We have moved!

The new blog address for 2013 is www.34phps.blogspot.com.au. See you there!

Research Inquiry

Building on the understanding of what children think research is, each child was asked to find someone who does research to interview about what they think research is.

Each student has worked on their own research narratives.  They have by created a mind map and conferenced with a teacher to develop their research question.

With emphasis on the process of research rather than the product, students were encouraged to think about how they could use a range of research mediums, for example creating surveys, designing experiments, contacting and interviewing experts, visiting specialist libraries or centres, organising excursions or school visitors. Goal setting, problem solving and project planning skills required for this process were also emphasis.

There were many workshops on

·        How to find people to question – sources

·        Key information – purpose of questioning

·        Building good questions

·        Interview techniques

·        Data collection

·        Find an expert

·        Interview questions

·        Writing letters

·        Filming recording transcribing

 

We went on excursions to Ian Potter Gallery and The State Library to investigate different forms of research.

The conclusion of the Inquiry involved a reflection on what they have learnt about research.  Many students decided that research is ongoing,  it never ends and that they will continue their research into the future.

Whole School Transition

On Monday 10^thDecember the whole school transition program will begin to enable the children to become familiar with change.

On Monday and Tuesday the children will visit their 2013 neighbourhoods from 10 to 11am and they will have lunch in their new neighbourhoods.

On Wednesday 13^th December all children will go to their new neighbourhoods at 2.30 and will be dismissed or are to be picked up from the new neighbourhood at 3.30 by their parents or carers.

The more children can participate in managing change, the more they can anticipate it with excitement.

3-4 Neighbourhood Research Inquiry    

 

Dear parents,                                                                                                  27/11/12

 

This is a letter to keep you updated on our neighbourhood research inquiry unit so that you can best support your child’s learning.  At the moment, students have begun their own ‘research stories’. We are supporting students to move away from an understanding of research as only a fact finding  process based around a limited topic such as ‘the sea’ or ‘animals’ for example, into an understanding that research is a narrative, determined by the perspective and evidence provided by the researcher. Research is not just finding out what is already known and re-stating it but is also about creating new thinking.

 

Each student has begun to think about their own research narratives by creating a mind map and having this conferenced with a teacher. We are emphasising the process of research (rather than the product) and we are asking student to think about how they can use a range of research mediums (for example creating surveys, designing experiments, contacting and interviewing experts, visiting specialist libraries or centres, organising excursions or school visitors). We are also emphasising goal setting, problem solving and project planning skills required for this process.

For this reason we have encouraged students to refine their research into topics that are possible to attempt locally.

For example

An interest in Anne Frank can become a research title “Is there an ‘Anne Frank’ in Melbourne?” which can be developed through various research methods including a trip to the Holocaust Museum’. “Why do Kookaburra’s laugh?” becomes ‘”Why do people think Kookaburra’s laugh?”

Ways to support your child

·         Discuss the topic your child has started exploring and ask to see their mind map

·         Discuss the research mediums (methods) they are planning on using

·         Discuss the step or goal they are currently up to

·         Discuss what kind of an expert may be suitable for their project and consider if there are any experts within their existing community.

·         Discuss any smaller excursions that may extend their research

 

Thanks in advance for supporting this learning and thanks generally for giving us the opportunity to work with your children.

Alexandra Hilvert and Sheryal Musumeci

Patrick's Blog

Patrick has created a blog to inform us of what he has been up to since he left us in term 2. Click on the link below to access the site. The password is "PHPS34".

patrickstriptotheuk.tumblr.com

If you would like to Skype him, his username is patrick.taylor308.

Camp Manyung

All Year 34 went to Camp Manyung, Mt Eliza for three days September 10th - 12th.
Great times were had by all.


How to use a bow and arrow
Archery via
Archery via
Archery via

An explanation of archery at camp
2012 Camp Manyung

State Library of Victoria Gusto Excursion 30/10/12

Gusto! A culinary history of Victoria
We will see the rich culinary history of Victoria in this exhibition, featuring gastronomic treasures from our collections – from the first Australian cookbook, published in 1864, to an actual World War I army biscuit.

