more performances, SAPSASA events, as well as our Sports Day towards the end of the term.

Just a reminder that Monday 22nd July is a student free day for staff Professional Development. I wish all families a wonderful break and look forward to seeing everyone on Tuesday 23rd July for the start of Term 3.

Mr Michael Slagter
Principal

Colorful_Abstract_Modern_Illustrative_Paper_Border_A4_Document_297_x_210_mm_.png

Scholastic Book Fair

Our annual Book Fair will be held next term and will run from Monday 29th July - Friday 2nd August. The Fair will be open before and after school at the following times, 8:30-8:50am and 3:15-3:35pm. Our school earns a commission from the sales taken at the Fair, which we then use to purchase new books for our Library. We are looking for volunteers to help on the sales desk for Monday and Friday, if you are able to help at these times, please let the front office know. Thank you. We hope you are able to come along and support our Book Fair and we look forward to seeing you there!

Book Week Parade

This year's Book Week theme is 'Reading is Magic'. Each class has picked 2 books from the CBCA Shortlisted Books of the year, and will present their work to the school in the Hall on Monday 19th August, at 9.00 am.

Children are encouraged to dress up as their favourite book character for our parade, which will take place in week 5 on Thursday 22nd August, at 9.00 am in the Hall.

Hopefully children are well and truly into their PRC for this year. The last day for the Challenge is Friday 6th September. The cold weather is perfect for settling in with a good book, and I hope they able to get some reading done through the holidays.

Wishing you all a safe and relaxing break.

Kind regards,

Sandy Sando

Year 3 Camp

This Term in Week 6, the Year 3 students travelled to Monarto Zoo with Miss D, Mrs Schilling, Mrs Li and Brad. On the way we stopped at the Karoonda playground and enjoyed going down the big slides and flying fox. When we first arrived at Monarto we started with a bus tour of the Zoo. We saw bison, Preswalski’s horses, painted dogs, hyenas, lions, cheetahs, rhinos, giraffes and more. We were very lucky we saw lots of the animals up close.

After the tour we went to our campsite. We set up our beds and then spent time exploring. We played on the climbing equipment and we even found a bone pit! Our first activity was a scavenger hunt. We worked in teams to find different things, including coloured leaves, feathers and interestingly shaped stones. Another activity was to build a shelter using sticks and branches. We worked in teams to create a shelter big enough to fit our whole group. That night we went on a night walk. We had to turn off our torches and walk in the dark! After dinner we had a campfire and got to toast marshmallows. Our campsite was really cool because there were lots of native animals that we got to see, including emus, possums and kangaroos.

The next day we were woken up early by an African drum. We went on a sunrise walk, but it was so foggy we couldn’t see the sun! After breakfast we went and disassembled our shelters from the previous day. We then hopped back on the bus and went back to the bison and horse exhibit. We got a real experience of what it is like to be a zoo keeper by picking up animal poo! We had such a great time and were so happy we got to see all of the animals.

Chinese Calligraphy

This term we had a student teacher in our class. Her name was Mrs Li. Mrs Li used to live in Hong Kong and she shared lots about her culture with us. On her last day, she taught us about Chinese calligraphy. We learnt how to write the character for ‘love’. The word love in Chinese is pronounced ‘eye’. We were very lucky Mrs Li shared some of her special calligraphy tools with us.

The Arts

Next term is one of the busiest terms in the Arts. There are two major performances we are looking forward to.

Next term our Wakakirri troupe will be heading to Adelaide on the 9th of August to perform their story dance at the Norwood Concert Hall. We can’t wait to share our routine with you.

Our choir will be performing at the Chaffey Theatre on the 20th of August. They are working hard to learn their songs and choreography before the big day.

Miss D
Arts Coodinator

This term, we participated in the CESA Kids in Space project that was hosted by Makers Empire. We had to use Makers Empire to design a 3d model that used space technology to solve a real-life problem. We worked in small groups and used the design thinking process to come up with and solve our problem.

The problem we wanted to solve was removing carp from the Murray River. We used the 10-3-1 method to come up with original ideas to solve our problem. The idea that we chose to do was an app that used satellites to track carp in the river so that people could go and catch them. We used the iPad to create our app and used Makers Empire to create a model of the Berri Riverfront. We included models of houseboats, a ferry, the Berri Bridge and River Jacks.

We were lucky enough to be chosen to go to Adelaide for the showcase event. We left school at 6:30am on Monday on the bus with groups from St Alberts and St Josephs Renmark. At the showcase we spoke to judges from space-related companies (such as the Australian Space Agency), the people from Makers Empire, and students from lots of other schools.

After the showcase, we were presented with the Peer Award which means that we received the most votes from other students on the day. We were really happy and proud of ourselves for achieving this.

We then went to the Australian Space Discovery Centre where we listened to some awesome space facts and had a look at all of the amazing exhibits. It was a really interesting and fun experience.

We hopped back on the bus for the long journey home, stopping at MacDonalds in Nuriootpa on the way. We didn’t get back until 6pm, it was such a long day and we were very tired. We had such a great time.

By Anna, Lucia, Mia and Florence.

EVENTS_CALENDAR_TERM_3_2024.pdf

EVENTS_CALENDAR_TERM_3_2024 _pdf 143.56 KB

Holiday Time

With school holidays here, 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 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.

Holiday fun ideas

Make your own games. Get a supply of coloured cards, children’s scissors, glue and anything else you may want to make some fun games. Games like Pin the Tail on the Donkey or Snakes and Ladders can all be easily made at home and will keep the children occupied for some time.
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 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. Using an iPad create a movie or documentary and then edit it. Preview it as a family with some popcorn.
Paint. 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.