Welcome to the third edition of The Update - the Spinifex newsletter writ-ten for students, by students. This is the last newsletter for the year and as always, Class 7S have been working hard this term in LEP lessons to put together a jam packed edition for you. Congratulations to 7S for being the first year group to put out a regular newsletter with a student voice. They’ve done a fantastic job, I’m sure you’ll agree. They hand over to the new Year 7s in 2019. Ms Yates

Your Newsletter, Your Way

Awards Night

On the 7th of November, Spinifex students from both Junior and Senior campus gathered at the Civic Centre to receive their Achievements of Excellence. Family and friends come together to celebrate students from year 7 to year 12 that have excelled in their school subjects. It was a big turnout filled with special guests, family and friends. Special guests from all around Mount Isa included Rob Katter, Phil Barwick, and rep-

resentatives from Mount Isa Mines and TAFE North West, Hon. Tony McGrady and Sandra McGrady. Special awards included Excellence in Mathematics, Cultural awards, TAFE Students of the Year, Sports-person of the Year, Leadership awards and Junior and Senior Dux. Many students were congratulated for their hard work and academic achievement. By Hannah Smith and Keanah Butler

Spinifex State College

Student Newsletter

The Update

Inside this issue:

Y12 Graduation 2,3

Sports 5

Subject Focus 6

Short Stories 8-14

Fun Facts 14

Recipe 15

Christmas 18

3 December 2018 Issue 3

Logo adapted by Claire Dowling

Page 2 The Update

Year 12 Formal

It was a night to remember. The 2018 graduates from Spinifex arrived all glammed up to attend their one and only Grade 12 for-mal. Students gathered at the Mount Isa Civic Centre to celebrate their final year together. Every year the formal has a theme. This year’s theme was ‘Neverland’. Students arrived in flashed up cars and walked the red carpet

to enter the beautifully deco-rated foyer. During this celebration, stu-

dents all gathered on the

stage for a group photo and

then joined in cutting their

specially made graduation

cake donated by Brumby’s.

Students danced the night

away and enjoyed their once

in a lifetime opportunity of

their Grade 12 formal.

By Hannah Smith

Page 3 Issue 3

In the start of Term 4,

the Minister of Edu-

cation, Ms Grace

Grace, visited Spini-

fex State Collage

Junior Campus to

see what we do and

how we learn. She

got a presentation

from the school band,

looked at our two oth-

er editions of our

school newsletter

and looked at the ro-

botics from the year

9’s. Minister Grace

was really impressed

with the way we learn

and also

took a

copy of

our newsletters to

read in her reading

time. This proves the

Spinifex is a fantastic

school!

By Jacob Juillerat

about all the con-

trols and they got to

learn how every-

thing works in a ra-

dio station! It was

an outstanding ex-

perienced that all

the girls loved, it

even convinced one

of them that they

might like to pursue

a career in radio.

Six lucky girls from

7S were invited to

visit the ABC radio

station on Tuesday

the 06-11-18. These

girls were able to

watch the morning

broadcast as Esther

MacIntyre went live

on the ABC radio sta-

tion. They got to ask

questions, learn

By Charlotte Johnson

Page 4 The Update

ABC Radio Vis it

Minister Grace Grace Vis its Spinifex

On Tuesday the 6th of November Ms Yates and 6 people from 7S Amanda, Charlotte, Danielle, Kelly, Tia and me had the oppor-tunity to visit the ABC Radio Sta-tion to see how the morning breakfast program is done every day by Esther MacIntyre (who was filling in for Zahra, who was also filling in for their boss). There weren’t as many people as were normally there, so it wasn’t that lively, however it was very interesting. Another thing they had to cover for was that a variety of the towns in Queens-land had a public holiday (see the orange area on the map). We got to learn how simple it is to control the equipment be-

cause you basically only need to know how to turn on and off broadcast and mics. Also you have to know what to play and how long to play it for. The sto-ries were very short but it was still a tight schedule of 30 minutes with some pre-recorded interviews and live interviews over the phone plus songs from a list emailed to Esther every day or from her own collection. She has to make sure the songs don’t have any swearing in them and then play them between the stories. We rotated between the rooms once every 15 minutes to see what happens in both the broad-casting and production rooms. After the broadcast of the break-

fast program was over we were able to ask questions and Amanda got to try out the mic and be asked questions by Es-ther MacIntyre. Esther said that it was easier to be asking the questions then answering the questions. Overall the ABC Radio Station was very interesting to go to and I would definitely do it again if I had the opportunity to. By the 6th person from 7S………

