Middle Matters-moving to Senior Primary.

LOVING ART

2012-02-10T16:51:00.000+11:00

Here's our great summer sunsets to match the summer mood as we start the first week of Seniors classes.

HOW'S THE WEATHER TODAY?

2012-02-03T12:55:00.001+11:00

CAN YOU HELP US LEARN ABOUT THE WEATHER and TEMPERATURE IN PARTICULAR?

Welcome to all "friends of the Middle Matters!" We are back to school here in Australia on Monday 6th February. Most of us will have had quite a few trips to the beach during the summer break-our long holiday! We have had temperatures of 30C on many days. Wonderful!

What's it like where you are in the world today? Can you tell us the temperature (day and night) and how it feels and looks outside. What are you wearing? Looking forward to another year in the "global classroom!"

CHRISTMAS STORMS AND HOLIDAYS AND THANKS

2011-12-28T22:04:00.000+11:00

To all our commentators!

Thanks for your interest and encouragement throughout 2011. The students from The Middle Matters have loved having you on board- me too!!!

We now have our 6 week Summer break-much anticipated and deserved!!! Christmas has been hot and stormy- we await hot, dry beach days ahead!

Thanks,

The Middle Matters and Marg Yore

NED KELLY RIDES AGAIN

2011-12-01T17:43:00.004+11:00

Inspired by Sidney Nolan's "Ned Kelly" series and our current inquiry, "History in the Making," we have created our artworks about Ned Kelly.

NO MONEY - NO LIFE - THE GREAT DEPRESSION IN VICTORIA

2011-11-29T11:53:00.001+11:00

We would love your help with our research about events that shaped Victoria's history!

Firstly, how did the Great Depression affect your family in the past?

Secondly, how do you think the Great Depression affected Victoria's history. Were there both positive and negative outcomes?

SPEED STACKING

2011-11-24T14:19:00.000+11:00

MMY Speed Stacking on PhotoPeach! We were lucky enough, through our Positive Education program, to have Australian Speed Stacking champions work with us! It must be up there as one of our favourite experiences this year!

NED KELLY AND THE GREEN SASH - "TALKING HISTORY"

2011-11-21T22:06:00.005+11:00

While still a school boy, Ned Kelly bravely rescued a drowning class mate from a flooded river.The boy's parents were so grateful that they awarded Ned a green hero's sash. In their eyes at least, Ned was a hero.

ENJOY OUR REFLECTIONS ABOUT NED AFTER HEARING THIS STORY.

Ivan... "I liked how Mark Greenwood put forward Ned's point of view in the story...it told me that the darkest life will always have a bright side!"

Corinne....Mark Greenwood takes us on an amazing journey of Ned Kelly's life..I would never be brave enough to do any of the things he did. Amazing as this story (The Green Sash) was, it was one of the saddest stories I've heard. I guess we will never know if he really was a hero!"

Matt..."This book entranced me! It made me think about courage, bravery, evil and good and to see Ned Kelly's place in history. For instance, some peple think he is a hero and others think he is a cold-blooded killer. My opinion is he is a hero. What do you think? My favourite line is, 'Ned Kelly ran his bloody fingers through the green sash.' "

Elizabeth..."In this story Ned Kelly tells us about his life and how it was good and then bad and about how his beautiful green sash was once a reward for bravery...in my opinion, Ned Kelly was forced into being a bushranger to protect his family and my final words to this piece of writing will be the same as his...such is life!"

Chloe....I enjoyed this story because I like how it was from Ned's point of view. The descriptions that I was attracted to were "paddocks turned to dust," "could bog a duck" and "struggled to scrape a living."...The Green Sash shows that Ned wasn't all bad and saved a life. But, he did murder police. I guess I'll have to think about it!"

Mairead....I was surprised that Ned Kelly saved Richard Shelton's life. How do you feel about it? I thought his last words, "Such is life," said to me..."life is like birth-growth-death-and there is no way to stop it.

AUSTRALIAN LANDSCAPE-COLLAGE

2011-11-19T22:26:00.001+11:00

Using our newly acquired photography skills, we snapped some of the beautiful foliage in our school ground. Using our photographs, we created collages to represent Australian landscapes.

MY COUNTRY-STUDENTS' RESPONSES

2011-11-16T17:27:00.014+11:00

It has to be one of a teacher's greatest joys to enjoy with her students, Dorothy MacKellar's poem, My Country. Enjoy their insightful responses!

Fintan"s Response (mp3)

Lizzy"s Response (mp3)

Siobhon"s Response (mp3)

Nic"s Response (mp3)

Mark"s Response (mp3)

Joe"s Response (mp3)

Sam"s Response (mp3)

Holly"s Response (mp3)

HISTORY IN THE MAKING

2011-11-14T15:46:00.001+11:00

The Middles' history unit is entitled,"History in the Making!" (Thanks Luke for the great suggestion for the title!) We are exploring how historical events have changed our home state of Victoria, Australia. However, we would also love general answers to our questions about how historical events change the world.

