Community Inquiry

Grade 1/2s

The 1/2s might be small in size but they sure have had a giant impact! These students have created two large indigenous gardens, and we still have more planting to do!  When students reflected upon how it felt to plant indigenous plants and create these gardens, many students shared comments like the following:

• "It was really fun!"
• "It felt good to show respect to the Wurundjeri people by taking care of Country like this"
• "I wish we could garden every week!"

A lot of our learning this term has been to prepare us for the big plantings for World Environment Day. We had a big focus on how to "Plant it Right" with thanks to the Merri Creek Management Committee for an incursion on this topic, and on the kinds of plants that are indigenous (from this area in which we're planting them) rather than native or introduced. Perhaps your children have come home talking about the indigenous themeda called kangaroo grass, or of dianella (which needs blue banded bees to pollinate it), lomandra or poa grass. 

We're currently in Waring season - the best season for doing such plantings, as the rain should do most of the watering for us and it's cool enough for long enough for the plants to settle in before the weather gets hot. At the very start of this term, we created Kulin Nation seasonal birthday posters which are on display in the classrooms alongside the birthday walls. Perhaps you've seen them! 

Grade 3/4s - Ethical Inquiries into Lies & Truth

I'm sorry that I don't have colourful and interesting photos for the 3/4s like I do for the 1/2s; we're doing very different learning! I can promise you, though, that the discussions that we're having are definitely colourful and interesting!

This term, the 3/4s have been exploring when it is and isn't ok to lie or tell the truth. To do this, we've delved into a few ethical dilemmas and we've listened to two episodes from the ABC podcast "Short & Curly". 

We've learned about the Three Heads tool for deciding whether or not what we say (lie or truth) is the best choice ethically, and we've started to think about the focus of our own podcast: Is it ever ok to lie to get out of trouble? This is something that many students here believe, but perhaps just as many don't. We'll certainly have lots of interesting discussions in the weeks to come! If you have any experience in creating podcasts, please let me know - I've never created one before, so the 3/4s and I are about to navigate a new space!

Here are some photos of the variety of learning that is visible in books; I'm sorry that you can't hear the learning that's audible in the room!

Nerida

Community Inquiry - Specialist Teacher