Trinity Eussen…

Page 5 Issue 3

MIJA Judo

By Rachel Toohey

Spinifex and Good Shepherd went all out in three games of NRL, junior boys, girls and open men’s. The crowd was filled with navy blue and or-ange colours representing each school with pride. They were battling at Alic Inch Oval, the junior Spinifex boys won against Good Shepherd by many points. Then the girls; the game was excitingly funny to watch. The crowd would cheer when one of the girls would put a big hit on the ball carrier. The siren rang for half time and the teams re-laxed and drank water for five minutes until it was time for the next half. In the next half, Good Shepherd dominated and beat Spinifex by a whopping number of points.

Then the opens boys played; this game was the best out of all of them. The crowd was louder than ever, the scores were close in the first half but Good Shep-herd was leading. But at half time Spinifex’s best player left and Spinifex wasn’t doing too well without their play maker. Good Shepherd seized the op-portunity and smashed them by a lot but Spinifex held their heads high and shook the other players’ hands, took photos with them and had a good laugh. Everybody left and the event was finished. It was a fantastic day of sport. Written by Kurt Caulton

Spinifex vs Good Shepherd

Do you want to take up a sport? Have you ever thought about a martial art? Then MIJA Judo Academy is the place to go. MI-JA stands for Mount Isa Judo Academy. It is located near Barkly Highway State School on David Rd and Urquhart St. They offer a 4-week trial, so you can give it a try and see if it’s the sport for you. Judo is all about throwing people and getting thrown in turn. You learn to make foot sweeps and hold downs which can be fun. However, you need to be pre-pared to be thrown yourself and learn how to land without being hurt. The word Judo means “gentle way”. The aim of judo is to use maximum efficiency with mini-mum effort. This means in order to make a throw properly, you must avoid using all your mo-mentum in one move to have the

energy to continue with the bout. Judo offers an opportunity to make new friendships and builds trust with your partner. It is a sport that has been show cased in the Olympics since 1964. Judo originated in Japan. A man named Jigoro Kano created the basic moves in judo using trees as his inspiration. Noting that the willow tree would bend freely al-lowing for heavy winds and snow to land on its branches as op-posed to the oak tree that would snap and break. If you choose to join the club then you will begin on a white belt. The next solid belt you will receive is orange, then green, blue, brown and finally the black belt. Between the belts you can earn a half belt. By Nathaniel Wright

Page 6 The Update

Subject Focus : Food Specialisations

Riddles Corner

Q1: What 8 letter word can have a letter taken away and it still makes a word. Take another letter away and it still makes a word. Keep on doing that until you have one letter left. What is the word? Q2: The more you take, the more you leave behind. What am I? Q3: Can you name three consecutive days without using the words Monday, Tuesday, Wednes-day, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, or Sunday? Q4: What comes once in a minute, twice in a moment, but never in a thousand years? Q5: What has many keys, but can't even open a single door? Q6: You live in a one story house made "entirely of redwood" . What color would the stairs be? Q7: Mr. and Mrs. Mustard have six daughters and each daughter has one brother. How many people are in the Mustard family? Q8: What belongs to you, but other people use it more than you? Q9: What is black when you buy it, red when you use it, and gray when you throw it away?

Compiled by Rachel Toohey

Food Specialisations 1 In term 3 we looked at designing healthy food options for a can-teen. We produced items such as: burgers, mac n’ cheese, na-chos, stir-fry and stuffed pota-toes.

In term four we looked at cater-ing for an event at school. The unit was based around design-ing finger foods for the event. Some of the items produced were: sausage rolls, quiche Lor-raine, bruschetta, mini burgers, gyozas and sushi.

