Gumnut Bulletin 4, 2023

Education Manager

Dear Leaning Tree families,

What a tremendous evening we had to celebrate the Winter Festival. It was great to see so many families here sharing a meal and listening to the story for the juniors. Our Lighthouse students wowed us with their fire dance, and the whole school choir sang the winter festival songs beautifully. I would like to make a special mention of Ally for the awesome work she committed to coordinating the evening. I also thank the parents for the marvellous soups and apple pies.

Next term sees the school community experience such events as the River Walk, NAIDOC activities, the Spring Fair, the Greek Olympics, and the Family Fun Day to mention a few. The Learning Journey evening is set for Thursday evening, the 17^th of August and we look forward to the children sharing their classroom work with you then. The children will bring their reports home with them today. If your child is not at school today, feel free to pop into the school next week for collection.

I wish you a safe, relaxing and fun-filled break with your children and look forward to seeing you back for the start of next term on Monday the 17^th of July.

Yours,

Mike

Community Manager

Dear families,

If you look over the road in the paddock you might spy a new addition...a new lamb was born to the little group of Dorper sheep. We have been watching it gain its feet and begin to explore the world; one of the students has already named it 'Little Lamb'. 

It was a great treat to have a sausage sizzle and homemade lemonade lunch service, kindly brought to you by the LTSS P&F. Many thanks to the parents who pitched in to help on the day. The P&F have been busy and further happy news is shared in their newsletter piece.

We thoroughly enjoyed our annual Winter Solstice Festival last night...how lucky were we with the weather holding off? Thank you to everyone who came along to share, enjoy the fast-motion video of the spiral being built!

Looking ahead, a book of Spring Fair major raffle tickets will be sent home early next term for you to sell. Each ticket costs $5 and the books contain 10 tickets each. If you would like more than one book to sell, please let the administration know. The prizes are once again generous:

• 1st Prize: $2000 Mitchell & Brown/Retravision Gift Card
• 2nd Prize: $500 fuel Voucher kindly donated by Maisey Fuels
• 3rd Prize: Neo Bicycle kindly donated by Lara Dalton MLA

Happy winter holidays everyone,

Kind regards,

Ally

Winter Solstice

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Rainbow Playgroup

Dear Families,

This term at Rainbow Playgroup we said goodbye to autumn with some stained glass leaf crafts, they looked cheerful on the windows and were a reminder that King Winter would soon be around. We then spent some mornings baking beautiful bread and warming apple pies.

Reconciliation Week was honoured with some dot painting onto keepsake rocks, nimble little fingers learning to place the paint just so, it can be tricky work! We then pressed some flowers to use on our winter lanterns, they look so beautiful lit up, casting a golden glow over the little faces of the children.

Here we have time...if you know somebody that would love to join Rainbow Playgroup, they can email me: rainbow@leaningtree.wa.edu.au

Kind regards,

Lee

Rainbow Kindergarten

Dear families,

The Rainbow Cottage has been abuzz with Winter Festival preparations. Painting, cutting, gluing and stapling our beautiful lanterns amidst the play and little voices echoing back the traditional lantern walk songs as they busy themselves. Little hands have been creating rainbow crafts and assisting in cooking birthday cakes and apple pies.

Our front 'secret garden' is a favourite place to explore to harvest the sweet passionfruit and pick flowers for the morning tea table. Connection to nature is further fostered during Bush Kindy. The children are creating nature crafts as well as balancing, climbing and swinging on the logs and trees.

Free play for the kinders is evolving to become more social now with the negotiation of roles during home play and the decisions made unanimously to play Dino-rangers. Prior to this, the children were engaged in parallel play, absorbed in their individual activity but alongside their peers. They are so focused on their play scenarios some are upset by home time as they have not managed to do all the things a kindy day offers. An older sibling of a kinder commented with a note of jealousy, "Do they have golden time (free play) all the time?!" Ahh the golden days of kindergarten - they are hard to beat. 💜

Kind regards,

Lara

Starflower Pre-primary

Dear Starflower families,

King Winter has finally begun to make his presence known, just in time for the Winter Solstice. What a glorious Early Childhood Winter Festival we all shared on the evening of Thursday 15^th June. Over the past couple of weeks, the Starflower children have been busily baking pumpkins and sweet potatoes; harvesting and chopping leeks and cauliflowers from the garden and magically transforming these simple ingredients into delicious soups. Apple slinkies were so much fun and even better when you get to eat the skins after you chop up the apples for apple crumble! Yum! 

We decorated our lanterns with colourful tissue paper squares and beaded a handle to hold with care as we went on our lantern walk in the dark, singing our winter songs. When we walked the spiral with our families, each child found a small treasure from King Winter in the centre of the spiral. It was the perfect blend of childhood wonder and excitement, and the gratitude and reverence of all the families, who went home after the play of the ‘Frog Prince’, with full bellies and happy hearts.

Thank you for a semester filled with joy and adventure. Enjoy the holidays and if you are heading away, travel safely, and we will see you for the start of Term 3 on Monday 17^th July.

