Bark Art

On Friday we explored 'Bark Art'.  We collected various types of bark and leaves from around our school.  We discussed and looked at famous Australian landscapes such as paintings by Hans Heysen, Albert Namatjira and 'The Pioneer' by Frederick McCubbin.  We then created our own bark art landscapes.

Persuasive Writing

We are learning about life a long time ago. We have been finding out about the rules that the children had at school. We are glad that we didn't go to school back then!

After looking at the rules we then had to persuade our reader as to why children need rules at school. Here is some of our writing.

Italian Day

Today we celebrated the Italian culture. We had a great day making salt clay busts, bulle pouches and eating pizza and gelati. We were also entertained by actors who put on a very amusing play and we acquired new soccer skills thanks to our professional soccer coaches. Our day ended with a marathon around the school. We all had a sensational time but we were exhausted!

Italian Day on PhotoPeach

The Schwerkolt Cottage

Today we were very lucky to have Barbara from the Whitehorse Historical Society come to speak to us about the history of Schwerkolt Cottage in Mitcham.

Barbara told us that there were 2 cottages built on the site. The first one was made in 1861 and the second one in 1886. The most people living in the cottage at one time as 12 and the cottage only had 3 rooms!

Johann August Schwekolt arrived in Australia in 1849 from Prussia. He built the cottages out of stone from the nearby quarry. When the cottages were built there was only bush around them. The furniture in the house was mainly made by Mr Schwerkolt. The children did not have toys like we have today. They had one doll, one bike and maybe a tin lid and a stick. At night they read the Bible and sang songs for entertainment.

They did not have electricity, running water, fridges, telephones, televisions, cars or washing machines in the olden days. Their transport was horse and cart and they communicated by sending messages with someone on a horse. Inside the cottage the family communicated through a whole in the wall.

Thank you Barbara you told us alot about Pioneer Life in the City of Whitehorse.

That's Entertainment-Mary Poppins

This week we had our entertaining School Production. Our class sang songs and danced steps to these songs from Mary Poppins. We had a great time learning the songs and dances over many weeks. Our mums were a wonderful help when it came to getting costumes and making props. Thanks mum!

Mary Poppins on PhotoPeach

Olden Days

Olden Days by jdavid on Storybird

Over the week our class added to this story. Before we could add to the story we had to read over what had been written on the previous day and edit this before we could add any new pages.
After reading through our story we discovered that we were introducing too many new characters, we used too many pronouns - 'she, he or they' and we had autumn and winter happening in the same day.
We hope that you enjoy reading through our story about what life could have been like long ago.

Oral Narratives

Today we began to explore narratives and how they are written. We discovered that narratives have an orientation, complication, events and a resolution.
We are having a go at telling stories before we write them down. Our teacher gave us a variety of toys (cars, animals, people) to use as props in our stories.
We worked in small groups and created our stories to share with the class. Our stories were about a car race, a naughty moose, a lost lobster, animals on a farm and monsters destroying the world.
Here are some pictures of us creating and presenting our stories.

Exploring Timelines

We are learning about timelines this week as part of recount writing. Today we created a timeline of growth and change in people.
Tomorrow we are going to use our own timelines to write an autobiography on our lives so far. We will share some of these with you soon.

Our Sustainable Preps

Our Preps have made a fabulous advertisement which makes us think about the paper we are using. They ask the question - How can we save more paper?
A great job Preps!

I SEE, I WONDER

As part of our Literacy this morning we looked at a photo from long ago. We spoke about what we could see in the photo and what the photo made us wonder.

I SEE

• wooden toys
• a family - mum, dad, boy, girl and a baby
• dark clothes
• no smiles
• long dresses and pants

I WONDER

• Do they have a radio?
• How old is this photo??
• How old are the people?
• What jobs do they have?
• Do the children go to school?
• Why weren't they smiling?
• How rich is the family?
• What is it like outside this room?
• Is their house big or small?
• What would the photo look like in colour?

During our Time Traveller inquiry we will attempt to find out the answers to some of our wonderings.

Time Travellers

Today we started our new inquiry adventure for this term - Time Travellers. We had to crawl through a time tunnel to enter our classroom of long ago. We were very excited and couldn't wait to see what was behind the black curtain!
When we entered through the curtain we found a classroom with no electricity or heating and our tables were in rows. We had to sit up straight and work in silence. Our teacher used chalk to write on the board and we had to copy lines of handwriting. If we formed or placed a letter incorrectly we had to write it again 10 times!

Entering the Time Tunnel on PhotoPeach

Our Anti Bullying Posters

Junior D Anti Bullying Posters on PhotoPeach