Year 6 spend 2 hours in the garage!

Year 6 students recently spent two hours learning how to compose music using Garage Band. All 58 students had the opportunity to learn how to use the software over a two hour period. Teachers have been amazed at the talent of the students.

Three of the original compositions created by Brayden, Jack B and Kenneth will be uploaded to the school website.

Well done.

Technology in Year 6

In year 6 we use a range of technology to enhance the learning experience of all of our students. Below we have a few images of students using the different technology we have available for use.

In class we operate both Mac and PC computers and students have learnt how to use a variety of applications and software on each. Children operate both laptops and desktop computers and are quickly gaining more skills with the use of both. For the past fortnight the students all took part in an explicit workshop learning how to create original music in Garageband, a music suite on Mac operating systems.

The students also receive regular access to the Nintendo DS units, where they compete against each other and learn basic maths drills on Maths training.
The students all have accounts for Mathletics, an online maths program, designed to cater to the learning needs of all of our students. Homework is regularly set for students on Mathletics to complete according to their learning needs.
We have an interactive whiteboard located within our learning space which we use for various lessons across the different subject areas. Students take part in interactive lessons and the visual aid assists with student enthusiasm and understanding of content.
The students take part in a Behind the News unit, where they watch and then critique and reflect on a number of news articles concerning contemporary society.

Visual Depictions of Parables

This term we have been looking at and reflecting on a number of parables in the bible. Today in our Religious Education lesson, students had to create a visual depiction of one of the parables of their choice. Some children chose to represent their parable with symbols and some decided to design a comic strip. The students took great pride in their work and have displayed yet again their amazing artistic talent. Below are some samples from some of our students.
Well done Year 6, keep up the great work!

6NC Maths Investigation

6NC are taking part in this year's Maths Investigation and have been doing a fantastic job researching, collecting data and investigating our topic, 'Car Calculations'. Maths Investigation is a competition where schools can enter from all over Australia and after choosing a topic they must mathematically research various strands related to their topic.

For our investigation, each student took on a different responsibility and needed to direct their own investigation. The tasks are all student centred and therefore students of all abilities have demonstrated great progress with the investigation.

I am so impressed with the enthusiasm, creativity and dedication of the students. On completion, our investigation will be sent off for judging at State level and if successful on to National level.

Below are some of the concepts that we have already investigated and collected data for:

* Distances travelled at different speeds

* Making patterns with cars

* Shapes and angles on cars

* Favourite car colours for students at Joey's

* Registration due date for staff at Joey's

* How old paretns were when they got their licence

* Variance in petrol prices on certain days

* The cheapest local petrol station

* Types of cars families at Joey's drive

* How much different 5 seater cars cost

* The difference between buying brand new and second hand cars

* How many cars Holden and Ford sold last year

* Problem solving with car speed

* Angles on Miss C's car

* How long staff at Joey's hav had their current car for

* The average number of cars at home for families at Joeys

* The most popular colour car that passes Joeys between 11.30 and 12.30 over a one week period.

* The length of the longest and shortest car in history

* Problem Solving with fuel capacityPlace value of different priced cars

* Calculating fuell efficiency

* How much of a saving you reciev if you buy a car in a percentage off sale

* What car year 6 want when they grow up

Keep up the hard work NC, your presentation is looking fantastic! I can't wait to see the final product!

NC, you may wish to comment on the different things that you have learnt, but remember to post with your blog number!

Making Houses

In year 6 this term , we are learning about different forms of energy. As part of their assessment, students had to design and construct a house that demonstrated different uses of energy. Students are currently putting their houses together and they are looking fantastic!

Some studens have chosen to design houses that are energy efficient by building windmills, recycled water tanks, gas electricity, roof insulation, solar panels on the roof and a fire place instead of an air conditioning unit.

The photos of the houses below are a work in progress but we will keep you up to date and upload more photos of the final products!

Year 6 Art Walkway

This term in year 6 we have started an 'Art Walkway' where we choose three fantastic artworks that have been submitted by year 6 students. The selected artworks are then displayed in the frames and placed in the art walkway. Below are a few of the artworks from the past fortnight.

Year 6, don't forget to submit your artworks to Miss C every Monday to see if your piece of art is selected for display in the art walkway!

The wall is looking FANTASTIC.

We have some great artistic talent in year 6!

Our Advertisements

In our study of expositions, we have looked at various advertisements and strategies that are used to persuade an audience to want to purchase a product that they would usually not even consider.

