Q and U

In spelling this week my Grade Fours celebrated the wedding of Q and U. This memorable occasion was, of course, to remind students that these two letters are always together in words. Students worked together in small groups to design and construct a QU wedding cake out of plasticine.

Some groups even challenged themselves to decorate their cake with QU words – can you spy a question mark, an equals sign, an antique chest of drawers, a queen’s crown and a quaint man’s black hat?!

Here’s hoping this creative, hands on task will strengthen their spelling skills and see them never separate Q and U again…’til death do they part!

Class Museum Curator

The excitement builds every Friday afternoon in anticipation of…the selection of the new Museum Curator!

We pull out a name and then the space belongs to them for the following week. Students are able to display their collections, interests, artworks, artefacts and so on. The curator gives us a guided tour and their classmates love to point out all the personal connections they have made. It’s been powerful way to get to know each other.

Some curators provide labels, or even informational handouts. Some change their display a number of times during their week. It’s all up to them!

Name(required)

Comment(required)

Submit

Δ

Push and Pull Creations

Although they may look like glued together piles of junk, rest assured our students were immensely proud of their Push and Pull Machines. In yet another Scrapheap Challenge, this one at the commencement of our science unit on forces, students’ teamwork skills were put to the test to design a device which incorporated both a push and pull force.

 

Name(required)

Comment(required)

Submit

Δ

Class Party

It’s any excuse for a morale building party in Miss M’s classroom, especially if it’s the dead of Winter. For this Winter Party, inspired by our home town’s modern art Dark Mofo festival, each group of students were in charge of a different aspect of the party planning. One team organised a Winter Photography Competition throughout the school, another surveyed the class for their preferred Winter themed movie (Ice Age was the winner), catering and invitations were taken care of by our third team and the final team were the judges and organisers of our Winter Costume Competition. Needless to say, it was a fun way to celebrate the Winter Solstice.

Scrapheap Challenge

My students love to be given creative technology group work challenges, which we call Scrapheap Challenges. We gather up reusable household items such as cereal boxes, cardboard cylinders, bottle tops, etc and once our stockpiles are sufficient its time for another Scrapheap Challenge! Besides setting group work goals, our only two rules are: don’t burn yourselves on the glue gun and the teacher does the tricky cutting. This one was undertaken at Easter time. The brief – design a harmless Easter Bunny trap. The results – adorable.