The Crazy Pencil - By Ben Leach

The Crazy Pencil

One fine morning I woke up to find my pencil writing. Well, I have to admit it was pretty crazy so I ran to get my rubber. I through the rubber at my pencil. It hit it over but then it just went on writing.

So I went outside to kick the soccer ball. It was fun until the pencil came out and started following me . Into the bedroom... the kitchen and the living room!

Then I had to go to bed so I got into bed and put my pencil on my bedside table.

The next day I went bike riding. I did a jump and turned and looked right and there was my pencil riding a mini bike. If you wanted to know how it got that mini bike don't ask me. It looked very tired. I was thinking of carrying it but then I remembered the piece of chain I had with me so I hooked the chain onto my bike and then onto his bike. We rode all the way home and lived happily forever (until we died).

The End.

By Ben Leach (as part of his homework)

Our New Unit of Inquiry

We have just started our final new unit of inquiry for the year. It is a really exciting one looking into the stories indigenous art tell us.

Wittunga Botanical Gardens

This week Maria, Edie/Josie and Kieran's class went to Wittunga Botanical Gardens and into the Ashby Family's old house.

We walked up the road which was quite a feat for some of us due to the temperature (36 degrees) Then had our fruit break when we arrived. After this we walked around the Ashby Homestead which is now offices. Once we walked though there we walked through the beautiful gardens. Then, an easy walk back down the hill to school. We had a great trip out and it was a great way to see first hand some of the history of our local area.

Welcome back to Term 4

Welcome back to Term 4. I had a lovely holiday spending time with friends and family and I hope you did too.  As always we have a very busy term coming up. Here are just a few of the things that are coming up

• Week 1 
• Excursion to Wittunga Botanical Gardens (Thursday), Planning Day for 2/3 teachers - Kate on class from 12pm (Thursday)
• Week 2 
• New Unit of Inquiry begins. (Monday) IB Review Day for 2/3 teachers - Kate on class from 12pm (Wednesday), Japanese starts (Friday)
• Week 3 
• IB evaluation (Monday - Wednesday)
• Week 4 
• Kids Helpline Skype Sessions Start (Monday), Visit from NZ choir (Monday)
• Week 5:
• Week 6:
• Week 7 :
• Week 8: 
• End of Year Concert (Tue 1st December) Sports Presentation Assembly (Wed 2nd December), Blackwood Christmas Parade (Fri 4th December)
• Week 9:
• Year 7 Graduation (Thur 10th December), End of Year Movie and End of Term. (Dismissal - 2:15pm Fri 11th December)

End of Year Concert

For the End of Year Concert, Room 1 is performing a piece based on the computer game Lemmings. The children have had a chance to play the game in class to get to know it as on Thursdays after lunch they are coming up with our act. If they would like to play lemmings at home the website we have been using is: http://www.elizium.nu/scripts/lemmings/
If you have ever seen the game Lemmings before you will notice that they all look the same. Because of this, I will be organising the costumes so they are the same and once I have done this I will send home a note asking for a small amount of money to cover the cost - This will be no more than $10 and I am hoping that it can be less. 

Kids Help Line 

Beginning  in week 4, our class along with some other classes in the school will be participating in Kids Helpline@School. It is an early intervention and prevention program for primary school aged students. Each Monday we will be having a Skype session with the Kids Helpline and be talking about a range of issues that are important to children our age.
We have 6 sessions booked in with the first being An Introduction to Kids Helpline. This allows children to get familiar with Kids Helpline, what a counsellor does, how Kids Helpline can help and how they can contact them.
Following that we are participating in: "Developing Resilience", "Worry" "Making Friends" "Feeling Sad" and "Bullying".
If you would like more information about the Kids HelpLine this is their website: http://www.kidshelpline.com.au/grownups/about-us/who-we-are/

Our Assembly Item about Camp

Class Party

We have been trying really hard at our behaviour in assembly and at the last assembly of term we were awarded the assembly box for our excellent behaviour. The box is full of ideas of rewards we as a class can do. The class unanimously voted on a class party which was held on the last day of term. Our party consisted of eating lots of yummy food, dancing, singing and listening to music.

Local History

During our Unit of Inquiry on local history, we were lucky enough to have someone from the local council's cultural center come and talk to us about the history of our area, show us some photos and bring in some artifacts that people would have used for farming and in their everyday lives. We were able to touch, hold and have a go at using some of these important tools which was a great insight into the lives of those in the past.

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Year 3 - Woodhouse

Then it was Year 3s turn to go to camp. They went to Woodhouse Scout Camp for 2 nights and 3 days. Laser Skirmish was at the top of most people's highlights list. We also participated in challenge hill, bug busters, chicken run, team building games, orienteering, frisnet golf and much more. Again, because we were all off in various groups it was hard to get photos of everyone but I did my best.