Our Leadership Day

A little while ago, the Year 6s at my school came together to learn about leadership and teamwork. We had to complete three team building activities. It was amazing to see who would work hard for their team, who would strategise, and who would lead. My favourite challenge was the physical challenge, and not just because my team won.

 

I usually don’t enjoy anything physical, but this challenge wasn’t just physical. For the challenge, more than half of our team had to plank at a time. If we went too low for just a second, we were out. Before the challenge, I said that we should have seven planking at once instead of six, and we won because of it. Our team was structured perfectly for the challenge.

 

Another challenge that I enjoyed was the cup stacking challenge. We had to make the tallest cup tower with six cups, string, rubber bands, and scissors. But the catch was, you couldn’t touch the cups with your hands or the scissors. We used the string and the rubber bands to guard our hands from the cups.

Overall, I loved the day. I thought that it was very well put together, and that it was a great way to see peers differently. I had a lot of fun with my team, and learned a lot about them. I am looking forward to being in the lime green team again next term.

 

What are your experiences with leadership?

No commentsAdd a comment

Placid Platypus

Cute and cuddly? Think again! These incredible river-dwelling creatures are not as harmless as they seem! Take a look at nature’s frankenstien, the platypus!

Onithorygnchus Anatinus, more commonly known as the Platypus is a mammal. This means that its blood is warm. It is also part of the chordate phylum.

Platypus can be found in rives or streams. Although they live in a stream of a certain temperature, when hunting, they move to colder streams, as their prey only live in those colder waters.

As far as physical appearance, platypus are 43-50cm long, they have a duck like black bill, and a plump body covered in sleek brown fur, and their tail is almost just an extension of their main body. Because of their frankenstien appearance, when they were first discovered and presented to the English government, they thought that they were tricked. You could see how they would believe that! The explorers were met with a nasty shock too. Also because of their appearance, the explorers thought that they were dealing with a harmless animal. But when they found the creature’s bill around their finger, they discovered that a male platypus’ bite is poisonous. But more importantly, it hurts!

Platypus are bottomfeeders, that means that they feed on small crustaceans, or in other words, shellfish. Another magnificent thing about the platypus’ bill, is that they can use it like a radar, sensing life in the area. The animal doesn’t even have to move! They sense the electrical currents created by the other animals. Electricity is conducted by water, so they can trace it back to the animal. Clever, right?

The platypus’ venom is an example of a physiological adaptation. Their body injects the venom when the platypus bites the target. Depending on the size of the victim, the venom can make it very sick, or possibly kill it!

I have learned a lot about the platypus over the past few weeks. This was a really fun way to learn about the environment.

I found a lot of this information at:

https://www.worldbookonline.com/kids/home#article/ar831783

and in the book The A-Z of Australian Animals, by Jennifer Cossins.

 

What is your favourite animal?

Do you have any fun facts about it?

 

 

 

No commentsAdd a comment

My Favourite Book

Over the course of 2019, I have been participating in a program called Book Chat. This year, my favourite book has been The Night Diary, by Veera Hiranandani. It is a historical fiction novel that goes into detail about Indian culture and the partitioning of the country. It is a great way to learn about these topics. It is also focused on family and friendship themes.

The book follows the story of Nisha, a girl whose mother is Muslim and her father is Hindu. When the partitioning of India begins, no one knows whether she should live in India or Pakistan. A few years before the story, Nisha’s mother died. She writes letters adressed to her mother in her diary to tell the story, hence the name.

I really enjoyed The Night Diary because of the style. I thought that the letters were a clever way to see how Nisha was feeling. To this day, The Night Diary remains one of my all time  favourite books.

Are you in a book club?

 

No commentsAdd a comment

Christmas in Australia

A holiday that I celebrate is Christmas, but not the type of Christmas that most people experience. Instead of a white Christmas, Australian Christmas comes in the Summer, which means that it’s. Instead of a white Christmas, in Australia we are blessed with an unbearably hot christmas.

Within my family, we always have a special party about midway through Advent. This is the one chance a year for everyone in my family to meet, so it’s a really special part of Christmas. It is nearly always at my house, so in preperation for the party, everyone in my family is running around doing jobs. The party is always a really great experience, because I get to see my cousins who live far away. The party is really enjoyable every year, and some of my family members have classic dishes which they bring every year.

On Christmas Day, my family will always have pancakes for breakfast, open our presents, watch TV, and then go to our Aunty and Uncle’s house for christmas lunch. Which somehow always seems to include oysters. (They’re my Aunty’s favourite thing to have with Christmas lunch, and I Iove them too.) 

