More Edutopia Weblinks

See below for some more weblinks from Edutopia - that hopefully may be of some interest to you. These cover areas such as: Science, Math, reading and writing - and also STEM. Who knows, these may just give you some crazy ideas to run in the classroom that will TOTALLY get the students on board!! Miracles happen ... 

https://www.edutopia.org/article/fun-survivor-themed-classroom-activity-promotes-science-learning

https://www.edutopia.org/article/how-can-we-survive-mars

https://www.edutopia.org/article/quick-and-inexpensive-design-challenges

https://www.edutopia.org/article/connecting-math-and-science-reading-and-writing

https://www.edutopia.org/blog/why-origami-improves-students-skills-ainissa-ramirez

https://www.edutopia.org/blog/making-is-essential-to-learning-youki-terada

Read A New Book Month so Let's Celebrate!

 What a wonderful way to welcome spring in – September is also known as Read A New Book Month! To celebrate, all you need to do is pick up that book you’ve been meaning to start and finish it by the end of the month.

But for added fun we challenge you to pick up a book outside of your favourite genre. Are you a romance reader? Maybe have a look at some contemporary fiction suggestions. Or maybe biographies are more your cup of tea? Try out a fictional read instead and let your imagination run wild on the adventure.

Check out the Harper Collins Blog for September 2021 - 

https://www.harpercollins.com.au/blog/2021/09/

Enjoy some down time - reading is good for the soul and the blood pressure!

National Threatened Species Day

Today is National Threatened Species Day - and there are a couple of web links below to check out if you are interested.  

https://www.wwf.org.au/what-we-do/species/national-threatened-species-day

https://www.wwf.org.au/news/news/2020/37-million-animals-already-lost-due-to-lack-of-independent-cop-on-the-beat#gs.a85cu8

Carry on being your awesome selves!  

Teacher Magazine Articles on Digital Literacy

Below are a few articles from Teacher magazine on students and Digital Literacy - not just the reading and writing but the understanding and the knowing.  

It makes for some interesting reading - and I would bet my bottom dollar that a lot of adults would be in the same boat as well with very minimal deep reading skills. 

 It seems that, although we do our best to encourage students to read for pleasure, we rarely do the same for adults - and adults need to develop the same deep reading skills for all of the same reasons .. and, as is often said 'what you don't use, you lose!'

Although - to be fair .. just having someone READ, whatever they are reading - is seen as a win in today's world!  But then, if the skills are not being developed - can it really be a win? 

Take a few moments to check out the offerings below and hopefully there will be something to catch your interest. 

https://www.teachermagazine.com/au_en/articles/developing-literacy-skills-in-a-digital-world

https://www.teachermagazine.com/au_en/articles/critical-thinking-tools-the-crap-test

https://www.teachermagazine.com/au_en/articles/the-research-files-episode-25-why-young-people-are-easily-fooled-by-fake-news

https://www.teachermagazine.com/au_en/articles/developing-a-nation-of-innovative-thinkers

https://www.teachermagazine.com/au_en/articles/a-stem-program-to-develop-digital-literacy

https://www.teachermagazine.com/au_en/articles/adults-engaging-in-reading-for-pleasure

Conservation Days in September

September is going to be a busy month for conservation minded people.  Take a peek at the list below....

Days on the Conservation Calendar for September 2021

Sept - National Biodiversity Month
1 Sept - International Primate Day

4th Sept - International Vulture Day
5 Sept - International Day of Charity
7 Sept - National Threatened Species Day
12 Sept - National Bilby Day
18 Sept - International Red Panda Day
22 Sept - World Rhino Day
24 Sept - Save the Koala Day
26 Sept - World Rivers Day

Wattle Day

 Happy Wattle Day to you all .. please check the link below for all the info on this special day as per my post last year.  

The Special Ed class visited yesterday - and we talked about Australian Symbols and State Emblems.  Then they made some 3D Wattle pictures with pompoms that they could use for a display in their classroom.  It was great fun!  

http://barklycollegelibraries.blogspot.com/search/label/Wattle

Make it an awesome day!! 

Cool Class - Dragons & Bats

This week the Special Education class have been visiting again, and this time we have had a program about flying 'things' - along with the stories to go with it all.  

 We read the book 'Where have all the Dragons gone?' and then made flying paper dragons.  We then tested their capabilities up and down the Library area, and Ms Frolich and Ms Squires had a Dragon Duel to see who could pull off the coolest acrobatics.  We decided it had to be a draw, although it was pretty close... Ms Frolich had hers somersaulting, and spiralling down. 

