Transition session - Tuesday 11th December

Today was our final transition session with l'Alveare (1/2/3 downstairs).  We spent the morning in the hall together, playing some games and then participating in quite an unusual team challenge. In teams of 6, each of which had a combination of Prep, grade 1 and 2 students, the children transformed one of their team members into a made-up animal.

Some of the creatures were mythological, such as dragons or goblins.  Some were combinations of real animals like elephants and vampire bats, and some were in a new category all of their own, such as the 'elite' animal (we're still not sure exactly what this animal consisted of except that it seemed to have claws and an intense demeanor).

The children had to think carefully about what features their animal needed and how to make them. Attaching ears and whiskers was a particular challenge.

Once all the costumes were completed we had a parade to show off the new animals.

Butterfly Cat

Chop chop ninja

Goblin

Elephant Vampire Bat

Rhinoceros 

Goblin Unicorn

Our headlines
How we are feeling about the move up to grade 1 next year.

Going to grade 1

Sad and good

Awesome!

Ok

Sad because I miss my teachers

Happy because I'm going into grade 1

Happy because I'm one step closer being in high school (which is closer to being in university, when sometimes you can get days off)

We're growing up!

We're growing up more!

We're stepping into grade 1!

We're going to look taller than we were before

Who are the teachers going to be?

Twilight Market

Last Friday was, of course, our Twilight Market.  This annual endeavor is a major fundraiser for our school, as well as an opportunity for the children to display some of their project-based learning through the student-run sideshows.

The children put an incredible amount of thought and effort into their sideshows.  We are constantly amazed by their ideas, and their ability to persist with and solve challenges.  Each one of our five side shows was entirely the work of the children.  From the initial idea, to the planning, building the components, fine tuning of how the side show should run, writing the instructions, typing and formatting them, each side show was a triumph of the children's creativity and persistence.  

Measuring the "prize" airplane, which, like all the planes in this sideshow, has been reinforced with masking tape to protect it over repeated uses.

Adding the final touches to "Pin the Tail on the Horse".  The large painting took several drafts to get the proportions right on such a large piece of paper, and to make it appear professional and inviting to the Twilight Market customers.

Measuring a fishing rod, which had been measured and marked for cutting by an adult, to establish if it is the 'large', 'medium' or 'small' rod (for different sized children)

Making signs to attract customers. Each paddle pop stick was carefully splinted to the one below.

Difficulty making the sign stand unsupported - making a triangular frame at the base to make it stand upright 

Writing signs

Typing up instructions to display at each side show

We also made a selection of prizes to be handed out to successful players.  These 2D and 3D cardboard shapes were spray painted and sorted into baskets for the side shows.  That afternoon the children responsible for each side show set up their work next to the kitchen garden.  We made a roster for each child to be responsible for a side show for 15 minutes.   

Fish for a duck

Fish for a duck involved hooking two ducks that were floating in the tub of water onto one hook on a 'fishing rod'.  There were three different sized fishing rods, 60cm, 46cm and 36cm for big kids, little kids and really little kids respectively.  The team in charge of this event decided that, since it was quite a difficult task, players should have three chances to hook both ducks.  If players succeeded by the third attempt they won a prize.

Pick a Prize

Pick a prize was a labour or love and a major construction challenge.  The box itself took over a week of construction, and rather than simply pulling out a prize, the children devised a sophisticated code to determine what each player's prize should be.  Inside the box were cards with several different pictures on them, each of which correlated to a particular prize.  Some cards resulted in a big prize, some in a small prize, and others gave the player one or three more turns at choosing a card.  The codes were recorded on a code sheet displayed next to the instructions.

Aeroplane Race

The paper plane race wasn't exactly a race in the strictest sense of the word.  Two players competed to throw their paper plane (which had been made by the team in advance) the furthest distance.  The children debated measuring the length each plane had flown but decided it was unnecessary because they could tell by simple comparison.