What sort of events change history and how?

Have historical events changed you in any way?

How has history affected your ancestors?

Can you name some good changes and some bad changes that have occurred?

What event has most changed Victoria?

What sort of events have affected Victoria's history?

What can you do now that you might not have been able to do 50 or 100 years ago?

We would love to hear your thoughts!

www.ebi.com......class of 2011...the "feedback champions!"

2011-11-11T16:57:00.001+11:00

This week we tried some different ways of working! In order to evaluate the week's success we created a new strategy...www.ebi.com. Even giving feedback was fun this way.

SACRAMENTAL CANDLES

2011-11-04T17:01:00.001+11:00

SACRAMENTAL CANDLES on PhotoPeach

SOMETIMES WE JUST NEED TO CELEBRATE!!!!

2011-10-29T21:21:00.000+11:00

Enjoy these snaps of our wonderful stars of "That's Entertainment-Shrek!" How energetic and entertaining they all were!

LITERATURE and HISTORY-HAND in HAND

2011-10-26T15:10:00.006+11:00

"History in the Making" is the Middles' topic this term. We are examining how big events changed the course of history. After visiting the Shrine, we read "In Flanders Field" by Norman Jorgensen. Listen to some of our responses!

Samuel"s Response (mp3)

Akon"s Response (mp3)

Fintan"s Response (mp3)

James" Response (mp3)

Luke"s Response (mp3)

Learning Together: Our Action - Reuse and Reduce!

2011-10-10T12:37:00.006+11:00

The Preps in our school are really great leaders. They are modelling how to look after our beautiful earth. We encourage them with their excellent work!Tell us what YOU think!
The Middle Matters

Reuse and Reduce from Learning Together on Vimeo.

Learning Together: Our Action - Reuse and Reduce!: T his term our Inquiry Learning has been about reusing products and recycling to reduce landfill. Prep S and Prep K discovered a problem...

TAKING ACTION THAT MATTERS

2011-09-23T15:38:00.001+10:00

When we began our design inquiry, "Tell Me a Story," we asked for ideas about puppetry from other bloggers. ERutherford suggested we survey our Preps to discover their favourite stories. And that's just what we did...thanks to ERutherford!

This action was about entertaining others and having fun at the same time! (Siobhon)
It was fun creating our own scripts from the stories selected. (Nic)
I was amazed at the Preps incredible feedback Their language was astounding and mature. (Mark)
The Preps were really engaged, so we think our puppets and plays were entertaining! (Gemma)
I learnt new skills such as sewing! (Cameron)
Everybody followed the design process to make their puppets-this process was really helpful. (Siobhon and Corinne)
Because we have collected lots of recycled materials, we have made really creative puppets! (Georgia)
The puppets reflected our individual styles of working. (Mairead)

PUPPETS FOR PREPS on PhotoPeach

BLOGGING REACHES OUT TO THE WORLD

2011-09-22T22:28:00.001+10:00

A concerned blog post from one of our senior students has led to a successful fundraiser for the people of the Horn of Africa. Congratulations to the student whose reflections led to "Crazy Hair Day" and lots of money raised!

DECIMAL DOINGS!!!

2011-09-12T15:43:00.001+10:00

In real life situations at school, we've discovered that decimals are used for money and for recording race times -we timed ourselves with stop watches and read our "decimal" race times!

Now can you help us please? In what real life situations have you used decimals? How else can we work with decimals at school?

FUTURE CHAMPIONS!

2011-09-06T17:10:00.000+10:00

IDIOMS inspired by our Book Week reading of "Two Peas in a Pod!"

2011-09-05T18:22:00.002+10:00

An idiom is a group of words which, when used together, have a different meaning from the one suggested by the individual words, eg. it was raining cats and dogs! (see Collins Australian Dictionary)

After discovering a variety of idioms, we selected our favourites! Please add to our list with your favourite idioms and we will discuss their meanings and try and use them in our stories if we have the chance!

-a dime a dozen
-a leopard cannot change its spots
-bend over backwards
-break a leg
-a doubting Thomas

COOL CREATIVE CATERPILLARS

2011-08-26T16:22:00.001+10:00

Experimenting with puppets is fun, but it's also part of deciding what sort of puppets we might choose for our puppet plays.

BOOK WEEK 2011

2011-08-24T13:15:00.004+10:00

This term, we've been going for our "black belts" in reading...fifty tales, legends, fables or dreaming stories = a black belt in reading. Some readers have almost reached 100 stories!!! So...
HOW DOES READING STORIES HELP US WITH OUR LEARNING?

