Foundation students enjoyed the fun and excitement of Fairy-tales today with our special presenter Fairlie. Children were given the opportunity to dress up and act out a very funny fairy-tale where everything was back to front. There were lots of laughs. It was a happy way to complete our Fairy-tale unit in writing. I was especially pleased to hear the students using the language of fairy-tale narratives such as ‘once upon a time’ and ‘happily ever after’. I think Fairlie was quite impressed!

We had a fabulous experience on Friday with a visit from Craftpower. We were first introduced to how important trees are for our world – to provide both oxygen and wood. Children were very knowledgeable about the tools we have in our toolbox. Children chose two pieces of cut out wood to make a Christmas decoration. They pasted and nailed it to a block that allowed the top part to turn. With pencil they drew the parts of their decoration onto their shapes. They pasted the shape onto a block of wood, again using glue and nails. With adult support they attached a battery box that had two wires with ‘eyes’ at the end to their decoration. The children were outstanding when asked to listen and then follow directions. I was very impressed with their hammering skills! Children then returned and coloured their decoration. Great work Foundation A!

In Design and Creativity, we enjoyed a special visit from a very special guest speaker. We welcomed Miss Birch into our classroom. Before Miss Birch became a teacher, she was an awesome designer. Miss Birch designed advertisements and websites for all sorts of businesses on the computer. She shared her favourite designs with us and spoke about her very important and busy job. We learnt that to be a designer, you need to follow a plan, use your imagination, make changes to improve your work and have heaps of fun! We will be designing a toy in a few weeks 🙂

We all enjoyed a wonderful Japanese Day today. Children dressed up and paraded in the Multi-purpose Room then were entertained by students from Saint Francis Xavier who played the Japanese Taiko drums. It was very loud but very entertaining. Children then rotated around activities. They made a Japanese number folded book, a Kendama which is a traditional Japanese toy and played Undokai, which is how children play sports in Japan. There were two teams, Team Shiro and Team Aka. It was great fun!

Children were very excited today to explore the additional equipment at the Adventure Playground Area. Foundation and Grade One children were the first to explore and decided it was an absolute winner!

Some students enjoyed making an Ant home out of sticks and flowers to protect the small ants in our garden area. Great ingenuity was used to create a modern, comfortable establishment.

We all enjoyed the sunshine and fresh air as we planted our new seedlings. We look forward to doing lots of gardening next year. Thanks to our Big Buddies for helping us.

This week, we enjoyed reading the common materials slideshow to learn about materials around us such as paper, glass, wood, metal, rubber and fabric. Check it out at home! Try posting an interesting fact about your favourite common material!! 🙂

Our Author Study this term is the fun and fabulous Pamela Allen.

Meet Pamela Allen…..

1. What is your favourite food? I love stewed tamarillos (tree tomatoes when I was little).
2. How do you relax? Sleep. I love it.
3. What was your favourite subject at school? I was good at drawing.
4. What was the book you most loved as a child? I remember crying over Peter Rabbit (by Beatrix Potter).
5. Which person from the past would you most like to meet? My great grandfather. He was left an orphan as a little boy and through his own efforts ended up owning a printing business.
6. Who is your favourite author? Margaret Mahy
7. Why did you want to be a writer? I thought I could be an illustrator then I discovered I could write.
8. Do you have a special place where you write your books? Yes. I have a separate building now in the bush – I call it “my space”.

Our Inquiry unit this term is Design and Technology. We are learning about primary and secondary colours and different colour temperatures. This week, we found out that cool colours are green, blue and purple and warm colours are yellow, orange and red. Cool colours make us feel relaxed and calm and warm colours make us feel warm and cosy. We drew some fantastic cool and warm colour collages! They look super cool 🙂