This morning the Grade 3 and 4s are learning how to use our blog. We have looked through old blog posts and enjoyed looking at the photos. It is pretty cool that we can use this at home and leave comments on the posts. We hope some people comment on this post and will check in next week to see who has been reading! What kinds of things would you like to see on our blog? Please let us know!
We have to go now, we have dinosaur trading cards to make!!
Bye!
Grade 3 and Grade 4
It’s been a busy start to Term 2 – so much has happened so far!
We started the term looking at the 100th Anniversary of the Sinking of Titanic. We used our literacy time to explore some of the stories of Titanic, maths to look at the numbers relating to the ship and its voyage and writing to discuss whether the Titanic should be raised or left where it is. It is certainly an interesting topic that keeps us thinking.
We also did work on ANZAC Day and had some great discussions about the meaning of the day, and Australia’s involvement in conflict around the world. It was great to see how interested the kids were in a subject that is so important for them to know about. We are reading Once by Morris Gleitzman which has proven to be quite the cliffhanger – we are reading 2 chapters per day instead of the usual 1! For some, I still don’t think that’s enough.
During our iLearning time, we have been working with the Grade 3s on Dinosaurs, but have also chosen our own iLearning project topics. I have been encouraging the students to think about how they are going to present their project (rather than just a poster) and I am pleased to see some have been game enough to sign up for the Student Conference Series which is run by Mr G as well as speeches, drama, videos and Powerpoint presentations. We have also learnt about writing interesting information and how we need to look beyond the initial answer to a research question to make it more interesting for our audience. Some great topics have been chosen – I’ll put the list up tomorrow as I’ve left it at school.
Watching Jack (gr 6) present his online Student Conference - this is what some of the Grade 4s have chosen to do for their iLearning projects.
Drawing upside down!
Mrs Gargan worked on some interesting art techniques over the holidays and taught us how to draw using an upside down picture. It encourages our brain to work harder and instead of trying to draw the picture we see when it is the right way up, we tend to focus more on the lines. It was very Mr Squiggle (‘Upside down Miss Jane.’) but loads of fun too!
Lach concentrated for the whole hour and produced a great picture!
Drawing upside down!
We have had the Alpha performance of The Little Mermaid, the Cross Country, Buddies, and are looking forward to the Mother’s Day Pamper Evening tomorrow night.
Our cross country reps at the representative cross country
All that in the first 3 weeks of Term 2! Wow….
On a side note, Aaron was lucky enough to receive a parcel from America that contained some horse books and letters from the lovely team at Destination Safe Haven Horse Rescue & Retirement in Marengo, Illinois. They rescue horses who are neglected, abandoned, abused, sick or just old and give them the life they deserve. As many of you know, Aaron is quite the horse lover. I had posted a request on Twitter for the titles of some horse books for Aaron to read, and was put in contact with Tiffany from Destination Safe Haven who said she had one that she’d love to send to Aaron. The book, plus another book and letters from the staff arrived at school on Monday. Aaron, and the rest of the class were very excited to receive these, so in the near future we’ll be replying to our new friends to tell them a bit about our horses or horses we know and love!
Aaron with his books from Destination Safe Haven
Hi Guys,
I hope you are all ready to come back to school tomorrow Grade 4! I’ve just got to get through the Geelong v North Melbourne game, then I’ll be right!
Today marks 100 years since the Titanic hit an iceberg and sank to the bottom of the North Atlantic Ocean. It hit the iceberg at 8.40am Australian time, so as I write, they would have been filling life boats and trying to get help from nearby ships. There have been some great shows on TV over the holidays and I have learnt a lot about the ship and it’s passengers. I have been following Titanic Real Time on Twitter, and they have been sending out updates of that day in ‘real time’. You can read them here https://twitter.com/#!/TitanicRealTime
We will spend some time this week in reading and writing learning about the grand ‘unsinkable’ Titanic. If you have any information or books at home that you would like to bring along, please feel free!
I’ve also updated the Footy Tipping results from last week. Sorry Chicka, there is one there you got really wrong….;)
See you all tomorrow! Enjoy the last day of holidays.
Miss P
PS. George Horlin-Smith who visited us last term with Stevie J from the Geelong Football Club will make his senior debut in today’s game against North Melbourne. He is the first Geelong VFL/AFL player ever to have a hyphen in his name! Good luck George!
George meets George
Hi guys,
You can keep up with the footy tipping results via the blog – very helpful over the school holidays. Up the top of the page you will see a Footy Tipping tab, click on that and it will take you to our Footy Tipping page, which I will update weekly. Well done to Mase who got 8 out of 9 last week – fair effort for week one!
Hope everyone’s holidays are great. The weather has been sensational!
Happy Easter,
Miss P
Sorry folks, it’s been a while since our last post – things just got busy and all of a sudden – BAM! It’s the end of term 1!
The big news of the past few weeks was that Meredith won the athletics sports – something that hasn’t been achieved for over 20 years – possibly longer. All students put in a sensational effort and we were proud of every participant. Our eyes are now firmly set on Ball Games later on in the year!
