End of Year Activities

During the last few weeks of school we did all sorts of fun activities. We learnt about Chanukah and about Christmas. We made present bags and gift tags (using found object stamps). We also made bookmarks (using word cards from our word wall), calendars, paper plate art and planted sunflowers as presents for our families and we read a story called "The Gift of Nothing." Here's some pictures and writing about our end of year fun....

Jewish people celebrate Chanukah and it goes for 8 days. We got colour-in sheets from Dora's mum Rebecca who is a Rabbi. They were felt. Dora is Romy's friend, she was visiting from London. The colour-ins were pictures of dradels. A dradel is a spinning top game that Jewish children play during Chanukah. Lucy

I liked the Christmas activity that we did on Monday. We had to decorate the Christmas trees on the piece of paper. Max R

We made sunflower tags to put in our real sunflowers. Some were orange and some were yellow and some were both. Mine was yellow. Evie

The Christmas activity I loved was planting our sunflowers. Lucy

Collage Calendar Creations

One of our end of year activities was making collage calendars to give as gifts to our parents and friends. They were made from posters that Lauren's friend Jo Lyn found in an opshop. We used a whole lot of different pictures and prints to make a background for the animals we had cut out from the posters. At the end we added a scattering of old postage stamps to make them extra special. The finished pieces looked unbelievably fantastic!

Happy New Year, everyone!

End of Year Reflections

You only have to scroll through the blog to see what a wonderful year we've had! Here are some of the things we've really enjoyed doing together.

My favourite thing this year was Personal Work Time. Ilya
 
I enjoyed writing the blog. Sam

I enjoyed the party and I liked writer's notebook. Josh

This year I enjoyed the blog. Lucinda

I enjoyed planting the sunflowers because mine grew big and tall. Isabel

I enjoyed the other day when Fredrick, Lisa and I went to make bookmarks. Sunita (and her bird)

The thing I like best this year was making my bird. I also liked publishing my Secret of the Rainbow skull story in Writers' Notebook. Isaac

I liked lots of things this year like making picture frames, birds and more. I liked watching videos. Mia

I enjoyed the class party. Felix

These are some of the things I liked: maths, picking junior school councillors, writing, silent reading and doing the roll.  Gareth

What Beautiful Birds!

We made beautiful Christmas birds out of recycled paper. We chose our birds from the drawings on the National Library of Australia website. We cut and pasted the pictures into a word document then wrote their species name before printing them out. 

The next step was to sketch the shape of their bodies. Some birds were a circle and a circle (body and a head), others were like a tear drop. Once we had the shapes we wanted, we made their body out of scrunchy newspaper and masking tape. We painted sheets of newspaper in the right colours and tore it up into little strips for feathers. We used PVA (watered down) to glue the paper feathers onto our birds. This part took a long time but we didn’t give up!

Finally we added eyes and a cardboard beak to our birds (some of us added feet too) and all of a sudden they came to life! Even though we made them we were surprised by how wonderful they were….

My bird is a lyre-bird. It is called Max and his favourite food is chocolate with strawberries and maple syrup on top. He is brown, white, black and a teeny bit red. His best friend is called Tom Tom (Max’s dodo) and its mum is Poppy (Olivia’s bird). My bird is cheeky. Nina

My bird is a white-tailed black cockatoo. The best bit was making the tail. Teagan

In the 4^th term we made birds. My bird is a parrot with red wings and a blue body. Felix

 

My bird’s food is biscuits. Aidan

Poopy and I are the best of friends. She is 2 days old, her favourite colour is blue. Her favourite food is sunflower seeds and soy milk. She would peck at some bread. Did you know they make nests? I enjoyed making my bird alive because when you finish your bird is born. Olivia

My bird’s name is Poppy. Poppy is a nutmeg pigeon. She is white. Her favourite colour is pink. She eats bird seed. She drinks water. I love Poppy! Mia

My bird took ages ages to make and is multi-coloured. Isaac

Hi, my name is Ponky Mack Nina. I am a black swan but my friends say I am so brave. Well, they say so. I was born in India, I love the colour red. It’s like I’m evil but I’m not evil. My friends are Fredric, Lisa, Sammy, Lucy and Isabel. Sunita

My bird is red and blue. Its name is Lola. Her favourite colour is blue. Lola’s favourite food is bird feed, she drinks water. I love Lola! Isabel

My bird is very fat. He is not very fast. His name is Tom Tom. Max H

I made my bird. On my bird there are lots of colours. It took a long time. He has a collar. Clarrie

My Bird’s Profile 

(by Sam)

Name: Toppy

Fav. Food: Hot Dog’s (with mustard)

Fav. Colour: Blue

Best Friend: Black Swan Dude (Ilya’s bird)

Made out of: Paper

Favourite country: Germany

Type of bird: Top-knot Pigeon

Fav. Animal: Penguin

My Bird’s Profile 

(by Ilya)

Name: Black Swan Dude

Fav. Food: Coffee Beans

Fav. Colour: Black

Best Friend: Toppy (Sam’s bird)

Made out of: Paper

Favourite country: On the Wall

Type of bird: Black Swan

Fav. Animal: Black swans!

Distinguishing features: Black

My bird is multi-coloured. Josh

Hi, Hiccup speaking. My name is Hiccup because…. It was the first word I said when I was a baby. I am a white tailed cockatoo. My personality is cheeky. Lulu

My bird’s name is Peep. It is a nutmeg pigeon. It has white feathers and a black tail and an orange beak. It has eyes made out of confetti. The feathers are strips of painted newspaper and magazines too and it has a loop on top of it. The loop is for holding it so you can hang it on top of your bed. Peep likes coloured bird seed and she likes plenty of water every day. Her favourite thing to do is play on the trampoline. Lucy

*Special Note: Evie's bird writing is missing because Lauren forgot to get it off her computer before she went away for Christmas. It will feature in a special blog post after Lauren returns from her holiday.* 

Daniel's bird was finished but he went on holiday before he could write about it and he didn't get to take it home. It is waiting for him in the classroom and it looks forward to seeing him next year.