Year 6 Leadership Day

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Last week the year 6’s from Donvale came to the Kew campus, and together we learned about leadership, teamwork, communication and much more. We got split into groups, and we did some activities and listened to each of the teachers speak.

From this leadership day, I learned many things like, communication is much more important than I thought. For example one of the activities was a plank hold competition. But you were allowed to have some people in your group down, as long as over 50% were planking. So when someone in my group was getting tired they would swap with one of the people who were down. Communication was very important in the activity because if you didn’t tell someone in your group that you were getting tired and you came down without some else going up, then your whole group would be disqualified.

I had a lot of fun and my favourite activity was probably the newspaper stacking challlenge. Your group was given tape and a newspaper and whatever group built the tallest tower using these supplies would win. I think my group did a really good job and we worked well as a team. I think next time we should have slowed down a bit, becasue everyone was rushing and I think we that we would have had a better result if we did it slower. I was proud of my group and I becase in the end, our tower was standing by itself.

I met other people from Donvale and even though we didn’t know the Donvale kids very well, we worked well as a team. I look forward to the next Leadership day that we have.

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Family Celebrations

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Things my family celebrate

  • Sauce day 🍅 – I am Italian so every year we get together and make sauce for a day. We have this massive truck full of tomatoes and we end up with a lot of jars full of sauce.
  • Christmas 🎅 – on Christmas my family take it in turns to host Christmas lunch. We don’t eat traditional food like turkey and chicken. This year I am in charge of dessert and I’m going to make gingerbread people.
  • Melbourne Cup 🏇 – In Melbourne we have a big horse race. Each year we cut out the names and place them in a hat. We have a lucky dip and the person that wins gets like $5.
  • New Years Eve 🌌 – On New Years Eve we stay up until midnight and watch the Christmas carols on TV. After the countdown we go to bed but after all those lollies we usually don’t get to sleep for a while.
  • Halloween 🎃- For Halloween we go trick or treating and dress up. We don’t put decorations outside our house because nobody really comes to our street for Halloween.
  • Easter 🐣- On Easter morning my brother and I do an egg hunt in the garden. I always find more than my brother but he always complains so we have to split the chocolate evenly. We usually visit family later in the day. 

What do you celebrate in your family?

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Orphan Island

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All of the book chat books I have read this year were amazing but my favourite was probably Orphan Island by Laurel Snyder. I would put this book into the family and friendship genre because the 9 kids bond and form special relationships.

The story is about 9 kids that live on an island. Every year a boat comes with no driver, just a little kid. The eldest of the 9 kids must then leave on that boat. The next eldest of the 9 is responsible for the other 8. When Jinny’s (the main character) time comes to leave, she doesn’t. There have never been 10 kids on the island so things start going wrong.

 I loved this book because at the end of every chapter it left you on a cliffhanger. The start was really grabbing so I couldn’t put it down. The end of the book annoyed me because it left you hanging and there is no sequel so you never find out what happens. I really got an idea of the personalities of the characters and got to know them. There was one girl of the 9 that really annoyed me because she was really rude and self centred. But to be fair, towards the end she got better.

Have you read Orphan Island? If so who was your favourite character and why? If not then what has been your favourite book chat book?

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Camp Toonallook

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Last week we went to Toonallook for camp. We went kayaking, bike riding, koala spotting, swimming, camping and more. We even got to go on a police boat. It was a four hour drive on a bus but it actually went pretty quickly. I was put in a cabin with Matilda, Claire, Zara and Ruby.

The first afternoon at Toonallook flew by. We ate lunch, got a tour of the campsite and did the photo rally. That night we played the shoe game. It was a lot of fun and we all laughed so hard that our stomachs hurt! Basically you have to knock a drink bottle over with a shoe.

On the second day, we went kayaking and bike riding. My highlight of that day was definitely the kayaking. It was a two person kayak and I was at the front and Millie was at the back. It was actually quite hard and by the end of it my arms were really tired.

The next day, we went to Raymond island. We did a lot of activities that day. We went fishing, koala spotting, bike riding, swimming and we got to go on a boat that went really fast. My highlight of that day was definitely when we got back to Toonallook and most of us went swimming! We were all boiling so we quickly changed into our bathers, got our life jackets on and ran into the lake. The water was freezing! On the count of three, Claire and I dove into the water and once we had out hair wet, the water was incredible. We had so much fun splashing each other and on a hot day, it was the perfect refresher.