I’d like to introduce you to a new member of our class. He’s green, he’s cuddly, he’s got a friend named Howard. He’s Clover! Clover is a Kimochi. Kimochi means ‘feeling’ in Japanese. Clover has joined our class to help us learn about the importance of optimism in our lives.
Here is Clover’s profile from a Kimochi website:
CLOVER might sleep late, miss the bus, or forget your birthday but he always has the best intentions. Forgetful, a bit careless, but always kind, Clover is a four-leafed friend that doesn’t always have the best of luck. You might call Clover happy go not lucky. Clover’s biggest challenge is to remember to bring his lucky ladybug, Howard, with him because he can use all the luck he can get!
Clover’s favourite number is 7, his favourite color is yellow, and he plays the blues harmonica. Clover is very funny. Sometimes he uses his sense of humor to make the others laugh, but sometimes he uses it to mask what he is really feeling inside. When things don’t go his way, and this is unfortunately too often, Clover’s optimism can turn into disappointment. But optimistic Clover always finds a way to pick himself up again by reminding himself that when the going gets unlucky, the unlucky keep going!
He kind of sounds like some people I know 🙂
Clover will be a mascot in our classroom to remind us to find the positives, even in the most difficult or upsetting situations.
Just a reminder that Footy Tipping officially starts tomorrow (29th March) – wonder who will be the 2012 Grade 4 Footy Tipping Champion. It will be hard for the first few rounds. We are on holidays, and will have to pick all three rounds before the term breaks up.
We are also looking forward to our Colonial Australia day on Friday. There are some great activities lined up – cooking damper on a campfire, bush dancing and old fashioned games (like marbles, coits and knuckles) will all be lots of fun. I’m looking forward to seeing some of the colonial costumes people have come up with (bushrangers, shearers, gold miners etc).
Mr Gleeson and I are busily preparing for topics next term with the possibility of an excursion as well.
What are some topics you would like to learn about? Let us know by commenting below.
Hope you all have a happy and safe Easter break.
Until next time….
Well, first of all, congratulations must go to Mr Morris Lessmore who won an Oscar award last week. Our Mr Morris Lessmore display is coming along, with the Grade 4s and 6s nearly finishing their book reports. They will be added to form the Flying Books. Morris also has a new gold addition in the display too!
We have also had fun using technology during our sessions, and it has be particularly fun using the iPads and DSis for maths. We have done Maths Training linked together on the DSIs and have got numerous Maths Games on the iPads. We have also been using the iPads during reading to look at words and sound combinations.
Today we were lucky enough to have a visit from Steve Johnson and George Horlin-Smith from the Geelong Footy Club. We are lucky enough to be part of this program year after year, and the kids really love having the footballers visit. They did some drills and also had question time.
George meets George
Today we started thinking about our next iLearning project. We talked about the expectations in regards to planning, presentation, information and spelling/grammar. We looked at some work completed by the Grade 6s to see what their work looked like. Together we brainstormed a list of topics for our new project and will choose one in the next couple of days.
The day finished with a presentation to Mr Colbert from Collingwood fans, Harmony and James. Harmony and James went to the Collingwood Family Day in Melbourne over the weekend. They know how much Mr Colbert loooooooooooooooves Collingwood (he’s a Geelong supporter) so presented him a with a Side by Side t-shirt with a message from Dale Thomas! Mr Colbert was a true sport and wore the t-shirt for a photo which will be sent back to ‘Daisy’ to be signed for Harmony and James. As we pointed out, a nicely placed ‘s’ on the end of Mr, will make Mrs Colbert a very happy woman, and maybe the owner of a new t-shirt! (she’s a Collingwood supporter!!)
Have a good week – what will keep you busy this week? Leave us a comment below! We’d love to hear from our readers.
We will be listening with interest to the results of the Oscar Awards next Monday. Not to hear who has won Best Actor in a Motion Picture or Best Film. No, we will be waiting for the seemingly insignificant (but not) award for Best Animated Short Film. Why do you ask? Let me tell you a story….
Last year Mr G and I introduced iPads into our classrooms. We discovered the varied uses of them within our lessons and the amazing opportunities for learning using iPads as a support. We used them for maths games, story telling, literacy games, books, you name it. Late last year we stumbled an app titled The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore by Moonbot Studios. Tongue twister, yes, big download, yes. iPad treasure – indeed!
Here was an iPad story that was part animation, part storybook, part interactive, full on incredible. We loved it from the first few pages, and we knew the kids would too. Briefly, the story centres around Morris Lessmore who loves books, stories and writing, until one day a storm devastates his town and takes all of that away, until he is guided towards a house of books. Here, he lives amongst the books and stories, caring for them while he finds his words again. Then it’s time for Morris Lessmore to move on and inspire another to love the books, just like he did. The story itself was inspired by the Wizard of Oz and the events of Hurricane Katrina.
We used it during our literacy last year and we we right – it was very popular. We even contacted the creators and producers at Moonbot Studios, who replied saying how excited they were that their story was being used and enjoyed half-way around the world. They asked for some pictures of the kids using the app to show their company.
After using the app for some time we realised that Moonbot had also made a short film of the story which gave us a slightly different view of the story and allowed us to discuss important features of storytelling.
