Grass into hay: Little Boy Blue

Early Stage 1 and Stage 1 students are investigating the nursery rhyme, “Little Boy Blue”.


Little Boy Blue – nursery rhyme with karaoke

Here are the factual Youtube clips we will be using to expand their field knowledge:


Haystack building using pitchforks


How to make grass into hay bales


Round baling hay


Blowing horns


Blowing 2 shofars

Communication devices: plus, minus, interesting

This lesson is to build field knowledge for a Guided Inquiry unit. Brief Youtube clips, supporting the Stage 3 science unit of “Made environments – Information”, will be discussed and consolidated after considering the students’ responses on a “Plus, minus, interesting” matrix, to encourage/develop note-taking skills.


Morse Code


Morse Code Alphabet – By G4JNN


W48 rotary phone overview and ring


Voice quality – iPhone 5 vs antique rotary phone


The making of information age: Enfield Telephone Exchange

Chinese New Year – Year of the Dog

Students in Stage 1 and Early Stage 1 will be celebrating Chinese New Year as part of our Celebrations unit in literacy. This year, it will be the Year of the Dog. We will be reading the picture books, New year surprise! by Christopher Cheng & Di Wu and Made in China by Deborah Nash.

Here are some Youtube resources:


Year of the Dog – Wallace & Gromit


2018 Lion Dance in Pavilion KL ushering the Year of the Dog

And when revising our work on sheep:


World’s wooliest sheep ‘found in Australia’


Shaun the Sheep has been finally shorn!

Made environments – information

This term, Stage 3 students will be completing a collaboratively-taught unit of work in science on Made environments – information, with particular emphasis on early and modern communication devices, types of codes, digital citizenship and eSafety. This week, the students completed a pre-test survey sheet from the SLIM toolkit (Guided Inquiry) to provide some baseline data, both qualitative and quantitative. We also revisited the Orbit interface of our OLIVER library system to familiarise the students with its capabilities.

We aim to communicate our cumulative findings as entries on a blog, which can be shared with each class and beyond the school.

Coincidentally, today is International Safer Internet Day 2018. “Celebrated globally in 130 countries, Safer Internet Day is coordinated by the joint Insafe/INHOPE network, with the support of the European Commission, and national Safer Internet Centres across Europe.” This year’s SID theme is “Create, connect and share respect: A better internet starts with you”.


1.1 – Stone Age to Modern Age – evolution of communication


What is communication


16 famous logos with a hidden meaning (that we never even noticed)

Fables and frogs

Early Stage 1 and Stage 1 students are learning about Spring, the life cycle of the frog and the fable, “The exploding frog” (aka “The frog and the ox”).


The life cycle of a frog


Life cycle of a frog


Panama frogs serenade females – The trials of life – BBC


The mystery of the red-eyed tree frog

Here are the links we have used in previous years:
ianmclean.edublogs.org/2011/10/18/frogs-frogs-frogs-life-cycles-fables/.

Humans shape places: Badgery’s Creek Airport

Stage 3 students will be researching the Geography unit, Humans shape places, with particular emphasis on the numerous false starts on Sydney’s proposed second international airport.

Second Sydney airport – a chronology

These Youtube clips will be a useful starting point for developing field knowledge.


Badgery’s Creek Airport to be ready by 2000 for the Sydney Olympic Games


Sydney Airport 2000 Building your Olympic airport documentary


Western Sydney Airport explained – 12 December 2016


Ten Eyewitness News Sydney-Badgery’s Creek Airport Project (2/5/2017)

How are mountains formed

Stage 2 students are investigating mountains during their Term 2 library lessons. These Youtube clips will hopefully provide some field knowledge for class discussions.


Where do mountains come from?


GCSE science revision – formation of sedimentary rock layers


Blue Mountains formation


Ring of Fire: earthquakes and volcanic eruptions around the Pacific explained – TomoNews

The science behind natural disasters

Stage 3 students are investigating natural disasters in science. In library lessons, we are particularly looking the properties of these disasters, and how they form.


How do tornadoes form? – James Spann [TED-Ed]


What are hurricanes, typhoons and tropical cyclones?


On this day 24th of December | Cyclone Tracy devastates Darwin [1974]


What is an earthquake? | The Dr Binocs Show | Educational Videos For Kids


On this day 28th of December | 1989 Newcastle earthquake


How tsunamis work – Alex Gendler [TED-Ed]


Tsunamis 101 | National Geographic