LUMOS

3/4 LUMOS

The year began with the excitement of settling into a new learning environment now known as, The Precinct. It provides us with space to pursue project based learning tasks in a manner never before possible for children of this age.

This term the students studied the historical aspects of, “What Was Entertainment for Australian Children of the 1800’s and early 1900’s? They explored toys of this era and each made one of their own. Mothers, Fathers and Grandfathers came each week to support the children with their ventures. The more difficult aspects were completed under adult supervision at home accompanied by a photo journal of the work. These toys and memories will possibly stay with them for years to come.

Accompanying their toy, the children wrote an emotive narrative about themselves as a their toy. They presented these to the class in costume for English and Technology assessment.

The term progressed with simple toy experimentation made from paper and cardboard such as paper planes, flic flacs and tumbling acrobats. What forces act upon these moving toys was investigated for Science.

All in all, it has been an enjoyable term of learning and investigation.

5/6 LUMOS

Have you ever thought about what the perfect world would be like? In Year 5/6 LUMOS, that’s exactly what we have been exploring; the notion of a Utopian society and whether, in fact, that would be the ideal? There is so much to be learned by our mistakes so, hence, our theme for this term has been Success through Failure. As part of this direction of study, the students have been studying the novel The Giver by Lois Lowry and arriving at their own conclusions about the realities of such a concept. Perfectionism versus human error is an interesting dichotomy and both have their place in human existence and the outworking of our lives.

So, the students have been engaged in a variety of activities exploring the Utopian (and Dystopian) aspects of a wide range of things; including explorations in mathematics, the sciences, history and culture and even … what it would be like if we had our own army of Minions to do our bidding.