Goodbye Sweet Friend

On the weekend in Maggie's tender care, Maggie noticed a lump on Rebecca's left side. Yesterday we took her to a caring vet who gently gassed her to allow the lump to be tested. Unfortunately the lump was not a cyst as hoped, but was a tumour. Due to the rapid growth of the tumour the vet said it was more humane to put her to sleep and to let her go to God’s loving care.

Although we will miss our little mouse we have many precious memories. She will be remembered fondly. Thank you Rebecca for being our little friend and for teaching us to be gentle and for allowing our hearts to love you.

Heavenly Father, Creator of all things, thank you for having entrusted us with Rebecca, our loyal pet.

Thank you for letting her teach us unselfish love.

Thank you for the memories that we can recall to brighten our days for the rest of our lives.

Finally, in gratitude, we return our pet to you.

Amen.

Homework Week 7

http://www.storyofstuff.com/

Using the comment starters please leave a comment ...

Invasive Species - The Cane Toad

To assist you in your research, of your inquiry task, here is a link to the Cane Toad wiki where I will model what is expected. Please revisit this wiki to see examples if you need help. Have fun

Here is the poster to guide you through our final task.

Carbon Tax

In year 5 we have begun a unit titled "Think+Act+Share=Change". Within this unit we will investigate school, community and global environmental issues. Due to the debate over carbon tax we began our investigations with what Carbon is and what Tax is and therefore what Carbon Tax is. After weeks of research and discussion we each formulated our opinion. (Interesting how many fence sitters we have.)

If you are interested to read the opinions of the students please click on their blog links on the right hand side.

Photo Peach

Over the holidays, if you are bored, you might like to create a movie using some photos and the website Photo Peach. Remember to use your Catholic Education email address and the same password when creating an account.

As per the 'terms and conditions' it states - "Persons under 13 years of age are required to have a parent or guardian review and complete the registration process"... so if you create an account from home please ask your parents to complete the registration. Have Fun!!!!

... here is one I created about Emma and Rebecca.

Getting Ready for Next Term

To help me plan for next term I would like you to add what you know to this collaborative online tool ...

Click on this link to access Primary Pad http://year52011.primarypad.com/1

Vuvox in the Classroom

Contemporary art was our focus during semester one where we focused on embracing the multimodal nature in the Australian Curriculum.

During the first term, students used photography in their digital design to understand how to deconstruct the key elements in creating visually pleasing images. This knowledge was then transferred to our term two inquiry unit, where we investigated the Brisbane floods. Having the Brisbane river close by allowed students to analyse the message behind the images they captured.

Due to our 1:1 laptop program I wanted to use an innovative online creation tool that would allow students to create, publish and present their learning. I wanted the online tool to be easily embedded onto the student’s blog as our blogs are an important learning gateway where we communicate with each other, parents and the wider community.

Vuvox seemed the perfect solution and was a great medium to give students a visual voice. It met all the requirements and was simple to use with the children thoroughly enjoying it.