Both units had to align with the Australian guide to healthy eat-ing and we had to investigate ways to make food tasty and appealing but also healthy. By Ella Beauclerc, Year 9

Food Specialisations 2 In term three we had to make a group and decide on an event to cater for. Events such as sports carnivals, school disco, fund-raisers and burger trucks were chosen. Some of the food pro-duced were items such as burg-ers, creative milkshakes, brown-ies, caramel tarts, muffins, pies and sausage rolls. We re-searched all the recipes as a

group then produced them in the practical lesson in the desig-nated time of 70 minutes. In term 4 we had to decide on an end of year theme to cater for. The majority of our class chose Christmas. My group ex-perimented with many different sweet foods we never would have cooked on our own. Some of the items produced were gin-gerbread men, reindeer cook-

ies, trifle, rocky road, cheese-cake, Santa hat brownies, prawn and mango sliders and much more. Overall, I would recommend Food Specialisations 2 as it is amazing and the amount of in-dependence you get makes it so much fun and the skills you learn are really worthwhile. By Layla Jackson, Year 9

Page 7 Issue 3 1. 1. The word is starting! Starting, staring, string, sting, sing, sin, in, I 2. Footsteps 3. Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow 4. The letter ‘m’ 5. A piano 6. What stairs? You live in a one-story house 7. There are nine Mustards in the family. Since each daughter shares the same brother, there are six girls, one boy and Mr

and Mrs Mustard 8. Your name 9. Charcoal

The pool has finally reo-pened and it looks so fresh and new. They repainted the bath-rooms, the stairs and put new tiles on the edge of the pool. There are also three barbe-ques at the back with a large area of grass

where you can sit or lay. It’s been getting incredi-bly hot recently so if you don’t have a pool, go visit the town pool for a swim in the refreshing cool water!

By Kelly Belford

The Pool Has Reopened!

Image courtesy of North West Star

Mount Isa, Australia vs Rustenburg, South Africa

Mount Isa is very different to my home town, Rustenburg in South Africa, because it is very safe here in Mount Isa whereas in Rustenburg it is very dangerous. In Rustenburg people murder you in cold blood and would steal your things. People have guns, two metre-high gates and pit bulls to keep their

homes safe but here in Mount Isa many properties don’t even have one metre-high gate, they have small dogs and it is safe to walk at night and ride your bike. Rustenburg was an hour from one of the biggest cities in Afri-ca and an African mall that is one of the biggest malls in the world. However, Mount Isa is

10 hours from Townsville or 2 hours to a small one-horse town. It has been a big change com-ing here. By Simon Richter

House in Rustenburg House in Mount Isa

Riddles Answers

Page 8 The Update

Book Review: The Travell ing Cat Chronicles

Author: Hiro Arikawa Publisher: Unknown Storyline: ”Set against the backdrop of Japan’s changing seasons and narrated with a rare gentleness and humour, Nana’s story explores the won-der and thrill of life’s unexpected detours. It is about the value of friendship and solitude, and knowing when to give and when to take. TRAVELLING CAT has already demonstrated its power to move thousands of readers with a message of kindness and truth. It shows, above all, how acts of love, both great and small, can transform our lives.” What I like Best: I really love the plot and the character devel-opment in the story and how almost everything has a memory to it (like when the main charac-ter was naming the cat—I`m not going to spoil it for anyone).

There are also beautifully illus-trated images every chapter for everyone to enjoy. What I Didn`t Like: I didn`t dis-like anything in this book, it is a very well-written novel about the journeys of a stray cat and a welcoming human. Favourite Character: My fa-vourite character is Nana, the cat. Despite being a male, he has a quite feminine name but with a reason. Nana is the num-ber 7 in Japanese and Nana`s tail is usually shaped like a 7. Being set in a Japanese envi-ronment, the name Nana is most suited for him. He`s also my favourite because he is a cat and I am a cat person. Recommendation: I highly recommend this book to anyone and everyone even if you have never had a connection to or

with a cat, it would still make you feel a little emotional. If you do have a cat or had a cat, then this is the best book for you to overcome emotions and enjoy the memories of your cat. As coming from someone who has had a cat pass away from rea-sons, I definitely recommend this book to those who have lost a cat or any pet if you`d like. Illustrations: The illustrations in the book are very minimal but they are very elegant. Name of Reviewer: Jayden, 7S Date Started: 6/11/18 Date Finished: 13/11/18