Children were given the option to:

a. Design a product or concept that doesn't sound very appealing and make it sound and look irresistable.

b. Design a completely new product or concept and design an advertising campaign to sell it.

c. Modify an already existing product and advertise it.

Check out some of our students' advertisements that have been designed and created this week in English groups. They look fantastic year 6, well done!

27 videos in an hour !

Congratulations Year 6. We are truly amazed at how well you learn.

Today, year 6 students were shown how to make a video using the online software "Animoto". Students logged into the site, uploaded images from the server they had just learnt how to resize, selected music to match their video, added text to the video and then waited for it to be ready.

Every year 6 student who was at school today had the opportunity to create a video with a friend. 27 videos were created in an hour. Well done year 6. 

Students were able to use computers that were not 'in use' in the Year 5 rooms as well as the ones available in class.

Great work Year 6!

We will be creating more videos and will be uploading them shortly.

The Rosary in Year 6

This decade of the Rosary can be found outside a Church in Western Australia. 

Year 6 have been learning about the Rosary. They received Rosary beads from Mrs Prendeville, our Religious Education Co-ordinator, and have been learning about the different Mysteries.  They have learnt that the Rosary is a remembrance and celebration of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus and Mary.

Today, the children in Year 6 began the day by saying the Rosary. 

 Below you will find some sites that tell us about the Rosary.

• Vatican City - This is the best place to read about the Rosary
• Several Popes have written about the Rosary. The Vatican website have copies for us to read. The earliest document is dated 1883.

Other sites that may help you to better understand the Rosary are:

• Children learn to pray
• How to pray the Rosary
• Pray the Holy Rosary
• Wikipedia - The Rosary

Reading Response to London Eye Mystery

The London Eye Mystery is a great book to read because it is full of lots of action and the character portrayals are very interesting. The book has alot of ups and downs and it is full of some really big and strange words. When I started ot read this book, I thought that Ted or Kat should have gone on the ferris wheel with their cousain Salim, and then he wouldn't have gone missing in the first place.

When Aunt Gloria wrote a letter to her sister Faye, it sounded very similar to her first letter. Aunt Glo sounds very posh, but also quite arrogant. I think Salim doesn't want to live with his mum anymore as she does seem very abrupt and rude. In the book it states that Salim is half asian and that his parents are divorced. this must be quite hard for Salim to comprehend having separated parents and this may have impacted his disappearance as I feel he may have run away from his mum as his life may have gotten way too confusing.

As I was reading, I realised that Ted was 'mentally challenged' however I found this very strange as he comes across as quite a smart boy and knows a lot about hiurricanes and the weather. I wonder what type of diability he actually has?

In our readers circle we focussed on Kat's personality. We all thought she was a teenager because of her bad attitude and behaviour. We were also talking about stories from our own life when we had gotten lost and we related our own feelings to how Salim may have felt. I spoke about when I was younger I got lost at the Plaza and I felt very anxious and quite scared. We also discussed how much our parents would panic and how they would feel when we went missing. I am looking forwar dto working out where Salim has dissappeared to.

By Simone (Blog Number 10)

Learning about Expositions and Persuasive Texts

In year 6, we are learning about how to read, compose and deconstruct different types of persuasive texts. This week are looking at and creating our own advertisements. Group D for our writing groups this week have brainstormed the following list of things that we need to look out for in different advertisements.

* Bright and colourful
* Website link
* Phone number
* Price
* Limited words
* Where to get it from
* Catchy phrases
* Bright and attention grabbing pictures
* Brief information
* Logo for the company that manufactures a product
* Big writing
* Clear writing
* Special Deals
* Fast words
* Big lettering
* Bright colours
* Picture of the product being advertised
* Someone using the product
* Telling people why it is good for them
* Emotive words

This week students had to invent a new product or modify an existing product and design an advertisement to sell it. Stay tuned next week to see what some of the advertisements look like.

Some of the things being advertised are:

* Garlic Chicken (Blog Number 45)
* 'Fan Dangle' Christmas Lights (Blog Number 46)
* Prank items (Blog Number 44)
* New Kids toy (Blog Number 15)
* Snazzy Basketball Shoes (Blog Number 42)
* Chicken Bacon Deluxe burger with Avocado (Blog Number 9)
* Big, Soggy Burger (Blog Number 36)

Year 6LS Maths Investigation - Arnotts Shapes

Year 6 are investigating the Arnotts produced "Shapes" biscuits. To help us with our investigation, could you please click on the two links on the right and take our survey.

Thank You
Laura, Hayley and Clayton