Christmas is a really special time for my family. It means a lot when the whole family is together, and everyone has a chance to catch up. The year just wouldn’t be the same without Christmas.

No commentsAdd a comment

Toonallook Camp

On Tuesday, my class went to Camp Toonallook on the Banksia Peninsula. It is the second Outdoor Ed camp that my school provides, and we keep visiting until Year 10. At Toonallook, you go through a range of activities that include kayaking, hand-reel fishing, bike riding, koala spotting and more. Going to Toonallook was a great experience that I will never forget.

On the first day, we got on the bus for the four hour drive to camp. It seemed to go so quickly. When we arrived, we dropped off our bags and went for a walk around camp to get to know our surroundings. Then, tent groups were called out. Then we put our bags in our tents, and were taught how to play King Ball. King Ball is a game similar to four-square, as in there are four spaces, but a little bit different.

King Ball requires a larger area to play in. At Toonallook, we use four underground water tanks’ surfaces for the squares. There also has to be empty space between the squares. In King Ball, the king – number one – serves. He or she always has to serve friendlily, otherwise it counts as one of the king’s two faults. In King Ball, if the ball is in your space, it has only three bounces, and then it has to come out of your square. If it hits empty space, or stops in your square, then you are out and someone from the bench comes in. This continues and can be stopped at any moment, as there are no boundaries to the end of this game. It was really fun to play at camp.

The best activities at camp were kayaking, and taking the boat to Raymond Island where we did koala spotting and fishing. When we were kayaking, my friend and I were in a kayak together, and we were so slow. At the end of the activity, we had a race. Guess who came last. Yes, you guessed it. Me. Everyone else had finished and we were only halfway, so everyone came to pull us. For some reason, I leaned over the edge of the boat and I tipped over our boat. Well, I fell out, but because we only half-capsized, and my friend didn’t lean over the edge, she didn’t get too wet.

The most challenging time at camp, was the night time. I was a little homesick at night because there wasn’t anything to distract me. On the last two nights, I woke up and I felt homesick, but I just went to the toilet and came back to bed. The night was a really hard time at Toonallook. I used the PLAs of courage and resilience to overcome my homesickness.

On the afternoon of the second day, we packed up and walked to our camping spot for Expo. Expo is an activity started this year where we go camping for one night. We set up our tents, and had dinner around the campfire. Then, we played Empires. Empires is a game where everyone tells someone who is not playing a random name. You can say any name as long as it is a character. So you could pick Hermione Granger as your name, but you couldn’t pick 2hjks9. We played for a really long time, and then we went to bed.

On the third day we went to Raymond Island, a place near Paynesville. To get to Raymond Island, you can either take a boat, or a bus. The first group took the boat to Paynesville to do some fishing off the pier. No one caught anything. The other group would take the bus to Paynesville, and then take a small ferry to Raymond Island for koala spotting. Then the two groups would swap. I was in group one, and I loved going on the boat to Paynesville. At first, it was moving really slowly. Our driver said that it was only going a five knots, but then we started moving really fast. At first, I thought it was scary, but when it ended, I didn’t want to get off!

After we’d done the activities, we went back to our expo site to pack up to go back to camp. Everyone was super tired. When we got back, it was time for dinner, and then we went to bed.

The next day, we woke up early to see the sunrise. It was beautiful. We watched it rise slowly above the horizon, and it was magical the way that it filled the camp with golden light. It was breathtaking. We all then packed our bags had breakfast, and then we had a last bit of free time before we got on the bus to Melbourne.

This camp was an amazing experience. There were so many great moments that made Toonallook so special. I loved waking up to see the sunrise, falling out of my kayak, going to Raymond Island and all the other activities in between. Going to Toonallook was incredible.

What is your favourite activity to do at camp?

Read 1 CommentAdd a comment

My Avatar!

 

This is my new avatar. I made it on cartoonify .

I made this avatar to look like me. You could say that it looks like me, but there is one minor issue. I have a fringe in real life. In real life, I also love to sit down near my fireplace, and read a book. I am in Grade 3 for cello, and I love playing pieces that are lively, like Cossacks, Siberian Gallop, and Budapesto. I love performing. 

What do you like to do in your spare time?

Read 2 CommentsAdd a comment

The Hard Road Ahead

In Year Five this term our Integrated unit has been The Hard Road Ahead. The Hard Road Ahead is a Unit on the Australian Gold Rush and The Eureka Stockade. As part of this unit we have been to Sovereign Hill, (Click here to see my blog post on Sovereign Hill.) and made a mini-sovereign hill. It has been a really fun experience.