You are all probably wondering what that has to do with the Grade 4s this year! Well over the holidays I just happened to stumble across a list of Oscar Nominees and realised that Moonbot had been nominated for the short film of The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore!! How exciting!
I had already been thinking of how to incorporate this into our literacy blocks for the year, and there was the answer. So last week, the Grade 4s were introduced to Mr. Morris Lessmore. This week we continue to have the story as a focus, but are also looking into the importance of books in our lives, and some of our favourite books. Mr G put his artist hat on over the weekend so look out for an awesome Mr. Morris Lessmore in our reading display area where all the students will be able to share their love of a book and have it added to Morris’ Fantastic Flying Books.
We really want to wish Moonbot good luck at the Oscars and hope that Mr. Morris Lessmore will provide them all with a new story to tell….
Here is the short film if you would like to see it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNjtZ5V4P-c
We would love to know what your favourite books are! Tell us in the comment section!
Welcome to 2012 at Meredith PS! This year we will follow the fortunes of my wonderful Grade 4 class of 13 boys and 3 girls! Yes, thats right…16 wonderful minds who will provide laughs, interesting discussions and a puzzling moment or two. We will be trying to update the blog to keep our families and friends informed of what we are learning throughout the year. We are starting our year with iLearning projects on Australia. The class have all chosen different topics which include the bombing of Darwin, Vegemite, The Wiggles, Life Savers, farming in Australia and the Warrnambool Cheese and Butter factory. We have posed questions that we will now research to create our projects. I’m looking forward to seeing how they turn out!
Today we had an awesome day at the 2011 Ball Games at Inverleigh. For those who aren’t familiar with Ball Games, it is a hotly contested trophy that we train hard for and want to win!
There are 4 different old school ball games (Captain Ball, Corner Spry, Tunnel Ball (using a medicine ball) and Cross Chase). Teams compete in their age group and are awarded points for being the first team of their school over the line (first 4 schools over the line earn points, first 4 teams over the line get ribbons…make sense?). Anyways, the legend of Ball Games is very well known amongst our Moorabool Valley Schools (Meredith, Inverleigh, Teesdale, Lethbridge, Anakie and Shelford), and the will to win (and have fun) is high. For the last 10 years, Inverleigh have been the victors due to the military style training of Mr Kirby. Lethbridge, our closest (in km) competition, lost their wonderful coach Mr Tantau last year, but hopefully someone else has picked up the mantle there! Our teams are coached by a legion of experienced ball games teachers.
Well, to cut a long story short, the military precision of Inverleigh won through again and they smashed us all to win number 11. We came in at second. Were we disappointed? No way!!!
Our teams were phenomenal today. Yes, they came second, but they worked super hard out there, really showing what Meredith kids are made of. They cheered on one another and congratulated not only the winning teams, but the ones who tried their hardest. They encouraged people when mistakes were made and balls were dropped. They practised during the breaks. They did their best. This was the first ball games for our Grade 3 children who proved that they would be a force to reckon with in the future, getting over the line first a couple of times.
Coming second was a great reward for all the efforts all the kids had put in – particularly the ones who spent time before school and during recess and lunchtime training with their teams, working on their passes, timing their efforts to see if they could get faster, and trying out new tunnel ball techniques.
Our day finished with an impromptu visit to Inverleigh PS for a bit of a play with the Inverleigh kids. They had a great time mingling with students they had been on camp with or in he same age groups on sports days. And to finish us off completely there was a mammoth sing a long on the bus on the way home – I felt like I was in an episode of Glee – without the cool dancing though.
We should all be very proud of our Meredith children, just as they should be proud of themselves. They had a great time and were real ‘winners’ on the day.
Superstars….
Sorry this has been a long time coming! As per usual, we have been very busy.
We organised a day to celebrate the wonder that is the Melbourne Cup. While some were enjoying a day off, we arranged a series of activities based around the Cup and learnt a lot! Miss Pritchard had been lucky enough to be given some real jockey silks from the family of well known horse trainer, George Hanlon – that we wore throughout the day. Thanks to George’s partner Mary for thinking of us! We started off by taking part in a Web Quest that Miss Pritchard had designed. There were a range of questions on there that related to the history of the Cup, traditions of the day and information about horses and trainers. The students worked in groups and used Google to help with the research. We then took a look at the statistics from all the Melbourne Cup winners. We had to answer the questions relating to the stats and found out some interesting information about the winning margins of some of the horses!
The next challenge we had was to design a board game, using the information we had found out earlier in the morning, and also the processes of game making learnt during the Game Development trial we have been participants in.
After lunch it was time for the inaugural Meredith Cup! The students were paired up and then were informed that one would be the horse and one the jockey. The Cup took place on the bottom oval and the winner would be the horse and jockey who completed an up and back length of the oval, but had also tried to piggy back their partner the whole way. It was a hilarious sight! Particularly as our jockeys were dressed as real jockeys!
The whole school came over to the portable to watch the race, and there were a lot of happy sweep winners once we figured out who had actually won! (what an exciting race!). We had a great day.
Here are some pictures!
