Mini Microscope Investigations

Posted on April 29, 2015 by lisasporn

On Tuesday we did some very special investigations with Mrs Nelson.

The class used the iPads and iPods and clipped a mini microscope onto the edge of the device. As we were working inside we needed to switch the light on so that we could see items under the microscopes more clearly. We all had a partner to work with and share ideas.

This weeks challenge was to explore ‘man-made’ in and around the classroom. After exploring the classroom and finding items to magnify the pairs then looked thru their pictures and chose one each to share for a ‘What do you think this is?’ whole class culminating activity.

What did you discover under your microscope?

Daily 5 Reading Menu

Posted on April 29, 2015 by lisasporn

As we continue to develop our reading skills we added 4 more strategies to our Daily 5 Cafe board.

We are using these skills really well every time we read:

Make a mental picture or images.
Use the pictures. Do the words and pictures match.
Back up and reread.
Predict what will happen next, use the text to confirm.

Then we added 4 new skills that we’ll be developing in whole class reading sessions, read to self, partner reading and listening to reading activities.

Community Worker Visitors

Posted on April 29, 2015 by lisasporn

As a part of our Inquiry about our people who live and work in our community we had 2 visitors this week.

We had a lady from the RSPCA who talked to us about how they save and help animals. It was interesting to hear about all of the different ways that the RSPCA works in our community.

Today we heard from Bev from Minton Farm. It was great to hear about how Bev and her husband have over 300 animals living on their Coromandel Valley farm at the moment. Their work at Minton Farm centres around rescuing sick or injured animals, helping them back to good health and then releasing them back into their natural community if it is possible. Sometimes animals can’t be released to live on their own so Bev keeps them on her farm to make sure they live a long and happy life. Minton Farm is quite close to school and a part of people in our community.

Bev brought twin possums along for us to see and learn about- they had been abandoned in the recent bushfires in the Adelaide Hills.

Narrative Stories

Posted on April 28, 2015 by lisasporn

A fictional narrative is a made up story.

Over the next week we will be “immersing” ourselves in fictional narratives to investigate the key elements of a well written narrative.

We will look at:

The structure of a fictional narrative
Developing ideas to form a quality narrative
Character development

Narratives can be structured in different ways, but we identified the typical organisation of a fictional narrative:

Beginning (introduce the main character/s, describe the setting)
Middle – part one (complication)
Middle – part two (series of events that occur as a result of the complication)
Ending (complication is resolved).

We’ll be using lots of different picture books to analyse the narrative story – looking at the setting, characters and how the story develops.

We’ll be using some YouTube clips from the Storyline online site to look at different stories and also to help us our reading aloud skills. We’re having a bug focus on reading with expression and these YouTube clips are a great example of this skill.

Stay tuned for our recorded readings of narrative stories and our written narratives in the coming weeks.

Can you think of any narrative story titles that we could use?

Welcome to Term 2

Posted on April 28, 2015 by lisasporn

Custom Glitter Text

We’ve started Term 2 – I’d love you to post a comment about something you’d like to do this term…..It could be a specific activity, visitors to invite in, an excursion that relates to our classroom activities, something you’d like to investigate.

Please let me know what you’re interested in doing – I can’t wait to read your ideas and suggestions.

It’s Holidays

Posted on April 11, 2015 by lisasporn

Lady Bug Note Generators

Genius Hour

Posted on April 11, 2015 by lisasporn

On the last day of term (yesterday) we had our first ‘creative maker’ session.

We’ve been discussing Genius Hour sessions – what they are, how they can look, how to plan for using your time effectively, where to get your ideas, what materials you might need….it’s been a fantastic discussion within our class.

We discussed things that we LOVE and ideas we’d be really keen to investigate further next term.

This is a new idea for our Year 2 students but we’re lucky because Miss Sporn, our teacher, ran Genius Hour sessions with her Year 2/3 class last year.

We’ve watched Caine’s Arcade clips via YouTube- he’s been a great inspiration.

We’ve looked at ideas on Pinterest – it gave us lots of ideas and taught us how to search for ideas we’re interested in.

For our first session Miss Sporn created the ‘paper bag challenge’. Everyone was given similar items and we were challenged to create ‘something’ with it.

Some of the items were:

a paper bag
pipe cleaners
feathers
string
a cork or two
a cup
patty pans
match sticks
pop sticks

We needed to use most of the items and could recycle our unused materials into tubs in the middle of the room – we could add or take items from these tubs.

We could use textas, recycled paper, low melt glue guns, cardboard, etc as needed.

We had lots of interesting and different creations – it was really interesting to see how each of our students thought about their ideas, started their making, made changes and then finally finished their creations.

Checkout our entire session via our slideshow.

What do you like to create during Genius Hour?

What would you like to try next time?

SRC Reps

Posted on April 11, 2015 by lisasporn

On Friday Bella and Jon received their SRC badges. It was part of our last assembly for the term.

Congratulations to Bell and Jon – we think you look great with your badges on.

Sports Day

Posted on April 3, 2015 by lisasporn

Last Friday, the 2nd of April, we held our annual Craigburn Primary School Sports Day.

It was a fantastic day and our class loved all of the events we participated in.

The day started with the teachers and SLEG students setting up every event at 7.15am!!!

Each class met in their classrooms and then we went down to the bottom courts to assemble in our house teams – Woodford, Riley, Fraser and Bradman.

Ms Terrell, our Principal, welcomed everyone to Sports Day and wished all of the teams ‘good luck’.

Mrs Pettman, our PE teacher, had a variety of students talk to us about the different sports they participate in as the special opening to the day.

Our events for the day were:

Sprints
Hurdles
Tunnel ball/ Spoke relay
Fireman’s relay / Water in the Bucket
Long Jump
Accuracy throw
Bocce
Sack race/ 3 legged race.

We loved all of our tabloid events and had a great time playing them. We had lots of good sports and tried hard to improve our skills.

After lunch we held the Year 3-7 relay and sprints.

Then Ms Terrell announced the results:

1st place Fraser 1450 points

2nd place Woodforde 1350 points

3rd place Riley 1305

4th place Bradman 1285 points.

We’d like to say a HUGE thank you to Mrs Pettman for organising such a successful Sports Day.

Year 2, 3 & 4 Assembly

Posted on April 3, 2015 by lisasporn

Last Monday we went to our first assembly for the year. Mr Hanna’s Yr 3/4 class were the hosts and we thought they did a great job making sure the assembly ran smoothly.

Mr Luke spoke to us all about the new ‘Munchie Monsters’ that each class will be using to recycle plastic containers – we get to decorate ours with our Year 6/7 buddy class and recycle containers with them too.