This post is especially for our friends at Malvern Wells primary school in England, however we welcome any new or regular visitors to take a peek inside our school. As one of our literacy tasks last week students in 5/6S had to research a little of the history behind their school and use their oral language skills to develop a short iMovie. We thought this would be a great way for our e-pals across the other side of the country to get better sense of who we are and what our school is all about (and to listen to our Aussie accents:!). We hope you enjoy them Mr. Wells and Co!

So what do you think?
Is it how you imagined it to be?
Are there similarities to your school?
We would love to hear your thoughts?

My apologies for the technical issue with the Genius Hour page…I completely forgot I made it as a web page rather than a blog page and as a result it does not have the normal comment application. I know it is late getting it up there, but if you have already had a look at our Genius Hour page and had some discussion about it, we would love to hear what you think about it! So comment away!

The task on your literacy matrix asks you to watch this short clip about 'The Ring of Fire and answer some questions to test you understanding of it. The questions are listed on your matrix and should be answered in your English books. Make sure that you write the question number and then do your best to combine the question and the answer together.

As a teacher I cannot recommend Twitter enough! Since jumping on board in ernest around about a year ago I have connected with several fabulous teachers and classrooms across the world. This year I was fortunate enough to connect with a teacher from Malvern Wells primary school in Worcestershire, England. As his class were in the process of learning about Australia he asked if we, yes that's right, the students in 5/6S, would be interested in becoming e-pals (email pals) to help his students gain and insight into life in Australia, whilst also helping us to become more educated on life in England. I jumped at this opportunity to give my class an authentic writing experience that had real purpose...........you should have seen the excitement when I told them what was about to take place! So the connections have been made, letters have been emailed, questions have been asked, minds are thinking and wondering.........and I think the fact that I have students wanting to stay in at recess to write to their e-pals speaks volumes!! Thank you Twitter and Mr. Warne for giving our class the opportunity to make these amazing global connections!

Welcome back to those of you who have already been a part of the 2013 Learning Lair journey, and welcome to all of those who are new to us, including all of my new grade 5 students. I am looking forward to a fantastic year filled with lots of fun, laughter and of course learning! I am especially looking forward to making new connections with teachers and classes from around the world (shout out to Mr. Warne and his 5/6 class).

Take  a look at some of the team work activities we participated in on our first day......the fun begins! We stepped on board our 'magic carpet' and then Mrs. Sinnott informed us that as we were hovering in mid air without any real knowledge of how to fly the carpet or steer it for that matter, so we desperately needed to locate the instructions on how to do so. Unfortunately, the instructions were on the other side of our carpet.....that's right.....with all of us standing on it and remaining on the carpet, we somehow had to flip it over to the other side! Lets just say that there was a lot of trial and error because every time someone fell off the carpet we had to start again!

What activities did you do on your first day back at school?
Do you have any good ideas for other team building activities?