Classroom News  

Canberra

Electoral Education Centre - E & J

When we went to the Electoral Education Centre we learnt about the House of Representatives, we learnt what age we can vote and we had a mini referendum. Did you know they say ‘Here Here’ instead of clapping. The Electoral Education Centre is located in the heart of Canberra’s Parliament. I had lots of fun there with all the hands on learning activities.

Questacon - Laura

Questacon is filled with fun and exciting hands on activities. We went to Questacon because it is connected to our Science curriculum. At Questacon there were different rooms connecting to different Science categories with each room full of enjoyable hands on activities. In the seventh room there was a free fall slide that you had to wear an orange suit, hang from a bar and let go. When we walked into Questacon the gift shop was at the start where most of the students bought interesting science gifts.

Australian Institute of Sport - Saraiya

During our time at the AIS we went on a tour around the campus. We were shown the different training facilities that Olympians and other members of the AIS may use. Every training area that we went to we were  told about what they are there for, how people train, what they do to have a good diet and she also told us that Olympians spend 4-5 hours a day. After that we went into the Sportex room where there were different sports games, it was like an arcade but for sports. Whilst some people were still playing in the arcade the teachers took different groups into the gift shops where we could buy souvenirs. We went there to learn about the different types of sports you can do and how you can achieve them, what the Olympians do to keep healthy and to have a fun experience. The thing I most enjoyed was looking at the different training facilities because it was interesting to see how and why they train.

Old Parliament House - Bella

When we went to old Parliament House we discovered a lot of new things including that the old Parliament House was designed with a British influence. We had to wear gloves so that our finger prints do not ruin the priceless items in there. We learned about Australia’s history and Prime Ministers from the past. We had a really great time.

Royal Australian Mint - Fergus

We had a mint time at the mint! We visited the Royal Australian Mint in Canberra. There was a big robot called Titan. Titan was their strongest robot and they used him to make coins. We looked through the history of coins and how they were made.

Telstra Tower - Seth

During our time in Canberra we visited the Telstra Tower. We used the elevator to get to the top of the tower where we saw some amazing views of Canberra. From the tower we saw the Parliament House, Australian War memorial and many other places! It also had a really cool gift shop.

National Portrait Gallery - Amaya

Whilst we were in Canberra we went to the National Portrait Gallery. We were shown around the galleries and we were told stories about the portraits. We stopped in front of some portraits and were told to draw what we found interesting about them. We went there to learn about portraits of significant Australians through history and we saw some original pieces. We even got to see Ned Kelly’s death mask. I enjoyed looking at the portraits because they were made out of different materials. Some were made from different types of oils and paints and they were put on canvas or linen.

National Capital Exhibition - Amber

At the national capital exhibition we learnt a lot about the construction of Canberra and the planning behind it. We went there because we wanted to learn more on how our capital territory developed. When we went there we got to reconstruct an important building that already exists with Lego and we looked at the design competition and who one. There was a 3D model of Canberra’s design and it had a projector that told a story.    

War Memorial - Caleb and Willis

During our time at Canberra we visited the Australian War Memorial. It was packed full of history it was founded by the famous Charles Bean. He decided to open the memorial to show the history of wars that Australia has fought in and how it’s changed. We looked at the wall of all the Australian soldiers that DIA (died in action) including John Simpson Kirkpatrick. At the memorial we saw many planes, medals and outfits and more. After all, the whole time was amazing and a very sad and interesting.

CSIRO - Hayley

On the 8th of August we went to the CSIRO where we had a scavenger hunt but this was an information hunt instead. How to play was very different to a normal scavenger hunt because you were given an iPad, 1-2 teammates, with a team name, and a map. After given those items you would have to scan a QR code, with the iPad, and it would come up with a question and to answer the question you would have to find the answer around the exhibits. Once you think you have the answer you needed to show the host the question, the team name and the back of the QR code that had numbers 1-3 on it. If your team got the question right you would get however many points were on the back of the QR code. At the end the host added the points up and the team with the most points got a prize.

Sydney

Room 30

Our class has had a focus on Reading last term and this term. We have been doing lots of different activities and learning about many reading strategies. We have 5 groups for reading where we do guided reading and other activities. Summarising is one of the strategies we have learnt about. We chose a book and had a photo taken with it, then wrote a summary about it. We also have a graffiti wall on our door where we add words we find that are interesting while reading. Another activity we have been doing is writing comic books. This has been fun and we have enjoyed reading and doing activities about books.

Room 5A

This term in Room 5A, we have been learning bout living things.  We went on an excursion to the Adelaide Zoo and participated in the life cycle program. We had chicks in our classroom we got to observe the life cycle of a baby chick. This created many learning opportunities for the children. On Wednesday’s we participate in a STEM program with Mr Simon Bowden.  Students have each chosen their own animal and made it out of play dough. They then will design and make an enclosure for their chosen animal. Next week we start designing and making our own enclosures. The children are really excited.

Room 4

In room 4 we have been learning about the word ‘enclosure’. We saw lots of different animal enclosures on our excursion to the zoo. We discussed that each animal needs different things in their enclosures.  Some animals need water and others need trees, rocks or grass.

Children worked in small groups to design and make an animal enclosure for an animal. The children then worked together to design and make their animal enclosure. They used different resources such as: blocks, leaves, sticks, rocks and paper to create their enclosures.

Room 29

Room twenty nine’s class Book Week art activity was related to the shortlisted book "The Patchwork Bike," by Maxine Clarke.

The children constructed their own 3D patchwork bikes out of junk materials. The children put nails into wooden boards and used the nails to support wire, plastic washers tubing and many other junk materials.

The children were highly motivated and put a lot of thought, effort and imagination into their art pieces.

Room 19

Students in Room 19 have been learning about information texts. They have spent much time looking at how information texts are put together and what goes into them. As a class students did a project on the Australian kangaroo where they learnt how to read through texts and pull out key information using highlighters as they went.  They then re wrote draft copies in their work books using their own words.

Once a draft had been done students began to put together their own information texts during book making time on the Australian kangaroo. These books included titles, a contents page, page numbers and labelled diagrams.

Finally after a lot of hard work they were able to publish their books in the library, but not before receiving some extra finishing touches from Jenny, who gave each student a ‘not for loan’ sticker to put on the front of their book before placing them on the shelf with a big ‘New Release’ sign placed next to them.

Book Week - Room 31

We made a book of poems for our Buddy Class, Room 20, to celebrate Book Week.