The Photo—by Cla ire Dow ling

A little boy sat in class looking out the window when he saw a photo on the grass outside. He hadn’t seen anyone drop the photo and it wasn’t there when he sat down. When class finished he went outside and picked up the photo; he saw in it a beautiful girl with a peace sign. He asked around the school, but no one knew who she was. He went home and asked his older sister if she knew who the girl was. When his mother came home he asked if she knew who the girl was. No-one knew her. With no success in finding the girl he put her photo next to his bed. As he was falling asleep he heard tapping on his window. He got up and looked out his window; he didn’t see anything but he heard faint giggling. He climbed out of his window and followed the giggling down the street, when the giggling stopped he went back to his room and fell asleep. The next night as he went to fall asleep, he heard tapping on the window. He followed it out through the window and followed it out on to the footpath, as the giggling continued he chased after it onto the street. With picture in hand he ran after the giggling. He was struck to the ground by a car. The man looked

at the boy and saw him holding a picture of a girl holding up three fingers…

Page 9 Issue 3

The Yarramayahoo—by Claire Dowling

A Series of Emotions

The crowd, cheering as the stu-dents silently wait to be sig-nalled to start. Am I excited? Yes. Am I nervous? Heck yea! Both excitement and worry sur-round my body. The eyes of everyone are concentrated on us. Minutes later, when every-one is organised, Ms Patterson raises one hand, then the next. Silence creeps up my ears from every corner. I start to panic a little bit when thoughts come flashing in my head, what if I mess up? What if we don’t stay in time with Ms Patterson?

I take one deep breath, “1,2,3,4.” Music blasts from the students’ instruments. Proud faces are glued on the parents faces. Goosebumps travel through my body, hairs on my arms are sticking up. The con-centration on my face is price-less! My eyes glide through the paper like it was dancing, my ears listen to my fellow performers to keep track of where I am. My brain, thinking of what symbols there are and how to play it. We sound great! One

song is finished, then the next, and another, then another, until we finish all of them. Last term was great! But the instrumental students will sure miss the mu-sic during Term 4, and in the holidays. Either way, everyone had a fantastic time performing last term.

The Yarramayahoo looks like a little red man with skin like silk. He doesn’t have teeth which is strange for a vampire, instead he has long arm-like tentacles to wrap around his prey.

He stalks his prey from the tree tops then he dislocates his jaw to swallow his prey in one go. Next he will hibernate to let it settle down in his stomach; and then when he wakes up he re-gurgitates his meal. Then in the

pile of muck and goo is a baby, newborn Yarramayahoo. Now be warned this is a real

thing so be careful next time you

go camping as you may be his

next meal…

By Ebony Lees

Page 10 The Update

Survivor Day for Year 8s

If you were in Year 7 this year, you might have participated in the Year 7 to 12 Day. If you went, you probably remember all the fun activities that you did. Well, Survivor Day happened earlier in the term and is basi-cally the same as the Year 7 to 12 day, but for Year 8s!

Survivor Day was a day for Year 8s to have a break from school and to have a little bit of fun. They participated in a lot of fun activities and they probably had the best ‘school’ day of their entire lives. Below are some pictures from Survivor Day 2018!

