Jigsaw Puzzles, Portraits and Eggshell pics

Each student is currently designing their own jigsaw puzzle to share with their  buddy. It is based on some aspect of their colonial figure's life and will be an inclusion in the historical show bag. They made a box, designed a puzzle and need to supply appropriate information about it to a seven year old audience. This information will be typed up and appear inside the lid of the box.

By JdP

By SG

By JB

By SJ

By NB

By CG

Who am I?

By TC

By JS

By JS

By JH

By HT

By JH

Time lines Progressing well...a focus for this week June 8-12th

The emphasis is obviously on sourcing accurate and reliable information from the web and from books and magazines, on ordering events in time, using a scale, adding appropriate illustrations and of course choosing the most interesting and important landmarks in their chosen person's life time. John Batman was not as squeaky clean as I believed! Students had to make a lot of decisions about layout, size of timelines, choice of symbols or illustrations, and check inconsistencies in the information available from both primary and secondary sources.

Gosh...how tall is this girl!

Collecting information

Well on her way...

by NB

Excerpts from Mary McKillop

Book Week Focus for Library Expo...and continuation of Historical Show Bags

Students are currently reading Book Week nominated books and completing assignments for the display in the school library in August.  Their work will be on display in the library through mid to late August.   Here are some shots of two teams at work on nominated picture books. The detail is incredible. Great negotiating and team work.

Samples of reviews below:

Pig the Pug Book Review

This delightfully humorous book was written by the award winning author – illustrator, Aaron Blabey.  The key factors to Blabey’s books are his immense sense of humour and use of humorous rhymes. This book is fun for all ages with its humour, rhymes, and the well-known line, “pigs cannot fly.”

Pig the Pug is a selfish pug dog who never shares anything with his room-mate Trevor, a friendly sausage dog. Poor Trevor only longs for one toy, but Pig flipped his wig when Trevor suggested they share. Pig’s rudeness is solved when gravity takes control, and everything works out perfectly for Trevor, not so much for Pig!

For me, some of the most memorable features of this book are all the hilarious facial expressions on the gorgeously illustrated cartoon characters. The main moral of the story for me is “If you are rude and selfish you will take a fall one day!” A very entertaining book, I hope there’s many more to come!

By HI

Snail and Turtle are Friends written and illustrated by Stephen Michael King

Award-winning author Stephen Michael King, creator of Mutt Dog, has released a colourful new book called Snail and Turtle are Friends. This book may not seem so appealing at first but if you open the cover up and read the book you’ll be pleasantly surprised. It has a good beginning and it ends happily with a moral as well.

The cartoon illustrations are beautiful, especially the double page spread which shows the lovely lifestyle that Turtle and Snail have.

This book is highly recommended for early readers and younger children because it rhymes and there are very few words on each page.

Review by RC & JdP

Students composed a predictive paragraph about what they thought the book would be about. I have published these initial thought ready for the Book Week display in the library in August, along with some beautiful pencil sketches inspired by the book.

"Stunning picture book with amazing double page layout depicting the Tea and Sugar Train which operated for 81 years, from 1915 until 1996. The train travelled from Port Augusta to Kalgoolie one a week servicing isolated communities along the Nullarbor Plain. The story focuses on Katherine, an aboriginal girl, keen to see Santa and so excited to receive her precious gift. Students in my class loved it and I learn something about Australian history I didn't know about."

(A paragraph I wrote for my Pinterest page.)

Below are beautiful pencil drawings inspired by Robert Ingpen.

by FC

By TW

By SG

 By RC

Oh, it's June already and luckily Mrs Rumley is here to help us!

Tonight and tomorrow night I have requested that the children make their own decision about whether they focus on their  The Pinballs assignments of their  Historical Showbags.  All information is on this blog.  Tomorrow night I will add in the photos of the finished bunnies. Students need to tell me if they need any help with unfinished one, especially embroidering the faces as we are all looking forward to making a simple animation as a  class in preparation for their group work ones of their choice using a variety of materials. Mrs Rumley will be running small group science experiments in the first session each morning from tomorrow until next Wednesday to  assist students with their understandings of  planning an experiment, taking notes and understanding variables, and writing up results. She has a university degree in science...so they need to really listen and take on board advice from her. She worked with Tasmanian Forestry for many years  and has three children of her  own, I am overjoyed to have her assistance in the classroom. She has so much to offer in relation to both maths and science, and I am sure many other skills as well.
The maths focus for the next two weeks is multiplication, number facts...along with songs (earworms to aid students in remembering them),  revision of subtraction (small group of four students with Mrs Rumley to consolidate their understanding), and a practical focus on 3D constructions looking at use of isometric dot paper and cm squared paper to show front, side and top views.