Learning Focus | ANZACs, democracy and power

This week we begin to dive deeper into our inquiry where we explore how power manifests itself and the negative and positive impacts of this. Last week we had a number of children starting conversations about the power we have as students at Princes Hill Primary School compared to other schools around the world. This came through our provocation about life in different cultures and this week we begin to analyse the power we have as individuals and what choices we have at different parts of our day and how we can compare this to children from different cultures.

Children in Cambodia

We have also started to unpack what democracy means and will find examples of democracy in our lives as well as in governments in the countries we are exploring. In workshops we will watch some short videos to hear different perspectives about democracy and research examples of democracy.

Our provocation about what ANZAC day is and why we celebrate it will continue after ANZAC day. Some children are exploring the events of the 25th April 2015 while others are reading stories about the ANZAC spirit. Tem and Daniel are leading a group to teach the preps about the history of ANZAC biscuits.

As we begin the artists in residence with Hannah we were inspired by the idea of artwork as texts and are thinking about the stories different artworks and photographs can tell. We will focus on the language we can use to help a reader visualise.


‘Coins’ Found on flickrcc.net

As we have been exploring different countries and how the economy can influence the power a person has, we look more closely at budgets. This week we start by considering the different types of budgets there are, pocket money, event planning, the state government budget and even GDP. We will also make our own budgets and explore mathematical strategies we can use to mentally add and subtract numbers when creating our budgets.