Our MacKillop Kids Shine in Community Sporting Events

It is always amazing to see our students shine in the MacKillop Way at school and also at district Sporting Events. However, there is something special about seeing that same Mackillop spirit been shared in our wider community.

Well done to Ava  and Chloe  (Year 4) and Indiannah  (Year 2) who took part in the IronKids Triathlon event a few weeks ago. Well done on your achievements. That’s the MacKillop Way!

On Friday 29 June, MacKillop will celebrate NAIDOC. The theme for NAIDOC 2018 is “Because of her” to acknowledge and celebrate the contribution that Indigenous women have made and continue to make in their families, communities and to the Nation.

We will commence the celebration day with a Liturgy commencing at 8:30am in the Multi-Purpose Court. All families are welcome to join us.

Our MacKillop Kids Shine in Community Sporting Events

It is always amazing to see our students shine in the MacKillop Way at school and also at district Sporting Events. However, there is something special about seeing that same Mackillop spirit been shared in our wider community.

Well done to Ava (Year 4) who took part in the Kids Will Tri and Coaching Triathlon event a few weeks ago. A triathlon involves 3 specific skill sets; swimming, cycling and running! Well done Ava on your achievements. That’s the MacKillop Way!

We hope all the kids who took part in the Ironkids triathlon over the weekend did their personal bests and had fun! We look forward to hearing all about it.

Our MacKillop Sporting Events coming up

• Wednesday 27th June Prep-Year 2 MacKillop Games from 8:30am to 1pm
• Thursday 28th June Athletics Carnival – all day

More information to be shared via parent paperwork in the next few weeks.

The senior eisteddfod choir group had the wonderful opportunity to attend St Mary’s musical “Cinderella”. All students were thrilled that the older students came out to meet them afterwards.

Congratulations to our junior choir for their wonderful performance on assembly last Friday. Junior choir is for year one and two practice first break each Thursday.

Our senior choir is also to be commended for their performance on assembly this morning. Senior choir rehearsal is every Thursday morning, 8am sharp. This term our senior choir will attend the Cairns Eisteddfod on Tuesday 26th June for the very first time. It is important that students attend all rehearsals if they are wanting to attend the eisteddfod.

Another new tradition that MacKillop has begun this year has been the opportunity for our leaders of our student community to take on the Playtime PALS initiative. The students volunteer one platime a week to lead in playground activities for our Preps and Year 1’s. The students in Year 5 have risen to the challenge and have thoroughly enjoyed taking on these roles. It has not only supported the students in Prep and Year 1, but has enabled all students the opportunity to lead, engage with others, build rapport with our younger students and be a part of a Team in managing the resources, equipment and teach the games. A special thank you to the Year 5 Team for leading in this.

What are High Frequency Words? 
High Frequency Words are the most commonly used words that we read and spell. Words such as the, said and was are examples of high frequency words. The days of the week, colour names and number names are also considered high frequency words.

In the past, students were taught to learn the words by sight. This idea supposed that learning to read these words by sight would help students read increasingly difficult texts more easily. The problem with this theory, is that there are approximately 100-400 words commonly listed as high frequency words. To learn all of these by sight is an unreasonable expectation. Our working memories can only take so much!

How are high frequency words learned at MacKillop?
At MCC students are taught to ‘code’ all words, including the high frequency words. This means that students identify the sounds they hear in the words and how these sounds are represented (spelling choices). In learning the code of the words, students are then able to apply this knowledge and skill to other words that they read and spell.

How do we achieve this? 
High frequency words are presented in code so students can ‘see’ where the different sounds are and how these sounds are represented in each word e.g. in the word was the students can see that there are three sounds and that the second sound is represented by a. This knowledge can also help them identify with words such as swan where the third sound is also represented by a, even though the word swan, is not considered a high frequency word. Instead of just trying to learn all words by memory- an impossible task, students are systematically taught the code and can then apply this knowledge to other words, including new vocabulary.

Spelling and Reading:
Learning the code helps with reading and spelling. It makes sense to learn to read and spell words simultaneously. At MacKillop, students need to demonstrate that they can read high frequency words, identify the sounds in the words (using duck hands, lines and numbers) and write the words so they can use them in both their reading and writing.

This year has seen the start of Before School Care yay! We love seeing our children walk in with bright and happy faces early in the morning. So far we have had a wonderful two weeks of Before School Care and look forward to many more to come. Our children enjoy a yummy, healthy breakfast before heading off to school at 8.15 on the Before School Train. All aboard!!

Operating hours for Before School Care are 6.30am – 8.30am and After School Care from 2.50pm – 6.00pm.

For further information regarding OSH Care please contact Bianca on 0439 312 901 or oshc.mtpeter@catholic.org.au.

Bianca Moloney –  OSHC Coordinator