My first sentence is going to be fairly simple, I LOVED OUR FIRST YEAR 6 CONFERENCE!
On Tuesday last week, all of the year 6s got together at our first year 6 conference! We made new friends and long lasting connections with each other. We did multiple team building
activities including a cup stacking challenge, a news paper tower challenge and a physical challenge. Because there was roughly 150 of us, NOT including teachers, we were broken up into separate colour groups. I was in the Dark Blue group with 8 other students. In this post I will be telling you about the challenges we participated in, and how the day went! Let’s get stared!
We started off the day in a big hall, in a circle, getting to know some knew faces. After a short time, we were told of our first challenge, a NEWSPAPER TOWER challenge. We had one newspaper, and a role of masking tape. We had to work together and not be afraid to speak up if we had and idea. We were required to build the tallest tower we could. In the end, we managed to make a tower that was taller than 30cm! I think that we did a great job and worked well together!
The next activity was a CUP STACKING challenge. We had 6 cups, a 1 metre long string, 2 rubber bands and scissors. You may say that making the biggest tower with those objects is pretty easy, but what if we told you that no part of your body or the scissors could touch the cups? This challenge took a lot of trial and error, but in the end, we made a cup tower that had 2 cups at the bottom supporting the structure and we balanced the remaining cups (4) on top of that. There was a lot of yelling and screaming “Don’t touch the tower! You’ll nock it over!” But we got through it and did well. But about 3 minuets after we had finished our cup challenge, we had to nock it over. Our group was not happy at all, but it was for the best.
Our last challenge of the day was a physical challenge. We had no idea what we were in for, but we soon found out. it was the…………………………………….
Plank holding challenge!
We did no approve of this at all. but there was a twist, only 50% of our group had to be up in a plank at at time. The challenge started and we held our planks. If we wanted to swap out, we could ask someone that was down to cover us. After the challenge had finished, the teachers told us the point of this exercise. They said that the point was communication, if we were tired and we felt like we couldn’t keep going, it wasn’t fair on our team to drop out without telling anybody because then we would be out. Remembering that we had to have 50% up at all times. There was a winning team at the end, and they were told that they would get a special prize, but in the end, we all got an icy pole to end the day.
We al had an amazing day, and made great new connections with our new found friends! I can’t wait for our next year 6 conference, and to have another amazing day! Try these activities at your school, at home or anywhere else! Talk to you soon!
Which one of these activities would you try? Explain why!
Bye for now!
Grace
Wolf hollow
By: Lauren Wolk
I think that the genres of this book are: Family and friendship and adventure.
This Book is about a girl named Annabel, who lives in Wolf Hollow. While she’s walking to school one day, everything changes. She spots someone that she doesn’t know or remember, that would sooner be her enemy. Annabel could tell that she was going to be a bit difficult. She was right. With mysteries galore and a plot twist at the end, this book will keep you up way past bed time!
I think this has to be one of my favourite books that I’ve ever read. There’s so many mysteries and a surprise around every corner, with people going missing and a bit of War included, it was a great book! And it could be yours to. The way the book 
describes every character in their own unique way, really grabbed my attention and made the pictures flow like a movie in my head. I really liked the intensity throughout the book. Betty was always threatening Annabel, and Annabel had to make very hard decisions to avoid contact with Betty. I also really loved the big question at the end. It was a bit gruesome, and a bit scary, but it added a surprising turn to the story.
Thanks for reading my post on one of my favourite Book Chats that I have read this year!
What are some of your favourite books that you have read lately or a while ago? Explain why!
Talk to you all soon!
By Grace
Hello everyone!
Today I will be sharing my favourite celebration with a Haiku poem. You can read more about Haiku poems on another earlier post that I wrote. Anyway, lets get on with the poem!
Christmas lights start up
They shimmer on the hot night
Out in the distance
The heat is now near
As the man in his sleigh nears
The presents arrive
The morning is hear
It’s the morning, here we come!
Gifts under the tree
We forgot something!
What about the real story
Jesus, our saviour
It’s not all about
The presents under the tree
Think about the lord
Here’s the family!
With Christmas pudding and all
Time for Christmas lunch
Down to the beach now
In your bathers, hurry up!
Slather on sun-screen
Splash, Splash, here we come
Running for the waters edge
Quickly, go under!
Time for MORE presents
From relatives and best friends
Dinner time has come
Hanging on our porch
Watching the sun melt away
Here comes Boxing Day!
Christmas time has left
Now to wait another year
Until Santa comes
Thanks for reading my post! I hope to do another one soon! Talk to you all later!