Warm Winter Blessings to you all,  

Kathy and Lucinda

Sunflower Room Year 1

Sunflower News 

As we sit in our classroom and hear the raindrops playing music on the roof and the trees swaying dramatically in the gusty winds, we know that Winter, is truly here and heralding the Winter festival. This fortnight, we have been busy finishing our lanterns and practicing the Winter Solstice songs with reverence.

The Sunflower children are becoming very confident in their recorder playing skills.  So much so, that they even requested to showcase their talent to the whole school community during gathering.  They did so and played with pride and joy.

This term we have explored Dreamtime Stories in our main lessons.  The children showed so much curiosity and engagement throughout.  This tied in very nicely with Reconciliation Week and we were amazed at the level of questions being asked by the children seeking to deepen their understanding of the Aboriginal culture and our great land Australia. This has definitely been a highlight.

We have some talented mental maths superstars emerging in the Sunflower room.  The children have been playing many games to practice using their knowledge of plus, including friends of ten, counting on, before and after numbers and counting in tens.

In craft, the children have been French knitting beanies to wear in these cold, wintery months. It is really lovely hearing the excitement in their voices when they talk about their beanies, many choosing to continue working on them in the afternoons. 

Our class garden is in the early stages of planning and gathering the things that we need. It is lovely to see the children showing such excitement whilst sharing their ideas and beginning work clearing and weeding the space.  It is heart-warming seeing them caring for this beautiful land that we stand on.

Warm regards

Jayne and Peta 

Jilinbiri Room Years 2 & 3

Jilinbiri News                 

Once upon a time…

                There was a class of children.

The children loved to write…,

           and the stories they wrote were full of ideas and imaginative adventures! 

The Jilinbiri children have shown what a creative bunch they are in our daily writing lessons. This term we have written stories, created story maps, sketched our own comics and made mini books of the stories we have been hearing in our morning main lessons. Hearing the children sounding out words while they jot down their ideas is always music to my ears.

Extra! Extra! Stop that Press! Guess what they found in Loch Ness…

Last week we performed our class play ‘Grammarosaurus’, to families and other classes in the school. The children sang well and spoke very clearly. I am so proud of them all.

This term, we also began our ‘Farming’ main lesson which we will continue in Term 3. In small collaborative groups we have been working out in our farm plot and kitchen garden, shovelling soil to fill garden beds; weeding; planting seeds and seedlings. We are excited to say that we have wheat, lupins, barley and oats standing nice and tall, soaking in the sunshine after all of the wonderful rain that we had recently. We have also been enjoying listening to the classic novel “The Children of Cherry Tree Farm’, by Enid Blyton, for a glimpse into farming practices of old.

We are looking forward to seeing our colourful lanterns shining their light at our upcoming winter solstice.

Warm wishes,

Tara & Claire

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Rivergum Room Years 4 & 5

Dear Families,

In the ‘Animal Adaptions’ main lesson we drew on skills such as observation, imagination, discussion, thinking and artistry. The Rivergum’s listened to and observed the specialist qualities of various animals and learnt about how structure, form and function allows each animal to behave in a particular way. In this main lesson, we wrote poems, an information report and some vivid descriptions about various animals that were of interest to us. We immersed ourselves in the creative process by painting our focus creature and by building a habitat diorama for it. In the middle of this main lesson, we had an excursion.

We got up close and personal by investigating the structural features of mammal skulls and taxidermy specimens at the Museum of Geraldton. The Rivergum’s investigated the fascinating adaptations that help animals to survive in the challenging environments of the Mid West. We discussed some of the ways that animals have adapted to different Mid-West environments. We also applied our expanding knowledge of adaptations to select specimens to form a hypothesis (or our best guess) as to the animal’s behaviour.

We delved deeper into sea creatures by visiting the Batavia Coast Institute of Technology where we were excited to attend a tour of the facilities. We walked in awe amongst the aquaculture hatchery and marine ornamentals display full of clown fish, angelfish, cardinals, barramundi, and dragonettes.

It is safe to say the Rivergums were the small fish in the big pond as we learnt about the fantastic world of fish face-to-face. We also celebrated World Oceans Day for a week by learning all about tortoises and turtles and how we need to be stewards of the ocean. Someone who is willing to take active steps towards the preservation of ocean ecosystems.

Sincerely,

Susan

Lighthouse Room Year 6

Lighthouse Students IRL (In Real Life)

This term, we went on a big day out and about in our community. What an amazing day! We walked from Midalia Beach to the museum, taking in the organ transplant memorial, squid ink-stained fishing spot, the marina and the Batavia Longboat replica.

Once at the museum, we learnt about immigration to WA and how each immigrant contributed to our society. From Afghan cameleers, Irish women, Italian fisherman, Chinese entrepreneurs to Monsignor Hawes and his fabulous architecture. Then it was time for some virtual reality, 'Beyond the Milky Way', where we were transported to the Murchison in outback W.A. Here, we learnt all about the SKAO (Square Kilometre Array Organisation) and how it will help us understand the cosmos.

