BOOK WEEK - "SHELFIES"

What a fantastic Book Week it was! Wednesday's costumes around the theme, "Read Across the Universe," were highly creative. To end the week, the whole school sat and soaked up a wonderful presentation of everyone's "shelfies"-fabulous photos from home of our students with their bookshelves, showing off their favourite books.

Shelfies from ccoffa

BOOK WEEK: BOOK SHARE WITH BUDDIES

Read to Buddies from Marg Yore on Vimeo.

Infographics

This week, we are going to be looking at another way to present the findings of our research.  We are always keen to present our learning in interesting and engaging ways and Infographics might be the perfect tool in some cases. Infographics provide visual summaries of a series of facts.  They tell a story with words and pictures.  They are harder to create than you might think as they require lots of preparation of facts (research), sorting of information (analysing), planning for presentation (presenting).

Infographics could be used as a great way to summarise our learning - we will look for opportunities when they would be just the tool we need.   

Here are some links to browse to explore the potential of Infographics

Create your own Playlist on MentorMob!

We wonder if any of our blogging friends have made their own Infographic?  What tool did you use to make them?  Do you have any tips for us? 

Painting Pictures with Words-Characterization

As our inspiration, we used Roald Dahl's "painting with words" as he introduced Miss Trunchbull. We studied and annotated his text before attempting our own description of a teacher, for better or for worse!




Daniel
Weird, quiet and creepy...that's Mr Bicocca. It has always seemed that he was hiding something. There was always something different and out of place.
Norhan
Sparkling, blue eyes, glossy blonde hair and a delightful comment every time you walked past. Nothing else could explain why butterflies could land on her finger!
Madi
Her misty, minuscule eyes created an immense stare that is the most frightening thing imaginable...her thin, colourless lips spat out random insults. Her long, gnarled fingers were like icicles, cold and irregular in shape...
Mairead
With her naturally bright smile, Miss Edith is the most beautiful and charming teacher by far. She always wears her pretty purply-blue ruffle dress with her bright and cheery red cardigan. Her cute purply-blue glasses clash perfectly with her bright-and-cheery red flats. Joy, kindness and niceness are her forte...
Caitie
In her horrifying face, no beauty is seen. She resembles a gremlin..no-one dares to look into her deadly eyes nor look at her devilish smile that gives children night mares.
Lizzy
The wind was strong and intense. Missy Chatter Chops rushed towards her chaotic classroom tripping and falling right into the closed door. She fell so hard and strenuously that the door fell right off its ancient, rusty hinges. "Oh dear , dear me," her blistery voice cracked and rang in the ears of all in the old, disordered classroom and along the silent, empty hallway.
Carley
If you had to describe her, three words would be enough. Just plain mean!  Mrs Toluga was the master of demons. She could control anyone, anyone at all. Her stare was so frightening you would feel as if a whirlpool was sucking you in.

HISTORY AT OUR FINGERTIPS-SOVEREIGN HILL

Sovereign Hill from Marg Yore on Vimeo.
Lizzy says, "To sum up, Sovereign Hill has been my favourite excursion yet and was a life-changing experience. I feel very lucky to have been able to learn in a really fun, interesting and exciting way."

Eureka!

Ivan thought, "It was very hard to find the speck of gold but, once you found it you felt really good!"

Daniel reflected, "I enjoyed the day because I learnt a lot including how the Eureka Stockade was penetrated and invaded."

Madeline reported, "Gold, news, people, crowds, mines,finds, Eureka! At Sovereign Hill you are given a door into 1850's Australia, at the heart of the Gold Rush....panning for gold was fun and was the thing I was most looking forward to. It is quite a skill and was much harder than I expected....what I enjoyed most about the lesson was the "Detective Box." My group had Samuel Taylor Gill. We discovered from the clues that he was English, an artist and an alcoholic."

Luke added,"I thought it was a good idea to have a person down at the creek to tell us how to pan for gold and then we got to try for ourselves....the mine tour was a real eye-catcher and seeing all the old shops such as the blacksmith and the lolly shop was a real reminder of the olden days."

 Simon, "For me, it was stepping back into the past. I was amazed at how great all the volunteers were at acting and some were quite funny and very entertaining. Walking into the lolly shop was spectacular, as it was just like a land of lollies."

PREP STORYTIME LED BY STUDENT LEADERS

As part of our buddy relationship, we decided to start storytime for Preps. We decided to start this because we saw all the Preps in the library at lunch trying to read their books but it was really challenging them so they asked us if we could read it to them. Because of that, every Tuesday and Wednesday lunchtime, we select three books and read it to them. They love it and so do we. They give positive feedback all the time. We interact really well now and they aren't too shy to have a little conversation. Madi, Jess and Mairead

PROJECT PIES - HISTORY HOMEWORK TASK

For homework we had to create a model of something historical. It had to relate to Australian history, and we could use any materials. At first I had some trouble getting an idea, but I discussed some ideas at home and we thought making Aussie meat pies would be good. We had to make a poster to go along with the project. Here's some information I discovered: the first Aussie Four 'n Twenty meat pie was made in Bendigo in a small bakery in 1947.The Australian meat pie is so well liked around the nation it could almost be termed a national dish. For Aussies the meat pie is the treat of choice when watching sport. Basically this pie consists of a hand-sized pastry filled with minced meat and gravy – although it may also be filled with onion, cheese, mushrooms, chicken, seafood, crocodile, camel, vegetables or other fillings. Typically it is smothered in tomato sauce. It was great making the pies using lots of different ingredients. When I brought the pies to school my teachers helped me. My classmates were very excited and they enjoyed the pies and so did I. Some of the pies were labelled with history pins!

