Mapping Australia

This week we have commenced our COGS unit called 'Being Australian.' We have watched two excellent presentations from Australian Geographic.



Another time-lapse of the Australian landscape is here.

HOLIDAYS: ACDC!

Two of my students seem to love the music of AC/DC. this story is for them. Happy Holidays!

English: Using Joining Words, Vocabulary, Paragraphs

We are always looking for ways to extend our sentences... this fun BBC Bitesize game looks at extending sentences.

The BBC Bitesize Big Babies Gonch is also an excellent tool to highlight the importance of vocabulary in writing.

Finally, a fun paragraph game.

English: Mapping Out Persuasive Writing

Today we have been making lists of arguments to assist with the structure of our persuasive writing.

A great online 'map generator' is available here.

English: Spelling Bee

Sydney's Daily Telegraph newpaper has an excellent online Spelling Bee practice test! So if you LOVE spelling, or would just like to get some more training, you can have a go here.

Our school will also be participating in the '2012 Premier's Spelling Bee' so let's all aim keep our spelling up to date and perfect!

COGS: Aboriginal Spirituality

This week we focus our COGS study on Aboriginal Spirituality.

The ABC 'Dust Echoes' website has incredible flash animations that describe different stories of The Dreaming.

This website also has Aboriginal Dreaming resources appropriate for children and also contains a few lesson plans.

A fun online indigenous game called 'Hive Alive' can be played here.

There is also a chance to plant your own indigenous garden online.

Maths: Graphs

This last week we have looking at the skills we need to create different types of graphs. We made a graph using excel as a class, then individually in our weekly class computer time.

A good online interpretation activity can be found here.

A fun 'bugs in the library' game is available at PBS Kids. You need to click and drag the bugs onto the graph.

BBC's 'The Legend of Dick and Dom' is a rather funny and interactive way of learning frequency diagrams (data tables) and using this information to create a graph (sound needed).

If you are not confident in excel, use some of these online graph generators to display your data.

Maths: 4 Times Table

A fun 4 times table shootout game is here.

COGS: Buddhist Mandala

A mandala is a geometric pattern or chart, typically circular or square. It represents the world, heaven & earth and is used for meditation purposes.

Creating a mandala can be a form of meditation, as well as contemplating a finished mandala. Different types of mandalas are used to represent different elements of Buddhist beliefs and cosmology, but they are generally full of symbolism and richly detailed. Enjoy this presentation.



A good Buddhist Mandala activity can be found here, it might be a nice end-of-term lesson for my class. There is also a fun interactive 'Can you recognise the Buddha?' activity.

A simpler step-by-step Mandala for kids can be found here, could be fun for school holidays (just around the corner)!

An awesome online activity for creating a mandala to express rotational symmetry is available right here, so much fun!

More information about mandalas is available at the mandala project.

Harmony Day

Our school loves celebrating Harmony Day! Here is the official website.

We will be undertaking fun activities, have a special assembly, and of course we will celebrate with our school's famous Multicultural Lunch!