After lunching in Batavia Park, surrounded by more history, we had a surprise opportunity. We were invited into Leon Baker Jewelers to view precious gems, gold and to see how these are transformed into beautiful jewelry. We even got to hold a gold nugget worth $10 000!!!

At the Geraldton Regional Art gallery, we viewed art which was made to tell the story of a French botanist & his visit to WA in the 1700's. This exhibit was arranged in chapters, with the artist creating everything in miniature; a doll, the clothing of the time, a botanist's tools and specimens of plants collected. Upstairs, was a patchwork exhibit which consisted of beautiful textile art pieces.

Walking along the foreshore, our day wasn’t quite over. We continued to the end of the Esplanade, for a view of the port and the sea lions. We checked out the massive ships, the pilot and tugboats, reading some of the signage along the way. We certainly got our steps in that day!

Since then, we had a week of swimming lessons and on the last day we ventured up to the Moresby Ranges. Here, we were treated to a view of our city like no other. A rare opportunity for a bird's eye view, as well as an up-close look at the geology of the ranges.

This week, we extended our knowledge of the SKAO, with a visit from the Head of Engineering Operations, Angela Teale. Students asked some great questions, with some considering a career working on this international project. We worked out that construction should be completed by the time they are 18, with more job opportunities being available once it is up and running, in all kinds of fields.

We spent a lot of time in class doing all the normal learning things: spelling, math, writing and reading. Astronomy being our current main lesson, we have explored the sun, the moon and earth’s place in space. Coming up soon is our Winter Solstice Festival. To prepare for our performance, we have been working on learning our geometric fire routine!

Voyager Room Year 7

Dear Families,

This last couple of weeks Voyager Class 7 has been working hard on our human systems and homework project. These are some of the photos over the last couple of weeks. They include the cow’s heart dissections, bush kindy and Moresby ranges excursion.

Thank you to your children for a lovely term and I look forward to seeing them in term three.

Kind regards,

Anita

Prospect Room Years 8 & 9

While we are preparing to go on camp in week 9, the year 9's have been undergoing their last-ever Naplan!  

Congratulations to those students who have participated this year - you have done wonderfully just being in it! I hope you look back and realise how far you have come. 

We have been reading our class novel 'Holes' by Louis Sachar. It is a story about a troubled teen, whose family has an interesting story about their immigration. The whole novel is set at a detention centre on a dried-up lake and the detainees, the children, are made to dig holes every day. But what are the holes really for? What are they looking for, and why? The novel craftily weaves three storylines into one, keeping the reader intrigued about what is really going on. At the end of the term, we will watch the movie and look at how the written word and the visual world communicate the same things using different and similar techniques. 

For our Main Lesson, the students are; answering close reading questions, creating a character profile on the character that interests them the most, drawing a map of Camp Green Lake, and then writing a paragraph about foreshadowing and how it has been used in the story. There has been some heavy thinking going on while the students read and then reread the novel to find their answers. 

In Science with Paul, the students have learnt about communication back in the dark ages of the Industrial Revolution and the Telegraph pole being the precursor to the telephone and computer language. The class was introduced to Morse code and now I have begun teaching them to sign the Auslan Fingerspelling Chart. Try testing their knowledge by asking them simple to-answer questions and have them sign back using fingerspelling and other sign we have been working on. 

The camp countdown has officially begun. 

Penny Liddallcable 

Design and Technology

Dear families,

In D&T this term we have been focusing on woodwork. The Prospects Class 8/9 have been completing and decorating their toolboxes, the Voyagers Class 7 have been creating a toy car, and the Lighthouse Class 6 has been creating beautiful lanterns out of wood, flowers, leaves, and Japanese rice paper.

Kind reagrds,

Paul

Music

Hello again,

In Music this term, we have been preparing for the winter solstice with all the usual songs, as well as developing our vocal and rhythmic abilities. The primary school has shown outstanding improvement in their vocals and I look forward to showcasing a whole school arrangement for your listening pleasure in the near future.

Kin regards,

Paul

Parents & Friends Action Team

Dear Leaning Tree Community,

At the first P&F meeting of the term, which was held straight after school on Wednesday 10th May, some large  funding decisions were agreed upon to assist the school for this year, these included:

• Purchase of a sea container to store P&F equipment,
• A water fountain for Middle School and
• Flow beehives for the Middle School entrepreneurial program.

Additionally, the last of the bespoke wooden blackboard and pinboards were installed in the Middle School; they look superb! Thank you to Illan for his artistic carpentry and the parents who helped him install them on the early Saturday mornings.

The P&F would like to thank everyone who has participated in activities so that funding opportunities like this are possible. Being a part of the P&F is a rewarding chance to serve your community; you can find meeting dates on the school calendar and everyone is very welcome to join, in fact - the more the merrier. 

The next big project that the P&F is working busily on is the annual Spring Fair which is a huge event for the school and always such a joyful day to be a part of.

Kind regards,

P&F

Gumleaf Shop

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