We value setting out different numeracy provocations that meet the interests of the children. Today we shared the focus, ‘how many legs at the zoo?’

The children participated in this open-ended experience where they counted, sorted, classified and recorded their learning. When viewing the child as competent and capable we also value opportunities for the children to create their own authentic learning. It was great to see the children utilize their one-hundred languages to make their own meaning during this provocation. All students were active and committed participants in their learning. We were fortunate to have some of our 5/6 buddies join us!

Reflections:

“I made 20 by having 2 kangaroos, 2 koalas, 1 lion and 1 giraffe”- Dimi

“I did 30 legs at the zoo  because I wanted to”– Zahra

“Giraffe had 4” – Chase

“I made 10 legs. 2 giraffe and 1 lion. Actually a kangaroo”- Kalil

“I made 20 legs at my zoo. My spider had 8”- Cooper

“Kangaroo had 2 legs, a giraffe, 1 elephant” – James

“I made 20” – Viraj

“I did 1 lion, actually 1 giraffe. 1 animal had 5 legs” – Yasha

“I enjoyed drawing numbers”- Kiet

Good morning everyone,

Welcome back to a fun filled week of learning in the village!!

Today the students entered the classroom and loved engaging with parents, teachers and their peers as they explored their reading and created new meanings to their story telling journey.

Students then used the their 100 languages and explored their learning power of creativity to engage in a range of played-based investigations. Students were immersed in flow as they challenged their learning through collaboration, sense making and showcasing their love of learning.

R/1MS, R/1EQ, R/1MC and R/1EN spent time reflecting on their investigation time by discussing how they had shown their creativity through the 100 languages of learning. Students chose to either illustrate or write their reflections.

At Holy Family Catholic School, we believe the learning environment plays a big part in children’s learning, taking on the role of the ‘third teacher’ (6th in this case!). Today, the children made use of the provocations set by teachers, based on their own interests, to engage in a day of investigating, exploring, creating and reflecting. We have seen so much growth in all the children over the past two weeks, as they become familiar and comfortable with the learning environment that is The Village.

This morning we were treated to an amazing assembly by 3IB & 3JM, focussing on character strengths and positivity in the school. We stayed in the hall after assembly to participate in GoNoodle, dancing up a storm.

After recess, the children participated in investigations. Throughout this time, children built on the knowledge gained through the week, engaging with a range of provocations.

Social Play
The children continued to enjoy using used the supermarket in the home corner to buy groceries to share , creating meals to share with others and using the money to pay for their food. Sonny, Ravleen and Sara played a game about ‘good and bad’ and the good side getting trapped in the bad side.

Charlize also created a school, taking on the role of teacher. When she started a game of ‘doggy doggy’, we saw a snowball of children join in, before they needed to line up and get their hats and Miss Him sent the children to lunch.

Ecology
Dimi and Sierra spent time drawing the empty fish tank in room 11/12, waiting in anticipation for the arrival of the class Murray Cod on Monday. The girls thought about all the things that would be needed to sustain their new class member.

Literacy
Book making continued to be popular, as children drew pictures to tell a story. Children also continued to explore ‘Ss’ and used words found in the classroom to extend their knowledge. Mr Stramare found some shaving cream that the children were able to use to draw ‘Ss’ using their fingers or pop sticks. A story table for ‘Warnayarra – The Rainbow Snake’ was also set up for children to retell the story.

Numeracy
Children were exploring symmetry, using paint to make butterflies with the paint. They also looked at the different coins and notes, speaking about their value when shopping in the class supermarket. Numbers from 1-20 were also available for children to order and copy, working on their number formation.

Design & Technology
Box construction has been popular all week in room 12. Today the children continued to use this language, with Annabella creating her own lucky dip box. Children have also been creating habitats for animals in their world, something we will continue to explore next week. Block construction, Lego and play dough were also popular amongst the children today.

Outside Play
Outside, the children were busy playing soccer, building with the tyres and blocks, using their fishing rods to catch fish and create pulley-systems.

