Wednesday 22 May 2013

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

Tuesday 7 May 2013

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