By Jacob Juillerat

Cookie Jar—by Josh Dyer

Every night after dinner I would have a cookie only 1. But one night I was still hungry so while mum-my was watching television I ate 2 cookies. I then went and brushed my teeth, then hopped into bed. I tossed and turned but eventually fell asleep. I woke up in some sort of a glass container, sort of like the cookie jar. I tried to stand up, but to my surprise couldn’t get up. I looked down I had no legs and no arms either. I heard footsteps, loud footsteps. Then a massive hand opened the glass dome and picked me up, I tried to yell, but silence. The giant put me in her mouth before slowly chewing, bit by bit. I sat up so fast, I must have been dreaming again. 5:37 my alarm clock said. I yanked the sheet back, just as my mum’s fat sausage fin-gers gripped me and popped me in her mouth. I yelled but nothing came out, I heard my bones crunch as I watched my body get ripped to shreds.

Page 11 Issue 3

The Thing—by Hannah Osinski

Book Review: Seriously Norman

Seriously Norman is a fictional novel by Chris Raschka. It tells the tale of a boy named Nor-man Normann and his best friends, Emma, Anna and Leonard.

12 year old Norman had re-cently failed his test to attend ‘fancy school’. His father and mother are worried sick for poor Norman that he won’t be able to attend ‘fancy school’ and become a bomber sales-man like his father Orman Nor-man.

His mother Norma and his fa-ther Orman hire a private tutor who goes by the name Baltha-zar Birdsong to help prepare Norman for the test at the end of the year.

Balthazar Birdsong assigns Normann to read the diction-ary, one letter every two weeks. With this routine it falls

perfectly in line within the school test, one year away.

Norman studies, adventures and discovers many wonderful and wacky things with his tutor Balthazar Birdsong, and his best friends.

Read this amazing book and you yourself may even en-hance your vocabulary. I cer-tainly have learnt some weird words, some being cantanker-ous, bombastic, umbrous and firmament. If you do read this amazing book (which you should) I can guarantee you will learn at least one new word.

I personally believe this is one of the best books I have ever read. I believe this book is suit-able for teenagers and adults. I believe you will enjoy this book, as it is fun, wacky and adventurous.

By Josh Dyer

BANG! I jumped and stifled a gasp. It was getting cramped, hiding under the bed like I was, but it was the only safe place, the only place HE wouldn’t think to look. He had already checked under the bed, so he wasn’t likely to check again. I heard him leave the room and strained to reach my phone, to quietly call 112…

The reason I was trapped under the bed giving my address to the operator was the small detail that a psychopathic, mental person who claimed to be my friend was currently prowling around my house looking to murder me. Comforting. BANG! I almost jumped out of the bed, sweat covering my face, shivering in fear. Just a dream, just a dream… I told myself. Even as I say that though, I hear the slow footsteps, see the door ease open,

see the silver glint of the knife, see the terrifying face staring back at me, and

hear my own piercing scream….

Page 12 The Update

World Shift 2- AOT (Attack On Titan) - by Montana McCormick “So we are suddenly teleported into this strange world with na-ked giants!?” Blondie yelled try-ing to clarify things. “Shut it.” I growled at him. His hair was in the usual ponytail and thankfully this time we were not gender bended. He became quiet and turned to glaring at the titans. “AGAIN!?!?!” At last Kay joins us. I glared up to the brown haired girl who decided to land on me. “Oh! Sorry!!” She jumped up quickly and looked around. “This time we are in the world of Attack On Titan.” I grumbled looking back to the titans in front of us. “Why there not attacking us I don’t know.” I waved my hands around in the air trying to make them move but they did nothing. I sighed and turned to

the wall behind us. Kay was very close to ripping out her hair. Jay-den stood up followed by me and we just started walking to the wall. “WHERE ARE YOU GOING!?!” Kay shouted as we walked through the titans. “To safety!” I called back. Me and Jayden were the only one who knew about the world and where the safe spots were. We were just lazy and couldn’t be both-ered explaining it to the others. The two others soon followed us and we arrived at the front gate. “This is wall Maria and were breaking in through the pipe things.” I glared down to the river and the large metal poles that stopped titans from entering. Thankfully we were small enough to fit through them. “That’s a couple metres down so don’t blame me if you break your legs.” I explained then jumped into the water part. Jayden fol-lowed behind and we crawled out and onto the pathways on the side. “Eve!? Jayden!?” Kay peeked over the edge worry writ-ten all over her animated face. “Were fine. Jump into the water and don’t break your legs.” Jay-den called up. Blondie was the first to jump letting out a girly scream as he hit the cold water. We laughed at his misery then

