Year 5/6 News
5/6 Ballarat Camp
Day 1
On Wednesday at 8:30am, all of the students going on camp met in the school hall. At 9:00am we hopped on the bus and awaited the 2-and-a-half-hour trip. After about 20 minutes we reached the city. I took a lot of photos of the factories and buildings. After we left we saw a billboard from the company ‘Bowens’. We left the industrial sector then we drove past an apple orchard and some valleys before we started entering Ballarat.
For our first stop on camp, we went to the Eureka Centre and got given different characters from the Eureka Stockade. We got to hold real objects from over 100 years ago, or a replica of it. We saw the original flag that was hung over the battle.
After the Eureka Centre, all of the Year 5s and 6s went to the Art Gallery of Ballarat, which was part of the bus tour. At the art gallery there were two groups - group one and group two. The first group went upstairs to look at a painting which showed a place where the aboriginals lived. Then we looked at a big colourful painting by the aboriginal artist, Josh Muir, and we drew a sketch of it. After that we could sketch anything we wanted. Then the second group came up and the first group went down the stairs for the other task. The other task was to make their own sketchbook. It was really hard for everybody. We had to use string to sew the pages together.
Next, we went on a bus tour around Ballarat. We went past Lake Wendouree and saw the Olympic rings on the side of the lake. The bus driver told us about the lake and why the rings were there. They are there because the rowing and canoeing for the 1956 Olympics was done there. We also went past the Botanical Gardens and the Avenue of Honour.
After the bus tour we went to the motel and unpacked and set up our rooms. Some rooms had 2 people, some had 3, some had 4 and some had 5. After we unpacked, we went off to dinner. That night we had schnitzel, chips and salad. We finished our meal and then we had dessert, which was ice cream in a cup. Upon finishing dessert, we went back to our rooms to wait to go to the light show.
At the light show we watched three shows. The first show was a 3D show about how gold was made. The second show was a legend on how humans could shapeshift into animals and how a guy sacrificed his life to keep a place he loved. The third show was a super long show about the gold mine attack at Eureka and information related to that. Then we went to our rooms and slept at about 11:53pm. THE END OF DAY 1!
By Bowen, Alex, Russel and Marquez
Day 2
On day 2 of our Ballarat camp, we went to Sovereign Hill for the day. We split up and went to many different places. Firstly, we went to the Red Hill Mine and learnt about how the miners used to work in the Sovereign Hill gold mines. We walked around the streets of Sovereign Hill and travelled to all of the different olden-days shops, like the hard-boiled lolly shop and the gold bank. For lunch break, we made our way to the river to try gold panning. Some people even found some gold and got to keep it as a souvenir. All of us got to see a gold pouring demonstration and a real gold bar being cleaned and made! After that we went to the hard-boiled lolly demonstration where we were able to see the lollies being made. We even got to try some that were just made! After leaving Sovereign Hill we got on the bus and drove to ten-pin bowling, where we played a game of bowling and listened to music. We had a really great time there. Some people got strikes on the first try! When we got back to the motel we had dinner and got ready to watch a movie. At about 9:15pm we headed off to bed ready for the last day of camp.
By Indi
Day 3
On day three we had our last room inspections before we left. It was very rainy so we left later than expected. When it was clear we drove to the wildlife park, while it was sunny. We explored the wildlife park and at 12:30pm we went to see a penguin presentation. We left to go back to school at around 1:00pm. While driving, it took longer because there was a big crash, so there was a lot of traffic on that road. We arrived back at school at 3:32pm. We all had a great time!
By Lachlan and Torres
"Express Yourself" Music Incursion
On Thursday last week we had a rap incursion at school. The two rappers sang a rap, including freestyle, and the crowd of students went wild. One of the rapper’s names was DJ Sizzle and the other rapper’s name was DJ Mantra. DJ Sizzle and DJ Mantra called up a group of people twice. One was for being a temporary DJ (tapping the drums) and the other one was for being a temporary DJ singer. The first group was all grade 3/4s, and the other group had 2 grade 5’s (Levy and Oliver) and two 3/4s.
By Levy and Russell
