We are thrilled to share the photos of our Book Week events again in this issue of the Eagle. The theme for Book Week 2018 was ‘Find your Treasure’ and we celebrated with a rich array of activities, events and competitions to explore the theme. Once again we were in awe of the colour and creativity on display and the level of participation at both the Primary Book Week Parade and Secondary Character day. Special thanks to College families who support these annual events.
Book Week is organised annually by the Children’s Book Council of Australia (CBCA) and seeks to promote Australian literature for children and young adults. The CBCA chooses the best books produced in Australia in the following categories; Older Readers, Younger Readers, Early Childhood, Picture Books and the Eve Pownall Award for Information Books. More information about this year’s shortlist can be found on the CBCA website. Many notable, shortlisted and winning titles have been flying off the shelves since Book Week.
Primary Book Week Celebrations
In the lead up to Book Week Primary students were invited to take part in a number of activities that celebrated reading and promoted the ‘Find your Treasure’ theme. These activities included a ‘Think and Thank Tent’ (Prayer Focus), ‘Time is a Treasure’ (Devotional Reading), ‘Time to Shine our Talents’ activity and display. They also blessed others by sending letters to friends honouring their strengths and completed note cards that were posted to bless teachers. Throughout Book Week students were also invited to read the winning CBCA titles and earn jewels on a bookmark each day they attended this activity. Staff shared Bible verses they treasured and used these as a platform to encourage students in class devotions. Our treasure jar competitions brought out the creative flair of many students and we had some impressive treasure maps based on students’ own writing pieces and books they’d read. Finally, our annual colouring competition filled our glass display wall with colour and took pride of place beside our amazing ‘Find you Treasure’ wall mural.
See all the photos here: Primary Book Week Parade.
Book Fair
Our annual Book Fair was held at the Secondary end of the library during Book Week. Through the generosity of our College community $7349 worth of books were purchased and we received $1859 worth of commission to purchase resources for the library. Special thanks to the many families who donated books to the College and purchased one of the many Teachers’ Picks. We would also like to thank the many volunteers who assisted at the Book Fair. We have been busy cataloguing the new books and have showcased them at assemblies.
Primary and Secondary Book Week Winners
| Best Dressed Class | |
| Prep | PREP M |
| Year 1 – 2 | 1W |
| Year 3 – 4 | 3M |
| Year 5 – 6 | 6M |
| Best Behaved Class | |
| Year Prep – 2 | PREP W |
| Year 3 – 4 | 4W |
| Year 5 – 6 | 6G |
| Most Creative Costume (Teacher) | |
| Prep – YR 2 | Lin Smith |
| Yr 3 – 4 | Mrs Stott |
| Yr 5 – 6 | Mr Brown |
| Most Creative Costume (Group) | |
| Prep – Yr 2 | Yr 2 Teachers – 101 Dalmatians |
| Yr 3 – 4 | Yr 3 Teachers – Bucket Fillers |
| Yr 5 – 6 | Yr 6 Teachers Holes |
| Year Level | Treasure Jar Winners ‘I am Treasured’ |
| Prep – Year 2 | Ethan Jenner PW |
| Year 3 – 4 | Hayden Cullen 4M |
| Year 5 – 6 | Lila Demerutis 6G |
| Year Level | Treasure Jar Winners ‘Book Treasures’ |
| Prep – Year 2 | Annalise Meredith PW |
| Year 3 – 4 | Isabella Buckland 4W |
| L.A. | Mrs Seymour |
| Year Level | Treasure Map Winners |
| Prep – Year 2 | Micah Clarke 1G |
| Year 3 – 4 | Hayden Cullen 4M |
| Year 5 – 6 | Aimee Cullen 5M |
| Year Level | Colouring Competition Winners |
| Prep – Year 2 | Estelle Collins 1G |
| Year 3 – 4 | Alana Francis 4G Emily Blackmore 4W |
| Year 5 – 6 | Maja Blackmore 6G |
| Year Level | Treasure Hunt |
| Middle School | Scott Roy, Aiden Draper, Mackenzie Clow – Year 8 |
| Senior School | Eloise Grigor, Sophie Kossen – Year 12 |
| Year Level | Middle School Character Day |
| Year 7 | Ebony Quinlan – Queen of Hearts |
| Year 8 | Jasmine O’Brien – The Mad Hatter Jasmine Balfour – Alice in Wonderland |
| Year 9 | Jacob Burrage – The Mad Hatter |
| Best Participating Class | Year 7’s |
| Best Staff Character | Ms Crase – The Queen from Snow White |
| Year Level | Senior School Character Day |
| Year 10 | Joel Woodward – Master Chief from Halo |
| Year 11 | Georgia Chapman – Sponge Bob Riley Currie – Patrick from Sponge Bob |
| Year 12 | Jasmine Andrews – The Queen of Hearts |
| Best Staff Characters | Tanya Cullen – Pirate Matthew Osberger – Odlaw from Where’s Wally? |
Secondary Book Week Celebrations
Secondary students participated in Book Week 2018 with enthusiasm and creativity as we celebrated the ‘Find your Treasure’ theme. The week kicked off on the Monday with a Treasure Hunt that had participants solving cryptic clues, racing across the campus and even digging up some treasure! The highlight for most was Character Day where students from across the Middle and Senior school stepped into role as a treasured or favourite character. It was fantastic to see so many interesting characters take up their role in making Character Day 2018 a wonderful celebration of creativity in stories. Thank you students and staff for joining in the fun!
