Tuesday, February 24, 2009

5/6C Thinking Tools




Our class has been using and developing our skills using Thinking Tools. These tools help us to plan, organise and think about our work. We have used several tools this year already including the Doughnut, DMM (Decision Making Matrix), Imagineering, Six Hats, Lotus Diagrams, Thinkers Keys and Multi-Voting. These tools help us learn and provide opportunities for us to think "outside the box". We have completed a Venn diagram on National Parks and we use Six Hats on a weekly basis to talk about our learning and how we can improve. Thinking tools enable us to work to our potential.

Monday, February 23, 2009

1/2M Students Have A Busy Start To The Year!


1/2M has had a very busy start to the year! We have begun talking about our local area as a lead up to our unit with an environmental focus called ‘One World’. We have collected gum leaves from the playground and have used them to make rubbings in art. The recent wet weather has also encouraged lots of discussion about frogs! Mrs Wales visited our class with some green tree frogs and we painted our own green frogs which are just as cute as the real thing! We are curious to find out if any frogs are endangered and how we can protect all our animals and plants.
We are off to a flying start having commenced spelling, reading and maths groups already. We have been using the Smartboard, computers and big books to gain information about endangered animals, which is exciting! We are also learning about the six thinking hats and now use the ‘white hat’ to help us when we discuss facts and gain information about a topic. We will be writing an information report about frogs and investigating different endangered animals to make a PowerPoint presentation on the computer.
We were very happy to welcome Lachlan Bennett to our school this term! We also enjoyed having our friend Westy Bear visit us this week. He has been kept extremely busy helping in the classroom and in return has been getting heaps of cuddles. Ben will be the lucky boy to have the opportunity to pamper Westy over the next weekend. Westy will not have a moment to spare though! Westy will be in for a great weekend because Ben has planned that they will be playing on the swing set and trampoline, then they will be relaxing in the sand pit and cubby house. Westy will also have a bath and a game of chess with Ben before bed. Lucky Westy and Ben!

Friday, February 20, 2009

5/6F's Water Bomb Experiments


5/6F jumped straight in this term and stuck into some challenging work. They were asked to form small groups and figure out the question:
‘How many water balloons would it take to fill the 5/6F classroom?’
The students brains started to tick over with this problem. This is what they had to do:
1. Suggest questions that needed to be answered before this problem could be solved.
Are the balloons filled or empty? Filled
Will there be furniture in the room? No
Will the storeroom door be open or closed? Closed
Are the balloons small or large? Small
2. Work out what measurements have to be made to find the answer – find the volume.
3. What equipment was needed – water balloons, water, a box, metre rulers
4. Discuss how we find volume and why it is cm³ - The students realised that to find volume they had to know the height, length and width of the object (in this case the classroom and the box they were going to fill with the filled water balloons). They also realised the reason it is cm³, is because there are three dimensions (LxWxH).
5. Fill the water balloons – the fun part, and with the extremely hot weather we had it was quite a relief to have some balloons accidentally popJ .
6. Count how many balloons filled the box – Each group had a different sized box to see if this was a successful way to measure.
7. Find out how many boxes would fit in the classroom (volume of the classroom divided by the volume of the box).
8. Multiply the number of boxes that would fill the classroom by the number of balloons in each box. There fore coming up with the answer to the initial question.

Group 1 – Khiarni, Chloe, Jack A, Caitlin
Group 2 – Jessica, Drew, Dylan, Kathy, Marissa
Group 3 – Taylah, Linden, Josie, Jayden
Group 4 – Scott, Jacob, Patty, Breanna
Group 5 – Sienna, Jack E, Ashley, Connor, Lachie

The rest of the term should be just as fun. We will be looking at more problems similar to this one and many more exciting things.
I am very pleased with the maturity of all the students in 5/6F and am happy to say it is shaping up to be a great year.

Mrs Trudi Ford
5/6F classroom teacher.

Thursday, February 12, 2009

KD- off to a great start!


This week in KD we have been busy reading the Big Books, Mrs Wishy Washy, The Sly Fox and Little Red Hen and Smartypants. It has been lots of fun acting out the stories and singing songs that relate to the books.
We have been introduced to “s” and “a” and have learnt actions to help us remember their sounds. Everyone has been trying hard to use the correct pencil grip and we have been doing lots of writing and drawing every day!
On the Smart Board we have been doing story sequencing activities and maths games which are very fun, and we have visited the computer lab to learn the correct way to turn them on and off and to play some fun games. All the children in KD now have a buddy from 5/6F who will spend time with them at lunch times 2-3 times per week. We will also be doing some fun craft activities with 5/6F later in the term.
Next week we look forward to beginning our reading groups and learning 2 more new sounds!
Well done to all of KD for settling in so quickly to school! What a great year we are going to have!

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Rugby League visit – an exciting start to the year!


We recently received a visit from 6 NRL footballers. We welcomed Jake Lingard, Vic Mauro (Sea Eagles), Chris Heighington, Chris Lawrence, (Wests Tigers), Brad Tighe and Geoff Daniela (Panthers). We enjoyed the opportunity to talk with the players and learn about their experiences. This was certainly a surprise for all students when they lined up for their first assembly for the year and saw some familiar faces from the NRL to welcome them back to school. What a thrill!

Monday, February 9, 2009

2009 Swimming Carnival


Our 2009 swimming carnival was held last Friday, with STURT retaining the House Champion Trophy. Our individual champions for the day were:




8/9 Years – Emerson, Will
10 Yrs – Lidia, Jack
11 Yrs – Emma, Daniel
12 Yrs – Kiralee/Josie (tied), Dylan

Pictured are all of our ribbon and medal winners!