On Friday, our last day, I was sad to leave Toonallook but also excited to see my family again. We left Toonallook with some memories that we wouldn’t forget. By the time I got home, I was exhausted and as soon as my head hit my pillow, I was asleep.   

What’s your favourite part about camp?

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My Avatar

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This is my avatar that I made on Avatar Maker. I am wearing a red jumper because it’s my favourite at home and it’s got the cutest French bulldog on it. My  hair is darkish brown and I have dark brown eyes. The background is blue because that’s my favourite colour. My hair is around two inches on top of my elbow.

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The Hard Road Ahead

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The Hard Road Ahead was a really fun unit filled with challenges, PLA’s and learning. We went to Sovereign Hill, made dioramas, newspapers and we are reading a book in class about the Gold Rush.

For our diorama project, I built the New York Bakery and the Eureka Stockade. The New York Bakery is a large building on the Main Street. It is well known known for their delicious devonshire tea. The New York Bakery caters for many including school children. It serves breakfast, lunch and dinner to many. The New York Bakery is one of the most popular places to eat.

We had to make an article that would make the front page of our own newspaper. We got a big piece of paper and made that our front cover. As well as the article we wrote, we had to make other things to fill up the spaces. I created a word search and some fake advertising. It was fun but also challenging because you had to think of things to put on your newspaper.

Some of my highlights were making the diorama and experiencing the challenges that you encountered along the way. The first few lessons were hard to communicate and get a move on with our dioramas. 

I had to use collaboration and communication because my partner and I had to work out what we would be doing each making session. We also had to use imagination because your building had to be really creative and it tested your imagination skills

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Book Week

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My first book week at Carey was really fun. In Library we had to skim through or read the short listed books and judge them by their layout, information and visuals. The books we judged were:

  • Sorry Day
  • Make Believe
  • Waves
  • The Happiness box
  • Our Birds
  • Bouncing Back

My favourite was The Happiness Box because the visuals were amazing. There was at least one picture on every single page and that made it a lot more interesting and engagaing. There also wasn’t that many words on a page so it made it easy to understand and more appealing to the reader. Make Believe was the winner of the year 5 short listed books. Everyone loved Make Believe because it had illusions that tricked your brain.

A good information book must have clear and understandable information and written in an easy font to read. It must also include pictures that relate to the text and a clear and engagaing layout. It would also be something that you learn from. An information book has accurate facts that the author has put in his/her own words, not just right off the internet.

What is your favourite information book and why?

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Sovereign Hill

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 In week two of term three the year 5’s went to Sovereign Hill for two nights. We have been learning about the Gold Rush in class and we went to Sovereign Hill to get a visual in our minds about what it looked and felt like in the 1850’s. While we were there, each class was apart of a school program. We dressed up like children from back then and learned like them too. I have to be honest, I didn’t really like the costumes but it was all part of the experience. My highlights were the mine tours, panning for gold, the school program and the sound and light show.

The PLA’s I used were Curiosity and Collaboration. I used Curiosity when we were asking the shopkeepers questions. We had to ask the shopkeepers well structured questions and show a level of Curiosity. I used my Collaboration skills when we did the map activity. In groups of three or more we had to find the places on the map that weren’t labelled and find out what the name of that shop or building was. Sometimes we had to compromise about which way we should go.

I had a great time in Sovereign Hill and I will remember the experience I had forever.

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Carey Celbrates Literature

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My first CCL (Carey Celebrated Literature), was really fun. The festival lasted for a week, and each year level had a different author come in to talk to us. Mark Wilson came to talk to the year fives. He talked about how he’s really passionate about endangered animals. Mark Wilson writes a lot of books about war and his illustrations are incredible! In library we had a drawing session with him, and he taught us how to draw a sea turtle.

My favourite part of the Carey Celebrates Literature festival, was being apart of the lunchtime festival. I was at a stall called guess the author. Basically, there are different books for each year level. They have to guess around 4 or 5 authors and the person who gets the most correct, wins a prize. This was my favourite part of the week because it was really nice to see older buddies helping younger buddies. I loved how everyone was having fun and had a smile on their face.
One of the interesting things I learned, is that one of Mark Wilson’s books, was actually just a scrap book of his grandfather. I learned that even something as basic as that, can be the next bestseller. Also when Mark Wilson spoke year 5, he mentioned a story about a puppy that went to war with his owner. The puppy (I forgot his name), saved many of the soldiers’ lives because of his hearing. It was a really heartwarming story about how the soldiers smuggled him back into Australia.

Who is your favourite author and why?

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