Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Celebrating Reading, Writing and Thinking!

Margaret Wild and Ron Brooks's latest collaboration, "The Dream of the Thylacine," has linked beautifully with the Middles' current inquiry  "Endangered Animals" and inspired our young writers.

C. O'Malley writes:

The front cover seems to be showing the thylacine in pain, roaring at what it once dominated. The description of the cage makes it sounds really horrible and I instinctively feel sorry for the thylacine. Did it have to go through so much pain? I believe this is a true story.

"The Dream of the Thylacine" shows the comparison between captivity and the wild, where the thylacine belongs. The dull colours show sadness and the bright illustrations, show happiness. The last illustration shows that the thylacine belongs with the wild land and   dreams with it. When the thylacine died, the land took it home...where it longed to be....where it was happy. The thylacine deserved a much better life!

N.Kinsella writes:
I think the language was really effective in "The Dream of the Thylacine." I felt like I was part of the story.The illustrations were amazing and really caught my attention. I loved the way Ron Brooks used real images of the last thylacine and his own drawings as well. The story tells how, back then, they had really bad zoo enclosures with cold floors and cement.

C. Brennan writes:
I liked the story, mainly because of the way the illustrator juxtaposed the dark and colourful illustrations.I loved the way the author used the language which had a big impact on me. From what the author wrote, I could easily tell the story was coming from the thylacine's point of view. Just as this book was great to listen to, it also challenged me to think deeply and it had an emotional effect on me. It makes me sad to think how on earth we could be so harmful to the animals a long time ago. But yet I feel happy because of the change of heart we have had and now I hope all animals are safe.

Friday, May 20, 2011

Learning with Chicago

Our friends in Chicago created a video to tell us about themselves


So we made our own for them (sorry about the blurry quality)






This is the link to the Voicethread - which hopefully you can see without logging in

Sunday, May 15, 2011

HEALESVILLE SANCTUARY HELPS OUR GRAMMAR!

The Middles have had lots of fun using the Australian animals at Healesville Sanctuary to support our learning about nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs! We used our own photographs. It all makes sense now! That's what our teacher hopes! Here's what we wrote....


...golden dingo stretching wearily..




...dangerous Tasmanian Devil snarling menacingly...



...long-winged wedge-tailed eagle soaring anxiously...




...tired koala dozing peacefully...




...deadly brown snake arching threateningly...

...yellow-mouthed tawny frogmouth gobbling hungrily...





...baby  platypus swishing excitedly...

...giant beaked pelican spreading its wings widely...

Saturday, May 14, 2011

Voicethread with Chicago school

 We love this Voicethread started by Mrs Shabat and Mrs Merced from Chicago. Their students are studying Endangered animals and want to learn with us. Some of our Middle students have blogged about some endangered animals and Mrs Shabat has included the pictures they used here.  

Mrs Shabat's students drew wonderful pictures of their Endangered animals in KidPix and some write Haiku poems. It will be interesting to see what we can teach them and what we can learn from them.

http://ed.voicethread.com/share/2034086/

To view the comments you need to register with Voicethread.  It is easy - Click on Register and then respond to the email you receive.  Thanks !

Wednesday, May 4, 2011

GOING! GOING! GONE! MIDDLES' LATEST INQUIRY!

Endangered animals and the effects of humans on the animals' habitats
make up the focus of our latest inquiry.Our Wallwisher reflects the first thoughts we have after our inspiring Healesville Sanctuary trip.