Wow!  What an enormous fortnight of excellence!

Prep 

Prep gallery

Special awards gallery

Year 1

Year 1 gallery

Year 1 Special awards

Year 2

Year 2 gallery

Year 2 Special awards

Year 2 excursion:  What a ball we were attending the Beenleigh Historical Village. We visited an old school, where the teachers used to hit their students with canes if they were naughty.

The students created a phot story where we watch Harley putting Lily's hair into the inkwell and Miss B'have saw it.  Harley was punished with the cane, "A great role play guys".

We also saw old houses, shops, factories for printing and wood chopping, funny toilets called out houses or thunder boxes. I truly would recommend a visit.

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What a fanatic day 2T have had at our excursion.  We learned how difficult it was to have things printed in the olden days and that it would take about 3 days to have something printed. The individual letters needed to be selected, put in order, secured in place, inked and put through the foot press to complete the printing process.  We had the opportunity to saw through wood and learn how wood was cut down many years ago.

We also went back in time to a school from the early 1900’s. Students were surprised to hear that teachers would smack the children with a cane if they were rude or disrespectful. Students got to use the small chalk boards and use the lead to write their name. The learning was very different to what it is today.

Year 2 spelling:  The Year 2 students were engrossed in their spelling group activities this week.  These were very clever activities designed by their teachers.  

Chinese class in 2A:  This week, 2A had the opportunity to learn some Chinese from our LOTE teacher, Ms Huang.  The students drew images, and learned the Chinese words and characters for mountain, tree, sun, moon, fish and much more. Thank you for an insightful and engaging lesson Ms Huang!

Year 3

Year 3 gallery

Year 3 Diamond awards

Celebrating HASS:  This semester, Year 3 has been learning about celebrations and commemorations from all over the world. Students chose one and were able to present it at our HASS culmination day last Friday. Parents, teachers, students and special guests all toured our amazing displays. Children dressed up and brought in food, books and props to help educate others on their chosen celebration. It was a very exciting way to wrap up our Semester 1 HASS unit.

Year 3 cooking:  3J had a very tasty day at school this week.

NAIDOC in 3J:  This week, Izzy's Mum, Latisha, and her brother, Matayus, visited 3J to share stories and items from their family and cultural background. The class loved learning about this and really enjoyed the Aboriginal dance and song lesson as well.

Year 4

Year 4 gallery

Year 4 Diamond awards

Year 5

Year 5 gallery

Year 5 Diamond awards

                          
Year 5 Chinese lessons:  Year 5 have been learning language for body parts.  They are creating their own alien and labelled each of thebody parts in Chinese text. They also learned to sing the Chinese version of " Head, shoulder, knees and toes".

Year 6 Chinese lessons: Year 6 were learning different countries around the world. They searched for locations, capital cities and and learned the Chinese terminolgy for each of the countries studied.

Collaboration:  5M have been developing their collaboration skills this past week.  

NAIDOC celebrations in 5B:  5B combined art, craft and cultural studies to celebrate NAIDOC Week.  Well done.

Year 6

Year 6 gallery

Year 6 Diamond awards

Year 6 writing:  Mrs Artz thoroughly enjoyed reading 6WC narratives based on some inspirational real-life people. Thanks for sharing Mrs Comley and Mrs Wager.

Year 6 NAIDOC celebrations:  6WC have a very impressive door that acknowledges the contributions of some incredible indigenous Australians.

Year 6 Writer's Camp

Ella, Dakota and Lucas all recently attened the Jacobs Well Writers Camp.  They had a fabulous three days extending our skills in writing.  They were able to experience some wonderful activities designed to promote their skills even further.  They particularly enjoyed the reptiles and walking through the sensory garden.

Their writinga has been sent off for printing and we look forward to seeing their work published in the book later in the year.

Check out the gallery and their pieces below.  

Battle of the Bands

by Ella

“Girls guess what?” Sierra yelled climbing into the groups tree house. She had found a loud flyer, that screamed ‘Battle of the Bands’. The biggest band competition ever! The event is being held in Exmouth, the town Bullara is just outside of. Recently Roxanne and her friends have tried to start a rock band. It’s going quite well, it’s a dream come true for all of them.

Roxanne, a teenage girl who is obsessed with music, is the lead singer in their band ‘Rocksanne and the Rockers’. All of the girls are the biggest rock fans ever. They love all the classics like AC/DC, Nirvana, Fleetwood Mac and more. Someday she wants to be a singer in a famous rock band.

No one had noticed that Sierra brought another girl with her. Sierra thought this girl, Isobella is just the thing the band needed. Roxanne and the other girls agreed to let Isobella join. They already knew she has incredible musical talent.

