Week 8

What a week! We have been working on our inquiry theme 'Olympic Countries' and of course the Digi Awards.

How impressive are the students in Room 2 with their country projects!  Thirty out of 31 students presented a project on a country competing in the 2012 Olympic games and what a mix we had.  Although we had a number of Jamaican countries we also had countries such as Finland, Kenya, Mexico, Brazil, Italy, France, China, Japan, U.S.A, Canada, South Africa, Egypt, Sweden, Greece, England and Ireland!

The goal was for the students to research the main ideas we discussed in class; population, flag, similarities and differences, Olympic medal tally, famous people, money, and other interesting facts.  We had to put our own ideas into our own words and present the project in a unique way.  This forced us to think outside a decahedron (a shape with 10 faces).  This meant that we COULD present our project in a poster form but we were encouraged to think of other ways in which we could make our project presentation have the WOW factor.  As it turned out, we had a pyramid, paper mache coconut tree, statues and a Leaning Tower of Pisa.  We also had a giant sized passport, suitcase and a chocolate brownie cake with a flag on it!  WOW!

You can view the slideshow of ALL the projects (thank you photographer Lyon)!  You can put your mouse pointer on the project to zoom in.  ENJOY!  (We will be displaying these projects for a long time in class in the hall and at team sharing.  We will be referring back to these projects for the rest of the year as we have a few exciting activities planned as this was not a one off activity).

On Thursday, we also had the pleasure of having three Japanese students visit our classroom.  We learnt how to write in Japanese calligraphy and of course, origami.  Three groups made different paper creations.  I  think the most impressive were the paper aeroplanes that could REALLY fly!  I was impressed at how the students followed instructions in making their origami swans!  We are very lucky to be given opportunities like this and we look forward to another visit soon.

We also say 'adios' to Shania who leaves our school this week for new and exciting adventures up north.  Good luck!