Grace
Artwork by me!
8:30am is when we leave. Off we go on a 4 hour bus trip. The road feels like it can stretch as long as it would like. More tar = more road. And all I can see it tar, so that means more road. Going, going, stop…… finally I can see something different. Let’s give you the good news first, the dirt road means that we are almost there. The bad news it that it is still a road. More dirt = more road. And all that I can see is dirt, so that means more road.
The bus stops. YAY!!! We have made it! We got our bags off the bus and wheeled them behind a cabin. To the meeting area we go. One of the outdoor-Ed staff told us what we would being now. A picture challenge. We would be given some pictures of very specific places around Toonallook that we did not yet know. There would be two letters around that area. My partner and I got 14 out of 40. The winning group got
22 out of 40. I thought that was pretty good.
We found our Cabins and got settled in. We would be Kayaking and Riding the next day. I was in a Kayak with Flynn. We worked really well and nearly won the race back. (We came 2nd.) We road to the beach and attempted to skim mussels. Imagine how well that worked out!
One night passed and we were all excited for the next. We would be camping out in tents! Here we were, setting up the tents. Most people had 2 others in their tent but I only had one other person. That made it a lot easier to move around. We had burgers for dinner and delicious biscuits for dessert! Then we all played a game of EMPIRE. We were about to go to bed when we were told to grab a handful of sand and come down to the Jetty. We all through the sand into the water and it shone blue. There were tiny plankton in the water that made it blue. Now it was time for bed.
The next day it was so hot! We had toasted sandwiches for breakfast and off we went. Today we would be fishing and riding around Raymond Island. We took the boat while the other group took the bus. We started fishing but then got bored. We resolved in picking up Moon Jelly-Fish. Well, some people did. (Not me.) We road in 30°c heat. But the cute Koalas in the trees kept us going. We took the bus back and packed up our tents.
My favourite activity was Kayaking. I haven’t done it in ages and it was good to be out on the water. A challenge was the heat. We had to stay hydrated and wear a ton of Sunscreen. I think that I used CONNECTEDNESS and COLLABORATION. I had to get to know different people and connect to them because of the different activities that were involved. We all had to work together. (Even the boys.) In everything that we did. We had to look out for each other and make sure that everyone was feeling OK.
I can’t wait to go back to Toonallook next year and try out different activities. We will be staying there for a week and trust me, I’m so excited! Talk to you all soon!
Do you have a favourite camp that you have gone to? Tell me why this particular camp has been you favourite one so far?
From Grace
Hi and this is my avatar. My name is Grace and this is as close as I could get it to look like me.
I have really blue eyes and light brown hair. (But I couldn’t find the right colour!) I do have earrings and very fair skin. I like to play basketball and I hope that one day I can become a Vet. Talk to you soon!
What does your avatar look like?
Grace
I can see it, glistening in my pan. EUEKA! I found gold!
This term we have been learning all about the Ballarat Gold Rush, During the 1850s. Life was hard. It felt like Redcoats were always on your tail trying to track you down if you didn’t have a license. And you were living under a strict law, no license no digging for gold. All the food that you were trying to buy your family cost so much.
But sometimes you would find a lucky miner who had struck it rich and could feed his family every night. In this post, I’m going be talking to you about my experience at throughout this unit and what we have learnt this term.
Some businesses during the 1850s were: The Hope Bakery, C. Spencer lolly shop, Ballarat times: news paper printing and many more. These shops and businesses were located on the Main Street Sovereign Hill. They were some of the most well known shops.
The Eureka Stockade was a structure made out of wood. A miner by the name of James Scobie, was murdered by the owner of the Eureka Hotel, James Bently. James was found not guilty because he was friends with the magistrate.
The miners were furious. They burnt down the Eureka Hotel to show their anger. But three miners were jailed. Then they burnt their licences, over the next week more and more licence hunts were going on. This made the miners even more mad. They then had a Monster Meeting at Bakery Hill where they made a promise on the Southern Cross to stand by each other.
The Ballarat Reform League was made and then they started constructing the Eureka Stockade. The Stockade was attacked in the early hours of December the 3rd 1854. 13 miners and 8 Redcoats were killed in the battle.
We learnt about some important people that were involved with the gold rush and the Stockade. One person I found really interesting was a man by the name of Peter Lalor. He was greatly involved in the Monster Meeting and nearly everyone knew him. In the battle of the Eureka Stockade, Peter Lalor got his arm badly injured and it had to be later amputated.
