Collaborative Clusters

This week marks a new beginning in the way students in 6L engage with learning.

Students have been arranged in Collaborative Clusters – teams of students who can collaborate, problem-solve and share ideas about different topics.

This works within the framework that most of what we do in class revolves around projects or problems.  This is know as Project-Based Learning (PBL).

Each member of the team has a specific role for the day.  The roles are:

Task Master – They make sure that everyone’s voice is heard and that the group is focusing their work around the learning task.

Recorder/Tech Support – They compile the team’s ideas on a collaborative graphic organiser or online tool.  They access the laptop computer to assist with research or typing up information.  They control the technology that is used during presentations.

Time Keeper Encourages the team to stay on task and announces when time is halfway through and/or nearly up.

Reporter – Presents the team’s work to the rest of the class.

Go-To-Guy – Briefly leaves the group to get supplies or to request help from the teacher when group members agree that they do not have the resources to solve the problem.

The response from the class about this type of learning has been overwhelmingly positive, as you can see from this poll I conducted in Edmodo:


Here are some photos of the Collaborative Clusters (or CCs as we call them) at work during a Maths lesson.  The teams were working collaboratively on solving the area of irregular shapes.

Package it Better

The Package it Better unit provides opportunities for students to develop an understanding of the design of packages and the choice of appropriate materials to use. The students will design and test a package that will safely deliver a fragile gift. Through investigations students observe and gather information about what makes a successful package.

Today we conducted IMPACT INVESTIGATIONS!

Each collaborative team was issued with envelopes, bubble wrap and shredded paper.  Their fragile ‘gift’ was a Milk Arrowroot biscuit.

They had to drop a ‘weight’ from various measured heights until the biscuit was smashed.

As a team they had to record the different heights and the different packaging techniques they used.  Using this information they had to draw conclusions on which packaging material offers the best protection from impact.

Which package do YOU think offers the best protection?

  • Plain envelope?
  • Envelope with gift wrapped in bubble wrap?
  • Envelope with gift surrounded in shredded paper?

We won’t tell you our results.  Maybe you could conduct some tests of your own!

Here are some clips of the teams at work:

Limericks

A Limerick is a witty, often humourous poem that is written in five lines.

Line 1 rhymes with Line 2 and Line 5

Line 3 rhymes with Line 4.

Limericks were made famous by a man called Edward Lear in the 19th century in a book he wrote called, ‘A Book of Nonsense’ (1875)

The students in 6L have been writing limericks this week during their poetry component of Literature Circles.

Here is a collection of a few of them.

Science Crazy

There has been a lot of science this week at school.

Firstly, the Science Fair is running and many students have been working hard on Science Projects.  Here is a short collection of a couple of photos:

A couple of students from 6L entered the Science Fair with their projects. Here are some videos on what they presented:

Adele presents her project on the Human Lungs

Saacha presents her project on the best way to eliminate nasty smells from a room

Abigail presents her project on the Butterflies

Isaac also did a great project on making ice-cream with dry ice but I wasn’t able to get a video of that.  He did have his own video which was pretty cool to watch.

Science in 6L

Our class is currently looking at packages and conducted some studies on different materials that packages can be made from and how they compare when tested (e.g. twisted, ripped, poked, etc.)

Here are some photos of the students conducting their tests and recording their observations…

Year 6 Running Kindy Sport

While most of the Year 6 students are out doing Hills Zone Sport, there are about 20 students left at school.

I decided that it would be great for them to organise and run the Sport Program for the 64 Kindergarten students in our school.

I gave them this Kindy Sport Planning Sheet with the Kindergarten Sport Outcomes and they had to design a circuit activity which would include as many indicators as possible.

They did an awesome job.

Today was the beginning of the program and the Year 6 students were fantastic at setting up their activity and assisting the Kindy students to learn some fundamental skills.

Here is a short Animoto video which captures a little bit of the day…

Walkathon

Today we had our Junior School Walkathon.

Chloe wrote a poem for the occasion:

Today was the walkathon, we had so much fun,
Even though the clouds came out and we couldn’t see the sun.
Year 6 walked three kilometres then we came to a stop.
We played heaps of games that ended with a ‘pop’!
Then we all walked back to school.
We all thought the walkathon was very, very cool!
By Chloe

 

Persuasive Writing

Students in 6L had the following writing task today:

“A new skateboard park opened in your community.  After a few weeks, the park closed because of increased youth violence and disruption in the area.  Do you think it is right that the park is now off limits to everyone?  Write a persuasive letter to city officials encouraging them to consider a different plan of action.”

