Work

I'd been hoping to get to an art/craft open day last weekend, but unfortunately it didn't happen as I had a sore neck.  Instead we did our usual thing, which was hang out in the cultural centre, whilst Damien busked.

We're almost at the end of our planned work now, which is lovely.  Currently we're reading Peter Pan and Ivanhoe.  Peter Pan, as the kids will be going to the ballet in December, and Ivanhoe, as Gabriel is doing a block on medieval history.

Medieval history has been filled with some interesting activities,as well as some written pieces.  Arden's been getting a bit involved too.

This is Gabriel's castle plan.


Then our attempts at illuminated letters.
Gabriel's "T"


Arden's mixture of letters.


My "P"


Then Gabriel's final activity for the week, was a diagram of a Viking Longship.  He was given the choice of learning about Caliphs, Viking boats, Germanic tribes, or the Templars.


Arden and I have come to the end of his alphabet work.  He can read a few words here and there, and has been experimenting with writing words quite a bit. Tomorrow he's off to a class about making a book.

These are our recent paintings of letters.

Arden's "O" painting of a pot, followed by mine.

Arden's "U" painting followed by mine, of a tub.

Willow's currently working on physics, so far she's progressed through sounds and light.  She's done some interesting experiments involving waves in water and seeing how they move, and also some experiments with lenses, and how they focus light.

Busy Times Ahead

It seems that we will be busy with a few end of year Christmas acitivites. One has already happened- Willow has had her flute concert, which generally went quite well. In a couple of weeks time she will have her singing concert, followed by a choir performance at Floreat as part of the community Christmas carols.

Meanwhile Willow and Gabriel have also been attending circus skill classes on Saturdays, at the market, and both of them will be part of the Perth Christmas pageant. Apparently they go around Langley Park, down near the river. Willow has been working on the stilts and is hoping to master them this week so that she can use them in the pageant.

Willow has also started musicianship lessons, with Cottage children's choir. The musicianship lessons look really interesting. The follow the Kodaly method of teaching, and the lesson is filled with rhythmic patterning- in clapping, moving, games and singing. I'm thinking that maybe Gabriel should go next year too, when we can hopefully organise music lessons for him.

This week we've finished off Willow's last history block for the year. She's just finished a story about vikings, as well as looking at the magna carta and the crusades. Next year will be interesting, as I'm hoping to have her take over arranging most of her learning. We'll do the planning together, and then hopefully she can do most of the work independantly, that way I can focus on doing more kindy based activities with Arden. Particularly towards the end of this year, he's really needed more focused attention and more activities just for him.

Gabriel has been working on the nine parts of language again this week, with a final block on the Norse Myths.

Sinfiotli baking the Serpent Bread by Gabriel.

My picture of Sinfiotli and Sigmund.


Willow and I also worked on another Islamic pattern, as well as doing a woven star in geometry.




Next week we'll be back to physics, I haven't managed to find any magnetite here with a strong magnetic force, only a very weak piece, so we won't be able to do some of the magnetite experiments unfortunately. We can do the one where we place the magnet over a pile of crystals and the magnetite is the only crystal attracted to the magnet. At least that nicely illustrates the magnetism of the stone.

Finally here's some friendship bracelets Willow and Gabriel made this week for a friend.

This is Willow's which was designed to be a book mark.


And the one made by Gabriel.

Title-less

Due to some issues with resources (I've been having difficulty finding lodestone/magnetite)- we've stepped away from physics from a few weeks- and Willow is doing a block on medieval history. The block has been very interesting so far- we've been using Charles Kovac's book 'The Age of Discovery' for the basis of the lesson. There's been a progression through the stories of Jesus based off the progression of Rome and monks creating beautiful works telling Jesus' story.

This is Willow's painting of Jesus' birth.


And her illuminated letter.


Gabriel thought he'd have a try too.


A castle design.


This week we progressed onto Islam and Judaism, and did some Islamic patterns.


Willow also did some writing- both creative and factual- she's currently working on a story about viking times, and she also wrote a page about Albert the Great.

Gabriel has just come to the end of a block on ratios and fractions, and will be doing his final block of the year, on the Norse myths. We are planning a play for our final week, which will be fun, as we haven't done a play in quite a while.

Gabriel has also progressed nicely through his cushion and should be finishing the lion soon.


We've been a bit disappointed to find this week that The Herdsman has closed it city shop, due to lack of popularity. It seems good quality food hasn't really taken off here quite that much. Seems like it's a good decade behind Adelaide- I've been quite surprised by how progressive Adelaide's food culture is by comparison. I will have to get out to Organic on Charles more often over the summer.

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2025

LOL Perth food has been a frustration for the whole time we've been here.  We find something that suits us, and it moves or closes down, or they change their philosophy (particularly after covid this happened!)  Although we do now go to Manning Market for most of our shopping, and we don't really have to use Coles or Woolworths anymore!  Which is very pleasing!  

Class 6 Plan

Happily my class 6 plan is now more or less complete.

So far it looks like we'll be doing geometry, geology, Ancient Rome, the Australian govt, Business Maths, Medieval history, Physics- acoustics, light, optics and heat, english, Asian geography, and Astronomy as our main blocks.

Texts that I'm looking at using include- Beowulf, stories of King Arthur and Robin Hood, the Aeneid, Faerie Queen, Arabian Nights, Boy Apprenticed to An Enchanter and The Story of Rome.

Craft wise will be a project involving making a proportional stuffed animal- a year long project involving drawing and modelling and then creating a stuffed toy. Possibly there will also be an embroidery project, since Gabriel will be doing one for class 4.

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2025

For more on planning.

https://unicorn-pegasus.blogspot.com/2011/01/grade-6.html