5/6C's Class Blog 2008 » Mrs C

Our New 2009 Blog

Mrs C — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 10:07:56 +0000

A new year, a new grade. This year Mrs C and Miss R will be working together in a learning studio with about 52 students – such excitement. We will be known as 5/6B (B is for brilliant) and our blog can be found here:

Our Blog 2009

It’s all over… (sob)

Mrs C — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 05:42:16 +0000

We’ve bid farewell to our wonderful grade, having celebrated the end of our time together yesterday with our pool party and a Kris Kringle gift exchange. We had a great year and were definitely the best grade in the whole school – who knows, maybe even in all the state! Maybe in the world? Or the universe?

The pool party was fun, with the thunder holding off until it was time to get out of the water anyway. We walked back to school in the rain and got wet, but after a day at the pool, no one cared too much. Before we knew it, it was time to say our farewells and go off into the wide blue yonder.

Congratulations to our wonderful grade six students who completed their primary schooling so well – they should all be proud of their achievements this year and are sure to be successful in their secondary schooling. Hopefully many of them will keep up with our blog and their own as well – we’d love to hear from them in the future.

To our grade five students, you are our leaders of 2009. There are many wonderful opportunities for you as you continue your education journey. I am lucky to have some of you in my class again next year – be ready for anything! For those who are moving on to another school or to another grade, enjoy yourselves, learn lots and keep in touch.

Jumping photo by Cross, licensed under an Attribution, No Derivatives, Non Commercial agreement.

Counting down…

Mrs C — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 12:27:51 +0000

The school year is nearly at an end, with next Thursday being our last day as a grade. We are moving to another classroom this Friday, so at the moment everything is being packed into boxes ready to move into one of the “new” rooms. Our current classroom was built in 1915, our new one in 2000, so even though it’s 8 years old, it’s still a NEW room!

We still have Graduation for our grade six students to look forward to next Tuesday – lots of work has been done but we still have to polish up our acts and tweak our slides a bit more. So much to do, so little time!

Nadine’s a Nominee!

Mrs C — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 12:15:42 +0000

The famous Nadine, one of the most prolific commenters on our blogs, has been nominated for an Edublogs award! She has been nominated in the category of Best Individual Blog. We’ve all enjoyed reading Nadine’s blog and comments – she’s a very talented and thoughtful writer and is always friendly and complimentary towards the writers of the blogs she reads.

You can read Nadine’s blog here and then, if you agree that it’s a wonderful blog, you might like to vote for it in the Edublogs awards by finding NadStar’s Blog on this page.

Good luck Nadine!

Image: Camera Slayer on Flickr, licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution, Non Commercial, No Derivatives Licence.

Towers of Paper

Mrs C — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 13:01:05 +0000

Yesterday, while the Grade 6 students were off having fun at Secondary School for the day, the Grade Five students were given a challenge, to make the tallest free-standing tower possible using only:

ten sheets of newspaper
10 icypole sticks
10 drinking straws
half a stick of Blu-tak
masking tape

We had to design our models first, then build and evaluate them. The building part was the best – working in groups of three it took us about an hour to build our structures. The challenge was to get them to stand up without any support or without sticking them to the ground!

When we had our 15 minutes left warning, the teachers decided to try the challenge for themselves. Miss K, Mrs B and Mrs C collected the allowed equipment and in less than 15 minutes had built a tower that stood 3 metres (10 feet) high! And it stood without help! Such champions, but some of the kids said it wasn’t fair because the teachers had bigger brains with more science in them. Hmmm. The last picture in the gallery below is the teachers’ tower – what do you think?

Of the students, one groups were wildly successful, with their tower standing 1.8m (6 feet) high. Some other towers had to be measured lying down, as they fell over – and of course, the aim was the highest, not longest tower! So 10cm high and 2 metres long doesn’t win.

We learned a lot about how to make things stand, where to put the heaviest parts and what shapes are strongest. But we can’t tell you here because next week we are going to challenge the Grade 6 students and we are aiming to beat them!

Aboriginal Culture Day

Mrs C — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 05:46:03 +0000

Our school recently enjoyed an Aboriginal Culture Day. We had some Aboriginal visitors come and teach us about traditional dancing, some of the different tribes, Aboriginal storytelling and Aboriginal Art.

First, the teachers painted our faces. Big Al, the leader of the Aboriginal group, said they set a new record, painting about 425 faces in 13 minutes! After that, each group rotated through the activities until we’d all had a go at everything. Then we came back together at the end for a dance and demonstration, as well as some yummy damper.

Then our grade had to go and empty the bins.

The Sky is Smiling

Mrs C — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 11:31:45 +0000

It’s the first day of Summer and the sky is happy about it! Tonight the moon, Venus and Jupiter aligned to make a happy face in the west. The moon is at the bottom, Venus is the bright eye on the left and Jupiter is on the right.

While the planets and moon appear to be close together, they’re not at all close. The moon is 403,000 km away, while Venus is 150 million kilometres away and Jupiter 870 million kilometres away.

The smiley face will not appear again in Australia until 2036.

Photos: Mrs C from her back yard.

Our Class Plant

Mrs C — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 03:50:06 +0000

A couple of weeks ago our class went out to plant a plant called, “Red Chocolate”. Everyone was a part of it and some people had to move a plant that was in the wrong spot. All classes had a plant to plant. There was a pattern for where the plants went. It went green, purple, green and so on. There were different types of plants – there are longifolia “Katrinus”, “Apricot Queen” and “Red Chocolate”.

Everyone got their hands dirty, especially the ones that were playing in the mud by digging the hole. We got the “Red Chocolate” plant because our teacher is mad about chocolate!

It looks great outside near the office now. Everyone had a great time helping to plant the plant

The Quilt Squares

Mrs C — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 01:19:11 +0000

Last year the teachers made up a great tradition. It involves a lot of hard work for the teachers and students; everybody in grade 6 will make a quilt square. It will be 16cm squared which involves your name and something that describes you. You can have anything you want on it. All of our grade made cardboard squares that were laminated and stuck up in our classroom as a grade quilt. Grade 6 students also had to put their design on fabric, and when they were done all of the teachers sewed the squares together. The teachers then took it to the quilt shop to be quilted. Then they will hang the quilt so everyone can admire it at the Grade 6 Graduation.

By Zoe and Kayla.

Riding Freedom

Mrs C — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 08:49:57 +0000

In class we are reading the American novel “Riding Freedom”, by Pam Muñoz Ryan. The novel’s genre is historical fiction, which means that while many of the characters and events in the book are non-fiction, or true, other characters and details have been invented by the author to help make the book more interesting, make sense better, or to fill in gaps in history. The book relates to our current study of Government and Elections as the central character, Charley, is believed to be the first woman to vote in a U.S. Presidential election – although officials didn’t know that at the time!

When we have finished we will write a review to post on our Books page.

The Wordle below was made using a discussion guide for “Riding Freedom” on the U.S. Scholastic website.