You can see all the photos here: Secondary Book Week Character Day
Treasure from Books – Origami
The treasures that come from books is immense and is not limited to amazingly crafted stories with intriguing, gripping or puzzling plots. Information books also contain treasure that is worth finding, investigating and exploring to create something new. This year one of the lunch time activities was Origami – paper treasures created from sometimes intricate instructions. Groups of students gathered around books and origami papers to create paper cranes and other ‘origami’ constructions. Mrs Chikako Fujii from Yamauchi Elementary School in Yokohama worked with our students giving them some special instruction in the art and skills of making paper cranes. Mr Carolissen – an avid origami enthusiast also joined us for the session.
The story of Sadako and the 1000 Paper Cranes was the inspiration for the session. Students are keen to continue with mastering the art of paper cranes and have set a goal of folding 1000 paper cranes and be part of the Peace Crane Project. We look forward to seeing how this project progresses and connecting with students from other parts of the world who participate in the United Nations International Day of Peace held on 21 September each year.
Escape Rooms
Finding treasures became a means of escape for lots of teams from across Middle and Senior school in the Escape Room Challenge 2018. Teams collaborated, sharing their imagination and problem-solving skills to solve a range of cleverly constructed clues to discover the code for escaping the media rooms in the library. Excitement, laughter and a degree of strategy were matched against a ticking clock to see who could escape the room in the shortest amount of time. Some records have been set for others to break when the next Escape Room challenges run. Congratulations to all the teams that competed and look out for the announcement of the overall winners in next week’s newsletter.
Middle School Relax and Read Day
Students in our Middle School enjoyed a session in the Library lounge area as part of Relax and Read Day 2018. An opportunity for some extended time to step into a different world and join the journey of a character in a novel was accompanied by a hot chocolate and a crunchy, delicious biscuit. Relaxing and reading builds reading stamina, helps with problem-solving and exposes us to issues requiring compassion and empathy – opportunities to develop character and understand other points of view. Students enjoyed the opportunity to just relax and read!
MS Readathon
Thank you for those who took part in this year’s MS Readathon. It’s now time to collect your donations and return your fundraising money. Over one thousand books have been read during the fundraiser this year and once again we had a number of GCC students participate. You can complete your fundraising by logging in to the MS Readathon website www.msreadathon.org.au or by downloading and returning a completion form from the website. Remember that every dollar students raise is going to help make a difference to a family affected by multiple sclerosis.
In order to receive reading rewards, make sure you complete your form by 31 October. Here are two things you can do right now to help your child get across the line and finish off their fundraising strongly!
- Remind them to log all their books read.
- Encourage students to enter our cover art competition we promoted in Facebook. Entries close on Monday 3 September.
Premier’s Reading Challenge
The Reading period for the PRC for students in Prep to Year 9 has now finished. Student reading record forms are now due back at school and can be submitted at the library. Please return them by Monday 3 September. Many thanks to the families that assisted with the Challenge. Your support is greatly appreciated. Certificates of achievement will be handed out to students in October.
See you in the library.
Vanessa McKellar and Beryl Morris, Teacher Librarians