I made this today during ICT using Bubbl.us, it’s a great site to make mind maps, it’s good for brainstorming too!    (You may have to click on it to view bigger!)

Today Mrs Murch is away and she left us instructions on her blog. The other day the year 7’s came into our classroom and we had a video conference with a lady from America called Mrs Leo. So this is what she wrote on her blog…

Today, Mrs Leo came from Boston, north eastern USA, into our grade 6 and 7 class. She used “virtual classroom software” which has been developed by an Australian, to share some PowerPoint slides, audio, video and chat. Let’s reflect on this amazing lesson and write a post about it.

• Discuss some of the questions she asked us.She asked us about how you play cricket, and Grace from year 7 explained, recently she went to Darwin to play for a Victorian girls cricket team. She asked about how bid blue tongued lizards are, what they eat, where they are found, and if they bite and things like that, Ebonie from year 7 answered all of that because she has a pet blue tongue. She also asked about our school and what parts were some places, Tzigane from year 6 answered that.

• Which questions surprised you most? The ones about PIES! I just can’t believe they don’t have pies in America!! They are just so common in Australia that it’s strange to think that people in America don’t know what they are!

• Did you learn anything new during the session? I learnt that they don’t have pies in America!

• Do you think we accurately portrayed a glimpse of life at our school and local area? Yes Why? We showed her our school, our pool, our ovals, we could of told her a bit more about what things we learn at school though.

• What about a glimpse of Australian culture? Yes Why? Because we explained how to play cricket, which is definitely Australian, we told her about meat pies, we showed her Vegemite! We also told her about the blue tongued lizard, and they live in lots of places around Australia.

• Do you enjoy being in a virtual classroom. Justify your reasons? I did because it’s fun telling people from other countries about our country and our area, especially our school.

• What skills do you think we need to develop and improve upon to successfully participate in such a class? We could of Had a power point of our own to ask things about in America.

• Can you see this as being the classroom of the future? Why or why not? Would you like it to be? I think it could be. But I wouldn’t like it, it’s fun to learn about other countries and their life but I still like normal learning when your talking to the teacher and doing work in your books and with classmates.

Today our ICT teacher Mrs Murch is away, so she has left us instructions on her blog for us. With this, ‘My Precious Clustrmap’ we have to put a picture of our Clustrmaps up and write about what they mean to us. Then 4 months later we are going to do the same thing and see how many more dots we may have.

Describe In 6 words, how you feel about your clustr map.

1. Joyful
2. Excited
3. Curious
4. Amazed
5. Happy
6. Great!

What is your favourite day of the week?
( surveys)

These are some pictures of my backyard…

This is my dog Spud, he is a Labrador x Dalmatian.

This is mine and my brother Zac’s trampoline.This is my rabbit Prince, and my guinea pig Hammy. Prince can just fit through the hole into the hutch.

This is our barrel. We have a goldfish named Harold in there. Sometimes Spud drinks from it.

This is my cat Basil. He is about 5 years old, he is really really fluffy!

This is our veggie garden. We plant all different things in there like… Tomatoes, peas, zucchini, cucumber, corn, carrot, beans and lettuce.

These are my Cockatiels, the Yellow ones name is Michelle and the Grey ones name is Larry. One of them is hand tamed and I can hold her if I take her inside.

This another one of Spud, he is very playful, he likes playing chasey, fetch and hide and seek.

This is one of my favourite climbing trees, it’s nice and sturdy.

This my other favourite climbing tree. We have a swinging chair on it. If you climb up high enough you can get onto the garage roof. It’s a great spot to hide in hide and seek:P

What Makes You Come To School Every Day?

I come to school because I am looking forward to seeing all of my friends, I also like seeing my teachers. I really enjoy the things we do, especially on the computers. I also really like P.E, Art, Literacy, Music and Buddies.

For my grade 6 class, a typical day at Hawkesdale P-12 is….

