From the Classroom
News from 5/6
Grade 5 and 6 have just returned from an amazing camp at Sovereign Hill. The expirance emersed students in the 1850s and at the hight of the gold rush and was a higlight of the year for most.
Here are a few student summaries which outline our expeirance
Sovereign Hill Camp: A summary
By Sullivan Barre
We went to sovereign hill for three days. We arrived on Wednesday 25th of October, and
left Friday 27th. In the middle of that, we did many activities, including panning for gold, exploring a gold mine, watching someone color candles to help 1850’s miners, and writing
in the handwriting schools had to write in back then. Sovereign Hill was changed and built to look like a place back in the 1850’s. It has a very important part in the history of the gold rush. It had tonnes of gold back then, but now not so much. In our free time, four groups would explore around. Many shows were put on each day, and many souvenir and lolly shops were open to us. We could bring $20 to spend on anything, but most was spent on lollies. In the evenings, we would do an evening activity. Night one was a light show. The first part was how earth and gold was made. The second was a show about the aboriginals. The third was the full story of the gold rush. The second night was a minute to win it! The team that came first was Ben, Benny, Reina, Thomas and Gabe, aka the Brainiacs. After all that, everyone would all get ready for bed and call it a night, not being able to wait for the next day's activities.
Sovereign Hill Camp: A summary
By Sylvie
Recently the 5/6 unit went on an excursion to Sovereign Hill for a three day camp, where we were educated about life as a miner in the ballarat goldfields from 1851 to 1863.
At night we had activities too, like the Aura light show that showed us all that happened with colonisation as well as the history of gold and how our world came to be, provided to us with a 3d cinema and projections. Then we rode in an electronic bus with light and sound to the next outdoor theatre where they showed us how the Eureka stockade started.
A highlight for most people was the gold panning down by the river. Although most gold had already been taken from the river in the goldrush, (it was over 100 years old,) there was still a fair bit of gold in there, and lots of people found a little speck to take home as a souvenir.
Overall it was a great experience for all the 5/6‘s we had a great time and learned lots of things about the past.
Sovereign Hill Camp Summary
By Brooklyn
We arrived at Sovereign Hill on the 25th of October Wednesday it ended on the 27th of October on Friday these are some of the things that happened at Sovereign Hill, on the first day we went to a gold pour and watched a man melt gold. Then groups split off and explored, then people went to the education centre, everyone did this writing task using old fashioned pens and old looking blackboards, after that kids were looking at the candy that they didn't get yet but all the activity groups went to the confectionary making centre and watched a lady make acid drops made of toffee, sugar and citric acid then some groups went to the gold panning site, and some actually found gold! Most kids went to the playground and afterwards had dinner and dessert. Then everyone went on an electronic bus like a tesla, and watched this cool light show about gold, the dream time and the eureka stockade. The next day kids started buying stuff like lollies and souvenirs, Most groups went panning, and still people found even more gold but they were tiny specks, but it still was a find.
Group 3 left the panning and went to the gold pour and saw it again and was the only group to do this. Everyone grouped up again and went to the education centre and split into groups to find out stuff about a person who lived in Australia and what their job was and where they came from.
Everyone had dinner which was spaghetti bolognese and had desert which was
cheesecake and after that went to the dining hall and split into groups and did Mr Kights trivia and the Brainiacs won and they won extra raw pasta sticks on the final day people went to look at the blacksmith make a cool metal by melting iron and twisting it round a pole on his anvil. After watching the blacksmith, people explored for a bit and went to watch the gold pourers brother make candles and then they went back to school and each got a candle.
What's happening in 3/4
In English, we are continuing to read the The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Students are very engaged and are enjoying following along and completing tasks associated with the novel. Students are starting to investigate the different parts of a narrative such as dialogue, sequence of events and paragraphing. We are also continuing to explore cultures and traditions around the world by reading various picture books from around the world and learning different dance moves from different countries and cultures in Performing Arts.
We are coming towards the end of our maths topic on fractions. Our last task will be ordering fractions (proper, improper and mixed numbers) on a number line. We will continue with our focus on creating maps, giving and following directions and using coordinates to identify landmarks. We also continue to revise the 4 processes on a weekly basis. Students are encouraged to keep learning and practising their timetables at home. There are many songs that can be found on YouTube and games that can be found through a google search.
Class Challenge: Can you solve this problem?
The number of legs on 8 dogs.
The number of legs on 7 ants.
Give the equation and answer to your teacher to receive a reward.
The Adventures of 1/2s
The past two weeks have been a lot of fun in the grade 1/2 classes!
Maths - Time telling
In mathematics the students were all about learning to tell time. They got creative and made their own clocks using paper, markers, and lots of excitement. They were super into understanding reading the time on both analog and digital clocks, like "o'clock," "half past," "quarter past," and "quarter to" times. With fun interactive activities and lessons, our learners got the hang of reading their analog clocks and learned to appreciate the importance of being able to tell the time. It's clear that these early lessons will help them be time-telling pros in the long run, proving that even tricky stuff like time can be fun to learn.
English - Writing
The past two weeks our grade 1/2 students have had heaps of fun learning how to write persuasive pieces with emotive language. They kicked things off by reading 'I Wanna Iguana,' and then they brainstormed all the good and not-so-good things about having a class pet. After a big vote this week, they all agreed that they wanted a class pet. 1/2b agreed on getting a monkey and 1/2A chose Poppy the Puppy. Together, they spent time writing persuasive letters to Mr. Mulhull, to convince him it was a great idea to get a pet Monkey and Puppy. The letters are pretty amazing, filled with all sorts of reasons and heartfelt words to make their case. These excellent writers showed they're getting the hang of using words to get what they want, and that's pretty cool! Watch out parents!
We also had some fun making chocolate balls, lots of sticky yumminess was had!!!
Fantastic Foundation
In Inquiry, students excitedly performed their dance to 'Count on Me' by Bruno Mars they should be very proud of how they did. Many students were nervous but they overcame this to stand at the front of assembly. Well done!
In English, we are nearing the end of our persuasive topic and have been reading "Hey Little Ant" this has led to many conversations about our opinions of whether the little ant should get squished. In Literacy, in the coming weeks we will be focusing on the two letter k sound /ck/ and continuing to build on our skills in reading words and sentences using the sounds we have already learnt.
In Maths, Foundation students have revised how to do addition and subtraction. We have been also working on writing and recognising our teen numbers. Students have been using unifix blocks to build teen number towers and reinforce their knowledge of how numbers are made. In the coming weeks we will be starting our unit on time.
