Dear 5DS,

The year is slowly coming to an end and what a year it has been!  We have had so many exciting moments, learnt so much and have had many wonderful experiences

Writer’s Notebooks, Narratives, Poetry

Writer’s Party, ICT, PE

Information texts, Reading strategies, Novel Study

Reading Journals, Maths Warm Up activities, Location

Fractions, Decimals and Percentages, Performing Arts

DanceFever, ‘Desert Survivors’, Athletics

The Peer Support Program, Southern Rural Water excursion

Our Class Blog, L.O.T.E, Visual Arts

Behind the News, Youtube clips,

Rotations- Catching on Early, Drug Tactics, Design, Creativity and Technology, and Science

Australian Colonies, Morning messages, Science journals, Terrariums

A visit from our local Federal Member of Lalor

Social skills, Personal goals and celebrations

MSAC

And our very special Seeing Eye (in house) puppy Farrow

What did you enjoy the most in 2013?

How did you grow as an individual in 2013? e.g. personal achievements

On Tuesday 26th November, students from 5DS and 5AB enjoyed a wonderful excursion that was generously provided by Southern Rural Water. We visited the Werribee Weir, a Werribee South Farm and the Werribee Zoo. Julie was a fantastic host and Con was very generous with his time in showing us around his amazing farm. Hopefully we all now have some knowledge of how the local farms receive their water. At the zoo, the students boarded the safari bus for a tour of the zoo. My  favourite animal was the gorilla, what was yours? For our final section of the day we learnt that the entire frog species is under threat due to its habitat being slowly destroyed and the students discussed what they could

personally do to help save the frogs.

Werribee Weir

1. How does water get distributed to the local farms? Please explain your answer?

2. In the photo of Con with the net attached to a stick, what is the purpose of the net?

3. During our session on ‘saving the frog’, each student had to tell a partner one thing that they would do to help maintain the frog’s habitat. What did you tell your partner that you would do?

4. What was your favourite part of the excursion? Please give examples and explain your answer.

Dear 5DS :),

As you know, I am flying to Canberra on Monday to see my very dear friend of many years, give her maiden speech to parliament as the member of Lalor. I am very excited and very proud of her.

Ms Ryan will be giving her speech between 4.00-6.00pm on Monday.

You can view this speech using this link:

http://www.aph.gov.au/athtv

Go to the ‘Search’ box in the top right hand corner of the screen- and type in maiden speeches. This will take you to a search results page. Click on first speeches and find Ms Ryan’s speech.

We are currently publishing narratives and writing self evaluation drafts in our class. Ms Ryan has shared with each of you in her post, how writing, editing and publishing are important skills in real life.

What are your strengths as a writer?

What do you need to work on as a writer?

What types of writing are used in your home? e.g. birthday cards, shopping lists etc

Hello 5DS,

I am sitting at my desk in Werribee after my first week in the federal parliament. It was a fantastic week as you can imagine. I was sworn in, shook hands with the Governor General and signed the Labor Party caucus book. These are all very special events.

I also began in my role as opposition whip. This means I count the votes in divisions. Divisions occur when a motion is put and members say Yay or Nay. I count the nays.

On Monday I will give my ‘first speech’ which is called a maiden speech to the members of parliament. Every new member of parliament is invited to make a first uninterrupted speech. The first speech traditionally includes thanking those people who have helped or inspired you, things about your electorate, the things that you believe and the things you will do in parliament. I have been writing my speech for days, shaping, crafting and polishing it and am now practising it aloud to get the timing and delivery as perfect as I can.

Joanne Ryan

Member for Lalor

This term we are studying ‘Dragon Dawn’ by Carole Wilkinson.

Dragon Dawn is the exciting prequel to the now much-loved Dragon keeper trilogy.

The Australian Dragon Dawn cover.

The series is set in the Han Dynasty, ancient China and has been published in no less than 14 countries. The author, Carole Wilkinson, has a fascination with dragons and history and meticulously researched her subject before writing.

The series revolves around Chinese dragons which we know are mythical creatures. Dragons are an important part of Chinese tradition. In ancient China, dragons did not breathe fire. Dragons were wise and caring. They guarded the wind, the rain, the rivers, precious metals and gems.

Click here to find out more about Chinese Dragons.

Click to here find out more about Carole Wilkinson.

What did you find out about Chinese dragons or Carole Wilkinson?
What are 5 adjectives that come to mind when you look at the Dragon Dawn cover?