Over the course of the unit, I have learned lots about life in the 1850s. I had no idea that they lived in such a strict and harsh society. Nothing out of the ordinary was acceptable, and that was that. I hadn’t realised that the licence hunts got so violent and brutal.

When we made the dioramas, we learned a lot about business on the Ballarat goldfields. The business that my partner and I chose to create was The Ballarat Times, the local newspaper on the diggings. Our shop was connected to C. Spencer, the lolly shop, so we were able to create that too. My partner was able to 3D Print some small containers for our replica Sovereign Hill Raspberry Drops to go into. We made the raspberry drops by scrunching up small scraps of red cellophane into the drops.

While we were doing the unit, we also learned a little about goldfield language. On the goldfields, there were some unusual substitutes for regular words like Traps and Joes, which meant troopers and police, and nugget or vein, which were different ways that you might find gold. Veins are long and skinny streaks of gold found inside quartz rock, whereas nuggets are small prisms of gold that you can find inside rock. And the most common form of gold is a flake, which you can find by panning in the river.

During the unit, I have used many PLAs. When we made the dioramas of Ballarat businesses, we all had to use the PLAs of communication and collaboration. When we went on Sovereign Hill Camp we had to use resilience and courage, and when we were learning in the classroom we had to use knowledge reflection and communication.

Overall, The Hard Road Ahead was a great unit, full of complications, interesting activities and lots of opportunities for learning. It was also a difficult unit, dealing with sickness music lessons and general absence, but it was really enjoyable in the end.

No commentsAdd a comment

Tired trees that weep.

They stand still and forever

will weep. All night.

 

They droop their seafoam

leaves and cry themselves to sleep.

Leave them be all night.

 

They shy away from

sunlight and the world. They are

not living at all.

 

Try to understand.

Many wither before their

beauty, but not you.

 

Tired trees that weep.

They will weep forever, yes,

tired trees that weep.

 

Read 6 CommentsAdd a comment

Sovereign Hill

Recently,  Year 5 have been learning about the Gold Rush. And to see what life was like on the diggings, naturally, we went to Sovereign Hill, Ballarat.

Sovereign Hill is a tourist attraction/camp where you can go to learn about life on the diggings. We went there to learn about life in Ballarat, and to see the buildings that we are going to be modelling for aSovereign Hill model right in our classroom.

While we were there, we participated in a program called the costumed school program. Schools can do this, where they are put in one of the five schools in Sovereign Hill, they dress up in a costume from the 1850s and then go to their school as part of the experience. We did this for the last two days of our camp.

In school, I learned about conditions in early schooling on the diggings. Our school was the first school on the diggings. It was a catholic church that was being used for schooling six and a half days a week. The rules were simple, do what you’re told and don’t do anything too rash.

On the second night, we went to AURA, the new sound and light show. The description was intriguing. A show with no actors? How very curious. The show itself aimed to teach viewers about the aboriginals perspective on the Gold Rush. It was  very interesting and was very well put together. It was my favourite part of Sovereign Hill camp .

Sovereign Hill was a great camp. Dressing up, and stepping back in time was a lot of fun overall.

What was your favourite part?

Read 5 CommentsAdd a comment

Rebellion at Eureka

The book chat book that I have read is Rebellion at Eureka. While we still are given a choice on which book we read, we are all reading books about the gold rush for our unit next term, The Hard Road Ahead.

Rebellion at Eureka is set towards the end of the Ballarat gold rush and goes into a story about a fictional character’s story during the gold rush and the Eureka Stockade. The main character, (Alfred, or Alf) came from melbourne, where he and his mum had a store, to Ballarat to set up a store there for the diggers on the goldfields.

They came to Ballarat with the necessities to set up a stall, their dog Joe, and their horse Sam pulling the cart. Lots of diggers and residents alike came to the diggings with a horse and cart. This was the easiest form of transport available.

On the goldfields, life was tough. Diggers, without another source of income would suffer if they didn’t strike gold that day. Mining was not a good way to earn, and lots of diggers didn’t stop and get a different job. Goldfield officials were corrupt, and the licence hunts they performed were merciless. Without a licence, they could be jailed or worse.

Rebellion at Eureka’s perspective as far as the Eureka Stockade was this. Alf thought that it was merciless, but he believed in what they were fighting for. At one point, he even wanted to fight with them. Life in Victoria was totally different after the gold rush and the Eureka Stockade. The state was bigger due to gold fever expanding the population. The whole gold rush was very disrespectful to the Indigenous people of the land.

Rebellion at Eureka was a great book chat book to read and had a great story.

What was your book chat book?

No commentsAdd a comment