Opening Hours
Prep – Year 6 Students: 8:00am – 3:15pm
Year 7-12: 8:00am – 4pm
Homework Club
Every Thursday (Year 7-12) From 3pm – 4pm
Library News
Small but Loud Voices
Each year to celebrate the Voices on the Coast Literature Festival a book called Small But Loud Voices is published to showcase young writers’ work from across the Sunshine Coast. The anthology is a compilation of poetry, narrative and illustrative works. Entries for the anthology are collected from school students of all ages from across the Sunshine Coast and schools can submit five entries for Primary or High Schools. In 2016 the following students’ work was chosen to be included in the publication. Congratulations to our talented authors whose work has now been published! Copies of Small but Loud Voices are available to borrow from the library. Copies can also still be purchased via this link.
Primary Authors: Bella Campbell (Year 1), Matthew O’Shea (Year 1), Archer Palmer (Year 3), Myah Smith (Year 4), Teanna Newell (Year 6).
Secondary Authors: From Year 7 – Natalie Beakey, Sam Pollock, Ethan Redpath, Dakota Thomas and Anastasia Sponza.
Andrew King Year 4-6 Author Visit
We were thrilled to have author Andrew King (http://engibear.com/) join us for the Year 4-6 Primary Author Visit on Tuesday 21 February. Andrew is a Brisbane based consulting engineer with qualifications in Chemical and Environmental Engineering and Education. With few engineers in children’s literature, Andrew created Engibear and his friends Engilina and the Bearbot to introduce engineering to children. Andrew works with Sydney based Architect Benjamin Johnston, who illustrates his work. Engibear’s Dream was awarded the President’s Prize at the 2012 Australian Engineering Excellence Awards. Andrew and Ben have now completed their third book, Engibear’s Trains which is due to be released in 2017.
During Andrew’s visit students participated in robot design, tower and bridge building and paper plane creations (including landing them on an airport runway). Staff and students were captivated by Andrew’s skills as an engineer and author. They were stretched to think outside the box and to build their teamwork skills in a range of exciting challenges. Throughout the day Andrew recorded the students’ data to showcase their progress and perseverance. Students experimented with ideas and used the design process to create them, with varying success and lots of trial and error! There were certainly some “aha” moments and shouts of joy as designs became a reality and students celebrated success. Photos of Andrew’s visit can be found on the GCCHub Gallery.
Here are some of the reflections Year 5 students shared about their bridge building session with Andrew:
Kahlia Burton – What did you learn? That when you make your bridge is has to be stable and the right length and height.
Jayden Neideck – What can you share about Andrew’s visit? The bridge building really helped me to cooperate better in a team.
Caitlin Geldenhuys – What did you learn? That if you put your mind to it you can do it.
Holidays Writing Workshops
Sunny Kids Camps (For students aged 7-15)
In 2017, the Sunny Kids Camp program is offering two days of awesome creative writing experiences at the Gondor Writers’ Centre in Landsborough on Tuesday 4 April (sold out) and Wednesday 12 April. The cost is $55 per day. Students will enjoy a full day writing camp with Australian children’s author Aleesha Darlinson, working in a tutorial/class environment with one-on-one time throughout the day, plus instructions and advice on writing. Each day’s program offers variety in material to keep young minds switched on and learning. There are both elements of writing and drawing involved in each program, with plenty of stimulating discussion, group and individual exercises, plus take home materials.
The camps have been designed to allow for longer days so you can get to work early and don’t have to rush back to pick up the kids after only a few hours. Children remain supervised throughout the day. The camp classes are restricted to twenty-five students to ensure maximum benefit for each child. More information can be found at Sunny Kids Camps. Tickets are available at Eventbrite.
Write Like an Author (For students aged 10-14)
Brian Falkner’s Write Like an Author holiday camps allow students a focussed writing time without other distractions. Students are encouraged to focus on producing a story to the very best of their abilities, learning all the skills they need, with one-on-one mentoring. It’s not all work, there are games and other fun activities, all designed to help turn your child into an author. There are Boot camp, Junior and Advanced Camp options. More information can be found at Write Like an Author. To register go to this link.
Announcing the Year 6 Regional Readers’ Cup Team
We are excited to announce that our first team of Primary students are competing in the Sunshine Coast Year 6 Regional Readers’ Cup. Students have commenced reading five novels and one picture book during an eight-week reading period. They will then compete with other schools at the Regional Competition on Wednesday 17 May at Immanuel Lutheran College. At the competition teams will be asked five heat questions per book. The top four to five scoring teams will proceed to the finals. In the finals teams will be asked 5 more questions per book and 2 tie-breaker questions if required. The winning team then has the honour of competing at the State Competition later in the year. We look forward to seeing our team prepare and compete in May. They are already off to a fantastic start and we wish them all the best. Go GCC!
Our Year 6 team includes;
- Meg Jarvis
- Amelia Siddans
- Mariah Evans
- Jessica Roach
- Olivia Gregson
Library Weebly
The GCC Hub Weebly is regularly updated with information about library programs and events, providing access to research tools and databases essential for learners seeking quality resources. Please note that the GCC Hub is password protected. Students have been given the password to access the GCC Hub and are welcome to share this with parents/caregivers. Students are encouraged to use the quality educational databases and online research tools available on the GCC Hub to assist them with their learning and assessment.
Library Databases
We subscribe to the following databases that can be accessed at home and school via the GCC Hub under the iResearch tab:
icite/SLASLA online reference generator (Year 4-12) caters for Primary, Middle and Secondary school referencing and is based on the Harvard Author-Date System (abridged). Students simply add the details of a resource into the generator, press create citation, and a reference is generated that they can add to their reference list. More details on referencing can be found at the icite website.
EBSCOhost (Year 7-12) is the world’s most comprehensive database for multidisciplinary research. It provides a collection of full-text articles from leading regional and international periodicals, full-text reference books, tens of thousands of full-text biographies and more than one million photos, maps and flags. Articles and searches can be saved to a personal folder for easy retrieval and EBSCO’s citation tool helps students cite sources.
EBSCOhost History Reference Center (Year 9-12) contains thousands of reliable history resources, including primary source documents, biographies, photos, maps and more to help students complete their research. Articles and searches can be saved to a personal folder for easy retrieval and EBSCO’s citation tool helps students cite sources.
EBSCOhost Science Reference Center (Year 9-12) is a research database with reliable information on thousands of science topics. View science videos, animations, access experiments and find thousands of science images, charts and graphs. Articles and searches can be saved to a personal folder for easy retrieval and EBSCO’s citation tool helps students cite sources.
Explora (Year 6+) provides a safe, trustworthy environment for younger students to look up articles and facts for research, class projects or homework. Explora provides students with easy-to-use features and age-appropriate content from the world’s leading magazines and reference books.
Holiday Reading
Holidays are a great opportunity to take a break and dive into a fantastic story or spend some time exploring a topic of interest. There’s time to re-read a favourite or discover something new. Students are encouraged to borrow over the holidays and relax with a great book. Secondary students are encouraged to consider selecting something from the growing eBook collection available on our Wheelers eBook Platform.
See you in the library,
Vanessa McKellar and Beryl Morris
Teacher Librarians