The Lighthouse
Jumping into Term 2
This lighthouse children have jumped into term two - even though we had a very odd first week back!
On our first day back we were joined by the Lofties to explore what ANZAC Day is all about, and to share our wonderings. We watched 'Here they come; A day to remember', and learned about some of the symbols that we might see including: poppies, medals, honour rolls, flags at half mast and cenotaphs. The Lofties had baked ANZAC biscuits, and they generously shared these with us too!
The Lighthouse children also launched Friday Community Service. We talked about what a community is, and what service can mean. We agreed that this could be a time when we look after and care for Arlington. We brainstormed some ideas for jobs that could help the community and came up with a big list. We cared for our plants and the compost, and we cared for our chooks, ducks and guinea pigs, then we locked them up for a safe weekend. We are learning how to help out Emily in the library, and re-shelve some of our books too, and we had so much fun sharpening all our pencils with the electric sharpener. Now we’re all set for next week.
Our Cubby is almost finished! We had Rob help us out with the window ledges and door frames. And with the weather turning it was time to put on the roof! We had a big surprise too: would our cubby be improved by fixing the yellow slide to it? We put it to the vote and used our bodies to make two groups: for and against. We voted 18 to 2 to include the slide in our cubby! Adding the slide means more decisions; where should it go? How high should it be?
The cubby is a part of our current Unit of Inquiry about societal decision making; to make a cubby, we must first decide together on all the elements. We have been talking about making decisions as a group, and exploring the difference between voting when we can see what our friends are voting for, and voting when we keep our decision to ourselves. We made a link to the upcoming Federal Election, and how each person in Australia makes a vote, but doesn’t share how they cast their vote at the ballot box. We hope Australia ends up with a decision as fine as our cubby!
Our next Unit of Inquiry will see us going bush, and we can’t wait!
Cressida Batterham-Wilson & Clinton Morgan
The 5s Classroom Teachers