Weeks 6 and 7: the Little Classroom of Happiness!

This is a slightly delayed update as I have had no internet connection at home for two weeks due to a phone fault that Telstra has "sort of" remedied.  The last two weeks have been extremely busy with the annual school swimming carnival, a cultural performance... and a couple of short weeks due to a public holiday and an awards ceremony I attended in Melbourne; so proud of our school! Anyway here are a  few highlights.

Here are some more absolutely stunning and meticulously presented interactive lapbook from the students in relation to our Charlotte's Web unit. We are well into the novel now and working on character traits of Fern, Wilbur, Templeton and Charlotte. Students have also completed a sequence wheel and a predictions crystal ball.

Here the kids are hard at work on their sequencing wheels, based on chapter  4 of the novel. There were four different levels to move into this activity with, four different proformas and students chose the one they felt most confident with. 

Last week the students completed a STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics) activity; they created their own explorer's ship. The idea belongs to Mrs A! Assembling the masts and balancing it is the challenge...for me too! We  experimented with Plasticine and Blu Tac.  I am bringing in some rice on Monday. Hmmm BlueTacnot working...clay?

One happy lad

The "Looking Through the Picture Frame of History" is progressing well wherein students are going to come to life as a well-known sea explorer from the past  (1500's to 1800's). They have to take third person texts and convert them to the first person, and put them into the progressive present; now that takes some care and skill! Last week the children learnt about locating reliable sources and also how to use keywords to construct their own sentences. The typing up of the script is a bit slower process than I anticipated; a legacy of working with grade 5-6 for so long. The presentations will be filmed and about seven will be presented in an assembly early in term 2. The students are also sharing with our buddy prep/one class.

We are currently looking at multiplication as an efficient way of adding. Students  did a tactile activity, a logic activity looking closely at the relationship between continual adding and multiplying. They also listened to a song for an auditory experience. The guy who sings the song has some unusual notes but the novelty may help them learn their two times number facts.

Some students have also started their jigsaw puzzles; a very creative endeavour. They are drawing a portrait of their explorer or encapsulating the essence of them in pictures, symbols and words. I will show them how to fold boxes to house them this week. Just ordered some more as I only had a few left over from last year when we made historical showbags.

Here are some students playing the symmetry game wherein they learn about shapes which are symmetrical and shapes which are asymmetrical. There will be a sequence on this soon. They had mirrors to check the accuracy of their thoughts.

The cultural performance was called What Style?  which ran for a double lesson last Monday morning focused on the many different genres of music. The popular nursery rhyme Humpty Dumpty was set to different rhythms. Many children had the chance to participate and the rap rendition proved to be hilarious. Even a couple of staff were summoned to the stage for the Jazz genre! Mr Bucher did a fabulous job on the trumpet. I am sure he won't mind me sharing this: 

Also a big thanks to Ms Aleece Saunders, our buddy class teacher,  for being such a  great escort to the ASG National Excellence in Teaching Awards held in Melbourne. She was a great support and minder. That's why we both left early Thursday but we couldn't say anything (It's called a media embargo...shhhh). How excited was I on this day and how proud was I of our school and my class from last year. Tasmania rocks! Three national awards out of twelve! One in early childhood, one in primary and one in secondary. I now have some funds to employ a few illustrators to come into the school to take some workshops with the staff, kids and parents.

http://www.asg.com.au/doc/default-source/NEiTA/2015_neita_national_awards_carolyn_coote_tas.pdf?sfvrsn=2