all three of us laughed at Kay’s misery. After we pulled out Kay we just squeezed through the poles. “We look different again.” I finally said as we began climb-ing up a ladder. My usual brown hair was about the same length as last time. I was also the short-est of the group. Blondie’s blonde hair was a bit longer than usual and up in a ponytail as it was in the real world. The right side of Jayden’s golden hair was shaved off leaving the left side to fall over her eye while Kay’s hair went below her knees. Our eye colours were the same thankful-ly; Blondie’s was still brown the same as me and Kay’s eyes while Jayden had her brightly coloured Hazel eyes. Blondy was the tallest Kay com-ing next and Jayden and I being the shortest. We were about the same height. “Who are you?” After drying our clothes a little we noticed the crowd circling around us. “Great… Hi people! I’m…. Ryo Kobayashi and these are my siblings, Hide (Blondy), Ryuu (Jayden), and Aoi (Kay).” I called out using the same names we used last time.

♦Eve♦

Bad Dad Jokes

1. What do you call a Mexican who’s lost his car?

2. What do you call a girl with her knee caught in a fence?

3. How does a ninja ask for water?

4. What do you call a dog with an antenna?

5. Why can’t a bicycle stand up on its own?

6. What do you call a fish missing one eye?

7. What do you call cheese that isn’t yours?

Not tried yet? Come to me I have more! And yes

By Trinity Eussen

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Page 13 Issue 3

Weird Dreams

Have you ever had a weird dream? A dream where every single detail is designed to make you wake saying “what kind of dream was that?” Well I have. Now, let me tell you about some dreams that I have at night, dreams where I find my-self staring at the ceiling quietly contemplating what I witnessed with my dreamy eyes. The first dream has to do with school and not just any school, a school that has a staffroom that holds a magical stone that has the power to grant any wish you might have. Yeah, this is already weird but it somehow gets weirder. In my dream a friend who goes by many names, Bob, Jarod, Kyle etc. but for now we`ll just call friend Josh. What would happen in my dream is that Josh would come up to me and say “Hey Quintin, want to see something cool?” Which is where I would reply, “Sure, lead the way to this cool thing.” So me and Josh would walk to the staff only room that held the stone. Now of course we were acting suspicious because we weren`t allowed to touch it otherwise an alarm would go off but I didn`t say anything, to which Josh told me to “stay here I'll be back.” Which I agreed to but really shouldn`t have; why? well you`ll see. As soon as Josh stepped in the building, I dreamt that he did sick dogging moves to avoid the teachers, got into the room with the magical stone, tried to take it and then an alarm went off sending the school into lock down. All of which meant that Josh would come running out shouting at me “FOWLLOW!” which I did after I saw the teach-ers rushing right for us.

Now where would we be rush-ing to is a storage area that locks and we hid until the heat died down. Now picture this— you have a swarm of teachers on you, you’re backed into a storage shed, you’re almost... but the dream ends. Yeah, sort of an anti-climax but let me come up with the ending. To make a long story short, we didn`t make because since we were being chased by teachers they had more running speed and they caught us, getting us expelled. To which I would end by saying “Dammit Josh!” That’s a good ending right? Right. Ahh, maybe that’s more of an anti-climax again? Now this next dream is probably going to make you come up to me and ask “What have you`ve been doing in your life?” But to be honest with you, I have been playing video games; video games that somehow melt down into my brain and at night make a dream that’s a caboodle of nonsense. Now with word and sentences that you probably don`t under-stand the final weird dream I had (at this time) is not just one weird dream but a bunch of weird dreams. That’s right, the weird dreams I`m about to de-scribe to you are ones that can be made into a series. So now that I just destroyed your minds, allow me to dig its grave by telling you the basic plot. It starts on a dark and stormy night... Okay its not stormy. I go out to buy a brand new game (with my mother’s ap-proval) but while I'm gone a pose of bandits swoops into my mother’s house, kidnaps my mum and both of my sisters and drives away. After I come back,

