I Am Here

by Jack M

I am here to move,

I am here to absorb,

I am here to replicate,

I am here to learn,

I am here to love,

I am here to laugh,

I am here to live.

Read the World a Story

This year our class are participating in the Australian Children's Laureate's Share a Story project. Jackie French's Share a Story Calendar has a different prompt for writing and finding stories each month. The prompt for the month of May is Read the World a Story.

Today we had the opportunity to share a story with the other side of the world.

Our class Skyped Kelly, our teacher's friend who lives in America. It's was so much fun! We read a book to her called The Watertower by Gary Crew and  Steven Woolman, and we made a soundtrack to it with the objects in our pencil cases. We also performed the poem Please Resist Me by Luka Lesson, an Australian poet. We finished off with our song, Little Talks, that we are going to perform in the assembly coming up. Finally we asked some questions about America and some other random things! It was an amazing experience and hopefully we can do it again! 
-Chelsea, Luke, and Dylan

I think this was a good talk to Kelly, although I didn't get to do much but I really think she liked it. She was smiling when we was singing. She was pretty funny. It was fascinating to learn what the time was. It was also funny when we was talking to her and her cat was laying in front of the camera when we was talking and our class didn't know then it disappeared LOL. The only thing I personally didn't like was the sound. We need to get that fixed next time we talk and I think we also need to talk to Kelly in some other room because of the other class rooms. It also was fascinating to know that with Skype you could talk ALL the way to America. It was a good morning.
-Alex & Jack M

After we read our book, poem, and performed our song, we asked some questions and Kelly answered them. Brooklyn asked "Have you written any books yet?" and Kelly said she had written some but they weren't  published yet. Faith asked "Have you eaten from a hot-dog stand?" and Kelly said "Yes, I have lots of times before."

Thank you to Kelly to and most of all thanks to our teacher.

-Gerard & Brooklyn

The Magic Painting

"It was the brightness that attracted me to the painting. I could see the light through the sheet. I grabbed the sheet and threw it to the side. I quickly covered my eyes with my hands. It was too bright. I reached my hand through the painting and quickly I jolted back. It felt hot. The mist covered my hands.

My hand was pale and I thought about jumping in, but would my mum miss me if I couldn't go back through the painting?"

by Kaleb (aged 11)

*****

Often in class we use amazing pictures as 'seeds' for our writing sprints and story planning. This snippet by Kaleb was inspired by an amazing picture called 'The Journey Begins' by Daniel Lieske.

Please Resist Me

This Saturday, March 21st, is Harmony Day and to acknowledge this, our class are performing Luka Lesson's poem Please Resist Me in our assembly.

We have been talking about the diversity of the Australian population and the importance of understanding our country's past. We have had many discussions about what this country looked like prior to 1788, and the enormous changes which occurred from this time onward. We have talked about the fact that Australia is now a multicultural country and the importance of accepting other cultures and respecting the input they have into our wider Australian culture. This poem challenges people's beliefs about some of the many groups which have helped to enrich our country, asks us to thin about our past, and poses a number of interesting questions about the ways we can act to ensure a positive future for our country.

The clip below is a wonderful performance of this poem.
Enjoy.

You're Grown Up

"She said growing up isn't a choice, it's a chance. A chance to experience new things, places, and people, a chance to live and make changes. Changes only mature people can handle. She always told me growing old and passing is a thing no one can change, so take life and live it the way you want to."

by Chelsea (aged 11)

Cloud Talks

"The swing sound like rusty old scooters, but that doesn't bother me at all. When I hop on it and swing, I reach for the clouds. We have short conversations, the clouds and I, but its always good to talk."

by Faith (aged 12)

Freedom

"When I swing I have no care in the world, and a sense of freedom around me while I try to go as high as I can. When I swing it feels like I’m a bird flying high in the sky."

by Dylan (aged 11)