Gusto! explores Victoria's historic and contemporary culinary landscape, covering subjects such as the history of viticulture, Indigenous foods, sustainable food practices, fine dining and food rationing, and also features the fascinating stories of significant Victorian culinary figures including Jacques Reymond, Rita Erlich, Guy Grossi and Stephanie Alexander.

The program has been divided into blocks: equal time looking at the Gusto! exhibition, in the computer lab having a look at the online resources, showing how research is done using the library catalogue and seeing some other parts of the Library to tie in with the research aspect (eg. the Newspapers room).

We will be leaving school on Tuesday at 9.15AM and returning at approximately 1.30PM.
If you are able to accompany us please contact your home group teacher.

http://www.slv.vic.gov.au/event/gusto-culinary-history-victoria

Research Project on Assessment.

A letter is being sent home with the children this week. It outlines a research project that some teachers are involved in over the next 6 months with Professor Marilyn Fleer at Monash University. The letter outlines the project “Assessment beyond borders: Potentive assessment in Primary School”. The project is looking at varied ways to assess children both at school and at home. It also includes consent forms for you to fill out and return to school as soon as possible. We would appreciate your support in this research project.

Establishment of a Parents Gardening Club

School Council Facilities committee has recommended that a gardening group be officially formed in order to more effectively coordinate the gardening plots in the school. Members of the Facilities Committee and school staff will be in attendance. We wish to invite all interested parents to attend this meeting on Wednesday 7th November at 5.00pm in the meeting room opposite the school office.

Research Interviews

During this term, students will be planning and carrying out their interviews for the research inquiry. The main objective of this interview is for the students to discover different conceptions of the term 'research' by asking purposeful questions to people who use research in their profession. By collecting this data, and sharing it with others in the Neighbourhood, we hope to collate an insightful picture on research and the act of researching.

Basil Sellers Art Prize Excursion

We had a great time yesterday at the Ian Potter Gallery excursion where we saw the exhibition of the Basil Sellers Art Prize. We explored the relationship of Art with sport and investigated the intentions of the artist in connection to their art. The students were given the opportunity to use their research skills when trying to answer some of the questions the gallery posed.

We will be using this experience to look further into visual literacy and critical literacy of art during term 4.

Students looking and discussing the photograph by Christian Thompson.

The staff at the gallery gives a talk about some of the pieces of art at the gallery.

NAPLAN

The NAPLAN results went out to parents last week and we hope that you have received this safely. The results of the set tests were valid for April 2012 as it takes the examination body quite some time to deliver the results to the school. We would like to stress that NAPLAN is a snapshot of student achievement and reflects their ability to manage the ‘test genre’ as well as their aptitude for the five disciplines represented in the test.  Although most students managed to cope with the timed aspect of the test, there were few who were adversely challenged by this restriction. NAPLAN test is designed to give an idea of where the students are placed after their first three years of schooling (Prep to Year-2) and needs to be considered as a culmination of learning to this point. We would also like to stress that this is one of many forms of assessment and while we understand that parents consider NAPLAN as an important form of assessment, we do not consider it in isolation. We use a range of assessment tools available to us to accurately determine where the child is placed across the curriculum. 

Term 4 computer lease payment

Term 4 computer lease payment is due and payable on the first Friday of Term 4 i.e. October 12, 2012. If your child is in Year 3 it is $97.80 and Year 4 is $108.80. At this time can we remind parents of their financial responsibility under the agreement, please see Page 1 of your Contract Agreement. If payment is not received within 7 days of the invoice you will be in default of the agreement therefore the MacBook will be withheld from your child i.e. not able to take home each night. This is a requirement under the insurance component of the lease agreement.

Research Inquiry - Part 1

In response to many requests from children to negotiate projects as of late, we have decided to develop our inquiry focus around what a researcher is and the role of a researcher. As we focus on inquiry as a learning approach, investigating understandings of what research means to children is important. We would like to build the understanding of research from a fact finding process around a limited topic such as ‘the sea’ or ‘animals’ for example, into an understanding that research is a narrative, determined by the perspective and evidence provided by the researcher. Research is not just finding out what is already known and re-stating it but is also about creating new thinking.

