School News and Information 

What's Happening This Week

Week 4 

Thursday 16 February - Armidale PSSA Swimming                                                      3-6 Choir at lunch time            Friday 17 February 12:30pm - Assembly Stage 3

_________________________________________________

Stage 2 News 

Hello wonderful Martin’s Gully community!  Welcome back for another fantastic year of learning in Stage 2!  We are beginning to settle into our routines, and our beautiful Year 3’s and 4’s have been demonstrating resilience, persistence and confidence, wow!

In English this term, we are looking at Australian bush poems as a form of Narrative text. We are making connections between our experiences, and those expressed in the poems. Although some of the language is a bit old-fashioned, it has made for some interesting conversations!  Stage 2 have also been looking at the history and lives of the poets we are studying, such as A.B. Banjo Patterson.  We are looking at literacy devices such as personification, similies and adjectival phrases - all things which make our writing more exciting! 

Both the Wombats and Bilbies have kick started our inquiry-based Geography unit – Features of Australia.  Students will investigate how and why places are similar, how people can use places and environments more sustainability and people’s perceptions about the protection of places. 

So far the students have been learning about Australia’s states and territories and their capital cities.  We have also been exploring the Map of Indigenous Australia. 

This map attempts to represent the language, social or nation groups of Aboriginal Australia.  It shows only the general locations of larger groupings of people which may include clans, dialects, or individual languages in a group.

Alongside Geography, we have also started our Science unit, Beneath our feet which links in nicely.  In the first lesson students worked in groups to collect soil from the Nature Area to compare and describe.  We further discussed how soil, rocks and landscapes change over time.  Students will continue to study Earth and will work in groups to plan an investigation about the erosion of soils. 

In Dance, Stage 2 has started working on our performance for An Evening with ACOS (Armidale Community of Schools) in Term 3.  It is going to be a huge, ongoing project, but Stage 2 are excited! 

Rhianna Landow and Holly Newman