Poetry: The Ballad

Ballad - For Students

Undoubtedly the most famous Australian ballad it 'The Man from Snowy River' by Banjo Paterson.


From: http://www.underdown.org/poetry-formats.htm
The ballad stanza is also one of the most popular forms of poetry for children. A ballad stanza is a group of four lines. That group is called a stanza. The ballad stanza has a rhyme at the end of line number two and line number four.

The Bee Poem
A poem is a busy bee
Buzzing in your head.
His hive is full of hidden thoughts
Waiting to be said.

His honey comes from your ideas
That he makes into rhyme.
He flies around looking for
What goes on in your mind.

When it's time to let him out
To make some poetry,
He gathers up your secret thoughts
And then he sets them free.

Some good examples of ballads can be located here, and a creative 'how to' can be found here.

An example of a 7 Year old Poet Olivia Binfield reciting her poem is here.

Transport in China

This week's class reading focuses on transport in China. This clip compliments the content of our reading. Very clearly presented and relevant!

Poetry: Week One

I'm starting a 5 week poetry unit tomorrow and I'm busy resourcing my lessons.

Mrs Smoke has a wonderful 'Making Teachers Nerdy' blog with a great page on all sorts of poetry links.

This week we will be focusing on writing an ode here are the steps!

- Select a subject to write about: person, place, or thing.
- Write phrases describing how your subject makes you feel and why you feel this way.
- Write many phrases telling unique qualities of your subject.
- Explain why your subject is important to you

Revise your lines following these steps:

- take away any lines that are too similar
- add more feeling to any meaningless lines
- pick a good opening line or sentence
- order the remaining lines into their best sequence
- select a good closing line that clearly expresses your feelings about the subject
- Rewrite your ode in a final draft and maybe even add an illustration.

This video may be a little difficult for year 5&6 students but is a good guide for the teacher.

How to Write an Ode -- powered by ehow

A fun story that is told using emoticons:

Scott's Antarctica

Shortly we will be moving on from 'Symbol Systems' and on to 'Antarctica.'

Today we briefly learned the story of Robert Falcon Scott's 2 expeditions to Antarctica.

Here is some extra information to support this lesson.



Listen to the story of Scott at NPR. On the same website is an excellent collection of images.

A dog called Chris listening to Scott's gramophone!


Some original newsreel footage of Scott's ships can be found here.

Primary Science: Micro-organisms

Today we undertook an experiment about yeast.

This website helps to support a student's understanding of micro-organisms.

Fun and interactive, it includes a game and quiz to test understanding.

Introduction to Poetry

In Week 6 we wil be moving on from the discussion text type and into poetry.

Here are some clips recommended for discussion by 'the 'White ribbon' Poetry competition.





Domestic violence (unable to embed): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pcodyFKKdVM&feature=related

Week 4: Comparing culture, customs and etiquette

This week we our reading task focuses upon the similarities and differences between China and Australia.

A good online resource to support the reading task can be found here.

In addition to this we have begun decorating our classroom with some Chinese paper Products from Sydney's China Town.

One of these items is the 'red envelope' that is used to give money at Weddings or on Chinese New year.
Here is some interesting information about Chinese weddings and traditions.

Here is some footage of a Chinese tea ceremony:

Plastic Bag Street Art / Graffiti

Westfield Re-Branding

A few weeks back the signage on top of Sydney's Centrepoint Tower was replaced. Here is some great footage of the project in action!

Chinese Symbolic Objects

I found a helpful resource page today explaining the symbolic value of motifs on Chinese ceramics.

A fantastic classroom exercise on creating willow pattern plates can be found here.

The willow pattern story helps build background and content knowledge of this beautiful China.

A brief history of Willow Pattern China can be found here.