In November most of our grade six student will be heading to our national capital, Canberra, for four days of looking, learning and laughing as they see the sights and attractions of this special city which was designed by American architect Walter Burley Griffin.

Some of the highlights of the tour will be Anzac Parade (in the foreground of the photo), Old Parliament House (in the centre of the photo) and New Parliament House on the low hill behind that, topped by the massive flagpole and a flag which is 12.8m by 6.4 metres, or roughly the size of a double decker bus!

Other highlights of the tour include a visit to Telstra Tower, Questacon, the National Museum and the Australian War Memorial.

Image: The house that Australia built
Originally uploaded by Teon

A map of the world

Originally uploaded by Norman B. Leventhal Map Center at the BPL

Think you know about the world? Know your countries, capitals and landmarks? Have a go at this game on our wiki – but be warned, it’s hard!

Have a close look at this map – especially where Australia is. This map was made in 1725, well before Captain James Cook journeyed up the east coast. But you can see that about half of the continent had already been mapped by this time.

This is what our ClustrMap looks like today, June 13, 2008:

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.

We’ve had more messages from Cointha, our travelling class member. She’s in Rome, and sent these comments (follow the link and scroll down) as well as the email we read in class. She has visited the Colosseum, pictured here, as well as many of the other amazing sights of Italy.

In the last couple of weeks Cointha has been in Paris, Tuscany, Florence and the Cinque Terre, as well as a host of other places.  Soon she and her family will be heading to Pompeii and Sicily. Have a great time Cointha!

Later update: Cointha is now blogging her adventures directly – see the link on our Student Blog page or click HERE!

This blog has been open since January 1, 2008, although it’s only been in class use since the end of January when we started the new school year. Since then, we have had visitors from ten countries: Australia (of course!), USA, England, France, Netherlands, Iran, South Korea, Israel, New Zealand and Canada. That’s a pretty good spread, I think.

So, what brings these visitors? How do they find us? We know that our travelling class member Cointha has visited our site from England, France and the Netherlands. We know that some people from the USA linked to this site from last year’s blog. What about the others? How did they find us?

If you are a visitor that doesn’t know one of us personally, we’d really appreciate your posting a comment to tell us how you found us. Thanks!