5/6C’s Class Blog 2008

Anzac Day is a very special day in the year of Australia and New Zealand. On this day, we remember the men and women who fought for our freedom and that of other countries.

The Australian War Memorial website describes Anzac Day as: “… probably Australia’s most important national occasion. It marks the anniversary of the first major military action fought by Australian and New Zealand forces during the First World War. ANZAC stands for Australian and New Zealand Army Corps. The soldiers in those forces quickly became known as ANZACs, and the pride they soon took in that name endures to this day. “

Early on the 25th April, 1915, the troops of Australia and New Zealand landed on the coast of Gallipoli, Turkey.  You can read more here.

 There is a wonderful blog written ninety years ago (the wonders of modern technology!) by Private Harry Lamin. Letters he sent from World War One are posted on the blog on the 90th anniversary of their origin, as are the letters he received from home. The letters are real and we don’t yet know how the war will end for Harry – fascinating and recommended reading.

Here’s a new tool we can use to mind-map our ideas. We can collaborate at school and then publish our results. Grade 5/6, and other interested readers, what do you think of this? What are the possibilities?

We always have a class novel “on the go”,  so to speak. Today, Mrs C finished reading “Holes” by Louis Sachar – we’ll be publishing a review of it in the next week or so. We’re going to watch the movie next, and compare the two stories. Meanwhile, we love to hear of books that other classes recommend for teachers to read out loud.

Check out our Books page to see what we’ve read so far this year.

All of our grade members are currently trying to meet the Victorian Premier’s Reading Challenge. To meet this challenge students must read 15 books by August and ten of the books must be from the recommended reading list. Some of our students have taken to the challenge very quickly, reading several books during the recent term break.  Links to the Challenge reading lists can be found here. For our grade, Mrs C also has a printout of the list for grades 5/6 in our room for browsing, and Mr H in the library has set up the catalogue so that you can search for just Challenge books. The town library will also be able to help students to find books. Too easy!

Grade 5/6C students may log onto the website with the username and password they got in class, and from there they may add their own reading to their online log. It’s good practice of online skills and it will save Mrs C a heap of time too! Well done to Zoe, who was the first class member to take on this task for herself.

We’ve had a little over two weeks of holidays for the term break. Hopefully the Easter Bunny visited everyone and it was great to get some much needed rain as well.

I headed off to Tasmania with my family. People over there kept telling us that it was very dry and that they, too, were short of rain, but it was so very green that sometimes it was difficult to believe! Here are a few photos from my favorite places: down in the very inappropriately named Dismal Swamp, the Newdegate Cave near Hastings and the sea cliffs off the Tasman Peninsula.

Dismal Swamp is in the north west corner of Tasmania. It is a 40m deep sink hole with a beautiful Blackwood forest growing in it, undisturbed except by crayfish that churn the soil and help the plants to regenerate. It’s easy to get around on the raised boardwalks so you don’t disturb the environment and your shoes stay clean too!

The Newdegate Cave near Hastings is a rare dolomite cave, the largest known in Australia open to tourists. A guide takes you through the cave pointing out features and explaining how the caves were formed and how they are still changing. It was quite wonderful to see the huge stalactites and stalagmites and other interesting formations throughout the cave.

My favorite thing we did was a cruise from Eaglehawk Neck to Port Arthur, half way around the Tasman Peninsula and alongside the Great Southern Ocean. Our guide was a crazy man named Damian – he was funny but very knowledgeable about the area, especially the animals. We saw a variety of birds, tuna fishermen, abalone divers, dolphins and seals by the dozen. We also cruised right up to 300m sea cliffs, apparently the highest in the Southern Hemisphere.  We got wet and windblown and it was fantastic!

Grade 5/6, consider your favorite holiday activity or place that you saw these holidays (even if you didn’t go anywhere special, something interesting must have happened!) and share your thoughts and even some pictures on your blog. Add a comment here to tell us when you’ve done it and what your post is about.