Green G Classroom Blog

Week 9 has come and gone.  We are well into our unit on insects.  Prior to this week, we have studied the lifecycles and features of several insects as well as the spider, which is not an insect, but interesting all the same!

We have been working for the past several weeks on our art project – to plan and design and create a new insect. 

First we looked at pictures of all different types of insects so we could see how they are alike and different.  Then we looked at a lot pictures again, but this time with the purpose of finding three different insects that we liked the look of.  We marked these pages and had them photocopied so that we could use them as inspiration for drawing.

Next we thought about using the things we liked on the insect photocopies and used  them to help us draw a new insect.  We did several draft drawings, then chose what we thought was our best drawing and used it to make our final plan for our new insect.

We were ready for the clay!  We had several Green G mums in for 3 days to help us make the tile, then the insect, and lastly, patterns on them to give texture.  Thanks to all of our helpers!

Finally we layed them on newspaper to dry.  When they are finshed drying, we will have them fired at the local high school.  Then we will be ready to paint!

We have really enjoyed working on this project.

Many things have happened over the past several weeks!

In weeks three and four, as part of our  year long ‘Healthy Me’ unit, we talked and learned more about our bones.  The children all knew something about their bones, and had many questions they wanted to find out about too.  We learned about how bones protect other parts of our bodies, what is inside of bones, how many bones we have, our joints, etc.  We enjoyed cutting out bones and arranging them into a skeleton.  Our Year 2′s even labeled the bones and wrote about three interesting facts that they learned.

We had a picnic at school last week.  The kids really enjoyed organising, preparing for and participating in the picnic.  Our Year 1s had the chance to write and draw about what they did, while the Year 2 s worked out plans for their personal recount writing.

Year 1 s began their take home reading last week.  Hope all is going well.  Mrs. Green is happy to run a mini workshop on how to read with your beginning reading student if there is an interest.  There are some simple things parents can understand and do that will go miles towards helping a child develop as a reader.

Week 5 was the first week of our unit of study on insects.  We have begun this unit by drawing and writing down what we know about insects.  We know a lot, but I’m sure we will discover even more in the following weeks.

It has been a great start to the year!

Year 2 students will be taking home reading beginning this week.  Year 1 students will begin home reading later in the term.  We still require people to change readers on Monday and Friday Mornings.  Thank you to those of you who have volunteered for this important job.  The roster is posted on the big metal cabinet in the ‘wet area’.

Thank you to Jeanette Luff and Lisa Robbie for organising the home reader roster!

Parent information night will be this week on Tuesday the 11th of February.  It begins at 6:30pm and will go no later than 7:30pm.

In the classroom we have been learning daily routines and responsibilities and have been getting to know the new students to Green G, as well.  We’ve begun reading and writing and maths lessons and activities and have focussed our integrated studies on Australian topics.

For those who have not yet heard, P.E. and Music are held twice per week on Tuesday and Thursday.  Library is on Friday and Religious Education (which begins this week) is on Thursday.