Sarah’s Class: Term 3 Week 2

Dear Parents,

With our first FULL week now under our belt – “The Class” (our newly voted upon name) – are off to a flying start! We whizzed through our Soundwaves spelling unit this week and completed many measuring tasks comparing millimetres with centimetres and metres. We recognised the place of a decimal when measuring in cm and m and pulled out lots of measuring tools to work out the actual measurement of objects and people in and outside the classroom.

For our topic on Ancient civilisations we honed in on the strengths and differences between the Incas, Aztecs and Maya civilisations. We watched a couple of videos focusing on their difficult environments, and how they managed the harshness of where they each lived. We compared the 3 and children decided which they felt was the stronger civilization based on how resourceful they were at managing their land. Using Google Earth and an old and more recent map, we discovered the areas and countries the civilisations occupied and how expansive the Incas were, covering Peru, Chile, Bolivia and Argentina.

“Wild at Art” is an art competition open to children to enter in support of the Australian Conservation Foundation. When this came to my attention – and given that we are looking at Living Things this term – I felt it a good place to start at engaging the children in researching Australian Flora and Fauna which is endangered. I presented the competition idea to the children and said if they chose to enter then I would help support them but entering was purely optional. Along with an artwork, an accompanied piece of writing is required on their chosen animal or plant. The majority of the group were excited about entering the competition and we now have only 1 week till cut-off date. So, this coming week will be heavily focused on pulling it all together. It will all be a bit of a rush but I thought for a good cause and with some learning about endangered Australian species along the way, it should be fun!

That’s us for the week.

Love, Sarah