A Gigantic Mathematical Investigation!

Could we construct a life size cardboard skeleton of Robert Wadlow knowing only his height; an astonishing 272 centimetres!?!

We began by divvying up the ‘bones’ so to speak - who would be responsible for creating which bones in the skeleton?

The children set about measuring and recording quantities of data to then study in pursuit of achieving our aim. Along the way we developed our skills in measuring length, recording information in tables and furthering our skills and understanding of subtraction and division/fractions; all critical skills relevant to our project.

Finally, the children made generalisations on the relationships between body part lengths in order to reference reasonable measurements for Robert Wadlow’s bones in relation to his height.

Building Imagery in our Writing - parts of speech

In 1925 a group of French surrealists played with parts of speech as a way of generating interesting sentences. This process went on to become something of a game, named after a phrase they first created when playing the game; ‘Exquisite Corpse’.

We used our own version of the game to deepen our understanding of the parts of speech and how they influence imagery in writing.

Nouns, adjectives, verbs and adverbs are randomly generated and then the order of these is established as a rule, for constructing the sentence.

Bush School/Inquiry

On our first two outings for Bush School, we went in search of patterns in nature.

In fairly damp conditions we resorted to capturing evidence using the Ipads as cameras.

Back at school we made observational drawings and recorded observations about the petal or leaves number, shape or size. This very intentional task will open the door to mathematical explorations of some of Fibonacci's amazing work.

PE

PE this term has involved an investigation into invasion games. Two of Arlington’s old friends from the highschool (Elodie and Ellie) came and demonstrated a game they had created when they were at Arlington, as inspiration for the Sunroomers to create their own invasion games. Together we came up with some features that are common to invasion games and then the children set about designing their own. The children have started the planning process, looking at the playing field, number of players, equipment and rules. We look forward to trialing the games in person later this term.

Choosing

The children have pursued some very interesting and purposeful projects during Choosing time this term. Below are some snippets.

A sign designed and manufactured to go in the Front Garden in order to make people aware of the frogmouths that regularly nest there.

‘non-electronic' megaphone

A BMX pump track model which

has come to life in The Pines.

Michael Price and Sophie Dall'Ava

8s & 9s classroom teachers

sophia.dall'ava@preshil.vic.edu.au michael.price@preshil.vic.edu.au

Preshil - Arlington Argus

Issue 9 · 02 Jun 2021

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