PJ DAY - RAISING AWARENESS AND FUNDS

Today our whole school arrived in our PJ's to raise awareness about homelessness and to raise funds for Melbourne City Mission.

PJ Day - Fundraiser - slideshows

Students Lead! Confirmation Information Night for Parents

Teachers and parents alike were incredibly proud of how our Confirmation candidates presented their learning at this year's Parent Information Night for the Sacrament of Confirmation.

Conor wrote, "I personally felt that the Confirmation process, ceremony and aftermath was terrific all around. The preparation for Confirmation was well organised and planned out. We practised three times and everyone nailed their part beautifully!
Amber added, "I thought that learning about Confirmation and the saints taught me a lot. The learning was a great experience. I really enjoyed the silk painting of Confirmation symbols because the colours were so bright and the banners really stood out in the Church.
Mairead reflected, "It was amazing how well the prayers of the Faithful were prepared by the students themselves."
 

Student-run Confirmation Information Night from maggiewi

CONFIRMATION-ICONS

As we prepared to run our Confirmation parent night, we decided to simply display the research done about our chosen saints, accompanied by an icon that we had created to represent our saint. Using the inspiration of other icons of our saint, we created our own representations!

Confirmation from Marg Yore on Vimeo.

Book Week is approaching

Each year, we celebrate Book Week.  This year, Book Week is in August and the theme is "Reading across the universe".  The book week awards are rewards for the wonderful work of Australian authors and we enjoy looking at many of the short-listed books and waiting for the announcement of the winning books.  This year, we were excited to read that Miss Y from LRC Blog from another Melbourne school has a wonderful idea to help us think about and celebrate our favourite books.  

Miss Y has created the "Shelfie Challenge" 

We would love to join the challenge.  When we have some photos, we will publish them on the blog and link them to Miss Y's blog.   
Opportunities like this show how blogging can connect learners across the suburbs and how we can share our common love of books.  Thanks Miss Y. 

Social Bookmarking - Sharing and Evaluating Resources

In Term 3, we will be exploring elements of our past and the stories that create history. There are many resources available on the internet and it is important that we learn to use them critically (not trust everything we read).  We will be experimenting with two tools that help us organise and share on-line resources : EduClipper and Diigo.

Both these tools allow us to share a resource or site with our class mates, tag it (more on that later) and make comments on what we think about the information it provides. All students have accounts for both services.




History can be interpreted differently by different people.  When looking at any new resource, it is important to consider:

WHO 
What do you know about the person who created this source?
Think about: • age • gender • occupation • position in society • religious background.
WHEN
What was life like when this source was created?
Think about: • significant events • political environment • common prejudices • social norms.
WHY 
What is the creator’s purpose? Why did they create this work?
Was it to: • influence people? • sell something? • tell their version of events?

Source : State Library of Victoria : http://ergo.slv.vic.gov.au/learn-skills/research-skills/select-resources/question-text

PROUD TEACHERS

The soccer round robin will be upon us in week one of Term 3...so time for some training! So what is a teacher to do? Well if you're as lucky as us, you hand over the reins to the sport leaders and stand aside.

What a fantastic training session they planned and executed! Thank you for your leadership, skill and great goodwill! Your teachers are IMMENSELY proud of you!

SOCCER WORKOUT

LEARNING INTENTIONS IN MATHS-POSTED BY AMBER

This term we have been using learning intentions. Learning intentions are statements that help guide us throughout the lesson. If we were focusing on multiplying double digits, the learning intention might be, "We are learning to multiply double digits and apply them in a mental and visual way." We use the learning intentions in many things, especially maths. The learning intentions help all of us to know what we are focusing on and keep us on track. At the end of the lesson we go back to the learning intention to see if we have achieved what we were hoping to. I personally think that learning intentions help me to stay an track and to raise the bar.

Learning Intentions from Marg Yore on Vimeo.

CONFIRMATION REFLECTION DAY

STUDENT REFLECTIONS


Confirmation from Marg Yore on Vimeo.

The silence....the interest...the stories...the wonders..feelings..knowledge...places...the learning...experiences...

I felt there was  avery different approach to today's learning. I loved listening to the stories of all the trips to Uganda.

I had so many questions and they were answered. We have chosen to bring the Good News!

This day was amazing because it really connected to me, my family and the class. The most amazing part was hearing the story about how the gorilla touched Paul's heart...when he touched his hand. This was an amazing day that really gave us the idea of what we need to know and also how we should be thankful.

The reflection day was such an amazing experience...I could feel what he (Paul) was feeling and all his amazing experiences really touched me. He taught us so much...the great things he had experienced and how to help others.

Today WAS and "awesome" day. It was very different to past experiences. At the Holy Cross Monastery, our presenter, Paul, talked to us about his experiences, working with children in Uganda. He had some symbols from Africa such as a vest made from bark, a giraffe, a nativity scene made form leftovers and a special garment. Also Monsignor Curtin talked to us about the ceremony and the gifts of the Spirit. We discussed social justice because of its strong connection to Confirmation.

I think Paul was very passionate about his work. he was touched by a gorilla coming over to him and holding his hand..then he (the gorilla) shoved him over and sat in his spot eating the vegetation!