The Earthshaker Store is now open!

As part of our ‘EarthShaker Project’ to make a difference in the world, the students in LA31 have opened their own online store! You can choose from a range of wonderful proucts including calico shopping bags, re-usable drink bottles, t-shirts and toys — all with designs created by the students in LA31. Best of all, 100% of the profits go direct to Princess Margaret Hospital for children.

Items from the EarthShaker Store make fantastic gifts and contain great messages about how each of us can help change the world. Simply place your orders online at www.cafepress.com/earthshakerproject and the products will be delivered straight to your home. (If you are not comfortable about purchasing online, come into the classroom with cash and we will arrange the order for you).

And if there is there a product you would like to buy but can’t see for sale? No problems! Just drop us a line using the comment button and we’ll create an item especially for you! The EarthShaker kids are here to help!

The Landsdale Mini-Olympics

For the last five weeks, the Year Six students at Landsdale Primary have been learning about the Olympics. Today, we concluded this theme by holding our own mini-Olympics with over thirty different ‘nations’ competing.

While our main aim was to get fit and have fun, we also wanted to re-use many of the newspapers that we received during the Olympics period. As a result, all of our events involved newspaper in some way. We threw newspaper javelins, raced with newspaper batons and attempted to tear the longest newspaper strip in thirty seconds.

Well done to all of our competitors who took part in a spirit of fun, fair play and great sportsmanship. Many thanks also to our helpers from Year Five who acted as judges, scorekeepers and officials. Their help made this an event to remember.

Landsdale Primary School: The Movie

You may remember that last term we had a film crew capturing some of the amazing things that are happening at Landsdale Primary School. Well, the film is finally finished!

Please take a few minutes to watch this video about what makes Landsdale so very special. You might even spot some of the kids from LA31!

Cupcake Fundraising Fun!

Well done to a group of LA31 students who organised a massively successful cupcake stall for the RSPCA today. The stall was a huge hit with children lined up in their dozens for a taste of our students’ MasterChef creations.

This is a great example of our Landsdale students putting their values into action. These students came up with an idea and wrote to the Principal, Mr Shortill, persuading him to let them run their stall. They then made posters, placed announcements over the school PA system, baked and baked until their stall was ready. The final result: Over $400 raised to help animals in distress.

Congratulations to all of the students involved and a big thank you to all of the families whose kitchens were commandeered for the weekend. You have brought smiles to the faces of countless students (and some sick animals too!)

Three-way conferences

In previous years, every student at Landsdale Primary took part in a ‘three-way conference’ that included their parents and teacher. For 2012, however, the school decided instead to hold an open night, which was held on 23 May.

While we are no longer scheduling three-way conferences in bulk, I am still more than happy to meet with students and their parents at any time to discuss a child’s progress at school. This is particularly important where a parent-teacher interview was requested on your child’s report.

If you would like to catch up for an interview, just drop me a line by email and or via your child’s diary and we will arrange a time to catch up.

Image by Craig Taylor, used under Creative Commons licence.

Resident Olympians

We were extremely fortunate last week to have a visit from Liane Tooth, four-time Olympian and dual gold-medal winner for Australia. Ms Tooth represented Australia in hockey and, in 2000, received the great honour of carrying the Olympic flag into the opening ceremony of the Sydney Games. The students were captivated as Ms Tooth described the excitement, disappointments and hard work involved in being an elite athlete.

Landsdale Primary also has its own resident Olympian. Our school gardener, Mr Grant Greenham, represented Australia as an archer at the Seoul and Barcelona Olympics. Mr Greenham also spoke with the students, sharing many exciting stories, including being involved in the famous lighting of the Olympic cauldron at the Barcelona Games and meeting the King of Spain.

While the students loved handling real Olympic medals, uniforms and torches, the most valuable part of these speeches was hearing the way that ordinary Australians were able to accomplish such extraordinary feats. We cannot thank Ms Tooth and Mr Greenham enough for their time and inspiration.

Fly-in / Fly-out Parents

An increasing number of families in Landsdale include one or more adults who work away from home.

Ngala is providing a series of workshops which ‘explore the working away experience from the perspective of all family members’. These workshops will also provide practical ideas that will help your family make the most of time together and remain connected during times apart.

For more details, check out Ngala’s website.

Go for Gold!

For the next four weeks, the Year Six students will join the rest of the world in focusing on the London Olympics.

We are very lucky to be receiving the West Australian newspaper free of charge during the Games. Last week, we used these newspapers to conduct maths investigations, create artworks, develop our reading skills and keep track of our medal-winning Australian athletes.

In the spirit of ‘Reduce, Reuse, Recycle’, we will be sending a newspaper home with your child on most days for you to read and enjoy. We would appreciate it if you could place the newspaper in your recycle bin at home when you are finished with it. If you do not wish to receive one of these papers, just let me know and I will make alternative arrangements.

CSI Landsdale

The Year Six students are on the case, trying to solve a murder mystery. Parents can relax, though —- This is an environmental mystery where the victim is an endangered plant or animal species.

‘Murder Under the Micrsoscope’ (or ‘MuM’ if you are really into it) is an online environmental mystery played by thousands of students around Australia and the world! Working in teams, the Year Six students must collaborate with real scientists, research different plant and animal species and carefully analyse data in order to identify the correct villain, victim and crime site. This project teaches students the value of collaboration, research and critical thinking in an exciting game-based setting. New clues will be revealed each day and students can play along at home if they wish.

The Year Six team (‘CSI Landsdale’) are locked in fierce competition with our Year Seven students who are also attempting to solve the mystery. Who will crack the case first? Only time will tell.