The Flanders Poppy—a Commemorative symbol        

During the First World War, red poppies were the plants to spring up in the battlefields of northern France and Belgium. The soil rich with lime allowed the poppy, popacer rhoeas, to readily grow. The sight of the new growth and life of the red poppy provided a strong contrast to the devastation and death of war. In soldiers’ minds, the red became symbolic of the blood of their mates soaking the ground. The poppies on the battlefield at Ypres in 1915 inspired Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae to write the poem, In Flanders Fields. He was a Canadian surgeon attached to the 1st Field Artillery Brigade during the battle of Ypres. Over a seventeen day period he worked treating the injured men. The suffering and loss of life he witnessed in the dressing station was hard to bear and the death of a friend and his burial in the cemetery close by moved him to write the poem. Although McCrae initially threw the poem away, a fellow officer retrieved it and sent it to the newspapers in England. It was rejected by The Spectator, in London, but published in Punch on 8 December 1915. Three years later, Moina Michael, working for the American YMCA, read McCrae’s poem before Armistice Day. She wrote a poem in reply and committed to wear a red poppy as a way to keep the faith and remember the dead. Her idea was extended to the selling of poppies to raise money for war widows, orphans and veterans. The poppy soon became widely accepted in Commonwealth countries as the flower of remembrance to be worn on Armistice Day (now Remembrance Day). The Australian Returned Soldiers and Sailors Imperial

League first sold poppies for Armistice Day in 1921 by importing one million silk poppies made in French orphanages. Each poppy sold for a shilling. Today, the War Widows Guild and the RSL continue to sell poppies for Remembrance Day to raise funds for welfare work.

http://www.dva.gov.au/commems_oawg/commemorations/commemorative_events/remembrance_day/Documents/WartimeSnapshotsNo3FlandersPoppies.pdf

Dear Girls and Boys

Last week Farrow was 10 weeks old and she had an injection from the vet to help make sure that she doesn’t get sick when she is out mixing with other dogs. She has one more injection to get on or about November 26 and then she will be fully immunised and able to go out and about. I am looking forward to taking her to the park and for a walk along the path next to the beach near where I live.

The vet weighed Farrow before her injection. She weighed 6.4 kg last week on 29/10/2013. When I first got her on 09/10/2013 she weighed only 4 kg.

We have been invited to send in a picture or two of Farrow to be printed in the 2014 Vision Australia calendar. Mr King is a very good photographer and he took some photos of Farrow last week. I have attached some of the photos to this email so that you can tell me which one you think might be best for the calendar. I think that the photo where she seems to be studying the computer screen is very clever but it doesn’t show all of her lovely little face. The one where she has her head tilted to the side might be a better one for the calendar. We need to make this decision by Friday November 8.

Farrow could be ‘Miss February, the back to school girl’.

Last Wednesday Farrow’s trainer Melinda, showed me how to get her walking a bit better on the lead. She has been sitting down and ‘putting on the breaks’ sometimes and I can’t get her to move along without pulling her. Melinda showed me how to encourage Farrow along by offering her a little biscuit and that seems to be working.

Farrow is also learning the command ‘wait’ and she is becoming really good at it for such a young puppy. She won’t learn ‘stay’ until she is older. For seeing eye dogs, ‘stay’ can mean a very long time (possibly hours) and ‘wait’ is just a short time.

When she becomes a seeing eye dog for a blind or nearly blind person, Farrow will need to go on public transport so I have been walking her to the tram stop near my house so that she can see and feel the trams go by. When she is three months old I will take her on the tram for a short trip, maybe on a Sunday morning when there aren’t too many people on the tram.

Thank you again girls and boys for your interest in Farrow.

I hope that you like the photos and thank you Mr King for taking them for us.

Regards

Ms Findlay

On Friday, 5DS had a visit from our local federal member for Lalor, Ms Joanne Ryan. She spoke to us about leadership skills and the importance of building positive relationships and reaching agreed decisions about different issues based on the input of all members of a team.

Joshua, who is a member of Junior School Council, shared the items that were on the agenda at yesterdays meeting e.g. supporting worthy causes with the money that the students at our school have raised for social service, and organising posters promoting a disco for students with 100% attendance.

Ms Ryan listened to several students read out their comments and questions in response to her guest post on our class blog. She shared her recent experiences at Parliament House while she was in Canberra, and talked about some of the responsibilities she has, representing the people in our electorate and local community on a wide range of topics.

We look forward to seeing Ms Ryan in the future and thank her for taking the time to visit us.

To learn more about the Parliament Of Australia  visit:

http://www.aph.gov.au/

What did you learn about working as a team to make decisions?

What did you learn about leadership and what you can do to become effective leaders and excellent role models for younger students in grade 6?