Whole School Activities

The Magic Elevator

A recent furniture purchase left a large empty box in Lower Division that soon became very popular with the class. It was a bus, a car, a secret hiding place and even a spaceship before one end became ripped. Lower Division then turned it into The Magic Elevator, where you entered and pressed a button to take you wherever your imagination wanted you to go. Upon your exit, you then go to write the story of where you travelled to and what you did. Students decorated the elevator with their drawings showing their destinations and look forward to many future adventures.

Lower Division STEM

Lower Divsion enjoyed an afternoon of making circuits with special kits and instruction provided by A/Prof Brendan Jacobs of UNE. Our class explored how a circuit operates and went on to make light globes glow and sirens sound.

Lower Division Mathematics

Lower Division concluded our unit on patterns after spending a lot of time enjoying making patterns with blocks and problem solving using interactive websites. Our class performed very well and achieved excellent results - well done.

Lower Division English

English this week saw us perform "Peace and Quiet - Ha" in a readers theatre for Stage Two. A big congratulations to those students who stepped in to roles when their classmates were sick - everyone did a wonderful job and were impressive in giving their best possible performances.

Stage 2 English: Descriptive Writing

Stage 2 students have been excitedly exploring key influential historical figures, with a special focus on the bushrangers of the Ned Kelly era. Last week, they deepened their writing skills by learning how to structure their texts using clear paragraphs to separate ideas and incorporating tier 3 vocabulary from their reading. Together, the class created a detailed piece about Steve Hart from the Kelly Gang, practicing how to engage readers through descriptive language. Then, students chose their own bushranger to design a creative and vivid wanted poster, using engaging adjectival phrases and thoughtful visual layouts to capture attention. This hands-on project has helped them bring history to life while honing their writing techniques.

Stage 2 Mathematics: Multiplicative Thinking 

Stage 2 students have been building their multiplicative thinking by exploring arrays using a variety of concrete materials. An array is a neat arrangement of objects in rows and columns that helps us see how numbers multiply and relate to each other through inverse operations. By working with arrays, students discover the powerful connections between grouping and sharing, which lays a strong foundation for understanding multiplication and division more abstractly. This hands-on approach helps students visualise number relationships and boosts their confidence in solving problems with groups of numbers.

Stage 3 Snow Storm-Inspired Publications

Newspaper Articles:

Stage 3 have enjoyed a mini unit inspired by the once in a lifetime snowstorm experienced across the region at the start of August. We used this extreme weather event as a stimulus for dramatized newspaper articles. This platform allowed students to engage their audience through an exaggerated retelling of their personal experiences in the snow, considering the style and language features required for maximum impact on the reader. Visual formatting features specific to digital publications were harnessed to enhance our work; salience (the use of white space), appropriate images with suitable captions and creativity with font size and type were all considered and used well across the publications. Check out our final products below!

Podcasts:

This week, we brought our recently published newspaper articles to life through the modern-day platform of 'podcasting'.  In groups of two to three, we drew on our research around the local significance of this event, the impacts on our town and the literary value of podcasting to share a message in the digital age we live in. Students have followed the writing cycle to research, plan and draft a podcast script of a particular genre and style, using multi-media features and podcasting-specific techniques to inform, persuade or entertain their audience. This mini unit provided Stage 3 with the experience in the Digital Maker Space at Armidale Library, to rehearse with specialised equipment. These skills will assist us in the lead up to our final interest-based podcasting project for the end of Term 3, as we learn to express ourselves and share opinions in a way that adds value to the world around us.

Check out the podcasts we have created through the links below:

Stage 3 Mathematics

We are focusing on whole number and how to revise and stretch our thinking further with the four operations. Some of us are quick with mental computation, some of us prefer written methods of working out, and sometimes we require the time and space to consider the most effective strategy dependent upon the maths problem. We are becoming fluent with applying the order of operations correctly, and remembering how to apply place value knowledge accurately when we are calculating 4- and 5- digit numbers. Sometimes, the application of number knowledge in real-life scenarios needs some critical thinking and common sense to fact-check the feasibility of an answer. 

Number-related quote of the week: "Mrs Clyde-Smith, did you know a rocket needs the equivalent of 1.2 billion horsepower to get into space? With that being said, if Poseidon decided he wanted to take revenge out on his brother and take over the sky, then all he'd need is 1.2 billion horses to conquer Zeus' domain."