Edith's class
2007 Term 2
25th June 2007
What an amazing term we have had! Our Cartooning theme has
shown us all that we really CAN draw and copy. Our visiting
cartoonist, Joffa, kept us on our toes and entertained as he
raced through his presentation. Teaching us that there is no
such thing as a mistake when drawing cartoons, he accepted and
praised all variations of his instructions that we came up with
– and what a variety there were! Come and see our
display!
The eggs that arrived on the 4th of June, hatched over
the hours of the 6th of June and produced 4 female and 4 male
chickens. The two black chickens both turned out to be roosters
and were more aggressive than the yellow roosters so they and
one yellow rooster were swapped for some more females.
The
children have watched with interest how quickly these chickens
developed wing and tail feathers – females more quickly
than males – that’s how they tell! Soon our farm
will be home for these 7 hens and one rooster. We looked at the
chickens and their photos noticing their special features, then
had a go at drawing chicken cartoons. Again, some great
results.
Have a great holiday. Relax, have fun and come back
next term for a great performance and lots more fun.
Edith
7th June 2007
What a week!! WOW! Tiring, but fun. On Tuesday 29th we enjoyed
a train trip into the city arriving at Parliament Station about
10.15 am. The escalators out were huge. Once in the fresh, damp
air and sunshine it was a short, pleasant walk up to the
gardens. Here we discovered lots of large, dry autumn leaves
and had great fun playing in these.We took advantage of the
nearby seat and stopped for morning tea and a romp. After this
we continued through the gardens to the museum. Having stowed
our bags into lockers we proceeded to the children's
section and had great fun exploring, building, drawing, playing
with puppets and learning about animals, seeds and our natural
world. A group of boys (and some girls later) spent a lot of
time building a tower with extra large, rubber 'lego'
blocks. 
The team work - innovation, cooperation, negotiation
and consideration they displayed led to other impressed parents
inquiring about the school. We enjoyed lunch and a stretch of
the legs at the innovative playground nearby and as the rain
started, we retreated in to IMAX. A shared popcorn treat helped
us wait. The movie we watched was Cyberworld 3D. It had lots of
interesting spaceship type graphics, cartoon bugs, ants and
even a brief visit from the Simpsons as they changed from 2D to
3D characters. The children again received compliments on their
behaviour as they quietly and cooperatively amused themselves
in various ways on the train trip home. 
We arrived back a bit
later than anticipated but all were happy and positive about
the day. Another trip to the city on Friday with the whole
school!! - This time we left the train at Flinders street,
crossed to Federation Square and the 3 older groups went to
ACMI (Australian Centre for the Moving Image). Wendy's
Group went off and will no doubt write about their own
adventures separately. We enjoyed the Games Lab at ACMI, trying
out many newly developed computer games that are not yet
available for sale. My favourite was the voice activated racing
car and breath activated hot-air balloon - great for developing
deep breathing and breath control! Towards the end I was shown
some other areas of the facility that could be explored/used.
Some children had a brief look at cartoon clips and claymation
cartoons in the Memory Grid and Tanya and I will further
investigate their 'blue screen' filming facilities with
a view to some special effects for the production. 
The long and
interesting playground, with (among other things) swinging
hammocks, rocks of varying sizes to climb and a long slope to
run or roll down made for a fun lunchtime and a chance to let
off steam and challenge ourselves physically. Walking to the
Arts Centre gave us a view of the Yarra River and an idea of
city traffic. Once we had stowed our bags in the cloakroom, we
proceeded through the maze of corridors and 'greyness'
to the great hall. 
Here we joined some other schools to watch
and enjoy the Warbles as they introduced us to various songs
from operas in a fun, interactive way. What powerful voices! We
laughed, clapped and sang our way through this performance with
many children requesting the sequel to start immediately!
Sorry, guys, have to wait for that one. We finished the day
with a quick tour of the gallery in class sized groups. By this
time we were all very tired and self-control was starting to
wain, so we were all glad to find seats on the train and just
quietly socialise on the way home. Many, many thanks to Vikki,
Susie and Terri for your invaluable assistance on Tuesday and
Liz Van Kooten, Cathi Walker and Cathy West for yours on
Friday! The success of our excursions relies on people such as
you.
Edith
28th May 2007
Hi again. After a busy time writing cinquain and haiku poems, making folded booklet cards and creating a delightful present for our mothers (keyring, necklace or stained glass window) for Mothers' Day, we have finally really started on our Cartooning theme.
Using many of the children's ideas and suggestions, I have created a Cartoon Bingo of challenges. The children choose any 3 in a row to work on for this term, putting in effort, time and creativity according to their ability. Specific skills required are taught and practised to some degree by all.
So far Selvi has shown us a flip book, a two sided picture on a stick which combines the two pictures when the stick is rolled quickly between your palms and a zoetrope. "The zoetrope consists of paper bands of pictures or images placed inside a revolving drum. To view the zoetrope movie, the viewer looks through slots on the outside of the drum while it rotates." Tiffany, our student teacher, showed us how to enlarge a cartoon using squares and we had fun creating larger versions of Snake in our little groups.
We are also investigating 2D shapes and their special attributes: squares, rectangles, triangles, hexagons and a trapezium to start with. Using a variety of facial features and expressions in these shapes we have come up with some great cartoon faces.
