Classroom Inspiration

Friday 8 August 2014

Friday YAY!

Hallelujah it's Friday! Can I get an amen?!
Speaking of amen, lets kick start Five for Friday.

Today was Mary MacKillop Feast Day and we celebrated with a Mass at our church. Mary MacKillop is the patron saint of our school and worked in Portland during 1863 as a teacher. She started a little school which focussed on the education of girls, and her concern for social justice. 

One of the stories we tell the children about Mary is when her brothers locked her in the Church. Her father realised she was missing in the early hours of the morning, and mounted a big search for her along the beach and surrounding area. In the morning when she was finally found asleep on one of the pews in the Church, she was apparently very surprised to learn that town had been up looking for her. She'd been happy to spend the night in the Church with God.

Personally I would be terrified to spend the night in a Church. I don't know about the rest of you. 
This is Mary MacKillop when she was 33 years old. 
This is a section of the stained glass windows in our church (All Saints Catholic Church Portland) that depicts Mary with three of her students. The picture below is all three pieces of the window. 
This is our church :)
We had a sausage sizzle for lunch, which the kids loved. Of course their first question was "Can we have seconds?" Haha, typical.

One of the activities in our Inquiry unit was to choose something that is unique to Australia, and create a scene highlighting it, to turn into a jigsaw puzzle. My kids nearly died when I pulled out ACTUAL cardboard puzzles! They first had to draw a plan before they could work on their puzzle. They chose things like the Great Barrier Reef, Uluru, Great White Sharks and Dingo's. They love the fact that Australia is infamous for it's dangerous and venomous animals. 
Our art focus this week was paper manipulate, so we made dioramas! 
I have very fond memories of creating these little beauties when I was in primary school, 3D paper models...whats not to love?
My little wonders had free range when choosing their animal/s. The brief was that they had to create the habitat for an animal and include it's shelter and for source. Some of them conveniently forget that point, but hey, they turned out cute and the focus was on paper manipulation after all. 
How cute are the pigs!
I loooove the sneaky fox poking his head out from behind the bush. This little wonder lives on a farm, so knows all about the threats to sheep!
aaaaand then we have a dinosaur. So what it's not an animal thats around today. 
How could I care when I get a dinosaur this stinkin cute!
Look familiar? These little barns were our library activity this week. We read the book 'Where Are My Chicks?' by Sally Grindley and discussed the farm animals we saw in the book. My little wonders cut out these barns and drew an animal inside the doors which open and close. 
Today was all over the place. With Mass this morning, a game session run by our sports captains, and assembly in the afternoon, there was little point trying to get anything substantial accomplished. 
Therefor we had some 'creative play' time. The boys in my class asked if they could draw with the chalk on the pavement outside our room, and since it was one of the first nice days we've had in weeks, I said yes :)

I even decided to go and and draw with them. I drew a monster (see the purple monster in the first picture) and within 5 minutes there were monsters everywhere! 
These three decided to go BIG!
How great does it look! It will be a shame when the rain washes it away. I especially love it's eyes and teeth. They were very proud of their masterpiece, and they should be!

I hope you all have a restful weekend. Happy blogging!

8 comments:

  1. The chalk monsters are so cute! I love your blog design and name as well!
    Sarah

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    1. Hi Sarah! Thanks for your kind words :)

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  2. You have such a cute web page! Loved all of your ideas =)
    Kim
    http://domikiddos.blogspot.com/

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    1. Thanks Kimberly :) I follow your blog and think its super cute too!

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  3. Hi Zoe,

    I have only just discovered your blog. I am from Brisbane so it's nice to see more Aussie bloggers! I enjoyed reading everything in this post. I really like the idea of the students making their own puzzles out of actual cardboard pieces- so clever!

    Have a great weekend,
    Rainbow Lily
    Rainbow Lily Designs

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    1. Hi Rainbow Lily,
      You lucky thing to live in sunny Brisbane :) It's great connecting with other Aussie bloggers.
      The kids LOVED the puzzles they made, and it was something nice they could take home and share with their families.

      Thanks so much for following!
      Zoe

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