Silver Key 2 Book Launch

The 3/4 neighbourhood played host to the launch of the book 'The Silver Key - Guardians of the Key' today. Author Nicole Cameron read sections of the story to a group of students from grades 2 to 6 and the Federal member for Melbourne Adam Bandt was on hand to officially launch the book as part of the national year of reading. The students had many questions for both Adam and Nicole about publishing  and writing, especially the grade 3 and 4 students who have been involved in the publication inquiry. Students were also very interested in the current state of federal politics. As always our students made us proud with their thoughtful questions and their level of engagement. 

If you wish to purchase the book please see Keith for an order form or look for the book at Readings in Carlton.

Premiers Reading Challenge

The deadline for submitting your Premiers' Reading Challenge (PRC) list of books is Monday 3 September.

Please enter the books eligible for the PRC, which you have read, onto your login page at the PRC website.

Then, print a list of books with your name on it and ask a parent/guardian to sign it. Give this signed printout to your Home Group Teacher. Enjoy the Challenge!

Parent Helpers for camp

The 3/4 neighbourhoods are still looking for one additional parent to accompany us on our annual camp which runs from the 10th til the 12th of September. Parent helpers are an important part of the camp as they aid the teachers to provide a safe and comfortable experience for the children. The camp will be a great experience for all involved, so if you think you would be able to assist us please contact one of the 3/4 teachers as soon as possible.

Thanks in advance,

The 3/4 team.

Alice in Wonderland

The preparation for the Alice in Wonderland production is in full swing this week, with full dress rehearsals coming up next Tuesday. The 3/4 neighbourhood teachers would all like to wish all those students involved the in production, be they performers, technicians or designers, all the best for Wednesday and Thursday night. We are all really looking forward to it.

Inquiry

We have completed our Imagination Inquiries. Samples of the children's learnings will be available in portfolios, on display boards and display books. The children will be celebrating the publication of some of their books in the Publication Inquiry with author Nicole Cameron coming in to launch her new book on the 29th of August (further details to follow).

Our new inquiry will be examining the role of the researcher, the purpose of research and the process of researching. This week an open ended research question was given to the children to simply "Research the Neighbourhood". We were interested to see what mediums they engaged with, what questions they asked, whether the children were able to set parameters in their response and what disciplines they connected with. We are building up an understanding of the children's perception of the term 'research'. We are framing another research question this coming week that is more specific, providing a bigger timeframe. Again, we will be looking closely at the research processes that they use.

Here are some photos of students from both neighbourhoods taken during the activity.

Some students captured the neighbourhood using a digital camera.

Students frequently used the internet as a research resource,
while some used more traditional means of recording their findings.

These students incorporated their previous inquiry by
collaborating on a book about the neighbourhood.

Some students used iTunes to make their findings 'speak'...

while other students created a performance based on their research.

Massimo and Jake are googling different items found in the
neighbourhood and recording them on a Word document. 

Florence, Via and Olivia have found the school on Google Street View.

Students reflect on the activity.

Cupcake Day

We have some enthusiastic and motivated children in our neighbourhood who have initiated a fundraising activity to raise money for the RSPCA by making cup cakes in an exchange for a donation. Although their enthusiasm and initiative have been commended, logistical and man power issues have forced us to rethink our timeline. Now that that the teachers have been involved, we will support the children to establish a manageable process. Unfortunately, this means we will be producing cupcakes for 34 neighbourhood 1 only. This is a good opportunity to remind parents that these types of events will always be accompanied by official notification. 

Arrays around the school

Our children are exploring arrays and their relationship to multiplication during maths workshops. Last week, the group went outside to investigate the different arrays found around the school. We walked around the school grounds and photographed the arrays we found. We discussed the arrays and how they can be expressed in different ways. We found out that we can talk about the arrays as rows and how many in each row. We can also say how many things are in the array in total. We can also look at the array as a multiplication number sentence. We wrote all three of these to go with our photos

Bede found arrays in the windows of our art space.

Jane-Rose also found arrays in windows. This one was found on the Red Brick Building

Alice also used the window of the Red Brick Building.

Shreyash found an array in the cage of the tannoy speaker.

Alex found this array on the playground.

The group looked at the bricks at the entrance of the school. We found out that there were 310 bricks in each row and there were 7 rows. All together, there were 2,170 bricks.