In order to collect information as to the current understandings of research amongst the children we gave them a very open-ended research question, ‘Research the neighbourhood’. We filmed and analysed the responses of the children. From here we decided to pose a more specific question which incorporated the word story in association with research. ‘There are many stories in this school. Research a story of interest to you’. We wanted to see whether this would create different pathways of research. Again we filmed and analysed the learning. We also offered an opportunity for children who wanted to research a scientific story to do so.

As a result of our research in relation to research and research processes we are building some focus areas to work around and these big understandings are that

• Research needs to incorporate a range of experiences and sources of information 
• The use of the computer provides only one perspective 
• Research is to create your own narrative and your own interpretations with evidence to support the narrative. 
• There is a relationship between truth, perspective and research 

Research Inquiry - Part two

We would like to focus on building the understanding of what children think research is. To do this we will be asking each child to ‘Find someone who does research to interview about what they think research is’.

We will be supporting the children by offering workshops on;

• How to find people to question – sources
• Key information – purpose of questioning 
• Building good questions
• Interview techniques 
• Data collection 

We do ask parents to support their child in finding someone to be interviewed either in person, by phone or email.

Week 8 Term 3

LA Possibilities T3W8 Completion Day N2

Research Inquiry Term 3

Research Inquiry – Part One

In response to many requests from children to negotiate projects as of late, we have decided to develop our inquiry focus around what a researcher is and the role of a researcher. As we focus on inquiry as a learning approach, investigating understandings of what research means to children is important. We would like to build the understanding of research from a fact finding process around a limited topic such as ‘the sea’ or ‘animals’ for example, into an understanding that research is a narrative, determined by the perspective and evidence provided by the researcher. Research is not just finding out what is already known and re-stating it but is also about creating new thinking.

In order to collect information as to the current understandings of research amongst the children we gave them a very open-ended research question, ‘Research the neighbourhood’. We filmed and analysed the responses of the children. From here we decided to pose a more specific question which incorporated the word story in association with research. ‘There are many stories in this school. Research a story of interest to you’. We wanted to see whether this would create different pathways of research. Again we filmed and analysed the learning. We also offered an opportunity for children who wanted to research a scientific story to do so.

As a result of our research in relation to research and research processes we are building some focus areas to work around and these big understandings are that

·         Research needs to incorporate a range of experiences and sources of information

·         The use of the computer provides only one perspective

·         Research is to create your own narrative and your own interpretations with evidence to support the narrative.

·         There is a relationship between truth, perspective and research

Research Inquiry - Part two

We would like to focus on building the understanding of what children think research is. To do this we will be asking each child to ‘Find someone who does research to interview about what they think research is’. 

We will be supporting the children by offering workshops on;

·         How to find people to question – sources

·         Key information – purpose of questioning

·         Building good questions

·         Interview techniques

·         Data collection

We do ask parents to support their child in finding someone to be interviewed either in person, by phone or email.

Parent Helpers for Camp

The 3/4 neighbourhoods are still looking for one additional parent to accompany us on our annual camp which runs from the 10th til the 12th of September. Parent helpers are an important part of the camp as they aid the teachers to provide a safe and comfortable experience for the children. The camp will be a great experience for all involved, so if you think you would be able to assist us please contact one of the 3/4 teachers as soon as possible.

Thanks in advance,

The 3/4 team.

Premiers Reading Challenge

The deadline for submitting your Premiers' Reading Challenge (PRC) list of books is Monday 3 September.

Please enter the books eligible for the PRC, which you have read, onto your login page at the PRC website.

Then, print a list of books with your name on it and ask a parent/guardian to sign it. Give this signed printout to your Home Group Teacher. Enjoy the Challenge!

Week 6

LA Possibilities T3W6 N2
N2 Timetable T3 W6

Week 5

LA Possibilities T3W5 N2

N2 Timetable T3 W5