This afternoon we reflected on how we have used our creativity this week. The children drew pictures in their learning journal. Here is a selection of quotes from the children:
Playing and cleaning up – Annabelle
Playing an activity and then clean up and if you want to play with your other friends, you can choose a new activity – Nhial
I built a tower – Khyle
I was drawing letters and playing with shaving cream – Adum
I was playing with my friends and going to the fish farm – Nahom

Today The Village explored CLARA which is about the students understanding themselves better as leaners. We want them to take responsibility of themselves as learners. Connecting to their own identities and purpose and managing their own learning. Evidence shows the more connected students are with themselves the more effective the learning will be.

So today we started with the “Creativity” learning power

“This dimension is about using my imagination and intuition when I learn, being playful and ‘dreaming’ new ideas, having hunches, letting answers come to me, rather than just ‘racking my brains’ or looking things up.”

We want to allow the students to flourish in their own wonder. To use their creativity to come up with their own ideas, investigations and learning. We don’t want to confine the students, but allow them to wonder and be inspired.

In The Village we allow the students to use their creativity through the 100 languages. We give the students choice to be leaders of their own learning.

Today we asked the students- What is creativity? How do we be creative? How does it make us feel?

Us educators are using puppets to help the students learn their learning powers.”SO today we met Mr Koala,

Hi I am Mr Koala! I am always watching you in class. I love seeing you make, build, draw, create, paint, sing, dance, write, explore and use your 100 languages.”

The students shared:

Dimi: It means doing a really good picture.

Viraj: I’m creative when I climb

Sierra; Creative means being able to do a lot of pictures and doing them good.

Nicholas: making something and painting it.

Poppie: taking your time

Videl: somethings real.

Ishpreet: You can just draw your family or grandparents that’s when I am creative.

sonny: You can do different writing.

Nicholas: it makes you happy.

Dimi: I used my creativity when I made my art box.

Nicholas: I made a parachute.

Viraj: I made a drum with the blocks.

Emily: I have been reading that’s creative.

Chase: I played with the tyres

You have to make things and you make everything you want to, any day you want and anywhere you go – Elnathan

The spider builds the web – Bodhi

You build stuff – Declan

You find friends to help you and building – Oliver

Building stuff for people, building houses – Nhial

I like building marble run and blocks – Nyok

I like building with big and small blocks – Nhial

I like drawing and I also like discovering around the class to see what I can do – Adum

I can play outside to create new stories – Nahom

I am happy when I am playing outside with the big blocks. I build a tower and a fort and a bus and I play in them – Declan

I like to build with friends – Arjan

What is creativity?

It means he creates stuff he does good learning- Zahra

you make stuff- Anabella

Playing with toys- Alannah

Playing with blocks- Sarah

How do you like to use Mr Koala’s learning power?

“I use Mr Koala’s learning power when I’m drawing” – Zahra

“I use Mr Koala when I play with sticks”- Hendrix

“Making” – Scarlette

“I use Mr Koala when I go outside and play with flowers” – Sarah

“I use creativity to make stuff”- James

“When I find sticks I like playing like a game with sticks, climbing trees and that stuff. Creativity” – Jed

“I like painting. That’s Mr Koala”- Ravleen

“I use creativity outside”- Sahib

“I use Mr Koala outside playing soccer”- Jordan

“On the drawing table” – Yasha

“I use Mr Koala’s creativity when I draw. I draw with Alannah”- Annabella

It was great to hear so many of the students voices. We then continued to explore our learning power of “Creativity” through play and investigations.

Take a look of using our learning power of creativity.

After investigations we reflected:

I used Mr Koala when I created Sierra’s bed. Dimi.

I used Mr Koala to play with the ducks, Hendrix.

I used Mr koala to climb, Viraj.

I used Mr koala to do drawing, Zahra.

In investigation I used Mr Koala to help Dimi finished off the bed. Sierra.

I used Mr Koala for dancing, Poppy

I used Mr koala to play with the ducks, Ishpreet.

I used Mr koala to make a swirl, Anabella.

Zac and Nahom from R/1EQ chose to create a home for Mr Koala, searching around the school for some gum leaves and gum nuts to help him settle into his new habitat.

We are very proud of how quickly the students have picked up their learning power of creativity. Maybe tonight they can share with you

“How they were creative at school today?”

