CEnet - What is it?

Like all other students attending systemic schools in the Diocese of Parramatta, students at Bethany have access to CEnet.

CEnet stands for Catholic Education Network. It is used by many Dioceses and thousands of students around Australia.

The primary classes at Bethany have or will be introduced to CEnet by the end of this term.

Students will access CEnet once they have logged into the Student Portal. CEnet is also username and password protected.

An opportunity will be provided in term 2 for parents to attend a session at Bethany to view CEnet as well as our blog. More details next term.

StudnetNET @ Bethany

This week we had some very exciting news for the students at Bethany.

Once they know their username and password, students will be able to log into StudentNET.

This portal is available to all students who attend systemic schools in the Diocese of Parramatta.

Once they are logged in to StudentNET, students will be able to access "iBistro" to see what books we have in the library and so much more.

Students can log into StudentNET from any computer with access to the internet - at home or from the computers in the school.

Diary of a Wombat

Kinder found out about wombats this week. Did you know that wombats sleep in the morning? Some are called Hairy Nosed wombats. They have whiskers. They have short legs.Their nose is called a snout.

Jackie French wrote the book "Diary of a Wombat". The wombat in the story wanted to eat carrots and rolled oats. He also slept in the morning and the afternoon and in the evening.

We realised that Grug lived in a wombat burrow.

To learn about wombats, just click here.

Clancy the Courageous Cow

A great story written by a boy when he was in Year 7. It took until he was in Year 12 before his story was published.

Read the story about the boy, Lachie Hume, who wrote the story.

This week, Year 2 students heard the story about Clancy. He was different to all the other "Belted Galloways" - he didn't have a 'belt'. You can see some picture of Belted Galloways here. If you look very carefully, you will see a picture of the book "Clancy the Courageous Cow" amongst the other pictures.

We discovered that Clancy was not a cow. He was a bull.

We created some different and very colourful bulls. We decided to call them the Bethany Bulls. (Please come back next week and see some of our pictures.)

2011 NSW Premier's Reading Challenge

Any child wishing to participate in the

Premier's Reading Challenge for 2011

are now able to collect the forms from the library.

Question: If every child at Bethany entered the PRC, how many books will we all read?

Answer: Write your answer as a comment to this post. Don't forget to enter your blog number.

Bethany Library @ Lunchtime

The library @ Bethany is very busy at lunchtimes!! Children from all classes are welcome to come to the library and play one of the many games available to them, read books, talk to their friends, borrow a book or from next week - catch up on some computer time.

The new, brightly coloured chairs made quite a hit when they were delivered today.

If the library gets too popular at lunchtime, we will limit the number of children who are allowed to come in.

Today, Year 2 found some facts about different animals.

Octopus
The longest octopus can be 2m long.
In the centre of their tentacles they have a mouth.
They squirt ink when they are scared.

Frogs
To keep warm they go into the mud.
They breathe out of their skin.
They start off as tadpoles.
They grow feet.

Termites
The king termites is as long as your toe.
The queen termites is as long as your thumb.
The workers is the smallest one.
The queen lays the eggs.
They eat wood.

Hermit Crabs
They float in the sea.
Their eggs are really small.
They change shells when they get bigger.

Daddylonglegs
They break up their food to eat it.
They eat insects.
They are a type of spider.
They eat flowers and fruit.

Lobster
The youngest ones are the size of your fingernail
They eat fish.
When their shells get too small they change their shells.
Most lobsters live at the bottom of the sea.

Caterpillar and Butterfly
Some can kill pets.
They lay their eggs somewhere in your garden.
Butterflies are insects.
Butterflies do not start off as a butterfly.

Sea Horses
Baby sea horses are as long as an eyelash.
Baby sea horses are very, very small.

Black Widow spider
They are arachnids.

They have eight legs.
They have eight eyes.

Shark
They can be all kids of shapes and sizes.
There is a little shark that is a little bit bigger than a chocolate bar.
Sharks eat fish at nighttime when everyone is asleep.
They can swim very, very fast.

Beetles
They have different kinds of stinks.
They make larvae.
They are big and small.
They are insects.

Slugs and Snails
When snails grow their shells grow too.
Snails lays eggs.
Turtles like to eat snails.
Snails eat strawberries.

Earthworms
They eat dried up leaves off the ground.
They come out of yellow coloured cocoons.
They don't have bones.
They have a mouth on one end.

Sea Anemones
They don't have bones.
Their mouth is in the middle of their head.
Their bodies look like jelly.

Year 1 and 2 learn how to take notes!

This week, Years 1 and 2 students began to learn how to take notes.

After watching a video all about Grug, the children read Grug stories. Mrs Shields explained that even if they could not read the words, the children can always find information by looking at the pictures. (You can watch it too. It's the one on this blog.)

The children found out that Grug:

• is made from a tree;
• has stripes;
  
• liked to eat cabbages;
• built a rainbow out of wood;
• is cheeky because he went into a classroom when the children were not there;
• likes to read;
• can't read words yet;
• likes green paint;
• likes red apples;
• learnt to swim;
• lives in a wombat's burrow
• made a fire;
• went to a birthday party and
  
• fell on Snoot.

Great work Year 1 and 2

Who is Grug?

Kinder are going to find out about Grug this week. Do you know who Grug is? Come back on Friday and you can learn all about him.

If you want some hints, click on the link below

An interview with Ted Prior

Book Focus #1

This week, we are focusing on a few of the books in the library here at Bethany.

Anthony Browne
If you are interested in illustrations where you will always get a surprise, borrow a book written by Anthony Browne. His books are for all ages - even parents. If you look at the illustrations long enough, you will see some very strange things such as a wheel of a bike that changes into an apple or a fish going for a walk !! Anthony Browne is fascinated with gorillas. How many can you find in his books?

Our Australia - Kangaroo Island
This 127 page Non Fiction book is a combination of facts, cartoons, jokes and real life photographs. It is one in a series of books written to help inform the reader about different parts of Australia.

Jasper McFlea will not eat his tea
In this poem, Jasper will not eat anything but pasta. His twin sister, Ginger, eats everything. How will his family ever get him to eat? A visit to the doctor just might help.

Coming soon.... reviews by some of the Year 6 library monitors.