WRITE ON!

2011-08-02T17:02:00.001+10:00

It's time to practise descriptive language for our narrative writing. Can you add to today's brainstorm? We began with a NOUN,then added the ADJECTIVE and finally the VERB!

Class collaboration

...sharp claws swiping

...powerful wings beat

...blistering fire roars
...mysterious cave echoes
Chloe-violent dragon rears

Siobhon-old totem glares

Ivan-flaming eyes glaring
Sam-sharp pincers snapping
Fintan-scaly skin reflecting
Mairead-nurturing cave guarding

EXPLORING THE WORLD OF PUPPETS! WHAT DO YOU THINK?

2011-07-22T16:15:00.000+10:00

TELL ME A STORY

2011-07-19T15:58:00.002+10:00

Puppet Making Has Begun!

The Middles are immersing themselves in wonderful stories searching for the perfect story for their puppet shows!!!

What are YOUR favourite myths, legends, folk tales, stories from the Dreaming, fables....?

Please let us know what stories you recommend for us!

DESERT INSPIRATIONS

2011-07-03T22:30:00.003+10:00

The Middles have been inspired by the artworks of Australian artist, Russell Drysdale, to create desert landscapes.

Who is your favourite Australian artist?
What inspires you about that artist?

This digital slideshow generated with Smilebox

TIME FOR ACTION!

2011-06-24T16:03:00.001+10:00

Finally we have decided on some of our actions. Thank you to all those who have commented on our blog!

Some students are growing plant food for the Orange Bellied Parrot. This idea came from our visit to Healesville Sanctuary.

Mark is having a fundraiser at school to raise a donation for the Tassie Devils Fund at Australia Zoo!

Conor wants to promote possum boxes in our gardens to protect our possums (who many just call pests!)

Another team has decided to promote "Wipe for Wild-life" which is a campaign to convince people to use recycled toilet paper! Again, we learnt all about this programme at Healesville Sanctuary.

Fin and his team are going to investigate whether we can assist in our local parklands. (see our magnificant local habitat photographed by our Middles photographers)

Three students have already joined FOTZ (friends of the zoo).

CAN YOU HELP US WITH SOME ACTIONS?

2011-06-09T21:10:00.006+10:00

What responsibility do we have to ensure that, in Australia, people and animals live in harmony?

This has been the guiding question for our study of endangered animals in Australia.

Our journey began with a visit to HEALESVILLE SANCTUARY east of Melbourne (photos courtesy of Healesville Sanctuary).

Now we are asking for your ideas for actions that we, as 8-10 year olds, can take to address this issue!

Celebrating Reading, Writing and Thinking!

2011-05-31T16:53:00.024+10:00

Margaret Wild and Ron Brooks's latest collaboration, "The Dream of the Thylacine," has linked beautifully with the Middles' current inquiry "Endangered Animals" and inspired our young writers.

C. O'Malley writes:

The front cover seems to be showing the thylacine in pain, roaring at what it once dominated. The description of the cage makes it sounds really horrible and I instinctively feel sorry for the thylacine. Did it have to go through so much pain? I believe this is a true story.

"The Dream of the Thylacine" shows the comparison between captivity and the wild, where the thylacine belongs. The dull colours show sadness and the bright illustrations, show happiness. The last illustration shows that the thylacine belongs with the wild land and dreams with it. When the thylacine died, the land took it home...where it longed to be....where it was happy. The thylacine deserved a much better life!

N.Kinsella writes:
I think the language was really effective in "The Dream of the Thylacine." I felt like I was part of the story.The illustrations were amazing and really caught my attention. I loved the way Ron Brooks used real images of the last thylacine and his own drawings as well. The story tells how, back then, they had really bad zoo enclosures with cold floors and cement.

C. Brennan writes:
I liked the story, mainly because of the way the illustrator juxtaposed the dark and colourful illustrations.I loved the way the author used the language which had a big impact on me. From what the author wrote, I could easily tell the story was coming from the thylacine's point of view. Just as this book was great to listen to, it also challenged me to think deeply and it had an emotional effect on me. It makes me sad to think how on earth we could be so harmful to the animals a long time ago. But yet I feel happy because of the change of heart we have had and now I hope all animals are safe.

Learning with Chicago

2011-05-20T13:43:00.005+10:00

Our friends in Chicago created a video to tell us about themselves

So we made our own for them (sorry about the blurry quality)

Illinois Time

Victoria Time

This is the link to the Voicethread - which hopefully you can see without logging in

HEALESVILLE SANCTUARY HELPS OUR GRAMMAR!

2011-05-15T15:19:00.001+10:00

The Middles have had lots of fun using the Australian animals at Healesville Sanctuary to support our learning about nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs! We used our own photographs. It all makes sense now! That's what our teacher hopes! Here's what we wrote....