I get told about what happened through now talking cats. The rest of the dreams are me trying to save my family from an evil organisation that is trying to get their ultimate dream powers. So as you can see this dream could be considered two things, one just a weird thing that I told and you about, or you can con-sider it an awesome idea that could easily fit into a comic book setting. On that note, if you want my crazy/weird dreams to be possi-bly drawn as a comic book just let me know and if you don`t know where to find me at lunch, I will be in the library watching a movie. Just remember to ask if yo’re actually talking to Quintin Bawden. Now I have to go but I will be back soon bye for now. By Quintin Bawden

Page 14 The Update

Fun facts:

-There’s volcano in Indonesia that spews blue lava. -After reading this post you will not recognize that the the brain doesn’t recognize the second ‘the’. -Bubble wrap was originally intended to be used as wallpaper. -you are completely blind for hours every day, but Saccadic Masking renders you totally unaware of it. -Tears caused by sadness, happiness and onions look different under the microscope. -The expiration date on water bottles is for the bottle, not the water. -You can always see your nose, but your mind just ignores it. -The year 2015 was one second longer than usual because of the slowing of the Earth’s rotation. -Google has been acquiring 2 companies per month since 2010. -Blue flames are hotter than red flames. -On Venus, it snows metal. Two types have been discovered so far: galena and bismuthinite. -Newborn babies cannot cry tears for at least three weeks. -Hippopotamus milk is pink. By Sarah Toohey

Silhouette—By Willow Ngatai

I wake up to a quiet cold whisper in my ear. My alarm clock flashes 12:00am. It is dead silent. I lie back down trying to get comfortable. My closet door slowly creeps open followed by the sound of the howling wind roaring outside. I hide under my white sheets. The night light flickers. I feel long sharp finger nails push through my stomach; I stand up to look in the mirror. Nothing is there. As I adjust the night light, a black silhouette figure sits up in my bed. The door dramatically shuts and the light turns off. I feel cold hands wrap around my neck and my eyes roll back into my head.

To be continued...

How Pun-y!

Compiled by Trinity Eussen

Page 15 Issue 3

Dark Chocolate Brownies

Ingredients: • 180 g Flora Butter • 75 g cocoa • 1 1/2 cup caster sugar • 4 drop vanilla extract • 4 eggs • 100 g plain flour • 3/4 tsp baking powder • 100 g 70% cocoa dark chocolate • 1 cup walnuts

Method: 1. Preheat oven to 160°C (140°C fan-forced). 2. Line a 20 cm x 30 cm Swiss roll tin with baking paper. 3. Mix butter and cocoa in a large bowl, then add sugar, vanilla and eggs. Mix in remaining ingre-

dients. 4. Pour into prepared tin and bake for 30-40 minutes until firm but still moist. Allow to cool com-

pletely in tin before cutting into squares. Notes: •If you don't like walnuts, leave them out or switch them with another nut - macadamia also works well. •To ensure you get lovely, moist brownies, be sure to not leave them in the oven too long. They will firm up a little as they cool. •This recipe was made by Flora for Kidspot.com.au

Compiled by Hannah Osinski

Year 6. The top of the chain at primary school. Surely we’ve all been there before. Year 6 transition prepares all of them for the wonders of high school and the primary school students came to Spinifex from weeks 4 to 6. From Central all the way through to Townview, grade 6 classes were here. The first group to come was Central State School; they were excited but nervous, like all the Year 6s. Next was Sunset, they were such a small group of students. The last school to come in week 4 was Happy Valley. Two classes of around 26 – 28 students came and they were one of the largest groups. The start of week 5 Healy came, again another small group. At the end of week 5 Barkly came. Just like Happy Valley they were a large group. Also on the same day was Camooweal, they were the smallest group; that’s probably why they fitted in so well with everyone else. The final school that came was Townview State School; they came at the start of week 6. All the schools came with a positive attitude and had a great time at Spinifex completing all the fun activities. We look for-ward to seeing them here next year! By Tia Peel

Transitions 2018

Page 16 The Update

Cheesy Pickup Lines

Hey can I tie your shoelaces? Cause I don’t want you falling for anyone else.

