Stories from a Year 5/6 Classroom...

Well my final prac placement started this past Monday (Oct 22), and I couldn't be happier :) My 24 Year 5/6 students are fantastic and the school I'm at (Towradgi Public School) is very different from my first placement.

There are approx. 95 students at the school, making up 4 classes. We also have three classes of special education students which run out of our facilities. For a small school it's very diverse so there are lots of opportunities for new experiences. Our students run the school canteen at lunch as a fundraiser for their grad activities, the door at the front rolls up like a garage door and the students line up there for snacks. It's fun and the kids are SO polite to each other here. Our kids are so cute - "Yes what I can get you?" and they always use their please and thank you's :)

Here are two photos of our classroom. It's great because the building we're in is supposed to be for two classes, so there is a lot of open space. From the door into the room, turn right and you see this first view - the student desks. In black at the whiteboard is my supervisor Sarena, she's fantastic and really great with the students. Needless to say, working with 11 and 12 year olds is very different from working with 5-6 year olds!

Then to the left, this is the second half of our classroom - a big seating area and the white boards. There are large windows on the south side of the classroom which are great for light and fresh air during the day. It's a great space for group activities. And we have our own classroom TV, which is way better than having to drag one over if you want to use video clips for lessons! (and on rainy days they can watch videos for indoor recesses - nice eh?) This week I ran three lessons about our unit on the rainforest and natural vs built environments. I'm doing an art task with them, and researching rainforest features - they seem to be enjoying it.

This Friday (Oct 26) was Bandana Day in Oz, a national fundraiser for Canteen - an organization that supports youth who have cancer. So our school got involved by selling bandanas and buttons with the canteen logo on them. Here we are Friday morning in our bandanas :) Sarena was out of the room so she's missing from the picture.

This last shot is from Wednesday when Andrea and I walked home along the beach :) See Greg, it isn't always sunny - we had rain this week! But it didn't stop us from enjoying the scenery.
Needless to say we love working at this school. (This shot goes out to Aisling).

Next week is #2 of four and our class is taking the train down south to Berry Sport and Rec camp from the week. Grant's going to be on his own as I get to go too as a supervisor - we'll be canoeing, kayaking and playing games (and don't forget the Thursday night disco!). I will be sure to post more photos when we get back. Until then... xo Liz