It was about two months of hardcore practising before the Battle. Finally the Battle is around the corner. The last practise was perhaps the most promising yet. Todays the day, Battle of the Bands had arrived. All of the girls are at the venue and pumped. All of a sudden they saw another band walk by and saw a girl who looked like Isobella. It was ! They watched their performance and realised that Isobella had betrayed them and stole their ideas. What are the girls to do? The band strolled past them again and they stopped Isobella and confronted her. “How could you?” accused Roxanne. Unfortunately for the girls it was there turn, they had to come up with something on the spot.

They did it, they achieved a perfect score from the judges! The girls had won first place and got the prize money and record deal All of the girls are super excited, the look on Isobella’s face is worth it all. After the show, Roxanne headed for the door and was blocked by a record dealer, who was waving a record deal in her face. Roxanne didn’t know what to do she already had a record deal with her band. “Can I take this and still have my band record?” Inquired Roxanne. She couldn’t, what is she going to do?

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Dark Side

By Dakota

Oreo Paperbark awoke from his soothing slumber and turned to his one and only friend, Jimmy. ”Good morning Jimmy, are you ready for our next insane adventure?” questioned Oreo with a smile. Jimmy’s brain cells were still in a daze so he just nodded and agreed with Oreo, as he slowly emerged from his bed. The two of them peered out of their minuscule window, as they feasted their eyes on hundreds of aliens working in some sort of lab. “What on Mars are those goofballs doing?” bellowed Oreo. Jimmy murmured some strange language, but he probably thought the same thing. Both of them agreed that their next wild adventure would be figuring out what those pesky aliens were plotting! So they grabbed the necessities such as battle gear and lots of food, and set out on their way.

They made their way to their spaceship and both sat down on the connected leather seat. “Off we go!” exclaimed Oreo. Across the engulfing darkness… they spotted the aliens once more and realised, that the number of aliens started to decrease by the minute. The aliens started to form together in a gigantic beaker to form one enormous alien! “Quickly Jimmy, we have to see what is going on, before they do something absurd!” Oreo yelped. They zoomed across space until they finally made their way to Melmack, the planet of the evil aliens. They jumped out of their spaceship as quickly as a cheetah ,and stealthily made their way over to the beaker. Oreo and Jimmy stared up at the towering beaker filled with green, crazy looking aliens.

The aliens were making gibberish noises that almost sounded like a herd of infuriated bees. “I think we’re in trouble now Jimmy, there’s hundreds of them!” Shouted Oreo. Oreo and Jimmy scurried around the aliens trying to get as close to the centre as possible. “Hey, what are you doing on our precious land!?” shouted one angry alien. The other aliens tuned in and started becoming suspicious of what Jimmy and Oreo were doing on their planet. Whilst Oreo and Jimmy were being interrogated, they spotted a purple, gooey, bubbly substance in the beaker, that almost looked like some kind of poisonous virus! “Jimmy, we have to know what is in that beaker!” whispered Oreo frantically.

As Jimmy and Oreo crawled closer to the strange beaker, they overheard a group of aliens talking about their evil plan! The aliens were plotting to create an evil virus that when touched by a human or a good alien, the virus will suck all of the colour out of them transferring it into a separate beaker. Once they have enough colour they will transfer the colour to different aliens turning them to look like a human, so they can trick other humans into doing evil, cruel things for the evil aliens.  “Oh no Jimmy, what have we gotten ourselves into!” Whispered Oreo nervously. Oreo and Jimmy heard loud footsteps on Melmack’s floor. It was the foot steps of the evil aliens master, Mr Aliano! He had purple spikes on his back, red glowing eyes, and a tail as long as a giraffe’s neck. “Uh oh Jimmy, I think it’s time for us to scramble!” panicked Oreo. The pair began to tip toe back to their spaceship, hoping that the evil aliens wouldn’t notice.

“Where do you think you’re going?” Slithered a deep voice. The footsteps started to get louder and more threatening. “I am Aliano, and you are…?” questioned Aliano.
“Umm.. I am Oreo and this is my best friend, Jimmy,” replied Oreo nervously. “I don’t think you got an invite, to be part of our master plan!” hissed Aliano. A group of aliens started to form around the two, causing it to become claustrophobic.

Around 5 seconds later the whole surface of Melmack was swarmed with evil aliens targeting Oreo and Jimmy.  “Jimmy, whatever happens I want you to know, we will always be good guys!” Verbalised Oreo.

In the blink of an eye the aliens disappeared from the swarm, but there was a noticeable crowd of aliens walking frantically. It was almost as if they were trying to cover something up, something like another alien.

