Transition

On Friday we started our Transition program to give the children a taste of what it is like to be a grade 1 student.  

Bicicletta visited L'alveare (The Hive, otherwise known 1/2/3 downstairs) and spent some time with the current grade 1s and 2s, while the current grade 3s went to visit 4/5/6. We divided into groups, with a mixture of Preps, 1s and 2s  to get to know some of the bigger kids.  We rotated around a couple of activities, including indoor and outdoor games, community circle and maths menu.  

After the transition session, the children shared their thoughts about moving into 123.  

Things that are the same about 1/2/3	Things that are different
They had maths menu like us.	They have different maths menu (how was it different?) because they do different things…it was easier
They use the camera like we do in Prep.	They have more teachers.
They act like us…they make poor choices and good choices. I disagree, because I didn’t see them do any poor choices, I only saw them sit with me.	Well you have more teachers because they have more kids. Because it’s 123 so that means there’s 3 sets of children so they have to have 3 adults around.
They have community circle like us.	They’re mixed together, like the grade ones are with the grade two and threes.
They have the same chairs as us.	The classroom is different, cos it’s bigger.
They have a tiered seating like us.	They have 2 tiered seatings and we only have 1. One’s smaller, because they’re the same size as ours but there’s two because if you put them together it makes one.
	They’re older than us.
	They have 2 box of lego.
	The library is bigger.

Here are a couple of their recollections of things that they enjoyed during this session:

"I liked it, we played games and builded stuff."

"They had really fun maths menu."

"I learned how to, the big Charlie showed me how to use the camera in 123."  

"Well, we had these shapes like our shapes, and they had these pictures of what you could make with them and you had to try and make a picture with them like a candle or all sorts of stuff." (Maths Menu)

"There was another maths menu, and there was some blocks, and there was like pictures same as the animal shapes except the blocks and you had to build them and count how much they were."

We also discussed things that they might be worried about for next year, these included "The grade 1s being mean to me" "Miss Prep…my teachers, maybe some of my friends, because some of them might be up in the other learning community" and "I’m going to miss you and I’m going to miss the room."

A lot of students were already familiar with the space, having visited it with older siblings, friends and buddies or for committee meetings like the Green Team.  The 1s and 2s were very excited to be in a position to help the Preps navigate the room and the activities.

"It’s my brother’s classroom and I’ve been there before and it’s not that strange to me, so I hope I’m downstairs.

"It was my sister’s classroom."

"My friends Ginger and Jade are there."

Please note that we are visiting L'alveare purely for the purposes of transition -  to get a sense of what grade 123 feels like, to experience some of their activities, to get used to being with the older children and being in a different space.  This does not mean that your child will necessarily be moving to L'alveare next year.  More information about next year will be sent out closer to the end of term, and you will have the opportunity to nominate some friends that your child is comfortable with.  We do our best to ensure that children move up with a few friends.

The Lorax

Philosophy on Thursday 25th October as part of our inquiry into survival.

Here are some of the children’s initial responses.

• I’m sad because all the animal were in the country and they chopped down all the trees so they had nothing to eat and they couldn’t breathe very well because they made all that pollution in the air and I feel for them, for the animals. 
• It made me think that when he plants the Truffula trees he should put electric fences around so the axes can’t cut it down. 
• It made me inspiring by trees and I’m also sad about when people thrown rubbish away because it could blow onto trees or into the Merri Creek or into the river and animals might eat the rubbish and die and as soon as they choke other people could be throwing more rubbish and sticks. 
• I think it’s nice of the Lorax to care about nature. 
• I feel sad for the Lorax because he had too much pollution in the air and he put smog and he nearly killed all the animals so he sent them away so they could find a better place to live and have a happier life. 
• If they cut down all the trees the wind won’t be able to blow the trees and if the wind doesn’t blow the trees we will miss the sound of the wind blowing the trees. 
• I like the Lorax because he cared about nature. 
• I think that the Lorax was good ‘cause he told the man not to chop the trees down but the man didn’t listen. If I was the man, I would have listened. 

The following week we revisited The Lorax, focussing on the points of view of each of the characters.

The Lorax He was sad because the Once-ler cut down all the trees then all the animals had to go away.  He was feeling sad because the trees got chopped down and he didn’t want them to and the Once-ler didn’t listen.	The trees More than you can even say sad. When they got cut down they felt dead.
The boy, ‘Ted’ He was feeling sad because he might have felt sad because might have wanted to look at the trees and how the days were at that time but now he can’t see them because there was only black.	The animals The animals felt sad because they had to leave and they loved that place. They were thinking that he doesn’t care about anyone or anything.
The Once-ler He wanted to make that stuff, he didn’t care about nature. He cared about making the Thneeds. He just wanted more and more money and he just wanted to get richer so they could live for more longer and buy more food. He just wanted to get a tree because there were so many trees in one place, but not in another.  At the end when he’s finished, he does care about Truffula trees and he gave him a seed to protect. (He cared at the end) because he just thought that they were nature and nature helps people live, then he became friends with nature and also wanted more nature. Also, he thought that nature could keep us alive for five billion years or more. He didn’t listen to the Lorax because he was just caring about himself. He wasn’t caring about anything or anyone.  Why did the Once-ler care about the trees at the end when he didn’t used to care? Why might he have change? Because he missed the animals. Because he wanted the trees back because he missed them because he cut them all down. Because he wanted air, maybe. Because they might be the specialist trees in the world. He felt sad because he missed the trees and the bright sky.

This prompted a discussion about why sometimes we don’t listen to other people and why they may not listen to us.

