Friday, June 22, 2012

GUEST POST - LEAH and JESS- VILLANELLE

At school we have been teaching each other different types of poetry. We taught everyone a Villanelle. A villanelle is a French poem that has 19 lines arranged in six stanzas.
The first five stanzas contain three lines and rhyme in the pattern ABA. This rhyme stays the same throughout the whole poem.
The sixth stanza consists of four lines with a rhyming pattern of ABAA.
In the sixth stanzas, the first and third line in the first stanzas are repeated in the last two lines in the sixth stanzas.
This is our Villanelle.

The ferns covered the descending trees
Disguising all the plains
Blowing in the soft, supple breeze

A wind’s hazy wheeze
Appears naturally
Harshly blowing all the leaves

The wind starts to ease
As powerful as it was
It calms down the leaves

I bend down on my knees
Pluck some flowers
As I hear the bees

As the sun sinks down it sees

The beautiful nature
The place that holds the keys

So now it is time for us to freeze
And for one last time
The ferns covered the descending trees
Blowing in the soft, supple breeze

Our reflection about students teaching one another!
Leah: I thought that it worked well because we could understand it more easily because it was at our  own level.
Jessica: I think it worked well because everyone was able to give it a go. I enjoyed being the the teacher because it provides some variation in the way I work and also, because I had to teach it, I understood the poem better.

Mrs Yore reflects: I am simply blown away by the poetry the seniors primaries are writing. Empowering them with the role of imparting the knowledge to their peers, has certainly raised the bar both in terms of student engagement and in the standard of learning that has taken place.

Tuesday, June 19, 2012

QUANTUM AWARD FOR MINECRAFT


Congratulations were the order of the day today when a surprise Skype call from Quantum Victoria (a centre of excellence and innovation in Science and Mathematics) informed the Senior Students that one of our students had been awarded the first ever
Minecraft Moderator of the Month Award 



as a student player on Quantum Victoria's Massively Minecraft Server.
This was awarded as Simon had shown wonderful leadership qualities in the online world - helping newcomers, mending damaged areas and having a positive influence on the 'World'.  
Events like this highlight how on-line gaming can allow students to develop their inter-personal skills and demonstrate leadership qualities.  We highly value the support of the Quantum staff in moderating the Minecraft server as it provides a wonderful opportunity for our students to play and learn in a safe and supported environment.


The Quantum team presenting our student with his 'Hammer' and certificate.  



Monday, June 18, 2012

GUEST POST from James and Caitie

In the past few weeks we have worked in pairs to learn about a different type of poem. We have researched the Tanka poem.  James and Caitie

What is a Tanka poem?
A Tanka poem is a classic form of Japanese poetry.
It has been used since 1300, the the oldest form of Japanese poetry.
When they wrote them it was often for special occasions.
The Tanka poem has 31 syllables.

After our lesson some of the students wrote a beautiful Tanka.
Jia-Yi wrote:
Cherry blossom trees
Baby pink, white appear
This means spring has come
Adding beautiful texture
To the sunshine coated land
Jessica S wrote:
A radiant beam
Shines across our God's splendors
Vast fields of flowers
A creation of wonder
And a creation of peace

Reflection: We worked well together. Collaborating was fun on this activity. We really enjoyed teaching people about this wonderful type of poem. It was amazing what our class produced from this lesson.

Thursday, June 14, 2012

GUEST POST - JIA-YI-from Senior Primary MY

At the moment, we are learning about different forms of poetry.  Each group researched and practised  a different form of poetry.  Zak and I learnt about free verse poems.

We found out that, Free Verse poems were written in the early 20th century.  A free Verse poem has no rhythym, very few distinct rules or boundaries.  They tend to flow in an uneven pattern, it also has no neccessary structure.  This allows the writer to break from formulas and rigidity.

It has been thought that, every poet that writes Free Verse, makes up the rule for their poem.  Free Verse poems are harder to write simply because you have to make more decisions, whereas in other poems there is a strict number  of lines or stanzas.


This was my first go at writing a Free Verse poem
Yellow
Yellow is the sun.
Sunbeam shining
brightly.
Yellow is a happy colour
a sign of a good day ahead,
a sign of a
escape from the
dark.
Yellow the inside of
the delicious passion
fruit.

Chloe: Listening to new people/students teach was very inspiring and kept everyone attentive, as we all had something to teach. This is my free verse poem, written after Jia-Yi and Zac presented:

Blossoms may bloom,
Roses may open,
Lions will hunt,
Coyotes will bite,
Words are written,
Songs are sung,
Blood drips,
Bones grind,
Yet butterflies still glide,
Kittens will cuddle,
Leaves still wither,
Bark still peels,
Seeds are sowed,

While saplings mature.
Blossoms may bloom,
Roses may open,
Flesh will tear,
Guns will fire,
Birds still soar,
Lords of the sky,
The wind's gentle wheeze,
Scatters Autumn leaves,
Smoke smothers,
 And flames devour,
Thorns prick,
And flowers sweeten air.


Blossoms may bloom,
Roses may open,
Earth will shake,
Volcanos will erupt,
Sky is sliced by wings,
Waves lap shores,
There are last breaths,
And tears of grief,
Puppies are bouncing,
Pigs are snorting,
Murder is commited,
Music is played,
A comforting breeze,
Makes pine cones fall.

This is paradise.

Reflection from Mrs Y: What a wonderful experience having Jia-Yi and Zak prepare and deliver the learning about free verse. I loved that, in the end, they knew more about the topic than me! And what amazing writing they inspired. More guest posts, soon.
Middle Matters


Friday, June 8, 2012

LEARNING FROM OTHERS-VAN GOGH FIELDS

Inspired by our study of Van Gogh and the wonderful blog, "For the Love of Art," we have created Van Gogh fields.

Tuesday, June 5, 2012

HOW AVERAGE ARE YOU?

We are learning about the MODE, MEDIAN and MEAN of a set of numbers! Firstly, we collected data on how many push ups each student could do in 30 seconds. There was a wide range  of scores! From the scores, we calculated the mode, median and mean...but, we would like to hear of some more situations that would help us practise our calculations.

                      Now it's your turn to help us!

Challenge our math-a-magical class with some great ideas to see how average we can really be!!! What scenarios could we use to practise our skills?

Our definitions:
mode: in a set of scores the mode is the score that occurs the most
median:a type of average-the middle value of an ordered set of values
mean:average of a number of different amounts