Around the School

What Stage 2 Rose have been up to during Term 4

We have had a busy time in term 4. It was exciting to return to the classroom and see all our friends after home learning. Some of the interesting things we have been doing include;

• We have been working in pairs to complete work in the google classroom, these activities included making presentations about; ‘What can plastic bottles be used for?’ Did you know you can make clothes and plastic play equipment out of plastic bottles? And we chose an environmental issue to research and share. These included saving the Great Barrier Reef from coral bleaching and endangered animals. 
• We have been learning how to play cricket for sport: We played french cricket and practiced bowling in the nets. When we tried playing on the cricket pitch, it was so windy the cricket ball kept going the wrong way and  we had lots of ‘wides’!  
• In science we have been investigating small animals and mini-beasts as part of our science unit ‘Feathers, Fur or Leaves’  We were able to look at a collection of animals preserved in perspect. We made a ‘What am I’ booklet to share with our friends, trying to guess which animal from the clues given. We were also able to invent our own mini-beast!
• PBL rewards dressups/on the PBL rewards we had a Halloween theme. We were able to dress up,  eat chips and lollies as a treat and watched Hotel Transylvania. 
• We have been doing Just Dance as brain breaks
• In mathematics we have been learning about multiplication and division and angles. Some of our multiplication is challenging so Mrs Paull and Mrs McIlwain have been teaching us ‘tricks’ to help us remember them. We have been learning how to use a protractor to measure angles. We worked with a buddy to design a putt putt golf course. 
• We were excited that our  Thalgarrah incursion went ahead on Tuesday November 30th at school. Matt McKenzie is visited us. 
• In literacy we have been learning about Slam Poetry. Some interesting vocabulary we have discovered includes biosphere, innovation and idiosyncrasies. We have started planning and writing our own Slam Poetry and look forward to presenting it to the class with our best Public Speaking skills. 

Thalgarrah Incursion

Thalgarrah coming to us

On the 30/11/21, Matt and Nettie come over for a visit from Thalgarrah. At the start they let us sort out bugs AND MAKE A ZOO! We used tools (sucker uppers and spoons). 

Secondly we got to hold meal worms. They tickled when they wriggled. 

When the lizard came out I think that he liked us. 

Lastly we got to play dragon ball with half poly pipe each.

Jack Watters

Today Matt and Nettie came to our school, they showed us lots of interesting things. I enjoyed doing the dragon egg game because we were comparing if girls were better than boys. The second activity was Matt putting the lizard (Bearded Dragon) in the middle and we needed to make a little wall with our legs so it didn't escape.

 When Matt and Nettie visited our school the first activity was searching for bugs in the water and we had a frog not fully grown yet and other people had fish and different things and we made a zoo to keep the little animals in it. The frog kept trying to jump out of the water from the river water. When Matt put the worms on my hand it felt funny and creepy at the same time because when I saw his legs it looked pointy.

Manatu Ashman

On Tuesday the 30th of November Thalgarrah workers, Matt and Nettie came to visit us

 and gave us a variety of activities to do. My favourite activity was searching for insects and bugs inside of the water. My group and I found lots of bugs and insects such as Baby Dragonflies, Mayfly nymphs, Water mites and so much more. We got given trays with little sections to put the bugs and insects in. After we finished this activity we formed a circle and were given Larvas and Pubas to hold and let move around in our hands. When they were crawling around my hand there legs tingled and sent a weird feeling around my hand but i soon got used to it. Shortly after this Matt took a Bearded Dragon (a type of lizard) out of a cage and put it in the middle of the circle. He then fed the Bearded Dragon Mealworms and Darkling beetles. We then lined up so we could stroke the lizards back and feel the texture of it. We then finished up by playing a game with long half pipes and a ball. The aim of the game was to use the pipes to make a track for the ball and land it in the bucket to win. We went in teams which were boys vs girls sadly nobody won but personally I think the girls made the most progress.

