Marble Tracks

This week we have begun our Forces and Motion unit of inquiry. Gravity and friction are the key ideas we have been investigating, and have been the focus of two hands-on technology challenges in our classroom.

In the first challenge we were required to make a ramp to certain specifications. We then predicted how far a marble would roll along the ground when let go from the top of the ramp.

After measuring the actual distance rolled and comparing with our estimates, we had some great discussions around our understanding of gravity and friction. It was most interesting hearing what everyone thought was in the centre of the Earth. Answers included "special stones", "rocks" and "black stuff". Some ideas there for further investigation.


The second challenge features in the video below.



As predicted by some of us, it certainly was a challenge working in groups of 4 or 5. Many people often have different ideas on what will work best in situations like this, so the designated 'team managers' had a busy job.

We agreed that some of the construction work wasn't pretty. But it was good to see everyone searching hard for materials that could serve a purpose (you may have noticed all of the random maths equipment and stationery items being used!).

A couple of groups managed to complete the task and others came very close. The most common challenge was the marble losing too much speed by crashing into walls. All groups realised that they needed to do what they could to maintain the marble's speed (provided by gravity), while keeping it on track to cross each piece of masking tape.

We will be reflecting on what we noticed during this challenge, while exploring more of the physical world around us over the coming weeks.

We View A Great Learner As...

'Organisation Time' is the name we give to the 8.30am - 8.55am period before school starts. We are conscious in Room 14 of the importance of being organised, and having the time to get organised, and the positive effect this has on getting us in the right space for learning.

When we arrive in the classroom each morning, there may be a short task (often optional) for us to complete before school begins, along with the expectation that we use this time to organise our stationery, make sure our devices are charged, check in on our weekly goals, etc.

Last Friday during organisation time we had a task to complete. We were each asked to write down what we believe are the 3 most important traits of a great learner in Room 14. All of the words have been collated and are displayed in the word cloud below. Those that were mentioned more often appear larger.

It's interesting to think about what we see as important.

Is this is good set of traits? Are we missing anything really important? 

Our Window Bottle Garden

We are excited to finally have our window bottle garden planted. This has been a side project to our Consumerism unit from last term, when we watched a TED Talk about people growing their own vegetables in high-rise apartments. We liked the idea so much we started searching for ideas on how we could make simple planting systems in our classroom.

Take a look at how our finished garden is looking...



We would like to say a special thanks to Yvonne and Emily for the plants and seeds, Wayne for his handy work with a drill, and Sheryl for her gardening tips and support mucking in.

Along with the team in Room 14, this was a real team effort.

Linwood Connected Kids Blog

Check out this new blog that we are a part of... 

At this stage, the blog is a partnership between three Year 5/6 classes, one from Bamford School, one from Linwood Ave School, and us!

The idea behind this is for our students to be posting content they have created and giving and receiving feedback on their own and others’ learning. There will also be some literacy challenges posted by teachers for children from all 3 schools to be engaged in. 

We look forward to seeing how this pans out, as we can see a lot of potential there for development with the inclusion of more schools and classes. Let us know what you think!

Keeping Our Vision In Focus And Responsive Goal Setting

Term 4 always seems to fly by so fast. Sometimes we forget to step back and think about how we are going and to reflect on our progress.

Last week we spent time discussing many of our successes this year as a class. Our units of inquiry were mentioned, and many of us thought that overall we have a very positive learning environment (which was part of the vision we created for 2015 back in Term 1, to "Contribute to a positive learning environment").

In fact, we spent several weeks at the beginning of the year outlining what kind of learning environment we wanted, along with what we expected of ourselves and others. The question we have been asking this week is - 'How can we keep our vision in focus?'

We really want to end the year on a high. Last week was about identifying those goals that keep popping up in our individual planners, which we have not yet mastered. This is responsive goal setting. Two aspects of our vision are that we "Strive for excellence" and we "Own our learning". Along with identifying key skills and attitudes as goals for this term, we have been taking ownership of them, asking what mastery will look like and knowing the point at which they will be achieved.

We can't wait to achieve these ones.

Consumerism - Sharing Our Thoughts and Ideas

We have had a busy last couple of weeks preparing to share our individual learning about our Consumerism theme. These are the projects that were outlined in this previous post.

One of the challenges we faced when having our own Interest Projects in Term 2 was managing our time. So, when we were given the presentation date for our Consumerism projects, Mr K also shared an individual timeline with each of us via Google Docs. We had to complete an outline of how we would be using our independent learning time at school in order to be ready to present on the sharing day. In a sense, we had to 'plan backwards', having an end product in mind, then deciding what steps were needed to get there and how much time would be required to complete each of these steps.

We developed project assessment rubrics for each of the project mediums we chose (animation/screen-casting, TED style speech, or posters). These rubrics were also shared with us via Google Drive, where Mr K wrote his feedback on our projects while we were sharing to the class, and we completed a self-reflection section on the same document after. Over the coming weeks, we will be adding footage of ourselves sharing and/or other images from our presentations. This could be a very effective way for teachers and students to co-construct learning documentation going forward.

It was great to see the differences in the projects that were shared. The animations all had a different 'feel' to them and a range of filming methods were used. The TED-style talks were very successful as many children surprised us at how confident they could be in front of an audience. It was also exciting to see these students giving each other constructive feedback and researching presenting tips as part of their journey. They really thought about what an effective talk would look and sound like. The group that were creating posters carrying environmental messages had less time available to them (as they were also in our gardening group), but still communicated some thoughtful ideas.

We hear the word 'self-manage' used a lot, but we know that everything that is involved in that (managing our time, resources, decisions, emotions, etc) takes ongoing development and practice. As evident in our most recent projects, it has been great to see the progress of individuals and the honest reflections everyone has made about successes, challenges, and the cause and effects of these.

Here are a few snippets from some presentations. See our individual portfolios and media galleries for more footage.