For me I get on the bus in my town Koroit, then it takes about an hour to get through all of the other stops and get to school. When we arrive I take my bag to the bag rack and walk around with my friends until the bell rings. When the bell rings the first thing we have is a group meeting. There is one person that runs it, they are called the chair person. They collect all of the notes, then asks if any has any Possitives or Negatives. Then everyone says what they are in Tribbles, it is where everyone says how they are feeling on a scale from 1-10, 1 being terrible and 10 being terrific. Then we mark our role and go onto the internet to see what’s happening on the news. When that first part is over we usually have Maths, Literacy or P.E.

After 2 fifty minute periods we have recess, it’s an outside break for about for about 20-30 minutes. Around our school we have a footy oval and a soccer oval. We also have tennis courts, recently ourschool got new sports equiptment for all of the classrooms, so the tennis courts have been packed. There are also lots of nice trees to sit under and lots of benches. In the picture you can see our tea house, very famous for Tea House tiggy! There is also another of the tennis courts.

After recess we have another 2 periods, about 10 minutes before the end of 4th we pack up and eat our lunch. Then when the lunch bell goes we are ready to rumble! We have a canteen, lot’s of people get their lunch from there, we also have fruit and ice-creams. Then after lunch there is another 2 periods. On Fridays we have a primary school assembly.

 Then, finally HOME TIME!!

What are you looking forward to?

Next year in January when I start year 7 (high school) I am looking forward to making new friends. I am going to a different school next year, I am scared because it’s bigger then Hawkesdale. Something I’m not looking forward to is leaving my best friend Katie:( I will miss her heaps!!! I know that I will make new friends, but it’s not easy knowing that you won’t see your old friends as much. I am nervous about all the work too, my brother goes to Emmanuel (the school I’m going to) and he gets lots and lots of homework! I am still happy though, Emmanuel is in a bigger town, so after school I can go shopping with my new friends and stuff. I only know 2 people that are going to be in year 7 next year at Emmanuel.

1. My earliest memory of Mum.. I can’t remember
2. My mother always tells me.. To clean up after myself
3. Her favourite food is…. Fudge
4. …. favourite colour.. Yellow
5. ….favourite piece of furniture.. Couch
6. At home she cooks.. Very yummy foods!
7. In her spare time, she… Builds things around the house
8. Mum’s special interest or hobby… Cooking
9. Her favourite gadget… The computer
10. Mum likes it when… I do jobs around the house
11. She gets cross when… I don’t put away my washing
12. When I shut my eyes, I see Mum.. Cleaning
13. If I had money I would buy her… What ever she wanted!!!

If you were principal for a day what would you change to help yourself and others to learn?

I would hire teachers that make learning fun and exciting, making it more interesting so that students will want to learn more and more.

I would also get better playgrounds, because if students have fun at recess and lunch they will come back into class being happy and have a positive attitude.

My teddy’s name is  Snowy. I got him for a Christmas present about 4 years ago.

After about a year my naughty dog Spud got to him and ripped him apart. I was so upset and I begged my mum to fix him. So finally she got out a needle and thread and put him back together. He is still missing his nose and one eye though, and a few rips. But he is still ok!

Last time we had buddies our buddies brang their favourite toy/teddy. They introduced us to them and told us all about them. Then we made powerpoints, we asked our buddies questions and they answered.

Example: How old is she/he? Does he/she ever get into trouble?

                  What does he/she do when you are at school? And so and so.

   My buddie Torie’s teddys name was Rainbow.

This is just after our next buddies class, and this time we brang our favourite teddy/toy. I brang my teddy Snowy, he is about 4 years old. We then introduced our buddies to our teddies, then we helped them make mothers day cards for mothers day!

 It was lots of fun!

Anzac Day

A is for All of those brave soldiers who fought bravely for our country.

N is for Never, our soldiers Never gave up, even when it got to hard to bare.

Z is for Zzzz, sleeping which our brave soldiers hardly ever got.

A is for Aching bones of which our soldiers most definitely had.

C is for Caring soldiers, who care about our country.

What makes a good student!

Someone who is nice to their teachers and peers, and who always does what they are asked. A funny student is good to, and someone who treats people like everyone is the same.