Up, Up and Away! We’re Off!

Today the 6R students commenced blogging, publishing their first post – a “Welcome” post.  After days of waiting for all 32 student blogs to be set up, there was no holding back – away they finally went.  The students had fun exploring the many theme options available and other various settings and are now ready to create their “About” page.

If you’re wondering what these savvy students are all about, what they’re like and what they’re learning about at school, why not take a look at their blogs?  I’m sure you’ll see why Mrs Quealy just loves her class.

Here they are hard at work.

6R students commence blogging

6R students commence blogging

 

More blogging students!

More blogging students!

Charlene

Our “Student of the Week” trophy recipient this week is CHARLENE

Charlene Ico

Charlene

Charlene is the “Student of the Week” for week 3 because she is an excellent student. She always applies great effort when completing her work, Charlene just never gives up!  She works cooperatively with others during group activities, and quite studiously when completing tasks on her own. We particularly like the way Charlene is so organised and neat and tidy in everything she does and this certainly contributes to Charlene’s success! Fabulous Charlene and congratulations.

Father Lauro and Brother An

Today we had a visit from our Parish Priest, Father Lauro and his helper, Brother An.  Father Lauro was a big help in clarifying our query about the female looking character in Leonardo da Vinci’s famous painting, The Last Supper.  Father Lauro explained that this character in the painting is in fact, John, the youngest apostle and who was very close to Peter, the figure next to him.  John would often confide in Peter and seek his opinion and assistance.  Father Lauro went on to say that although there would have been several women in the room at the time of Jesus’ Last Supper, the artist, Leonardo da Vinci, has not included them in his painting – no women appear in the painting.  Father reminded us that the novel, The Da Vinci Code, is fiction!

We learnt that we shouldn’t confuse fact and fiction but rather, we need to rely on the historical Biblical account.

Father took time out of his busy schedule to bless our Prayer Space:

Father Lauro blesses our Prayer Space

Father Lauro blesses our Prayer Space

Father Lauro’s assistant, Brother An, had a few words to say too.  Brother An immigrated to Australia late last year and is studying to become a priest in the Archdiocese of Sydney.  Brother An mentioned how he missed his family and all his nieces and nephews back home in Vietnam, however, he is glad to be living in Australia.  Brother An is really looking forward to becoming a priest and is preparing well for this very special occasion.  We promised Brother An that we’d pray for him.

Here we are with brother An:

Brother An and the 6R crew!

Bread Tasting

Today we investigated bread by comparing the texture, taste, odour and appearance of three different varieties: sourdough, Turkish pide and Mission Wraps.  We discovered that the breads were different in some aspects and fairly alike in others.  In studying the ingredients of all three bread types, we noticed that both the sourdough and the Turkish pide contained yeast, whereas, the Mission Wraps did not.  As it so happens, the breads containing yeast were high rise breads while the bread without yeast was flat bread!  Therefore, we conclude that yeast causes bread to rise.  Have you compared bread types?  If so, what did you discover?

Our investigation was fun and yummy (we got to eat all the bread). Just take a look at our photographs below:

Bread Tasting on PhotoPeach

 

 

“The Most Magnificent Thing”

Today, we read the picture book “The Most Magnificent Thing” by Ashley Spires. It’s a great children’s book with a positive and inspiring message. This story is all about a little girl who likes to make things. Her best friend is her assistant who happens to be her pet dog. We won’t tell you too much more as we don’t want to spoil the story for you, but the little girl shows enormous effort, drive and persistence to achieve her goal even though she goes through some trying and testing moments.  This picture book demonstrates the “Growth Mindset” at work – knowing that if you keep on trying, you will eventually achieve your goal! Why not read the book and discover what the little girl (and her helpful assistant) achieve?  We are sure you will be delighted.

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Lucas

Our very first student of the week for 2016 goes to LUCAS

Lucas Cerar

Lucas

Lucas received the Student of the Week award because he is always so encouraging and supportive of others.  Lucas not only applied great effort when completing tasks but he also helped others to do the same.  Good on you Lucas, we are mighty lucky to have you in the 6R with us.

Keep up the great work!!!

Our First Day in Year 6!

We are having a marvelous first day in Year 6, jam-packed with lots of different activities. We started off in the amphitheatre on the playground where we were organised into three different classes: 6R, 6G and 6S.

Once inside our classroom we completed an activity called “Find A Classmate Who….” This was all about getting to know each other better.  It was a fun and thrilling task.

Following this, we got organised with our exercise books.  Each subject was colour coded so we wouldn’t get them all mixed up.  We got this great idea from Ms Goodwin, the 6G teacher.  It’ll make it easier for us to be sorted!

When we completed sorting our exercise books we watched a YouTube clip called “The Learning Brain.”  As you can guess, it was all about how our brain works.  Eating nutritious food, getting plenty of sleep and exercise and drinking lots of water are all very important factors for effective brain function.  We also learnt that our intelligence is not fixed, that it can improve, which means we our intelligence is able to grow and develop.  We can all be smarter than what we are now!  That’s amazing!  Now we know that, there’s no excuse for not doing our best and trying our hardest.

Following morning tea, we met our Kindergarten buddies.  This was the best part of the day.  We chatted and played with them and got to know them.  We’re all looking forward to spending more time with our buddies.

Finally, the last activity of the day was learning how to code.  We used the coding program called “Scratch.”  We’ve got a long way but we certainly had a great time.

Growth Mindset

This year we are focusing on the premise that intelligence can be developed, that through hard work, persistence and great effort, one will improve and achieve great things.  This is called a growth mindset as opposed to a fixed mindset where intelligence is thought of as being stagnant.   So this year we are going to apply great effort and try to always do our very best.  Our class motto is: “Don’t let anything get in the way of you achieving excellence” as seen in our classroom poster:

Achieving excellence

We’re ready to go!

Take a look at our Year 6 classroom, you’ll see a mixture of old and new furniture.  Our room is brightly coloured, well ventilated and quite light – excellent conditions for active and challenging learning. We’re all set for the year ahead!

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Here’s our Prayer Space.  Although it’s not quite the season of Lent, we’ll begin the school year learning about Lent as it begins early this year – Ash Wednesday falls on 10th February (week 3 of term 1) and that’s only two weeks away.  

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We’ll be stretching our thinking using de Bono’s Six Thinking Hats. We’ll be able to think in different ways, developing various perspectives and getting an idea as to how others view matters.  

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We’re lucky, we have a “cafe table” in our room!  This is perfect for Reading groups and other  general group work as well as teacher conferences.  Brilliant!  

 

Our wall pockets are jam packed with quality reading response tasks which will help develop critical and creative thinking skills.  These strategies will also assist in developing critical inferential comprehension skills.

Literacy Response  Tasks

Literacy Response Tasks

 

To help us all keep on track we have 10 classroom rules.  Basically, they all boil down to our school rules:  

  • Respect for self
  • Respect for others
  • Respect for property
  • Our Classroom Rules
    Our Classroom Rules

Coding

Lets’s try coding!

The Australian Government claims to be a 21st Century Government and stresses the need for school children to learn coding.  The Australian government has in fact included coding for Years 5 to 12 as a mandatory component in the national curriculum.

In preparation for the 2016 school year, I plan to familiarise myself with a few more coding programs for use on laptops and iPads.  I’ve dabbled with Scratch (computers) and Scratchjr (iPads) in the past and would love to explore further programs.  Hence, I pose the following question:

What programs are you using to introduce coding to your Year 5 and 6 students and how do you program the implementation of coding?

All suggestions welcomed.  

Many thanks!

Scratch