Learning Common 2: Week 5 Term 1

Hi Families,

We are already more than half way through our first term together in LC2!

Another busy week of learning. Take a look at what has been on top for us........

Imaginary Friends and their Houses!

The creations are coming thick and fast! Not only have the imaginary friends generated some great descriptive writing and narratives, we are also seeing some great collaboration as we work together to create a variety of homes. With all the different resources and materials at hand, it really has been a test as to whether we can manage our resources well and keep our working space organised and tidy.

Using our Outside Space

It has been great to be able to use our outside space this week. We have been doing close observational drawings using pencil and pastel of the flowers we planted.

Rocks

Our interest in rocks is still growing strong, with lots of you bringing in your treasures. Thanks to Kate who today brought in an assortment of very special treasures including a large crystal from Europe and a selection of rocks from Africa. Our rock table is a popular spot and it was great to see some of you pouring over the new resources and books this week. Some of you also chose to spend time drawing some of the rocks. Let's meet up this week and talk about where you would like to go next.

Descriptive Writing

We have been working really hard on our descriptive writing. This week some of us focussed on setting descriptions with Kerry and others developed their descriptions into narratives with Sharyn. We used success criteria to ensure we were including all the elements we needed. We worked through the editing process together and we also spent time with a critical friend, sharing and discussing ways to improve our pieces of writing.

Here are a couple of examples of setting descriptions based around the following photo-

It was the morning. The sun shone on the magical hill. The river was blue and sparkled in the sunlight. The castle was made out of rubies, sapphires and gold. The trees were green and tall as towers. All of a sudden the sky turned grey. There was a storm coming. Sofia

The clouds in the sky hung low in the evening. When all of a sudden a war started. There were bombs flying all over the place. Then the war ended as quickly as it had started. There were big holes everywhere. Out of nowhere an enchanted castle appeared. The river next to it was sparkling. The enchanted castle was close to the little cottage. The little cottage was close to a big tree. In the big tree there was a beautiful bird. It had a lot of babies in it's nest. The nest was made out of diamonds and gold. And that bird that could make a nest out of diamonds and gold was the reason for the war. Antos

It was a foggy day. The clouds were grey. The trees were blowing with the breeze. All of a sudden the breeze got stronger. It turned into a fierce wind. And the castle that was made out of diamonds, rubies and gold was under attack. Zachariah

In the quiet breeze the sun shone down. The forest trees waved in the wind as the castle glazed in sunlight. Below the grand castle was a tiny village. It was the first day of Spring. The beautiful flowers growing in the fields swayed in the wind. The river glimmered as the air was getting hotter. Lauren

Our Immersion Journey

This week some of us got to make terrariums with Lisa. This experience continued to spark an interest in planting for some of us and a desire to develop our outside space.

We had the opportunity to cook with Daniel, baking scones and adding different flavours.

It was good to see some of us access some great books that we have out in our learning space. Again a good way to spark an interest.

Together we brainstormed and recorded our journey so far. Our interests seemed to fall into Scientific Experiments, Design Technology, Food Technology, Fabric, Outside Space. We went with our gut and chose an area to brainstorm further. Some of us moved to other groups when we started to share our ideas. We will keep adding to this brainstorm as we start to make decisions about our Project Based Learning.

Student Led Workshops

Some of us have been eagerly planning Student Led Workshops and we got the opportunity to run them this week. All the participants were very keen and enjoyed the experiences. The content and leadership of the workshops varied so we will spend next week reflecting so that we can continue to improve them.