Time 4 a bargain!

With the concrete slab of the new school library less than a day old, I happened to be at Westfield Parramatta last Sunday, and noticed that a little store called Typo was having a huge sale on 20cm tall, painted, wooden letters for creating wonderful library signage! Seven letters or numerals, either in black or white, for only $20. The regular price per item is usually $4.95 – and to think of all those plain MDF letters I sanded, painted, lacquered and glued/nailed/Velcroed at the end of 2008…

Typo in Westfield Parramatta
You can see the wooden letters on the shelving along the far wall.

As I stood there, stunned by the potential savings, I couldn’t think of what I needed for my future library signage needs. I already have a concept for outside signage. I was also rather taken by the “@“, “#“, “$” and full stops available in the range but, apart from something like “INFO@YOUR LIBRARY“, I really was at a loss as to how to proceed. I wandered away in deep thought, worried I’d let a big opportunity pass me by and the stock would be exhausted when I got back a week later. During the looooong week, I did realise that I’d had to settle for a temporary (laminated) version of the following signage idea, my concept of which was positioned beside the four world clocks:

Time 4 learning & Core values - Shoestring makeover

I hurried back today, arriving at Typo at 10.25am, only to find they were closed. Oh no! Surely they wouldn’t be closed all day? With only seconds to spare before I was due to meet a friend at the cinemas, I was able to collect the black lettering I needed at 11.00am, and I even found a way to utilise an “@”! (Note that, unless they have more lettering out in a back storeroom, I did end up getting the last two examples of “E” and “N“.)

Time 4 learning
TIME 4 LE@RNING

That made thirteen pieces, with one more to go to make the $40. I chose a spare “@” in white – I’ll come up with a way to use it eventually:

1 x @

The original “Time 4 Learning” concept, as it appeared in the blog last year, is discussed in detail HERE!

My advice: Hurry to Typo!

“Fox” nostalgia

"Fox" mural

The mural above was a mainstay of our old portable school library, pinned along a difficult-to-fill strip of ugly wood-panelled wall, from 2001 till the end of 2008. Based on the award-winning picture book, Margaret Wild & Ron Brooks’ “Fox”, the mural was devised by teacher, Mrs Carol Bagnell.

I was inspired to seek out the old photographs because we have some groups of students attending local live performances of “Fox” by Monkey Baa Theatre! It’s been such fun revisiting the original book in recent days, preparing the students for a most colourful event.

UPDATE!

I accompanied a K-2, to the Joan Sutherland Centre at Penrith, to see Monkey Baa’s operatic production of “Fox”. This is based on the children’s picture book by Margaret Wild & Ron Brooks; the book was first published in 2000. The book examines the strong themes of friendship, loyalty, jealousy and betrayal. We had a great time watching the “Fox” actors and puppets and listening to the narrator, an opera singer. One of our young students even asked a question at the end, about Dog’s eye patch!

Monkey Baa's "Fox" poster

The students would like to share their artwork, drawn as a response to the show when we arrived back at school. SCLB are students from Kindergarten, Year 1 and Year 2. Click HERE to see their beautiful art, plus some posters from the show.

The crocodile in the playground

Crocodile

Still working with Stage 1 on literacy projects this term, I was thrilled with our latest digital success story, again developed from a storyboard, a brainstormed narrative – and all photographed on my iPhone using local found objects and other existing props!

The main difference in approach this time was that the students weren’t currently studying one particular fairy tale in class. My first two batches of Stage 1 students this term took their inspiration from Goldilocks and the three bears, three groups used themes from The ugly duckling and an assembly item, and another group parodied Hansel and Gretel”.

This time, though, instead of deliberately setting out to create a sequel, prequel or parody, we brainstormed “characters you might find in a fairy tale”. We then paired each one up with another character on the list. Thus, one storyboard, for example, featured a princess, a mermaid and a pony. Another combined the characters of a walking tree and a talking cubby house. The strongest storyline seemed to be the one pairing a ladybug with a crocodile and this was the one the students selected for brainstorming their jointly constructed narrative. The ladybug who lost her spots is a digital fairy tale by Class 1S, partly inspired by a clever plot device from the 1963 picture book, “Swimmy” by Leo Lionni. This book was not read to the students. Rather, the students’ description of how a group of ladybugs might thwart a hungry crocodile began to remind me of the old picture book (a Caldecott Medal winner), and I suggested it as a partial solution. The result is perhaps more of a fable than a fairy tale, but ladybugs losing their spots, and being able to retrieve them again, is the “magical” quality, I guess.

What made this particular set of lessons so exciting is the feedback provided to our Reading Recovery teacher by one of our ESL students, and then relayed to me. This student was able to relate the entire plot of the story while it was still in pre-production, and the teacher had never seen him so animated and articulate about his learning before. A great result all round!

Our other digital fairy tales are here.

Mr Squiggle (not) on “Collectors”

This week on the TV show “Collectors”, iconic Australian children’s character, Mr Squiggle, makes an appearance with his maker, Norman Hetherington.

“Hetherington talks about Mr. Squiggle, who went to air in 1959 for a trial season of six weeks only and lasted six decades for the ABC. The cartoonist and self-taught puppet-maker also shares Blackboard and many of his 400 puppets. It airs 8pm Friday on ABC1.”

Mr. Squiggle on Collectors!
Mr Squiggle

Be there or be upside down. Hurry up! More information on Australia’s first astronaut here!

Mmmm. Check the Comments section for the update.

“Nibble, nibble at my house!”

During the last two weeks, students in K-2 have been learning about the fairy tale of “Hansel & Gretel” in both their literacy and library sessions.

Gingerbread house

On Monday, one of the teachers brought in a beautiful gingerbread house, decorated with icing, jelly babies, jubes, musk sticks, licorice allsorts, jelly beans and Smarties! We took it down to the assembly hall on Monday afternoon and it only took about 150 students and 150 seconds for the whole house to be devoured! Thank you, Ms Stockton and Ms Stockton’s Mum for making the students and teachers this great house. It was delicious.

Gingerbread house and poster
I managed to have a picture taken with the house before it was eaten.

Gingerbread house - the remains
Even the crumbs were delicious!

On Friday, the students of 1S did some great paper collages about gingerbread houses!
Gingerbread house artworks

The students in 2FR have been creating a digital story in PowerPoint called “Handsome & Gentle”, a parody of “Hansel & Gretel”. Their story has two mean children, a good witch and a magical house made out of a giant magician’s hat! (The link is HERE.)

Frame of 'Hansel and Gretel' parody digital story