The conference in Washington was HUGEl! There were over 18 000 people there!

I came across this sign many times while walking around the conference centre, and I thought that it was a great idea.

How could we use a sign like this in our classroom?

Let’s see how many ideas we can come up with ……

Here’s one to get you going:

1. If we are doing a lesson in Maths and I’m good at this topic I could put an “ASK ME” sign on my desk

PS: Prizes are on offer  ;-)

Have you heard of the Dalai Lama? He became the leader of his people when he was just 15 years old.

Read this article “Meet the Dalai Lama” to find out more about this famous person.

The Dalai Lama recommends four important values to practice for a more peaceful planet -

compassion,

forgiveness,

tolerance and

contentment.

Which of these values do believe is more important?

Please nominate one and tell us why you think it is important, and how you could practise this each day. 

Image: ‘6_ 11.jpg‘ 
www.flickr.com/photos/61201580@N00/744830834

The students from Room 202 have been writing about the special traditions their families have – special days, special routines, special sayings.

Have a read of their posts over on their blog, and then come back here to leave a comment about the special traditions you have in your family.

What special days do you celebrate? What does your family do to celebrate these days?

Does your family have their own traditions/sayings/routines when you go to bed or get up in the morning or when its your birthday or the weekend?

Lets share our family traditions will they be the same or different?

Image: ‘Fun Happy Colorful Birthday Party Balloons‘ 
http://www.flickr.com/photos/40645538@N00/345653550

We are writing posts on our own blogs to support Blog Action Day 2008.

We have been looking at how poverty affects education, and how education can help the fight against poverty.

We’ve looked at how school is important to us, why education should be available to all students, and the various places around our school that are important to us.

Click on our blog posts on October 15th to read what we’ve got to say!

Join in the conversation by leaving comments or writing your own blog post.

Let’s hear your voice too

 Here are the books we could choose from:

Each group meets every one or two weeks and decides how many pages or chapters they will read before the next Reading Circle Meeting.

 While the group is reading their book, they keep an eye out for interesting or tricky or difficult or unknown words. These words are written down and their meanings are found.

 When we have finished reading the chapters we write a brief summary, and make up 2 or 3 open-ended questions to discuss at the Reading Circle Meeting.

Here are some interesting questions we discussed today:

 The “Dealing With Dragons” group discussed the question -

“What personality do you think dragons have?”

This is what they thought

•  They are selfish because they only think of themselves
•  Bossy – telling people what to do.

What do you think?

The “Boy Overboard” group discussed -

“Why is a new type of landmine not a good invention?”

 This is what they thought:

•  ALL landmines are dangerous – new ones are not better
•  A new land mine will kill more people

What do you think?

After the frantic rush of end of the year we are finally on school holidays

Congratulations to everyone for your hard work, commitment to your learning, your sense of humour and for tolerating my (out of tune, but very enthusiastic) singing (and dancing) over the year!

For those AllStars who are moving on to High School at the end of January, thank you for the past two years. I know that you will all continue to grow and learn about yourself and your world, all of the rest of the AllStars will miss you sooooo much so please keep in contact and share your High School experiences with us back here on the AllStars blog.

Years 4 and 5, you will be moving up into Years 5 & 6 – some of you are school leaders already, we are all proud of the way you were ready to take up the challenging role of a school leader. Congratulations to everyone of you, we know that you will do a great job next year.

Here are some of my memories of the past year:

rubber gloves, crazy hair, funny hats, the Harbour Bridge birthday, ANZAC letters, dodgeball, chickens in the War, flags, garbage bags, PS2, buddies, Sandy, choose your own maths, Australia wiki, blogging, orange oranges, storyteller, jumping ropes, PWii, tennis, Samorost, Xcountry, eyes, science, vinegar on the ceiling, commenting, sculptures, junk, drawing, Ned Kelly, “Are We There Yet?” , debates, forensics, microscopes, experiments, cricket, visitors, games, BST, camp, water fights, Macbeth, history, MissionMaker, leadership, parties, pizza!, spiders, music, laughs, boogie, Gay Gordons, laptops, Voki, presentations, tunnel …..

Have I left anything out?

AllStars, enjoy the break, think about what/ how/ why you want to learn next year. Keep in contact through our blog – I’ll be posting over the holidays ( our videos of the Gay Gordons, Heel Toe Polka, Yr 6 Farewell etc) so keep looking in when you get the chance.

Have a great holiday,

Love MrsP

 8)

“History never repeats”

Read this article about Stonehenge and then leave a comment about what you think!

What were you thinking about as you read this article?

What surprised you about this article? Why were you surprised?

What sorts of images or feelings did the article stimulate?

Why do you think scientists are so interested in finding out how people lived in times past?

Does the information that the scientists gather have any impact on our lives today? 

Do you think that a shared knowledge & understanding of times past can / does help us understand problems and issues of today?