Ruby Soraghan

High School Transition Days

Year 6 students from the local area gathered together for two Year 7 transition days. The students spent their  experiencing either Mainstream or Big Picture lessons. 

Mainstream students explored the horror genre in English, built a wooden game spinner, explored a range of different graphs in mathematics, designed and decorated cupcakes then finished the day creating anthropomorphic art works.

In Big Picture students spent the day moving through a series of activities based on learning about themselves and their interests. Students had to direct themselves and make sure they completed their work before the end of the day. There was a mix of academic and creative tasks.

Thank you to the teachers who provided such engaging lessons and gave students a taste of what the next 6 years of their school lives can be like.

From the Library

Kindergarten Christmas Craft

In Week 10, Kindergarten enjoyed making Christmas art and crafts. Here they are with their cute ‘Elfie Selfies’ and their stocking that they hand sewed. Mrs Mitchell was very impressed by Kindy’s patience and persistence to finish their stockings. A big thank you to Michelle Kleindienst for assisting kindy with stitching and unstitching their stockings!

Mrs Sjaan Mitchell

Classroom Teacher

Sister Speak

During Term 4 Aboriginal girls from years 4-6 have been participating in Sister speak with 

Eunice and Amy, where the girls have been learning about culture and develop positive relationships, teaching them to respect themselves and others around them and to be proud of their Aboriginal identity. The girls have been doing some art and weaving, the program will continue early in 2022.

Miss Eunice Blair

AEO

Gardening Club

GCS Gardening Club has started up in the Primary once more with the help of Rebecca Wood, UNE Social Worker in training. We have a positive and enthusiastic group of students from K-6 who have been working really hard to get the gardens in the quad filled up with soil ready to plant some winter vegetables. The beautiful soil from Tibbs’ is proving to be an excellent foundation for our gardens and we have added some compost and mulch ready to grow cauliflowers, cabbage, silverbeet, broccoli and lettuce to begin with. Many hands make light work!

Visual Arts

Year 7 Visual Arts 

Landscape Silhouette Painting:

Early this term, Year 7 developed their painting skills by creating a series of Landscape Silhouettes. Students learnt about colour bias in colour theory to be able to paint a colour gradient that represents a landscape at sunset.

Printmaking: Relief Printing – Lino Cut:

More recently, Year 7 Visual Arts students have been creating works of printmaking as relief prints where they transfer their graphic designs onto lino blocks that are then carved. Once carved, a right of passage for many a visual art student, the blocks are printed onto paper in multiple.

Yr 6 Transition Visual Art Workshop

Yr 6 visited the secondary artroom during week 7 and participated in a creative workshop on anthropomorphism where students draw a composition that gave an animal human characteristics. The quality of the artworks were outstanding.

GCS Secondary Wellbeing Day Visual Art Workshop

During week 8 the secondary school ran a Wellness Day. Among the workshops, including walking and group discussion, students participated in an art workshop where they had an opportunity to draw ‘their happy place’.

End of Year Celebration's

Primary students celebrated the end of the year with cooking, xmas crafts, class parties and participating in 'The Amazing Race'.  

It has been lots of fun and a great way to finish off the year!

Guyra Street Library Project - Term 5

Soon Guyra will have its very own 'Street Library'.  Dot Vickery kindly donated a fridge which was used by the Secondary Department during Term 5 which our sudent's used their creativity for Dots 'Street Library' concept.  

Secondary have also finished the year with Term 5 activities and the 'Bush Olympics'.

Our bushwalking group headed to Dorrigo on Tuesday 15th December for their session. 

State of the Art Equipment for Guyra Central School

Late in Term 4, Guyra Central School received our State of the art laser cutter.  The new

 addition to our school will take ant school subject across the school with a design component to it to the next level.   

Students will be able cut out deigns, etch, engrave and can be used in conjunction with our state of the art 3D printer, cricut machine and printing carousel.  

Staff attended  3 hour training session with a technician to learn how to use our new equipment and we look forward to sharing our stundents creations with our school community in 2022.

Melinda Lloyd

SLSO