Hi everyone,

Following on from our blog post yesterday, R/1MS and R/1EQ  have created a sacred space within our classroom encompassing all the students thoughts and questions they have about ‘God Is…’

We will continue to grow and nurture this area as we explore, imagine and engage in our faith journey together 🙂

Today we participated in Global School Play Day. It’s a day of acknowledgment that play matters and that kids need play. As a school we value play and everyday here is play day- so of course we embraced this day.

Pasi Sahlberg defines play as “Play is how children explore, discover, fail, succeed, socialize, and flourish. It is a fundamental element of the human condition. It’s the key to giving schoolchildren skills they need to succeed–skills like creativity, innovation, teamwork, focus, resilience, expressiveness, empathy, concentration, and executive function”

It was great to see the children be active participants in their learning. They remained engaged, communicated, shared ideas, investigated, created, problem solved and so much more.  Have a look at our learning 🙂

Catholic Identity is at the forefront of our mission at Holy Family Catholic School. Today we explored the provocation, who is God?

We gathered as the Village where Mr Stramare posed the question- what comes to mind when we see/hear the word God?

The children responded:

“God is kind to everybody and if you got a problem you just pray to God” – Ravleen

“Father” -Nahonm

“I would run to the teacher”- Alexa

“The same of the father”- Charlie

“Garage” -Enrique

“I runaway”- Kiet

“God makes us” – Dimi

“I think about the word Jesus”- Mikayla

“I think about God of when hear of god” – Hayley

“God saves us”- Oliver

“God looks after us”- Kyle

“God is our friend”- Poppie

“God is kind to everybody and if you got a problem you just pray to god” – Ravleen

“I think God made my brother” – Ishpreet

“God makes us”- Nicholas

“I think God made my brother” – Ishpreet

Ms Quigley posed the question, are Jesus and God the same person?

Eva responded, “no because Jesus is God’s son”

Who is God?

During Literacy Investigations the children flourished as they expressed feelings, exchanged thoughts and connected with others through gestures, sounds and language. It was great to see the children make marks in various ways—through using the whiteboards, on paper, through paint and many more ways!

Today our literacy provocations included:

Reflections:

“In literacy investigations I made a snake” – Ravleen

“In literacy investigations I did the alphabet puzzle with Jordan and Jacob”- Sonny

“I like music”- Viraj

“I did the puzzle”- Kalil

“We- me and Sonny and Jacob we were trying to find ‘s’”- Jordan

“In literacy investigations I did letters on the whiteboard and the searching for s”- Leo

“In literacy investigations I did a snake”- Dimi

“I made a snake with my friends”- Isabella

“In literacy I made a book”- Isphreet

“I played in the home corner” – Poppie

“I did a rainbow snake”- Yasha

“In literacy I made a giant snake with my friends”- Anabella

“I made a kite”- Arianna

“I did the ducks”- Hendrix

“I did dancing”- Awan

Come Read With Me

We began today with ‘Come Read With Me,’ which is an opportune time for parents to join us and read with their child. We also hope to involve our Year 5/6 Buddies, during this time, in the future. Come read with me is EVERY Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday morning from 8:50-9:10am 🙂

Numeracy investigations

Students then delved into their mathematical minds during numeracy investigations. Across the abundant open-ended provocations were investigations relating to number, patterns, sorting into groups, counting on/back, addition, subtraction, subitizing and number bonds. At the end of the investigation session, students also recorded their learning in their books.

Following library, we began discussing our ‘identity display’ in the classroom. Students illustrated pictures of themselves and will add a photo of their head to their pictures. It’s currently a running progress, so stay tuned for the results! However, he is a little taste test of step one:

Play is the Way

Today there were opportunities to participate in some creative play investigations!

Students also had circle time discussion regarding Bucket filling, Greetings and Introductions, while finishing off with some specks of gold!

Sara – Spending time with my family

Leo – Playing with my buddies

Hendrix – drawing with my friends

Avleen – Drawing myself and my friend

James – Playing with Jordan and my sisters

Viraj – Playing with Sahib

Kiet – Playing with my sister

Jordan – Playing soccer outside with James

Enjoy your evening and this fine weather Village community 🙂