Some important dates in Australian history were 1770, 1788, 1851 and 1854. 1770 was the year Australia was discovered by Captain Cook. 1788 was the year that the First Fleet arrived in Australia. In 1851, gold was first discovered in Ballarat, and in 1854 it was the year of the Eureka Stockade.
I really liked working on my diorama. I did the Hope Bakery. My partner and I, took some of my sisters tiny knives, forks and other things that you would find in a bakery and stuck them down. Our building was so detailed and I am really proud of our efforts.
A quick summary of this unit would be…
FUN! Just kidding, I loved learning about the Gold Rush era and what shaped Australia. Also, if you haven’t been to Sovereign Hill, you should totally go! It is so cool to see what the diggings would have looked like and seeing what going to school was like back then. I hope you enjoyed my post about the ‘Hard Road Ahead!’
Have you been to Sovereign Hill?
By Grace
Recently the CBCA book awards were given. We had to judge and critique them to then choose our favourite book. Today I will be talking to you about what I think makes a good information book and which book was my favourite.
What makes a good information book?
For me an information book can’t have a whole page of information at a time. I needs to be broken up into different pages. If I see a whole page of information, I will instantly scan over it and turn to the next page. I get bored very easily.
Another thing is the layout. I like an information book with a few pictures and a bit of information. The layout is very important because that is the first thing a reader looks at. It will give the book a character and a feeling. It needs to invite the reader to read the book.
The last reason is the pictures. They have to match the text and make the reader feel an emotion. The picture needs to be able to not take to much out of the text but add onto it. It will be able to give the reader a visual image.
My favourite short listed book was ‘Bouncing Back’. It is about adapting to new environments and working through the toughest times even though it is not your fault.
There wasn’t to much information and the layout kept me interested. The text put in a lot of meaning into a short amount of words. I wish the book kept on going so I could learn more. I guess that’s up to me!
What do you think makes a good information book? Why?
By Grace
Let me take you back to the 1850s to see what going to school was like back then. 321……………….
Here we are in 1854. Shhhhhhh! Ma’am is coming this way. “All good over here miss Grace?” “Yes Ma’am.” Our Ma’am said that we had to think of the word ‘Ma’am’ as our full stop at the end of every sentence. She taught us the three Rs. Reading writing and arithmetic. (It was just for the sound, not the letters.) We had to wear Pantalettes, a dress and a kind of cape over the top. It wasn’t very big but it kept you warm.
The Lolly shop is my favourite shop on the Main Street.Their raspberry drops are my all time favourite. My Aunty always sends me up to the candle store to buy some candles. She wants the tent to smell nice all the time. If I have some money left over, I can dip my own candle! But you always have to be on the lookout for those terrible Red coats! Shooting there bayonets 24/7!
321………….
It’s 2019 again. There was so much to see at Sovereign Hill. One of my favourite parts was when we saw someone purify some gold. When it was set in the gold bar the man told us that it was worth about $200,000 Australian dollars. It was at the Gold Smelting Works.
Have you been to Sovereign Hill? If so, what was your favourite part?
Talk to you soon!
By Grace
This term we have been focusing on poems. So far we have done the Cinquain and Haiku poems.
Below is one of my favourite Haikus I have written. It’s about a woman who is waiting for her husband to return from war. She is standing at a river under the Weeping Willow picturing him. I hope you enjoy! Leave a comment below.
Orchard of beauty
Hush, hush, wait for him
You will see him there, waiting
Standing there just wait
Right there, on the edge
Under the Weeping Willow
A star at the moon
See him smile there,
A rose scared by a thorn,
Think of him day and night
He will die alive
In an orchard of beauty
His soul will live on
Be with him always
His soul is scarred, his face hurt
Dead in an orchard.
By me
Tell me about your knowledge on different poems.
Talk to you soon!
By Grace
The day it was
What and amazing day! It was totally worth getting up at 6:00am to get to school by 7:20am. We set up our store and products. We had a black board at the front of our stall with all the prices on it.
Here come the preps! They were so cute! They marched in proud with there little hands clasping there precious $15. We soon found that we were putting out more items. After the preps came it was the year 1s turn.
We got breaks to spend our $15. There was always another person looking after the stall though. We had Bath bombs, Pencil holders, Leather key rings, Leather book marks and a Nerf-gun game. In our group we raised $370.10c! And the whole of year 5 raised…………….. $6008.60c! All the money we raise goes to the JMB Foundation. Check out there website at https://jmbfoundation.org.au/. See you in my next post!
Do you like markets?
By Grace