Stage 2 Speeches

Stage 2 students have been busy all term with public speaking and writing interesting speeches. They have been learning about eye contact, stance, clarity, engaging introductions and using expression when speaking.

They have had lots of time to get better and better at speaking in front of their friends, their group and their class; but today they had to speak in front of the whole stage! It was very exciting but very nerve wracking as well 🙂

Everyone gathered in the Library to hear the finalists speak on a number of interesting topics – including re-cycling, aliens, and being able to talk to animals!

The speakers were terrific – they used eye contact, spoke clearly and had funny and interesting things to talk about. Congratulations to the winners – Selafina, Abdullah and Solomone.

Book Lanterns Light Up the Library

Teachers and classes got into the Book Week spirit and made some fabulous Book Week character lanterns.

The Library looks beautiful with all of our lanterns fluttering in the breeze!

Thank you everyone for your hard work and creative ideas – you are AMAZING 🙂

ANZAC Day Stories

ANZAC Day is coming up during the holidays and this week we have been looking at many of the wonderful books and stories about this special day that we have in the Library. Some people remembered the story of Simpson and his Donkey from when they were little, and Carmen was reading a novel “The Donkey Who Carried the Wounded” by Jackie French that explained this story more deeply for an older audience. We love connections and remembered stories and learning more about what has happened in our world.

There are many beautiful picture books for older readers that are new in the Library this year, as well as some very informative non-fiction books on a variety of war topics.

Feel free to come and have a look and borrow one of these lovely books to take home for the holidays, you might just be taking home a new memory!

What do you remember about ANZAC day? Share your memories in the comments section below.

Federation Convention

All of the Stage 3 students (and the Stage 2 students in Jade!) took part in a mock Federation Convention in the Library today. As delegates we had to make sure that we represented the interests and views of the people who had sent us. We had the very important job of deciding on the location of the new federal parliament – two groups decided to situate the new parliament in a separate territory in NSW called Canberra, while the other group were still deciding where to locate.

Everyone is wearing either a moustache or hat to show that women were not included in this process, and we are all looking serious as we have a huge responsibility to the people of Australia.

There were lots of “OBJECTION!!!!”s and fist thumping – although this was probably because it was fun! Some of the delegates were very serious and made some wonderful contributions to developing the constitution of our new nation!

Great work Stage 3 (and Stage 2 in Jade :-))

What did YOU think of our convention? What the best parts for you? Leave a comment below!

Meet the Parents Night

We had a great time on Monday night meeting many parents and families at our “Meet the Teacher” night.

A yummy sausage sizzle was provided by our P & C group – thank you to everyone who cooked and volunteered on the night.

All of our 2014 staff were introduced and families moved to classrooms to hear all about the year ahead 🙂

Here is a quick summary of Library days and requirements for Semester 1:

Library Flyer

Fantasy Worlds

All of the classes in our school this year have been named after Fantasy Worlds, and Term 4 saw everyone investigating and exploring various fantasy worlds they had read about, played in or imagined themselves.

Some classes made games, some made dioramas, posters, books, and puppet shows. Other classes made fun aspects from their worlds – such as papier mache models and paper craft designs.

All in all a very creative term and learning experiences.

Just lately a number of classes have spent some time imagining a fantasy world that could be designed using paper.

Paper doors, gates vegetation or props opened to reveal a huge variety of worlds – some based on stories or games or movies, and some purely from imagination.

Take a look at some of the work as we made it.

Toys, Toys, Toys!

Kindergarten and Stage 1 students have been exploring scientific concepts related to toys this term.

We have

sorted toys
grouped toys
classified toys
found out how different toys move
read stories about toys
labelled diagrams of toys and
made toys from paper and other materials.

Now, to finish off we are making a toy out of recycled materials!

First we drew a plan.

Then we found the materials we would need.

Next we started putting it altogether.

After that we will paint it and add features.

Finally we will speak about our toy.

Stage 1 Veggie Patch

Stage 1 students have been finding out what it is like to work in retail this term. As part of their work on the “Veggie Patch” they have had turns at being a cook, an entymologist and a shop-keeper.

In the Library we have talked about where the vegetables go after they have been harvested … to the vegetable market …. ready for people to buy. We watched a video that Ms Hackney took at the Sydney Markets, and another video Mrs Pericles took at a fruit shop.

We talked about the special equipment the shop-keepers need, how they set up their stalls, prices of vegetables, counting money, writing signs and we even made some vegetables out of paper to sell!

Here we are playing shops in the Library….

Veggie Patch market – slide show