• Some people don’t listen to you because they’re concentrating on something else and they maybe aren’t listening and they just want to do what they want to do and they just listen to themselves and their friends.
• Some people don’t listen to you because they don’t care about what you say because it doesn’t really matter to them.
• I agree with (child) because last time I was finishing off mummy’s birthday card and she was really annoying. She just wanted to annoy me.
• Sometimes when people are not listening to you, you should just not listen to them when they don’t listen to you once, then when they’re trying to talk to you, you shouldn’t listen to them; because one trick deserves another.
• I don’t agree with (the previous child) because if you do it again then they’ll do it again and it’ll go on and on and there will be more people going to reflection and soon they’ll have to start a new one because all the books are full.
• If you don’t listen to them, they won’t listen to you. And also, if you annoy them, they will just do something bad like not listen to you.
• When it’s silent reading or personal writing and someone’s speaking to you, that’s why they’re not listening – because it’s silent.
• Well, sometimes in the yard, (child) is shouting at people and I tell him to stop and he doesn’t because he just wants to shout at people when people are doing something that he doesn’t want him to do. But they can do their own things in the yard – they’re not doing dangerous things.
• I agree with (another child) because my brother annoys me because he just wants to annoy me ‘cause he thinks it’s fun.
• I think people don’t listen to you because they’re not your friend and because they’re a bit shy.
• Sometimes in silent reading when other people are talking, I don’t say no, but I do the signs and other people just keep talking.

Thank You

We have lots of people to thank.

Thank you to Libby, Kate, Peta and Jeanie for watering our terrace plants this term. If other people have done so without us noticing, thank you to you, too! With this warmer weather we certainly need a steady stream of helpers.

Thank you to everyone who helped in one way or another with our Friday Market. To think that we raised around $600 even though all of the 4/5/6s were absent is very impressive indeed! There were so many delicious, creative and clever looking edible things. If you have suggestions for what to spend our money on (we keep half of what we make), let us know. So far we are thinking about a reel for the hoses out on the terrace.

Smashing rocks at Merri Creek

The children were fascinated by the idea of what is hidden inside the everyday objects that we found at Merri Creek this week.

Two children spent close to an hour spraying water on a boulder and trying to break it. They were certainly very focussed and persistent! Here is a snapshot from their discussion.

“We’re going to smash it to get the crystals”
“We’re wetting the rock to weaken it”
“Yeah, so we can break it… It (the water) goes inside the rock, then it tries to get out and it pushes a bit of rock out so then we can break it and get to the bit that has the gold. That’s the best bit about smashing the rock. And the fair way is whoever breaks the rock gets the gold. You’ve got to break your own rock to get your own gold”
(smashing away with sticks)
“Oooh! White stuff! Treasure!”
“It’s actually silver”



“How did they roll it? I’m going to take a photo” referring to the ‘rolled path’ cement sculpture.

Other children were interested in the inside of an old, rotting tree stump near the edge of the bank.


"We're trying to figure out what's inside this tree, we've figured out that there's sticky stuff but we want to see inside what's in the middle of the tree."
"Water will make it easier to dig.""This doesn't smell like anything, I don't think it should smell like anything but I'm wondering what it is." (Fragment of wood broken from tree stump)
"Usually when you look in a living tree it's got green stuff but not this one." 

They were also preoccupied with the health of the trees and plants in the area. This has been a recurring interest every week we have visited.

"These branches are dying I think, because the branches look like old."


"See this tree here is living color, and this one is different, so it's old I think."



One small group examined a cluster of trees and pointed out that several of them had signs of insect infestation. They were very excited about the prospect of discovering woodworm, which they suggested based on the holes in the bark of several trees, and after much searching, we managed to catch a glimpse of the insect.



We found signs of insect life everywhere; one old tree had a treasure trove of evidence under the bark:


"I know what's what. The long things are the slime and the round things are the poos."
"It's got lots of nibbly bits...the tree's sick."
We were lucky enough to find a few tiny little spiders, some egg sacks, and a strange growth in the branches of a tree.

"It feels like silk"
"It looks like poop. If you scrape it off it kind of looks like bark."

Thank you to Julie, Jeanie, Diana, Carolyn, Claire and Sarah who came along with us.

What size feet do preps have?

We have been conducting an investigation into foot size and measurement.  We started with the question "What size feet do Preps have?" and have been unpacking it over the last couple of sessions.

Our initial estimates ranged from "the same size as our shoe", "sort of the same" to "no, because we’re born on different days" and "when grown ups were little they had the same size feet as us but now they have big feet".  

We started off by looking for anything on our shoes that could tell us how big they are.

This turned out to be a little confusing, as the sizes vary enormously, and many shoes have 2 or 3 sizes listed in them.  We then set out to figure out a way to measure our feet reliably and consistently.

First, we found our foot buddy - someone who has about the same size foot as us.

This worked well, but only when we could directly compare feet, so the children experimented with a range of materials to come up with ways to get a more precise measurement. These included:

Measuring the outside foot length with measuring tapes

Measuring the outside length and toes with chains - starting at the heel each time.

Measuring the width of our toes...

...and toes of both feet together

measuring the ankles

tracing the outline

The children have started to evaluate their methods, and some of the problems they encountered:

"I did it on my toes to measure because I couldn’t get it right on the side of my foot." 

"We put our feet out like this, without our shoes on, and put our feet together, and he measured it but I don’t know how long our feet are because he didn’t say the number.

This week we will be refining, testing and evaluating our methods.  We will keep you posted.

Tracing showing the difference between foot and shoe size.