“Jimmy, are you ok!?” barked Oreo. There was no response from Jimmy and as Oreo turned his head, he stared at the blank space that once contained his best friend, Jimmy. The beaker started to bubble up to the top with evil aliens. Oreo turned his head to the left to see a lonely little alien getting hypnotised by the evil Aliano! “Jimmy!” cried Oreo. Jimmy was becoming hypnotised by the evil alien master himself, to become one of them! Oreo knew he had to save Jimmy, so without thinking he ran towards where Jimmy was seated. As Oreo was running, he felt his feet start to rise up off the floor towards the beaker.He felt his body start to slowly drift up towards the beaker, he placed himself next to Jimmy without any control over his body.

Him and Jimmy couldn’t do anything other than just sit there and let the evil aliens take control over them. They knew this was the end for them, but they couldn’t feel any emotions, it’s almost like they didn’t care whether they were going to the dark side or not.

5 hours later*

“Yes boss!” Chanted the crowd. Oreo and Jimmy were now part of the evil alien army, they were now named 506 and 507.  “We have finally created our poisonous virus, and now it’s time to take over Earth!” Screamed Aliano.  “I am so excited for this moment!” shrieked Oreo . As the roof started to close over Melmack, the planet and everyone on it, started to fall down to Earth.  They were finally ready to take over the world!

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No Turning Back

by Lucas  (C) 2022

The ring of chanting students on the oval encouraging the foolish fight, continues to get more deafening. “Fight! Fight! Fight!” The two boys in the circle begin to strike harsh punches at each other. They scatter around the circle, carefully calculating their next attacks. One of the boy’s swings his leg with all his might towards the other. He perfectly lands his kick as he sends the other boy to the ground. The crowd around them roar even louder cheering over the powerful hit. Krole, a bulky, young man can hear the insanity from the other side of the oval. He walks over with ground shaking steps, arriving to the scene.  “What is this madness?” He bellows as echoes trail behind. The two boys whimper in fear of Krole. He grips the boy’s t - shirts and effortlessly pulls them out of the ring and heads straight into the school office to report the conflict.  “How does he carry them that easily?” The students were discussing amongst each other, “It’s like he has uper strength!”

Krole is the coolest kid at school. He’s the captain of the rugby team and everybody adores him, especially the girls. One of the main reasons for his popularity though, is his strength. Krole has super human strength. Although he’s just a teen, he can carry uncountable amounts of weight. He’s built like a tank, but has a heart of gold. No one knows that better than his good friend Podis. Podis is a timid teen who seems to not have ever touched weights in his life. He has been bullied all throughout school but found protection after meeting Krole. Little does Krole know, that Podis secretly hides the fact that he loathes and covets Krole’s popularity and lifestyle.

Walking home from school, Podis still had the school fight on his mind. “How crazy was that fight today! You picked up those guys like they were nothing!” He mentions.
“It’s not a big deal,” Krole says modestly.  Podis pretends to be interested, “I’ve seen you do that a million times and it never get’s old!” He doesn’t really care about the fight. For a long time he’s been wanting to know the source of Krole’s strength, butnever had the guts to ask, until now. “How did you get so strong?” He knew Krole didn’t like talking about this but pushed him anyway. “Come on, I’m your friend, you can trust me.”
“Do you promise?” Krole asks seriously.
“I swear,” Podis could barely contain his excitement.
“My strength comes from this necklace,” he says holding it up to the sun. “It’s been passed down through the men in my family for generations. My ancestors were warriors so we have strength to carry this magical stone.” Podis stops listening. His eyes are locked on the stone and is already formulating a plan on making an attempt to steal it.

The next day, Podis arrives to Krole’s house early as he waits for him to get ready for school. When Krole disappears to shower, Podis puts his plan into action. He creeps through Krole’s room, heading straight for the dresser where the necklace is gleaming. He snatches it and flees out the room, back down to the door step. Just in time, Krole strides into his room to get dressed. He tramps down the stairs out the
doorway. “See you after school mum!” Krole waves goodbye.  “Let’s go Krole!” Podis exclaims. Krole strolling behind, catches up to be side by side with Podis. “Hey dude,” he pants, “Have you seen my necklace anywhere? I could have sworn I left it on my dresser.”  Podis shrugs. “Uhh I don’t know,” He answers guiltily. He stuffs his hand in his pocket to hide the necklace.  “Okay man, I guess I can trust you.” Mission accomplished? Podis wonders.

They arrive at school.  “Hey I’ll meet you at maths class, got to go toilet.” Podis smirks walking off to the bathroom. Podis pulls the fragile necklace out of his pocket. “It’s time,” Podis declares. He draws the necklace over his head, resting it on his neck. Podis puts his collar over the necklace to make sure it’s not visible.