Here's the link for the Flying Dragon template with grateful thanks to Create in the Chaos website.  The kids loved it. 

https://www.createinthechaos.com/printable-flying-craft-dragon-paper-airplane/

 Then today – we read ‘Stella Luna’ – a story about a tiny baby fruit bat who lost her mum after an owl attack – and was taken care of by a bird mum, until she was reunited with her mother again.   

Afterwards - as today is also the International Day of the Bat (or Night of the Bat?) - we made Bat Finger Puppets and also Bat Rockets - which with a big puff of air could fly!  

Library Displays Term 3

Well, after a lengthy run of no posts for various reasons, let's try to get this back up and running. 

We are into Week 4, Term 3, and with grateful thanks to a couple of teachers, we have some displays up in the Library. 

Octopus

Ms Squires Science class has put up one on Biomes, with 3D Dioramas attached to the wall!  Pretty impressive - the octopus makes me feel like he could reach out and grab me if I'm not careful.   

Solar System Poster

There is also a display on the Solar System - again by Ms Squires and her Science Class.  This includes a couple of posters by Felisha and Meshack about the planets they were researching.  Well done guys - they look great!

 

Ms Juliet has taken over a window for a regular display about her Special Education class and their Library activities.  So far, they have learnt about books and how to handle them and made personalised corner bookmarks.  They have also had a session on the Olympics, and then made an Olympic Torch and had a Torch Run around the Library.  

See below for a few more photos .... 

Poster about Mercury by Felisha

Poster about Mars by Meshack

End of Semester

Okay - you have had 9 weeks with no posts from me - but I can't let the Semester end without SOMETHING!  

So .. enjoy the break and we'll do this all over again next term/semester.  

Carry on being your awesome selves.  

Edutopia & End of Term

I'm baack ... right when you thought that you may have seen the last of me.  It's all good though, as it's almost the end of term, so probably just this blog post before we get a short break.

There are a couple of links below that could be of some interest for you and your classes, or at least resources that you may be able to adapt for your use.  Maybe even 'stuff' that could generate an 'ah-ha' moment?  

I'm not a teacher, so most of my offerings are a guess - but fingers crossed there is something here that may be of some use for you all. 

https://www.edutopia.org/blog/school-libraries-makerspaces-coexist-josh-weisgrau

https://www.edutopia.org/blog/equity-vs-equality-shane-safir

https://www.edutopia.org/blog/how-design-right-sized-challenges-suzie-boss

https://www.edutopia.org/article/two-ways-bring-games-your-classroom

Edutopia Articles that may be of interest

 Below are a few weblinks from the Edutopia website, that could be of some use for you all - and if you check the site out, you may find lots more for your interest.  

https://www.edutopia.org/article/strategy-exploring-student-creativity-collaboratively

https://www.edutopia.org/article/school-wide-focus-choice-reading

https://www.edutopia.org/article/10-new-focused-attention-practices

https://www.edutopia.org/article/how-find-games-classroom-learning

https://www.edutopia.org/article/game-based-learning-middle-school-math

https://www.edutopia.org/article/does-our-natural-affinity-games-have-place-classroom

https://www.edutopia.org/article/coding-across-curriculum

I hope that you get something from these articles - and the home site for Edutopia is:

https://www.edutopia.org/

Enjoy the upcoming weekend - and carry on being your awesome selves! 

Harmony Week

Harmony Week = 15th March to 21st March

Harmony Day is 21st March

https://www.harmony.gov.au/

Harmony Week is about coming together to celebrate the cultural diversity in your area and spread the message of ‘everyone belongs’.

Local organisations and community leaders are at the heart of Harmony Week. Your support means people all over the country can celebrate Harmony. They can come together and share, learn and appreciate the diversity that is Australia.  

Bringing communities together through sport, food, music and entertainment plays an important role in promoting our cultural diversity. It creates an opportunity to think, talk about and recognise how our differences and our similarities make Australia a great place to live.  

Celebrating Harmony Week can take any form you wish – big or small – from hosting morning teas to large community festivals.

Science Week 2021

14-22nd August 2021

Science Week 2021

The school theme for National Science Week 2021 will be Food: Different by Design. It will honor the United Nations International Year of Fruits and Vegetables and the International Year of Creative Economy for Sustainable Development.

Food: Different by Design will cover a broad range of areas in food production and sustainable agriculture, enabling students to explore topics such as biosecurity, food technology and laboratory-developed foods. Scientific development will be at the core to the theme, with other hands-on projects for students to explore.

School grants

Applications for school grants of up to $500 are now open. The grants are designed to support teachers and schools deliver engaging STEM events and activities in National Science Week. They are intended to be a contribution to the running of an activity or event in a school, and not be the sole means of support.

Applications close on 2 April. Grant rules and the application form are available from the Australian Science Teachers Association (ASTA).

The school grant round is conducted by ASTA and the grant pool of more than $100 000 is provided by the Australian Government.