We hope you are enjoying the long awaited summer break with your families, one that has been full of rest, rejuvenation, fun and excitement. Who can believe the new school year is fast approaching, the holidays have flown by. I cannot wait to hear about all of their adventures!
We just wanted to take this opportunity to introduce ourselves and pass on a little bit of information to ensure that the first week back runs smoothly and that both you and your children feel comfortable, starting Wednesday 31st January.
ABOUT THE TEACHERS
My name is Sandy Ricciardone and for those who don't know me, I have been teaching at OLC for 7 years in both the year 4 & 6 classrooms. I have three boys of my own, Xavier who is starting high school at MacKillop this year, Harrison who is in Year 5 and my troublesome 2 year old, Patrick who keeps me on my toes! I have loved working in the upper primary but am very much excited about travels to the junior end, working with younger students has been a request of mine for few years now!
My incredible teaching partner, Gemma Sorgiovanni has worked at OLC for many years, especially in the junior primary and brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to our teaching team. She has two children of her own, Lucas who is in Year 10 and venturing off to Aquinas to board this year and Adele who is finishing her final year at OLC. We can't also forget their little fur baby, Roxy.
We both feel very fortunate to be given such a wonderful class and look forward to getting to know you and your children more as the year progresses. Year Three is such an important year, one where the student's transition into becoming more independent and responsible for their learning. Starting off with having their very own pencil cases for the first time!! This is a whole new world...so instantly we will be teaching them about taking care of their belongings and ways to ensure they are ready for their learning each day.
In the frantic end to the year, we forgot to put a very important item on the stationery list, book sleeves (see image below) which will play such an important role in ensuring the students books remain in a tidy state for an entire term and save you from any contact!!
They can be found at Callows and Sea Change news agency and are $5 for a pack of 5. It would be greatly appreciated if you could buy a pack before the start of the year.
There is no need for you to label or contact any of the exercise or scrap books, as we have already created book labels here at school. These labels and the above plastic covers below will be placed onto the books during the first week at school.
STATIONERY
Please ensure all stationery and folders are labelled with your child’s name on them to ensure they don’t get lost throughout the year. In saying this, as stated above exercise books and scrapbooks DO NOT need to be labelled or covered. This also includes all personal items (hats, drink bottles, lunch boxes, uniforms, crunch & sip containers, etc) belonging to your child are labelled to avoid losing items! You would be surprised how often we find a rogue shoe around the place :) 
Students are welcome to bring in spare stationery items at the start of the year. We ask that they are in a ziplock bag clearly labelled with their name. We will have tubs for these to be placed into for the students to replenish their pencil cases as required throughout the year.
Please remember to also bring in 2 boxes of tissues to get us through the wintery months. It also might be handy to place a small tube or roll-on sunscreen into the students bags (especially if you prefer a specific type) during the summer months, so we can encourage them to stay protected during recess, lunch and sport times. There is a class bottle of sunscreen that the students will have access to as well.
SWIMMING LESSONS
Swimming lessons run from Wednesday 31st January (first day back) to Friday 9th February. The year 3’s will be swimming during the middle of the day, arriving at the beach at 11.45am and returning to school at 12.55pm. The students may wear their sports uniform for the duration of week 1 & 2.
PLEASE NOTE that, although thongs/slides can be worn to and from swimming lessons, shoes will be required to be worn at school before and after their lesson.
Please ensure that your child comes to school with sunscreen on and the following items (in a small labelled bag):
Goggles, rash vest (no rashie - no swimming), towel, school hat, thongs/slides, water bottle, waterproof bag (for wet clothes) and a change of underwear
Swimming is a very busy time where belongings can be misplaced or lost. We will be reminding the children before, during and after the lessons to check if they have all of their belongings, but it would be great if you could label all items so that if something does go missing, it can make its way back to the owner.
HOMEWORK
There will be no homework given in the first 2 weeks, as we want the students to settle into their new class and adjust to the new expectations. We also think they may get a little tired by the end of the day/week with swimming lessons on as well.
As of Week 3, the students will receive WEEKLY homework that will consist of reading each night and a math's task. These will be given out on a Monday and are due back on the Friday of the same week. The students will independently change their readers daily/as required from the class set and write their titles into their own reading log as part of the morning 'Gathering Time' routine. More information around homework expectations will be placed in later blogs.
- Tuesday: Indonesian with Mrs Katana & Science with Mr McSevich
- Wednesday: Library (please bring your library bag and any borrowed books on this day) and Physical Education with Mrs Sinclair (wear teal OLC sports shirt) & Dance with Mrs Haines (EVEN WEEKS ONLY)
- Thursday: Music with Mrs Graham
- Friday: Class sport (wear coloured faction shirt)
We highly recommend you add these special days of uniform/library book day to your family timetable or calendar.
NB: This timetable changes slightly during Week1 & 2 because of swimming. These days will come into effect as of week 3 and a class timetable will be placed in a later blog when it is finalised.
Our email addresses are as follows:
That’s all for now. We look forward to meeting you and welcoming your beautiful children into our class over the coming weeks. If you are on the school grounds, please feel free to pop in, say hi and introduce yourself.
Yet for now, enjoy the final days of the summer break and we will see you all very soon!
COMMUNICATION
Below are our following teaching days:
Below are our following teaching days:
- Mrs Ricciardone: Monday - Wednesday
- Mrs Sorgiovanni: Thursday - Friday
We want to make sure that the transition between teachers are as seamless as possible for the students. Gemma and myself will be keeping to similar routines and practices within the classroom, as well as, staying in constant communication with each other, informing each other of any events or information received during our teaching days. We ask that you help us by ensuring that both teachers are cc'd into any emails sent, this way we can both be fully informed of what is happening within 3R.
We invite you to contact us as soon as anything arises that you feel may affect your child at school, or if there is something that is concerning you. We will endeavour to get back to you as soon as we can.
Our email addresses are as follows:
- Mrs Ricciardone – sandy.ricciardone@cewa.edu.au
- Mrs Sorgiovanni - gemma.sorgiovanni@cewa.edu.au
That’s all for now. We look forward to meeting you and welcoming your beautiful children into our class over the coming weeks. If you are on the school grounds, please feel free to pop in, say hi and introduce yourself.
Yet for now, enjoy the final days of the summer break and we will see you all very soon!
Sandy & Gemma
No comments:
Post a Comment