Drama and education, and exciting International House session!

Peer pressure was the feeling we had to act, can you guess what the choice is? 

Our team who consisted of four individuals attended the training at International House this week. The lesson planned for the day was  unexpected but very exciting for us! We got together with a few of the other teachers in the house. 
Then Suzan started by putting a list of existing topics on the board. We were then divided into three groups and had to choose a topic for discussion.
It was really great and up building to see how everybody got together and exchange ideas and suggestions for the discussion. The fun part was when each group had to act out a scene that we wanted to present , and the rest of the teams had to identify the scenario. Afterwards we then had to identify and find solutions to the existing problem.

Everybody participated and such a lot of ideas were just flowing around. It was really an amazing lesson planned for us. We found that the lesson was something that we can definitely take back and use in our lesson planning.  All of us can use this encouraging information with the bigger grades as it is something that they are familiar with and are experiencing in the community!    

By Adelaide Jafter

GCU tutor

Libwin is here!

Big news and developments have been happening here at Woodlands. The Library has a computer (which I am writing this blog from now) and the new Library system has been installed, trained and we are hard at work to get all the beautiful books onto the system, ready to start borrowing them to our students.

Lyn giving GCU staff Libwin training

Lyn Pollock, the lady responsible for installing the program in the area, came to us a couple of weeks ago to show us how to use it and how to add books. Since then, at every opportunity we have been updating the system.

To date 200 books are on, with about 4300 still to go! We are starting a section at a time so that we can begin the borrowing system as soon as possible (starting with the older grades). We are currently busy with our fiction section for grades 4 – 7.

The first of many books to be labeled 

This is a huge development for us and an exciting one. For some, using a computer is second nature but for others this is also an experience, building up skills in using computers. But we are getting there and are very excited about getting these books into the hands of our learners as soon as we can! Happy days :)

The Woodlands Library Team

Japanese Lanterns and Monster creations with the girls

It has been a long time since we have posted a blog, and apologies to all our followers! We have been busy little (big) bees with all our programs with lots of stories to tell which we will hopefully catch you up on over the next few weeks.

To  get the GCU girls creative juices going, we always try to have one or two lessons a month which are purely practical and allow the girls to use their imagination or learn some new artistic skills.

This past month the girls have been taught how to make the traditional Japanese lanterns with not so traditional sellotape and staples. I thought this was a great idea, simple and easy to make. Well it was a great a idea and the girls loved every minute but making the lanterns was a little trickier than I had anticipated. The older girls did a great job assisting others and I think you can see from the pictures everyone came up with their own unique design! They are now proudly decorating the library adding a more color to the space. 

Combining practical and reading is always fun and this lesson was no different. One might think that this was a simple and normal dice and counters game but with a difference! As players move round the board you must follow the instructions and create your own unique monster with 100 eyes or 20 legs, blue arms or red, every monster is different. The lesson was a blast with some crazy designs coming through. The girls also wrote some impressive sentences to describe what their monster looks like!

By Jennifer Pickett
GCU

Woodlands Sports day fundraiser 2013!

The sun was beaming and the excitement has been growing for several weeks now about the sports day which was due to be held on 20th March 2013. Children were put into houses, red, green, yellow and blue with teachers assigned to each house. 

The morning saw the GCU boys give the field a spring clean with freshly cut grass, marking the field with chalk, getting sounds systems ready to go and the gazebo ready for action. All we needed was the children and boy did they come. 1pm soon caught up and on marched each team in their team colours chanting and clapping ready for the afternoons events. The usual athletic events were the order of the day starting with 800m girls in the U10. Of course no sports day would be complete without novelty races from grade R and 1, sack race with pillow cases, 'egg and spoon' with potatoes rather than eggs and the entertaining 3 legged race, mums of course got the chance to compete with a very eager Mrs Lee who put in an appearance in every parent race. The day rounded off with the ever exciting relay races with nail biting finishes.

 The day was a true success and it was wonderful to see parents coming to join in the fun and support their children and the school. This has been the second fundraiser the school has hosted for the year and whilst we must wait to see what the final figures were there is no denying that no matter what was raised everyone took part and enjoyed the moment. There are some things in life that we all share in common not matter from what part of the world you are from. Sports days are always and forever will be something we all share in common weather we were sporty or not, they are days which we cherish and remember the uniting of schools and of communities and Woodlands sports certainly did that.









All that is left to reveal is that blue house came 1st with over 130 points, followed by yellow and red in joint 2nd with last but by no means least the greens. Well done to all those who took part!






By Jennifer Pickett
GCU