...golden dingo stretching wearily..

...dangerous Tasmanian Devil snarling menacingly...

...long-winged wedge-tailed eagle soaring anxiously...

...tired koala dozing peacefully...

...deadly brown snake arching threateningly...

...yellow-mouthed tawny frogmouth gobbling hungrily...

...baby platypus swishing excitedly...

...giant beaked pelican spreading its wings widely...

Voicethread with Chicago school

2011-05-14T14:24:00.004+10:00

We love this Voicethread started by Mrs Shabat and Mrs Merced from Chicago. Their students are studying Endangered animals and want to learn with us. Some of our Middle students have blogged about some endangered animals and Mrs Shabat has included the pictures they used here.

Mrs Shabat's students drew wonderful pictures of their Endangered animals in KidPix and some write Haiku poems. It will be interesting to see what we can teach them and what we can learn from them.

http://ed.voicethread.com/share/2034086/

To view the comments you need to register with Voicethread. It is easy - Click on Register and then respond to the email you receive. Thanks !

GOING! GOING! GONE! MIDDLES' LATEST INQUIRY!

2011-05-04T16:52:00.000+10:00

Endangered animals and the effects of humans on the animals' habitats
make up the focus of our latest inquiry.Our Wallwisher reflects the first thoughts we have after our inspiring Healesville Sanctuary trip.

BRAIN DISSECTION-AN EXCITING HANDS-ON LEARNING EXPERIENCE

2011-03-10T00:03:00.001+11:00

Middle Matters invited a medical student to teach us about the brain and to help us to understand the parts of a sheep's brain! Afterwards we had some big questions!

How do you learn best?
What is the most amazing way you have learnt something?
Can you give us some good ideas for experimenting with the way we learn?

THANKS FOR YOUR COMMENTS!

2011-03-03T18:18:00.001+11:00

Thank you to everyone who commented on our blog and inspired our learning about advertising. We are now writing our own advertisements.

Corinne (Grade 3) and Middle Matters

PLEASE HELP OUR INQUIRY INTO ADVERTISING!

2011-02-20T17:35:00.000+11:00

ADVERTISING!
Tell us about the ad you HATE the most and the ad you LOVE the most. Most importantly, tell us why. The Middles are looking at persuasive techniques in advertising.

Holidays are a thing of the past! We are already heading into Week 3 of Term. Our new motto is.....

2011-02-11T17:59:00.001+11:00

Custom Glitter Text

PLEASE HELP - ORGANIC CLEANERS WANTED!

2010-12-02T15:07:00.001+11:00

WARNING-We have discovered that many cleaners are made of dangerous chemicals that harm the environment!

HELP-We have been discussing that it might be possible to make some safe cleaners of our own.

PLEASE COMMENT -If you know any alternative recipes for cleaning products, kindly comment on our blog.

My Country - Celebrating our Learning!

2010-11-17T16:01:00.018+11:00

The practice of reflecting on our learning has begun to influence the way the Middles respond to many experiences. We have just begun enjoying and writing poetry. The first poem we studied was "My Country" by Dorothea MacKellar. Enjoy these insightful responses from our Grades 3 and 4 students!

Jessica's

Zoe's

Liam's

Anthony's

Madeline's

Jessica K's

Hannah's

Harry's

Hailey's

Yom's

Chloe's

All in one movie below

Photo credits
Elena Martinella - FotoStream
Dave Sag - Flickr
G Sharp - Flickr
By Zoharby CC-BY-SA-3.0 (www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)
Garry - www.visionandimagination.com

MIX-UP AT THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY!

2010-10-29T14:40:00.004+11:00

Crazy Mixed-Up Chocolate Blocks! - how to create a free slideshow

WE WERE WONDERING!

2010-10-21T17:04:00.005+11:00

SHARE YOUR HOME EXPERIMENTS!

2010-10-15T11:52:00.001+11:00

SCIENTISTS AT WORK-Making Ooblek!

Have you done an experiment at home- one that would be suitable for the Middles to try. Please share with us, remembering we need materials and procedure to guide us!

SACRAMENTAL CANDLES

2010-10-12T10:22:00.001+11:00

RECONCILIATION CANDLES on PhotoPeach

OCTOBER 4th - St Francis of Assisi-Saint and Environmentalist

2010-10-01T19:11:00.002+10:00

The Canticle of the Creatures on PhotoPeach

What's the Matter!

2010-09-29T12:20:00.000+10:00

Welcome to another amazing inquiry in Term Four!

Holiday Action!

2010-09-29T11:27:00.000+10:00

While you're all relaxing on holidays, we are getting excited about Term 4's new adventure for the Middles- blogging!