Is your left eye alright? Cause you’ve been looking right all day…

My darling you are a 9 out of 10 and I’m the 1 you

Are you a camera? Cause every time I see you I smile.

By Trinity Eussen

The world’s deadliest animal

Did you know the mosquito is the world’s deadliest animal. This is due to the diseases the mosqui-tos spread. There are over 3,500 species of mosquitos and over 300 of them are in Australia but only a small number of them are a concern. The female mosquitos only bite you for the protein in your blood to help her eggs develop then can lay up to 300 eggs; whereas the males drink nectar from flow-ers.

CO2 is something mosquitos are kind of addicted to it’s a way they hunt down their next feast. To do this they use a maxillary palp, a special organ they have, that fol-lows the smell of CO2 we breathe out. These deadly, disease spreading insects are also greedy, they can drink up to three times their own body weight in blood! Mosquitos have also been here since the Triassic period; evi-

dence of these biting insects has been dated back to then. If you’ve seen Jurassic park series (1-5) then you wouldn’t be sur-prised. Also nature’s blood suck-ers don’t just bite humans, they bite other animals such frogs and birds. By Trinity Eussen

Random facts you most likely don’t know about mosquitos… ~ Mosquitos are attracted to smelly feet because of the bacteria in your sweaty feet~ ~ Mosquitos are attracted more to pregnant woman and larger people because they generate more CO2 then most people~ ~Studies show that mosquitos prefer blood type O more than the other blood types~ ~Each year mosquitos kill more than 2 million people in the world! That’s more than any other animal~ ~Mosquitos only come out at night because sun exposure can dehydrate and kill, in fact they will seek out cool, shaded and wet areas until dusk ~ ~ red blood cells don’t contain DNA so you couldn’t create dinosaurs with a

preserved mosquito like in the Jurassic Park series~

Page 17 Issue 3

Christmas is not far away and the lovely people at the Mount Isa mines are already celebrat-ing with the yearly Mount Isa Mines Christmas party! Cele-brating with fireworks, jumping castles, show bags and music. The Christmas party is open to mount Isa mines employees and their immediate family. The evet happens at Kruttschnitt oval on Friday the 9th of Novem-ber and the 30th of November, the gates opening at 6:00PM

and it ends at 11:30PM. Also, bring your cameras to take pic-tures with Santa who arrives at 7:15PM with the fireworks start-ing at 9:00PM.

(This event is only open to

Mount Isa Mines employees

who received an invitation and

their immediate family)

By Charlotte Johnson

Mount Isa Mines Christmas Party

Goodbye Year 9s!

As we all must know the time has come to say farewell to the year nines!

The year nines are graduating and moving on to the next stage. In year 10 you again de-cide your electives but also start doing work. Year 10 is a difficult

year and it will be difficult to adapt to the different changes.

The year nines have done a lot this year. They transitioned over to senior campus for a couple days and also are living the last days of being at Junior Cam-pus.

Year nines will be very much missed and are appreciated for all the work they have done dur-ing there years participated for the Spinifex Community. Thankyou Year nines have a lovely time next year!

Willow Ngatai

The Update

Christmas Ginger Cake Recipe: This homemade recipe originates from my cultural background, Swiss. Some of the ingredients can only be bought in Switzerland and that’s why it’s very special. Fortunately, we have found substitute ingredients for the recipe that can be bought here to result in the same ginger bread cake recipe. Hope you enjoy! Ingredients/method: • Pre-heat oven to 180 degrees • In a bowl, add 500g of raw sugar, 500g self-raising flour, 4 tbsp of ginger

bread spice/ mix and 4 tbsp of chocolate powder • Mix ingredients together until combined. • Then add 500ml milk, 4 tbsp vegetable oil and mix • Pour into lined 20x20cm baking tray • Bake in pre-heated oven for approximately 40-46 minutes (check with a skewer to see if it’s ready)

By Rachel Toohey