He exits the bathroom. Walking through the hallway, Podis starts to stumble, trying to carry the weight of the power in the necklace. “Hey, Podis. Late again,” the teacher growls.  “Sorry, I didn’t keep track of time,” he pants, exhausted already from carrying the necklace. He sits down beside Krole in relief.  “You alright? You look tired,” Krole asks suspiciously.  “Yeah I’m fine,” Podis answers. He can feel the power of the necklace already seeping through his veins.

His body is changing and he’s loving it. The weak and timid Podis was no more.
As the lesson goes by, he starts to lose focus. The changes are taking over his body way too quick. But in his greed for more power, Podis ignores the pain. The bell interrupts his thoughts. He shoots up out of his seat accidentally knocking over his desk.

Unaware of his new found strength, he stands there shocked.Everybody in the room stares at him in disbelief, all except for Krole.  Podis grabs his bag and rushes out the door before noticing the look of hurt and betrayal on Krole’s face. He heads straight to the field, desperate to get away from prying eyes. I need some fresh air. I need some fresh air, Podis is thinking. Just before he can catch his breath, he hears a voice call from behind.  “I thought we were friends! Why Podis?” He knows it’s Krole but he can’t look back. His vision starts to blur.  “Podis?” Krole sounding a little concerned. Just as Podis collapses to his knees, Krole rushes to him to help,
“Podis! Are you ok?”  He’s sensing I’m weak, Podis thinks to himself. “Just leave me alone!” Podis yells pushing Krole away. He underestimated his strength because Krole’s bulky frame goes flying across the field.

Slowly getting up, Krole is filled with rage because in this moment he realises his suspicions are correct. “What have you done?!” he roars.  Podis laughs, his voice dripping with menace. “I’m sick of being your shadow and overlooked by everybody.
Nobody gives a damn about me, especially standing next to you! You get everything! That all changes today.” He says with an evil smirk. “It’s my time, and no one can stop me now.” “You don’t understand,” Krole exclaims, “you’re in danger, Podis. That power is only meant for my bloodline. It’s too strong for you!”
Podis refuses to believe him. He stalks towards Krole, looking for a fight. “You think I’m weak? Well let’s test your strength now that you have no powers!” He strikes Krole directly in the chest. This sends Krole back down to the ground. He tries to get back up before another combination of punches hit him again. With barely any breath left in him, Krole tries to explain. “Wait! You must listen! The necklace must only be worn by the people of the warrior bloodline. If not, the necklace will self destruct and destroy the one wearing it.” “That’s a bunch of lies! You just want it back,” Podis argues. As Podis raises his arms ready to strike again, a sharp pain shoots through his head. “Arrrrgh!” He cries as he slumps to the ground.
Krole rushes over. “Podis! The necklace is weakening you, please!” He begs, “Give it to me before it’s too late!”

Podis can feel the pain intensifying in his head like a grenade about to explode. Tears begin to fall down his face. He reaches up to his chest, and pulls the necklace away from him in shame. Holding it out to Krole, he whispers, “I’m sorry. I just wanted to know what it feels like to be you.”  Krole grabs the necklace and puts it back around his neck. “Why would you want to be like me? You’re perfect the way you are. That’s why you’re my best friend.”

“I’m your best friend?“ Podis asks weakly.  “Of course you are!” Krole laughs as he pulls Podis into a bear hug. Shame turns into relief as Podis hugs his friend. The jealousy and resentment he once felt is now replaced with love and adoration.

As they pull away from each other, Podis suddenly senses something doesn’t feel right. Krole is looking down at him, his eyes filled with sadness. “Krole, what’s wrong?”.  Krole falls to his knees. His face starting to turn pale. Then it hits him. Krole’s words ringing in his ears “The necklace will self destruct and destroy the one wearing it.”  “But I gave it back!” Podis cries. “Everything should be fine now because I’ve given it back to you!” Panic and fear rising inside him.  “Once the necklace starts to self destruct, there is no going back,” Krole replies.

He starts to cough uncontrollably and Podis notices he’s getting weaker. Tears begin to run down Podis’s face once again. “I’m so sorry! This is all my fault! I’m so sorry!” Podis weeps.  “Shhhh,” Krole whispers. “I was tired of being the cool guy anyway.” He jokes with a weak smile and watery eyes.

With that, Krole closes his eyes and accepts his fate. At that exact moment the necklace releases a blinding light so bright that Podis has to shield his eyes with his hands. Just as quickly, the light disappears and Krole and the necklace have disintegrated, leaving nothing behind but dust.  Podis sits there for hours, crying at the loss of his friend. Crying because he realises it was never about Krole’s strength. Krole was loved because he had a big heart. “I’ll never forget you”, he whispers to the sky, and vows to spend the rest of his life, making it up to him.

Mathletics

Well done to these amazing mathletes on their work this past week.