Designing and Making

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Our lovely office lady Mrs P is sick, so 6M spent thirty minutes yesterday designing and making cards and writing her get well letters. They worked with the following few guidelines.

You have thirty minutes to create something.
Work by yourself or in a small group, no bigger than a three.

Within five minutes the classroom was a buzz with cutting and pasting, designing and making, typing and writing. It is a testament to these girls that no-one was left out and everyone was on task.

What was even better was that I could hear them showing great thinking, cooperating and collaborating skills.

  • What about we try this?
  • Do you like this idea?
  • I can do that.
  • What a great idea
  • Would it better if we did this?
  • What about this?
  • What does that part do?
  • Can you show me how?

Mrs P we miss you. Please get well soon.

 

 

Can you take this survey?

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An academic from Sydney is trying to find 2000, 8 – 16 year old students to take this survey on student use of digital media. He is interested in your opinions about your use of the internet. I have looked at the survey and I think his questions are really sensible and interesting. One day we may be able to view his results and learn more about how students and young people in 2012. You can you take his survey if you are between 8 and 16, that certainly covers year 6. Perhaps you have brothers and sisters who could take it too?

Link to Digital Media Survey

For your parents here is the link to further information about why Dean Groom has created this survey. He is interested in What patterns can be found in the interactive media activities and opinions of young people?

 

Playing by the rules

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We played a game, in the playground this afternoon. It involved two teams, 6A and 6M. It was a very frustrating game, as the referee Mr A did not tell us the rules. During the game he also kept changing his mind about what we could and couldn’t do. At one point we could kick the ball, at another we could only throw it. He did not seem to be a very fair referee. At the end we were all thoroughly confused. Some students also accused Mr A of bias towards 6A, as he decided that they were the winners.

This game led to a great discussion, all about rules. Who makes them? Who decides what they should be? Who tells us when a new rule or law is made? How important are rules in a school and laws in a country? How do rules support our rights and responsibilities? How do we judge what is fair or not?

These questions formed the first part of our HSIE unit on Democracy and Government, which we started today. maybe you would like to continue this discussion at home. What do you think? Write us a comment to let us know.

Year 6 Peer Support Leadership Training

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Year 6 has just spent two days training to be leaders for the upcoming Peer Support sessions, which will be run on Friday afternoons the rest of the term.

Over the two days, they learnt a range of skills that will help them to effectively lead small cross grade peer support groups. One of the important skills they learnt was the importance of both verbal and non-verbal communication. Another skill they learnt about was assertiveness, including how to be assertive in a sensitive way when leading their groups. They had a number of opportunities to practise their new skills in a wide range of fun activities. The two days finished with them role playing the leading of a small group in a mock up peer support session.

It was a great two days, a huge thank you to Miss B for taking the time to come off class and share her expertise with us. I look forward to working with Year 6 as they lead their Peer Support group in the coming weeks.
The sessions will focus on teaching the rest of the Junior School the required skills, knowledge and attitudes that are necessary to interact with one another in a friendly and positive way.

The photos below give an indication of how much fun we had over the two days.

AUS/USA

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There was great excitement in year 6 on Tuesday. And no it was not because we finished maths groups early. It was because a huge, heavy box had arrived for us all the way from America and we finished maths groups early so we could unpack it. We have been communicating with a grade six class in Hanscom in Massachusetts, using an edmodo group called AUS/USA. This group was started by Mrs Miller and their teacher Mrs Fairchild since her class were learning all about Australia and they needed help with finding out about life from a student’s perspective. The communication between these groups has been amazing both Mrs Miller and Mrs Fairchild have been so impressed with the care and time our students have taken to answer questions and help each other learn about life on the other side of the world.

Take a look at these pictures to see some of the fabulous things we were sent in our parcel. These included, taffy toffee, girl guide cookies, oreo cookies in new flavours, maps, guide books, magazines, photographs, a signed baseball. A figurine of a baseball player and postcards the students had created.

Now it is our turn. What shall we send them? What could you bring to add to our parcel or Australian goodies? Let us start collecting our items next week. Please bring anything you can contribute to school soon.

ANZAC Day

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On Tuesday the 24th April the Junior School took time to time out from its regular routine to participate in an ANZAC Day service led by members of Year 6. ANZAC stands for ‘Australian and New Zealand Army Corps.
ANZAC Day which is on the 25th April every year, is one of Australia’s most important occasions.
It marks the anniversary of the landing of Australian and New Zealand soldiers on the beaches of Gallipoli in 1915, during the early stages of World War 1.
On ANZAC Day, Australians take time to remember all those members of the armed forces who have fought for our countries freedom, together with those who are still serving in various parts of the world.
Our special guest speaker was Lieutenant Colonel Bradford of the Australian Army. He spoke about the sacrifices made by Australian men and women to ensure we are able to live in the wonderful country we have today. He also told us that the ANZAC story demonstrates how important it is to do our best and to always be loyal to our friends and country.
I congratulate all the girls who participated in our ANZAC Day commemoration and thank Lieutenant Colonel Bradford for his contribution.

Cake stall

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We are so grateful to the wonderful mums from year 6 families, who helped us to run a cake stall last week. Check out these amazing photos to be reminded of the sugar hit we all enjoyed. Mrs Miller thinks there must be a maths lesson in these pictures too. Can you spot it?

Arabic or lattice multiplication

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We are learning all about strategies for multiplication this week both one and two digit. We know how to double and halve as one strategy for two digit multiplication. Another strategy is Arabic multiplication. We are very grateful to Mr Searle and Wensleydale Middle School for their permission to put this video on our blog. Watch it carefully several times and see if it helps you with two digit multiplication.

For those of you who love patterns check out this site the Multiplication waterfall  thanks to Tess W’s Dad.

Multiplication Waterfall

Rainforests

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We have been learning about the rainforests of the world this term. Some of us decided to create create dioramas to display our knowledge of the world’s rainforests.
What do you know about rainforests?

  • Did you know approximately 6000 acres of rainforests are destroyed every hour?
  • Did you know rainforests hold lots of valuable minerals?
  • Did you know rainforests are often called the world’s lungs?
  • Did you know most of the world’s fruit originated in rainforests?