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

No – the Star Wars cast did not visit us last week – but we DID have a visit from someone who could use the force just as well as Luke Skywalker!

Sam from the CSIRO showed us many fantastic tricks and experiments all about forces and motion. Learning about forces and motion means we are studying physics -and it was great fun and very interesting.

We rode skateboards, lifted heavy objects (and teachers) with no hands, twirled discs, made bridges and even got to sit on a chair of nails.

Did you know that:

• if you go fast on a bike, it’s less likely that the bike will fall over?
• if you squash a balloon across 500 nails it will not burst ….. but if you push just one nail into a balloon it WILL burst? 
• you can’t pull someone on a skateboard with your feet off the ground!
• when you are pulling you are actually pushing! (You push your feet into the ground whilst you are actually pulling  something )
• a small kid can lift a large adult easy as you like if the kid uses a lever (like a see-saw)?
• friction keeps cars on the road as do studs on footy boots?

We have been offline for a while as we have been really busy preparing for our national tests.

These were held last week – on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. We had tests in English – Reading, Writing, Language Conventions; and Maths.

 Even though everyone tried their hardest, It was a great feeling when they were over

         How exciting!

We won Class of the Week last week and so we got to use the Nintendo DsLites in Golden Time.

Most of us knew how to use them, but for some people it was their first time.

Lots of people joined up together to play games against each other, but by the end nearly everyone was chatting to each other using picto chat.

It was great fun to use these handheld consoles with friends and a wonderful reward for trying hard!

Classes at our school have been using Moshi Monsters each morning to build class and school community ties. Each class has their own monster, and spend part of each day solving puzzles and testing our general knowledge to win rox for our Moshi Monster. We use the rox to buy food and belongings for our Moshi Monster.

We have also been using  Moshi Island to explore settings in narratives. The island has many places that would make fantastic settings for exciting stories. There is the volcano, the port, the haunted house, the snowy mountains and the swamp.

In small groups, we mind mapped our ideas for characters and problems that would appropriate for each of these settings:

We also had fun dsigning and making our own huge Moshi Monsters to decorate our classroom – here they are hanging in our room. What do you think of them???

Which Monsters do you like the best – the friendly ones or the scary ones?

Our school Cross Country Carnival was held last week and everyone had a fun morning testing themselves to improve their running times. We had been training for only a short time, and there was a motivated and committed group who aimed high, worked hard and acheived well.

Congratulations to every AllStar who tried their best, participated in the race and who enjoyed the experience. I am proud of you all!

The next round of running will occur later this week when school representatives will travel to the Zone Cross Country event. Good luck to all our runners.

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

Thanks to Mr KP from Charlestown Primary in England for this link to a great site where you can use your grammar skills and have fun at the same time!

Just click on this link:

GRAMMAR PRACTICE PARK

start at Year 5 and work your way through the Year 5, Year 4 and Year 3 games.

PS: NAPLAN = National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy

Here is a video to show the fun we had today:

Have a great holiday everyone – see you back at the end of April.

Today was a fun day to end first term. We all dressed in orange – for Harmony Day; blue – for True Blue Day; and had crazy  hair or a hat.

First off there were raffle tickets to sell and buy – there were lots of Easter eggs and chocolate bunnies to win.

Then the whole school assembled in the playground to watch everyone parade around and show off their fabulous clothes or crazy hats and hair.

Next the raffles were drawn and the winners came out to the front to receive their chocolates.

Last of all we had a a whole school “shake and shimmy” dance-along. We danced to the Nutbush, YMCA, the Heel and Toe Polka. What a lot of fun! We all had a great time dancing together in the sunshine.

Finally the lunch bell sounded and we headed off  back to our classrooms – exhausted but happy!

What a fun way to end the term – HAPPY HOLIDAYS