Watching the 21 students compete in the Australian Mathematics Competition last week reminded me of the importance of ‘struggle and challenge’ for all of us to evolve and grow. When we accept a challenge that we may think is outside our reach and we overcome it, we dramatically improve our sense of well-being and happiness. Whatever the goal we set, these are the moments we are most proud of.

I see our students stretching themselves every day in various areas.  I’m certain that’s why Glen Huon Primary is such a happy place.

Congratulations to all recipients of the Values Certificates, Nominees and to Gabby Hay for your Citizen of the Month Award at yesterday’s assembly. These recognitions allow us to celebrate the magic qualities of our school community.

Last Thursday’s Pyjama Day raised $110.05 for the Salvos. Along with 4 shopping bags of food this will go to help those less fortunate than ourselves. Well done SRC for organising such a fun event for a significant cause.

The Early Childhood classes enjoyed their day at the Marine Discovery Centre last Friday, especially the pregnant shark and the fluoro touch tank animals. Look out for their report and photos next week.

Students have their second session of Volley Ball Training during PE this Thursday. Thanks Mr West for increasing our range of sporting experiences. Amity, Maddy and Gabby will be attending the Winter Sports Day trial for Women’s AFL this Thursday afternoon. Over 160 girls are expected to take part.

It seems the beginnings of a new power generation team has begun. Our new piece of equipment has been received with great enthusiasm.

A special thank you to Sue at the Tip Shop for her generous donation.

Enjoy your week everyone.

Stephanie van der Schans

Acting Principal.

In Smarties this term we are thinking about ourselves and how we connect with the world around us. Last week we focused on "myself", and this week we'll think more about our families. 

On Wednesday we'll be making our own diverse family trees full of the people who love us - if you have some photos of your family, feel free to bring them along - we can use them directly or make photocopies. We'll also be baking yummy biscuits to share with our families!

On Thursday in the bush we'll be thinking about bird families. We'll listen and look for birds, and try to identify them and their habitats.

On Friday we'll be focusing on body movement with silly animal walks and dances. We'll read a story about family, and make some cardboard tube families to take home with us. 

We hope to see you there, 

Jess Black and Annette Carson

Can parents please understand that Paul and Saahza cannot  process late orders.

All orders need to be in no later than Wednesday 9am.

Take a moment to observe the level of concentration these future creative and critical thinkers applied to last week’s Australian Mathematics Competition. Congratulations everyone for the tenacity you showed as you used a range of problem solving skills and lateral thinking for a solid 60 minutes.

I am incredibly proud of you all. 

Stephanie van der Schans

And just in case you are keen to try the odd question yourself…

From the Grade 3 and 4 paper.

“My sister and I are playing a game where she picks two counting numbers and I have to guess them. When I tell her a number, she multiplies my number by her first number and then adds her second number.

When I say 15, she says 50. When I say 2, she says 11.

If I say 6, what should she say?”                     a) 23     b) 27    c) 35    d) 41    e) 61

From the Grade 5 and 6 paper.

“Edith wrote down the whole numbers from 1 to 20 on a piece of paper. How many times did she write the digit 1?”

1. a) 9 b) 10 c) 11     d) 12     e) 13

“The average time for a class of 30 mathematics students to travel to school is 21 minutes. The boys average is 25 minutes and the girls average is 19 minutes. How many boys are in the class?”  

1. a) 10 b) 12    c) 14     d) 15     e) 18

^{Grade 4/5 are currently undertaking a unit of work titled - ‘Life be in it.” We will focus on the questions – What does it mean to be healthy? What does a healthy lifestyle look like?  We will explore concepts of - the benefits of physical activity, nutrition, body systems and emotional /  mental  wellbeing.}

^{We have begun the unit by exploring the concept of free time / leisure. We have come up with a definition of  free time / leisure time –}

Leisure / free time basically means….  time when a person is not working or occupied, free time allows us to participate in a variety of activities. These activities maybe active or passive.

Here are some examples of our favourite free time / leisure time activity posters.

Tina Munson
Grade 4/5

Are you aged 10 to 17 years old? Would you like to take part in a research study looking at how young people think, problem-solve, and act at home and at school? University of Tasmania Psychology Honours students Katie McBain and Natalie Ling (supervised by Assoc Prof Nenagh Kemp and Dr Kimberley Norris) are running a study looking at these skills in young people who were born prematurely, as well as those who were born “on time”. If you want to take part (with your parents’ permission!), you’d come to the Uni for one session of 1- 1.5 hours, and do some face-to-face tasks with the researchers, as well as you and your parent filling in some questionnaires about how you think and act at home and at school. If you’re interested in learning more, please email us at nenagh.kemp@utas.edu (or phone 6226 7534) or kimberley.norris@utas.edu.au (or phone 6226 7199). We’d love to hear from you! (UTAS Ethics no. H18018)