Winter – and the Rainbow Serpent

In Term 3, our Stage 1 and Early Stage 1 students will be investigating the topic of Winter, and then moving on the Aboriginal Dreaming Stories.

I had promised to share a childhood favourite winter book from my own collection, Snow by Roy McKie & PD Eastman, which is a hard title to find, Down Under, in Dr Suess’s classic Cat in the Hat Beginner Books series. I bought this particular copy during my White Christmas 2012 trip to Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA, where, way back in 1984, my penpal had taught me how to make snowmen and snow angels, just like in the book I’d read in 1966!

Next week, we will be comparing this book to the more recent, There was a cold lady who swallowed some snow! by Lucille Colandro & Jared Lee. The school library’s resident artifical snowman is actually a stage prop from my 2006 Stage 1’s assembly item performance of this book. This was also when I learned, via Wikipedia, about the inate and significant differences between British and American snowmen. (Count the bodyparts!)

3D Snowman
Snowman built by Mr McLean and his penpal, Ann Arbor MI, USA, January 1984 (Three body parts)

Snowperson
Snowman built by Mr McLean and his class, November 1996 (Two body parts)

Penrith snowman in a hailstorm
The artificial snowman finally experience a real hailstorm, Penrith NSW, December 2010


Penrith PS in December: a white Christmas?
Please click HERE if the music track doesn’t play.

Day 5 Snowman
Miniature snowman in Ann Arbor MI, USA, December 2012 (Three body parts)

Snowman
Even artificial snowmen must do their research! Penrith NSW, December 2010

Our first Aboriginal Dreaming Story, in Week 3, will be about the Rainbow Serpent. Past Kindergarten students, now in Year 3, made some great artwork last cycle and it is preserved in a Flickr SLIDESHOW. We also made good use of a Youtube animation, located HERE.

Plants, trees and forests

This week, Early Stage 1 and Stage 1 classes are investigating the topic of “Trees” (and “forests”), and relating it back to the fairytales of Hansel and Gretel and Goldilocks, and to previous work on “Autumn” leaves.

Books to be used include Seed to plant by Melvin & Gilda Berger and Trees (Go facts plants series) by Paul McEvoy.

Supporting Youtube video clips will include:


Planting bean seeds


Time-lapse phaseolus runner bean. Hypogeal germination


Acorn to oak filmed over an 8 month period time-lapse

The 2013 CBCA Crichton Award nominee, “A forest” by Marc Martin, will also be a useful resource for this topic. I recently found the following clip on Youtube which carries similar environmental messages. It is an animated short by Aspen Center for Environmental Studies “exploring how forests affect, and are affected by, the forces around them”:


What’s happening in our forest?

Hansel and Gretel

Gingerbread house
Gingerbread house from 2010, made by Ms Stockton’s mother!

Two versions of Grimm’s fairytale of Hansel and Gretel will be used this week with Stage 1 and Early Stage 1 students. Picture books are by Tony Ross (from Arrow, 1989) and Lucy M George & Rachel Swirles (Koala, 2010).

A school made resource, a digital slideshow in PowerPoint from 2010, will also be used: Handsome & Gentle, a fractured fairy tale by Class 2FR, based on “Hansel & Gretel”.

Zeeko and the waving golden frogs

At today’s Musica Viva performance, the members of the musical group Zeeko sang a song that featured a species of endangered toad, the Golden Frog, the males of which have a call so soft (and obscured by the noise of running water in its homeland), that it has delevoped a unique hand wave when approaching other males:


Attenborough: Golden Frog: fighting & mating – Life in cold blood – BBC wildlife

The ugly duckling

This weeks fairy tale for Early Stage 1 and Stage 1 students is The ugly duckling by Hans Christian Andersen. We will be using the picture book adaptation by Masumi Furukawa (Flip up fairy tales series by Child’s Play, 2006).

Ugly duckling
The ugly duckling

Hans Christian Andersen bust
Hans Christian Andersen (1805-1875) bust

Hans Christian Andersen on Observatory Hill
Hans Christian Andersen on Observatory Hill, Sydney

Digital stories:

The ugly duckling, an assembly item by Class 2FR (from the year 2010)

The ugly caterpillar, a digital fairy tale by Class 1K (also from 2010), loosely based on “The ugly duckling”

Cockatoo and Tiger, a digital narrative by the other half of Class 1K (2010), also inspired by “The ugly duckling”.

Next week, the work will be followed up with an investigation into the attributes of ducks. The books, What is a bird? by Feana Tu’akoi (Scholastic, 2007) and Amazing facts about Australian birds (Steve Parish discover and learn, 1997) by Pat Slater, will be contrasted with the fictional ducks featured in Duck in the truck (Picture lions, HarperCollins, 2000) by Jez Alborough, Vote for Duck (Pocket, 2004) by Doreen Cronin & Betsy Lewin and The goat, the duck and the bale of hay (Viking, 2004) by Rachel Flynn & Tom Jellett.

Goldilocks and porridge

Three bears
The three bears at Penrith PS!
(These bear toys are from the picture book, You’re all my favourites by Sam McBratney & Anita Jerum.)

To enhance our Term 2 study of fairy tales, Early Stage 1 and Stage 1 students will be using the picture book, Goldilocks and the three bears (Picture lions series, Collins, 1990) by James Marshall, and these Youtube clips this week:


Goldilocks and the three bears – Kids Stories – LearnEnglish Kids British Council

From the BBC programme “Nigel’s simple cooking”, host Nigel Slater meets the 2008 World Porridge Making Champion, Ian Bishop, to find out the secret of perfect porridge:


Porridge

Digital stories:

The three bats, a digital fairy tale by Class 1/2H (in the year 2010), loosely based on “Goldilocks and the three bears”

Mr E and the three bears, a digital fairy tale by the other half of Class 1/2H (2010), also based on “Goldilocks”.

Lyrebird!

In support of the CBCA shortlised information book, “Lyrebird!: a true story” by Jackie Kerin & Peter Gouldthorpe:


Anglo Saxon lyre


The sound of 3000 year old lyre strings (2 of 5)


Ten cent coin – Australian – from 1966 to present today


Lyre bird mimicking voices (Healesville Sanctuary)

UPDATE:
In 2010, author Jackie Kerin and Malcolm McKinnon created a video about Edith Wilkinson and James the lyrebird, who are now featured in “Lyrebird!: a true story”:


Edith’s lyrebird

Relaunching Baa baa black sheep!

Yesterday, I was able to dig up the old photos and recreate the students of 2011’s digital slideshow of a nursery rhyme, “Baa baa black sheep”:

Please click HERE.


Baa baa black sheep

And another one salvaged tonight:

Please click HERE.


The Gruffalo goes to the Joan