Here is Lachlan’s letter:

Dear City Officials,

 You have obviously noticed that since you closed down the skateboard park, there has been a lot of disruption to everyone.  Therefore, I have come up with a few ideas and reasons for why you should reopen the park.

 My first reason is that you have poured a lot of money into this project.  You can’t let it all go to waste.  The people of this city have to pay for this skate park through their tax.  It is a waste of money for them as well.

 My second idea is that we could have a system where you are given a card.  Every person that enters the skate park gets given one and they have to keep it.  On the card are two circles.  If someone does something wrong then they get a hole punched in the circle on their card.  After two warnings they can never come back.

 Another reason I have is that you can put security walls around the park so that no one can get in during the night and cause vandalism.

 That is why I think you should reopen the park.

 Sincerely,

 Lachlan C.

Working with Prezi

During our computer time today the students created a Prezi to give others an insight into their lives.

Have a look and post some comments on what you think.

This is Kasey

This is Kate…

This is Rebecca…

This is Bailey S…

This is Brooke…

This is Alex…

This is Murray…

This is Lachlan C…

This is Emma…

This is Yohan…

This is Shanarah…

This is Bailey B…

This is Will…

This is Jordan…

This is Chloe…

Crazy Spelling Sentences

In class today the students were asked to construct the most imaginative and creative sentence they could using this week’s Spelling List.  They had to use at least three words.

I was going to choose the best sentence to post onto this blog, but as you can see, it was too hard to choose.

Here they all are…

On Tuesday the oldest eucalypt tree fell over, so now it went on a talk show.

By Bailey B

On Tuesday I saw Voldemort eating almond muesli while reading a note on the tissue which was Psalm 1.

By Piper H

The salmon was in pursuit of the front of the Tuesday queue.

By Kasey V

One night, Mr. Salmon was swimming through the gruesome, undersea garbage dump when suddenly, a dirty tissue covered in whale blubber started to hover over Mr. Salmon, and it talked about the muesli it had seen the whale inhale on Tuesday and how it had to wait in a queue for the doctor because a bit had clogged up its blowhole.

By Abigail A

On Tuesday we had an issue with a gruesome tissue.

By Yohan D

Every Tuesday I walk and talk with gruesome muesli.

By Jordan T

I began to argue with my brother because he wanted to pursue his dreams and walk to America by riding a salmon in the water and he wanted to get there on Tuesday and today is Monday.

By Brooke P

The salmon wrote the eulogy he wanted read at his funeral, as he waited in queue, to pick his shoe box coffin.

 By Corinne S

Every Tuesday I walk up to the kitchen table, pour a bowl of muesli and add salmon and almonds while reading Psalm 1.

By Daniel T

We began to argue about the issue, to pursue making eucalypt, and almond flavoured muesli.

By Shanarah S

Watching euthanasia is giving me really gruesome thoughts and tonight is Tuesday night, so I’m really getting scared.

By Chloe W

On Tuesday I’ve got a tissue , then I blew my nose and after I blew my nose I saw gold nuggets in the tissue so I said ” EUREKA!”

By Murray G

My dad, one day, told me something like “If you have an issue – here’s a tissue”, after that I called him a weirdo and walked away.

By Jack D

I was casually arguing with my stupid muesli, then a humongous, gruesome tissue gobbled me all up and continued reading a psalm from the Bible.

By Lachlan C 

I will continue arguing with the tissue about the walking salmon if he is in the state of euphoria or euthanasia.

By Isaac M

The salmon fish went to the shop to buy an almond, but on his way he fell down his stairs, out the door and into his car while talking to his wife.

By William B

Every Tuesday I continue to eat muesli with salmon.

By Bailey S

On Tuesday I was waiting in the queue, for the Sydney Tower, when I started to hear people arguing about having a photo.

By Rebecca B

On Tuesday I was walking home from school, when a gruesome man ran down the street to pursue a little boy with a bag of almonds.

By Luke P

On Tuesday, the argument continued to pursue people who walked and talked while eating gruesome muesli during a eulogy and people got so bored they started to eat salmon with almonds.

By Adele G

The old man continued to talk and argue about his issue with a gruesome tissue that had bits of muesli in it.

By Saacha B

A massive ‘THANK YOU!’ to Corinne, Chloe and Brooke for typing all these sentences up in their lunchtime and ‘WELL DONE’ Chloe for having the idea to send me the documents using Edmodo!