Our SQUIRT (quiet reading) time has morphed into an opportunity to follow written instructions in books and attempt to copy cartoons. By following the steps outlined, many of us have discovered or improved on our drawing talents.
This week we will visit IMAX and the Centre For the Moving Image! What a great theme this is!
Edith
30th April 2007
Welcome back (belatedly). A warm welcome to Georgia Clifford-King and her family. We hope you continue to enjoy school and grow as part or our Village community. We started this term with a blitz on unfinished work, a bit of autumn inspired art work and calendar learning. This will be followed by the annual SHHHHHH…….. Mother's Day makings so Mums…please avoid the room for a little while so you don't spoil the surprise.
This term the children have chosen to investigate Cartoon
Characters so expect to hear lots of laughter coming from our
room as we find out about humour and what makes things funny,
learn the tricks of the trade in drawing cartoons and try to
develop our own. They have suggested numerous ways in which we
can learn more about both animated cartoons and printed ones
and many of these will be pursued. I am looking forward to a
fun term!
Edith
2007 Term 1
20th March 2007
The time has finally come - Project presentations have begun and we are learning what is the Same and Different about many things. Isabelle showed us the water cycle and explained that the dark clouds have more water in them than the lighter clouds. Denver brought along vials of blood and water to show us that they are different. He went on to explain that blood is thicker, is made with water in our bodies, has cells that are different to water's and we discovered when blood was poured into water that it is heavier, as it sinks to the bottom. He also mentioned that both blood and water can carry disease but are essential for life. Connor showed us the difference between flying fish and other fish with some pictures and explained the different types of fins required. This week we have the rest of the presentations spread over Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday mornings. I hope we can remember the interesting facts. We have been learning about the Vowel Men - Mr. A, Mr. E etc who just say their names. We learned the story about when 2 vowel men go out walking (in words), the first one does the talking (says his name) while the second one silently looks out for robbers that might capture them. This makes them change their sound completely! e.g. hail, hair, teal, tear etc. Of course this is English we are talking about and there are always exceptions such as oo and ou which have totally different stories and 'ie' whose vowel men share the talking and watching roles, taking turns according to the word. After our gardening boxes were moved out of the building site and once again became accessible we were finally able to water again. As the extreme weather begins to ease, we hope to see evidence of shoots taking off. (Have you noticed the wonderful tomatoes growing near the Drama room?) Our social hour with Wendy's group on Fridays is giving us the opportunity to investigate many different skills and interact with a wider age range. Last time the wood work was so popular that we have now bought 4 new lighter hammers, suitable for this age group. Weighing on a balance was fascinating for some and the water experiments were also popular. Next week will be a short sharp look at Easter and the chance for the children to vote on next term's theme.
26th February 2007
Many of our seeds are now enjoying the sun and the odd sprinkles of rain out in the vegie boxes. We look forward to seeing the first signs of green appear. We have looked at a number of Letterland sounds combinations, learning or revising ‘sh’, ‘ch’, ‘th’ and ‘oo’. We learned about Mr. Tion and so far have found 30 words that end with his name. If you can help us make our list longer, we would enjoy your input. This week we discussed the question ‘What’s the difference between ….. ?” (started by our curiosity about bees and wasps). The children now each have a question that they are trying to find as many answers to as possible. Their topics are quite thoughtful and will need them to think, observe, research and ask other questions using many resources and people to help. We are looking forward to some interesting presentations in a few weeks.
19th February 2007
The graphing of our measuring results continues at a variety of levels. Some use centicubes on a 1 cube for 1cm correspondence to create a physical graph that they can then trace onto paper. Others are using coloured rectangles from paint strips employing more difficult concepts such as 1 piece = 2 cm/ 5cm / 10cm depending on the largest measurement they need to display. Strips of paper have also been used. We enjoyed a partner exercise where we traced each other's hands, wrote their name and then painted the hands using their favourite colours and patterns. Now we are writing about what we did so that the display is more representative of the social interactions involved. Currently we are looking at seeds. Wow - what a variety there is. We have some bought seeds and some we have collected from around the grounds so that each of us has a dozen different seeds in an egg carton. Before we cover them with soil we think about words to describe their various attributes - colour, size, shape, texture and of course - what plant they come from. It is great to see the individuality come through in the various ways that the children are recording these differences. We look forward to seeing the variety of ways that seedlings will appear, the leaves they grow initially and whether or not they stay the same as our plants grow. Many of the group are already showing how much they have matured and are growing into a greater sense of responsibility for the time management of their work as well as taking pride in what they do as they push themselves to do their best.
12 February 2007
Hi. Welcome to 2007. This year my group is made up from a mixture of those who have been at Village School for a few years and those who are new. To assist with the development of a cohesive sense of group identity, friendships and respect for all, I decided to investigate a theme of 'SAME - DIFFERENT'. Initially we are focussed on ourselves and our own similarities and differences within the class and the consolidation of our personal sense of identity and self esteem. I foresee the children expanding this to the world around them and using their improving eye for detail to investigate a diversity of areas according to their own interests. We have spent our time chatting to each other to find out favourite colours, activities, toys, clothes, games, etc and we're learning how to write and spell the names of some of our group. We have measured height, weight, limbs and head circumference and learned to use appropriate terminology. Now we are using blocks to investigate how to put our results into visual and graphic forms. Pop in and see what we have discovered about each other and ourselves.
Edith