Welcome to Year 5S/W!

Welcome to Mrs Warnock and Mrs Sims’ class. This term’s studies have taken Year Five all the way to the other side of the world as our topic is ‘Australia’! We were intrigued to discover the coastal city of Southport in Queensland which is a thriving tourist spot, full of cafes, shops and places to visit, including a yacht club, water sports area and theme park. Needless to say these Southport residents enjoy considerably more sunshine and far less rain than we do!

We collected photographs, postcards, tourism leaflets, boomerangs, cork hats… and a lovely selection of cuddly Australian animals to display in class. To begin our Cultural Arts Week, we listened to Aboriginal Dreamtime creation stories, such as ‘Why the Crocodile Rolls’ and wrote our own versions, e.g. ‘How the Snake Became Venomous’. We enjoyed acting out the stories to bring them to life in our Literacy Drama lessons.

Aboriginal dot paintings gave us the opportunity to study the culture as well as mastering new art techniques. We created our own rock paintings, stone creatures and even made full size didgeridoos!  Aborigines had no formal written language, so art was used to pass down events and symbols fr0m one generation to the next. Stories and pictures are therefore essential in keeping their culture and heritage alive.

At school, you will be able to see us modelling our Australian themed t-shirts painted with the help of Vicky, from ‘Splat Creative’ who visited all of our classes in February. It was great fun… and well worth all the mess and hard work. You can visit our fundraising Art Exhibition in the school hall on the week beginning 19th March 2012, where you will be able to view work from every class in the school.

Have you seen the Kids' Zone? Play games, and visit some cool websites. You can vote for your favourites!