NAPLAN is over!!

This week has been a busy one, with NAPLAN tests for year 3 and 5, and a change of place and routine for year 4. We are grateful that Friday will see us return to normal routine! We started the week with our amazing excursion to the Field of Mars EEC (Environmental Education Centre) followed by TWO tests for year 3 on Tuesday and then one each on Wednesday and Thursday. So a few days goverened by standardised tests, pencils, timers and small bubbles to be coloured in.

Year 4 from our class hung out with the rest of the year 4s from 4/5C in the library and computer room. There was maths, English and library research before having to go back to their classrooms. Today the year 4s from 3/4T and 4/5C visited the Life Education van together. They learnt lots from the lovely teacher in there and also had a visit from Healthy Harold who I heard was telling jokes!

The afternoons of Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday saw us listen to some great multicultural public speaking competition speeches. We took turns being the time-keeper and ringing the bell to let everyone know when the speakers were at 2 minutes and then 3 minutes. After each speech we listened to Mrs Taylor give everyone who gave a speech two stars and a wish. That just means that everyone got feedback from me about two areas that they had done well in and one area that they could look at improving for next time. It meant everyone learnt a great deal about what is needed in a good speech and why.

Tomorrow will be the first training of the season for winter PSSA. The rain and mother's day breakfast meant that we haven't actually had a training session for any of the PSSA teams. I know that I'm looking forward to running through some skills and drills with the AFL PSSA teams tomorrow morning!

Next week we'll be looking forward to being back into our normal routine. Except for Monday, where all of stage 2 classes will be involved in a morning and middle session science experiment extravaganza! How exciting! I can't wait to look at how matter changes!

Field of Mars Excursion

What a wonderful day for an excursion. The sun was out and although it was a little windy the breeze was lovely. We started with our walk down to the Field of Mars Reserve and the Environment Education Centre (EEC) flanked by Mr Smyth at the front and myself at the back with our beautiful fluorescent vests.

Arriving at the EEC we were met by two teachers who took us through what we were doing today. It was so exciting to hear that we were going to be explorers/photographers with an iPad and would be taking photos of nature that we would turn into a book using the app, book creator. Straight away there were nods, hand grabs and glances as friends tried to plan who their partners would be. 

Before splitting into pairs we found out about different sorts of photographs and artistic rules that we were going to have to use when taking our photos. We needed to think about our subject when taking photos and where we were placing it in our photo. The themes we needed to think about when taking our photos were: ant's eye view, use of light, rule of thirds, leading lines, textures, macro, looking down into, looking up, colour, framed, pattern and contrast.

We were allowed to walk around the Field of Mars EEC with our partner to take photos that fit each of those themes. Some of us saw an eel, ibises and even a water dragon, but most of us took photos of flowers, lichen, trees, ferns, the river and moss. We took turns taking photos and helped each other take the perfect shot.

After lunch we came back in and played around with book creator to create our 'nature book'. We had to create a title page and then also chapter titles using the themes we were using to take our photos in the first place. We had to choose three photos for each theme and were allowed to edit the photos using the filters that were available.

Finally we had to choose our favourite photo which we had printed for us and framed. Wow! What an absolutely amazing day!