Provo Primary School

Year 6 have been studying the historical era of World War 2. In particular their learning has focused on the Holocaust, Blitz, Spies, WW2 Leaders, Impact Then and Now along with many other important areas that attributed to this frightening time in history.

Year 6 have found this time period fascinating and at times they have been heavily touched and moved by the powerful elements that have featured within lessons. With this in mind they set about writing emotive poetry based upon the events that occurred at this time to express their thoughts and feelings regarding the issues explored in class.

Emotive poetry is designed to evoke a strong emotional response after reading. Please read a selection from our class and see if our knowledge of the time period and figurative language techniques used meets this end!

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Chiropractor, Dr Craig Zavitz, and his wife Robin have being visiting Provo Primary for the past 5 years, each time with Dr. Craig sharing his knowledge of the human skeleton – in particular, the spine, neck and nervous system.  The Year 4 class has just begun their topic of ‘Moving and Growing’, and Dr Craig’s visit was great way to introduce the topic and inspire the children to want to find out more.

During the session, Dr. Craig shared how chiropractors use their knowledge of the skeletal and nervous systems to help heal injuries and soreness caused by blockages to the delicate spinal cord.  Volunteers took part in role-playing injury scenarios, with Dr. Craig demonstrating the treatment he would do.

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In their Music class, the Year 1s created sound effects to match each of their papier-mâché animals.

Our BIG Design Technology project this term was designing and making 3D papier-mâché animals. The children worked very patiently and hard to complete their animals.

First, they had to plan how to make their animal and bring in different ‘junk’ material to create it. Next, they worked with duct tape to attach the different parts of the body together and then, they covered their animals with newspaper that was coated with a special mixture to strengthen their animal and keep it from molding. Finally, the children painted their animals and added all the special features to make them stand out.

I was so impressed by the good attitude shown by the Year 1 children. It took them over a month, over various sessions, to complete their animals.  We showcased all of the children’s animals, their habitats and non-fiction animal books, at our Education Week Open House Showcase.  If you have not had a chance to see then yet – pop into our classroom this week!

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On our Friday Showcase afternoon, the Year 3 classroom went through a time warp and landed in a time over 3000 years ago…in the time of the Ancient Egyptians. There was excitement all afternoon as the Ancient Egyptian characters shared their life and beliefs with the other time travelers within the school. The afternoon concluded with parents and adults also coming in to discover and experience new information about the amazing Ancient Egyptians.

There was an opportunity for you to become an archaeologist, digging up artefacts; you could write your name in hieroglyphics; learn facts about Cleopatra and Nefertiti; you could enter a pyramid and see a (real live mummy!); you got the opportunity to get your heart weighed and meet the god Anubis, you could even taste Egyptian food and play with Egyptian toys. Check out some of the photos to see the fabulous activities and projects shared during this special showcase afternoon. Well done Year 3 – we had lots of fun!

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Congratulations to all of our Year 1 – 6 classes!  Our Topic Learning Showcase was a magnificent demonstration of the tremendous talent, hard work, knowledge and creativity of all involved.  It was lovely to see so many family and friends come along to support the event and take part in the activities on offer.  The children all really enjoyed the experience, both of sharing their knowledge with others, and also getting the opportunity to visit and learn from all the other classes too.  An all-round success!

Thank you also to everyone who helped put together all of the amazing costumes – we were very impressed with your creativity, attention to detail and resourcefulness!

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Year 5 have worked long and hard studying persuasive speaking and writing. We have analysed the different techniques used by MLK Junior in his most famous ‘I HAVE A DREAM’ speech. We have also looked at past and present politicians clever techniques as well as the power of advertising.

We have written our own speeches on a range of issues that we care about from the proposed local 12-storey development, the state of government schools to gun crime. The children worked hard to include as many different persuasive techniques as they could. We are now working on our debating skills and each day this week we are tackling a new issue. Come along on Friday afternoon and take part in one, but be warned, the Year 5’s debating skills are well-honed!

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This term Year 4 have been showing Provo Primary that they really are the most WILD of all the wild things! They have accomplished this through a Talk for Writing project in Literacy this half term for their Age Of Exploration topic.

Looking at adventure stories, we focused on the story of Where the Wild Things are (WtWTA). They story of young Max and how he used his imagination to discover a far off land inhabited by Wild Things.

But first we had to learn the story of WtWTA. We did this through story maps and oral recitals. The children really immersed themselves in the Talk for Writing approach and we started to notice some children began to show signs of being Wild Things!

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Year 6 were presented with the task of investigating some new technology resources at Provo Primary School today. Advertised as ‘an invention kit for the 21st century’, it was a session of experimentation, creativity and collaboration, with three groups exploring our new ‘Makey Makey’ interface controling kits.

Each group was given a Makey Makey kit, along with access to an array of resources to use with it.  Encouraged to read and follow the instructions included in the box, and to simply try things out, it wasn’t long before each group understood their potential and were busy working together to come up with their own inventive applications. Connecting their Makey Makeys with cucumbers, potatoes, carrots,  coins and playdough they were soon playing pianos and bongo drums, and creating control pads for computer games.

By the end of the session, through their own experimentation and interest, the students had learnt about the basics of computer input devices, had explored circuit making and had investigated the conductivity of different materials. Not bad for a 60 minute lesson!  It was particularly exciting to witness the moment when they realised that they themselves were conductive!

Makey Makeys are simple invention kits but, with so many possibilities, they offer incredible potential for child-initiated STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) learning.  Our Year 6 were certainly enthralled and buzzing with ideas on what they are planning to develop in their next session.  We look forward to seeing what they come up with and sharing their creations with you!
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