That's an American P!

Below, there is a picture of the Quiet Learning Area that adjoins my classroom with another Grade 1 classroom. We set it up with party decorations in honor of our integrated unit called Families, Foods, and Festivals. All of the teachers in the Grade 1-2 Area have planned a lesson that has to do with the unit and they rotate doing each other's lessons. It has been really interesting to go to our weekly Area meetings and see how the teachers interact with each other. I love that we share ideas and resources with each other. Last week I did a lesson using MadLibs with my students that was about a party invitation (relating to our integrated unit). The kids loved it and Tanya suggested that I should share my lesson with the team at our next meeting.



In our area meeting (all the grade 1 and 2 teachers) this week, the assistant principal came to sit in. When we were talking about homework, the assistant principal brought up the fact that our kids are still really little. This made me think for a minute because it's easy to forget how young my students really are. They are just 6 or just turning 7. When you are surrounded by that age group every day, it's easy to forget how small they are compared to the other grades. At the same time, it is amazing to see how different they have become from the preps.

One thing that I have had to work on while I have been teaching is my handwriting because they use a different style than we do in America. The state of Victoria in Australia has its own alphabet called Victorian Cursive that the children learn. I am making a continuous effort to form my letters in this style. It is important for me to do this because we put a big emphasis on handwriting in Grade 1 so I need to be able to model it effectively for my students. The pictures below are some examples of differences in letter writing. Sometimes if I forget to write a letter in that style, the kids will quickly remind me and say, "That's an American P!"





Another interesting thing about this school is that every week there is an optional Religious Education session for half an hour. The parents fill out a permission slip if they want their child to participate. The kids who don't participate go to another grade 1 classroom and join them for the half hour. I found this interesting because we are in a government-funded school, not a private one. During Religious Education, another teacher comes in our classroom and does a discussion and usually some kind of drawing activity at the end.

This Saturday, Danielle and I are going to a bushfire fundraiser concert called "Sound Relief" in downtown Melbourne at the MCG. 80,000 people are expected to be there. All of the performers are performing for free and all of the ticket money raised will benefit bushfire victims. Some of the performers include Jack Johnson, Jet, Hunters and Collectors, and Split Enz.

Some more of my favorite Australian lingo:

-My kids always say that things are "sweet as" or "cool as" or "loud as." It's so funny because they don't finish the comparison. For example, instead of saying "That's easy as pie" they would say "That's easy as."