Congratulations!
We have successfully embraced a whole term of online learning and remote collaboration. This is no simple task and we are grateful for the family support offered at home and amazed at the resilience and persistence we have as a community. We continue to develop new and innovative ways to draw strength from our community and share our learning. We have set up a Padlet to encourage some positive ways to celebrate our holiday break which you might like to review or add to. Finding small joys is a great way to reset for our final term of the year.
Freeman
Next term, we will be lucky enough to meet the director of Freeman, Laurence Billiet. In preparation for our discussions, we have posted the link to the Cathy Freeman documentary featured on iview, with a Padlet for collective responses. This is a great opportunity for your family to share in a learning provocation and view/discuss this film as a family.
Setting Up Sites
This week we set up Math and Agents of Change Google Sites as a way to share our tasks and learning this term. As our tasks are finalised and feedback is actioned, the tasks are published on this platform. These Google Sites are an exciting extension of our learning to finally share our learning with a wider audience while developing our coding and presentation skills.
Top of the Hill Summit
After weeks of investigating in our various Inquiry Groups: Biological, World Conflicts, Geological, and Natural/Human Disasters, and developing Natural Environments, Economy, Society, and Wellbeing perspectives using the Compass tool, we finally came together in new groups for the first-ever Top of the Hill Summit.
Each inquiry group was responsible for presenting considerations from their designated Compass perspective in relation to a presented issue. Issues included commercial fishing, refugees seeking asylum in Australia, North Korea’s nuclear testing, and genetically modified foods. As we considered a range of factors influencing and affecting the issue, we began to try and develop a hypothesis or recommendations as a result of the summit.
Given this was a new learning experience for everyone involved, we were proud of our efforts to consider a range of needs. We are beginning to understand that issues are complex and many factors need to be considered in order to solve a problem. We also realised that as we began to offer solutions, gaps in our knowledge and information were revealed, and therefore more research and understanding was sought. This chain of inquiry is exciting and leads to authentic learning.
“When I am interested in something I am less hesitant to go further in researching it and take some time to get a better understanding of the thing I am researching.” Edie
“I took heaps of notes…I’ll add them into a slideshow, enabling me to share knowledge with others.” Eleanor
Wellbeing -Mind Matters
Last week we explored the concept of ‘empathy’ and how we can foster positive relationships.
“To show that you know how they feel”– Mia
“Walk in someone else’s shoes”- Hendrix
“Empathy means we can connect and help each other out.
We can also take action and feel better by giving an example of when you felt like that”– Eva
The book Unselfie -Why Empathetic Kids Succeed in Our All-About-Me World, by Michelle Borba, Ed. D. is a valuable read for families grappling with modern parenting issues.
Reviewing empathy was a helpful connection to celebrating and recognising R U Ok? Day.
“R U OK?’s vision is a world where we’re all connected and are protected from suicide. (Their) mission is to inspire and empower everyone to meaningfully connect with people around them and support anyone struggling with life.
“My friends comfort me” Sienna M
“Giving examples of how I can get over things and reminding me of happy and positive topics,
or helping one another to work through things and giving each other feedback and helpful ideas” – Opal
“Talking about memories” -Grace B
“Hang out with me and just talk” -Sienna B
“Not go straight away- are you ok? but just subtly asking me” -Matilda S
Thinking Forward to Graduation
As we approach the end of the year, our Year 6s might like to take time over the break, as they scroll their devices for photos for their autobiographies, they may also like to begin a second file to collect some of their favourite or most memorable experiences of their time at PHPS to share for Graduation later in the year!