The paper planes were reinforced with masking tape over the nose and any parts of the plane likely to get torn or bent during repeated throws.  A giant paper plane was prepared as a grand prize for the player who threw their plane the greatest distance.
Players stood at a line marked out by the team in charge and threw the planes along a track that had been outlined in the kitchen garden.

Pin the Tail on the Horse

This variation on pin the tail on the donkey also took a long time and many drafts to prepare.  The children researched pictures of horses and drew several draft sketches on butcher's paper before carefully painting their piece.  They decided on blue tack to attach the tail because it is easier to attach to paper, and prepared a paper tail as well. 

Like the other teams, the children in charge of pin the tail on the horse worked out the rules, drafted, typed and formatted their instructions completely independently.  

Pinball

The children drew inspiration for their pinball machine from a project that the 1/2/3s had made.  They marked the places for the nails to be hammered into a piece of wood, however once we started hammering nails in they discovered that there were too many, making the pinball machine cluttered and difficult to use.  They chose a few key points to place the nails and stretched rubber bands across to propel the marble.  

They also discovered that the board needed a perimeter as the marble kept rolling off the edge.  Once all the nails had been hammered in, they painted it to show the winning section clearly and added a button to indicate where players had to shoot the marble to win a prize.

The children are, justifiably, extremely proud of their work as we are of them.  Thank you to all the families who came along to the Twilight Market and helped support the children and our school. 

Writers' Festival Expo

Wednesday was our big expo day for the Writers' Festival.  In the morning we were visited by the l'Alveare (1/2/3 downstairs) and Su Nei Cieli (4/5/6) who were quite impressed by our budding authors. 

The children read their books to the older students, as well as showing them their cake reviews, writing books, and other pieces of writing around the room.  This was a rare opportunity for the children to showcase their work to a new audience, and it obviously gave them great pride to do so.

Our learning community also had the chance to visit il Nido (1/2/3 upstairs) to see some of their published work before the families arrived in the afternoon to see our work.  Having a physical book published was obviously a significant event for the children, and was highly motivating in the weeks leading up to the Writers' Festival.

Thank you to all the parents who came to the expo.  If you couldn't make it, please feel free to pop in some time to have a look at the children's books and other writing in the room.  We think you'll be impressed.

Tasting and reviewing day

On Wednesday we tasted our cakes and shared our thoughts using descriptive language. We made a list of adjectives and talked about the genre of review. Children then wrote individual reviews or recounts of the experience.  

Once again there was maths involved – dividing the cake into equal amounts, calculating the number of serves needed and fractions like half.

Whilst the chocolate cake that Nerida’s home group made was edible and it tasted okay, it is possible that the children either exaggerated their responses or really did think it was as delicious as they said because they had invented and cooked it.

Genevieve's learning community were more muted in their praise. While they were happy with the appearance of their cake (and they certainly sampled it with great enthusiasm!) they felt that the balance of flavours wasn't quite right. 

The children came up with some adjectives to describe the cake.  Most of these were very positive, however a few children (obviously striving for perfection) found the cake produced too many crumbs.

All the children wrote a review of their cake, describing what they liked and didn't like quite so much about their product. Here are a few samples:

The Chocolate Cake

Nerida’s Learning Community made a chocolate cake. It was delicious. Everybody in Nerida’s Learning Community liked the cake except (child A) and (child B) didn’t want any.

Nerida’s Learning Community made a chocolate cake. I liked it. 8/8! I liked it because it had lots of sugar and it was really yummy.

It was delicious! I love it! But it didn’t have enough milk. It was so yummy!

Marble Cake

It was fantastic.  I couldn't make it better than it was at my house.  The thing we could...(improvement, to be finished)

Marble Cake

I like the banana part.  I did not like the chocolate part because there was too much chocolate.  

I give this 5/10

I think it looked swirly.

Chocolate Cake

Nerida’s Preps made a chocolate cake with white icing sugar. I give this cake 10/10. I think this cake is DECLICIOUS! I think it was really sweet.