Design Creativity & Technology

Hi Everyone,

For the past two weeks the Junior Crew kids have been working on a new DC&T project. We have been painting pieces of wood and decorating them using all sorts of materials and fasteners to create some sculptural pieces that we will arrange and photograph in lots of different positions.

It sure has given our fine motor skills a work out and has us working on patience big time. Tim took the photograph of the three students displaying their 'works in progress'. Well done Tim and well done Crew!

Oh dear. It's not a good sign.

Hi Everyone,
This week has been very busy. A big thank you to Helen for looking after the Junior Crew while I was away. The kids had a great time playing Helen's obstacles course game and making 'Beware of the Monster' signs. while I was gone.

We have been looking at and writing about lots of different signs this week.

If you click on the student blog link in the left margin you can see how the Crew responded to some questions about some specific signs. Some were very familiar and others required them to do a little bit of research.

Tomorrow we are off to the local library to borrow some books and look at signs that help us there. We will also be responding to the sign that you see above. I wonder what they will say ?You can find out tomorrow by checking out their responses in the student blog link . Click on the sign and we will take you there.

Where is Sue?

Hi Junior Crew and friends,

I will be away from school on Monday and Tuesday this week.

I will be visiting schools and supporting teachers who are involved in the Positive Partnerships Program. This program supports teachers who are new to teaching students with Autism Spectrum Disorder.

The Australian Autism Education and Training Consortium have a fantastic web site which provides teachers and families with free online training about living and learning with ASD. Click on my picture and I'll take you there.

Junior Crew, I will be back at school on Wednesday.

Until then, see you later alligators!

PS : No online recorded speech service today as the Vocaroo site is having technical problems :-(

Auslan Sign 3 - 'Message'

Click on the picture to learn how to sign the word 'message' in Auslan.
If you click on the kids blogging area picture in the left margin you can look at the environmental signs that we have started to learn about in class. The children made a fabulous 'talking sign' PowerPoint about the camping sign. Unfortunately our school server will not let us have access to any voice recording programs that we can use to both record at school and embed in our blog but I am on a mission to find out how to do it!

Auslan Sign 2 - the Word 'See'

Click on the picture to find out how to sign the word 'see' in Auslan.
Then you will be able to tell everyone that the Term 3 theme is 'See the Signs'.

Welcome Paula

Hi Everyone,
We would like to introduce you to Paula. Paula is the latest member of the Junior Crew team.
Our first day back at school was very wet and cold but at lunch time we had a lot of fun playing outside, on the basketball court, with frisbees between rain showers. If you click on the picture of Paula you will find a web site full of great games to play with a frisbee.
In the afternoon we got out hammers, nails, tacks and wood and had a fabulous time making lots of noise and creating patterns on some off cuts. Nobody hurt their fingers or thumbs in the process. It was lovely to be back together again and a great first day back.

Auslan Sign of the Week 1 - The Word 'Sign'

Hi Everyone,
Would you like to learn to speak in Australian Sign language?
Click on the picture to watch a video that will teach you how to say the word 'sign' in Auslan.
We will show you some more words later in the week.

It's Back to School Eve

Hi Junior Crew,

It's Back to School Eve !

That means that part of today will be spent making sure that everything you need for school, is clean or ready to be packed into your back pack, for school tomorrow.

I wonder what you will pack for your healthy lunch and snack ?

I have lots of fun things planned for you to do tomorrow and we have a brand new person working in our room this term for you to meet. This term is going to be the best one yet. See you tomorrow :-)

See the Signs

Hi Everyone,

This term our whole school theme is 'See the Signs' and are going to cover a whole range of topics within it. We are going to take the theme literally and explore the meanings of signs in the community We are also going to look at signs of change in our environment and in our bodies as we grow, age and change.

I have linked this photo to a site that is dedicated to Australian road signs. We have some very unique ones here. The Junior Crew would be very interested in seeing signs from our international blogging buddies too so please send us some by email. You'll find our email address in the left margin.

Junior Crew Kids, it's only three more sleeps until school starts back so it's time for you to start getting back into your school term sleeping patterns. That means you need to start going to bed at your normal bed time again so that your body clock gets back into routine. Other wise I will see the signs of some very tired children on Monday morning.

Coloured Bird Memory Game

Hi Junior Crew and friends,
I hope that you are enjoying your holidays.
How good is your memory?
Do you remember things best by listening , looking or a combination of both?
This is a fun memory game for you to play online. I played this morning and my best score was 10.
Can you beat that?

Classroom Makeover

Hi again,
Our room has had a make over! We had some new carpet laid on Monday. It will make a big impact on reducing the noise, especially echo, in the room.
Many of the Junior Crew kids are auditory defensive which means that they are very sensitive to sound. The new carpet will help us all to feel calm and concentrate on our learning.
We had a bit of a technology crisis during term 2 which is why we haven't been able to post much lately but our Smart Board arrived during the second last week of term and we also had 2 new computers installed during the last week of term. Room 12 is very high tech now!

Winter Garden

Hi Everyone,
I dropped into school yesterday to check out how our our vegetable patch is doing. Look at how many daffodils we have growing. I hope that there are some still in flower at the end of the school holidays, Junior Crew kids so that you can see them too!
The heavy rain has knocked down our scare crow so we will have to put him back up again when we get back to school. Luckily it didn't fall on top of our snow peas which are starting to climb the trellis now.
Are you enjoying the cold rainy weather? We haven't had this much rain for a long time. It's great!