Term 4 2018, Marsden Road Public School – Week 1

The kids were so excited to return this week and were excited to hear about the movie. When I told them about the book we are going to make, they were very excited and happy. They are looking forward to having copies to take home already!

The kids were so quiet and calm at the beginning. It was a very hot afternoon and we had the lights low and the fans high. The room was almost completely quiet! The kids just LOVE to colour and create.

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We made Australian animal headbands. Some kids attached two or three animals onto one headband!

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We took photos outside and the kids were so happy and excited. They were pretty good at taking turns and great with instructions. I tried to make sure they all got a turn.

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Term 3 2018, Marsden Road Public School - Week 9

This week was the last week of term! We read from the board in English and Arabic (the kids taking turns).

1)      Eat, chat, colour in

2)     Read a story with Harri and Afaf

3)     Watch our movie! (2 times)

4)     Play outside

The kids did amazingly at reading and translating into Arabic. It’s so good to see the kids keeping hold of their Arabic.

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Some kids came to the floor to read a story. They really enjoyed reading sentences on their own and then hearing the Arabic translation. We tried to hurry the story and suggested just hearing it in English. They said, “No!!!” It was really fun.

The kids enjoyed watching the movie we made and as usual, were very enthusiastic and shouted when they could see themselves on screen. One of the younger siblings screamed with joy a few times which made the kids laugh and smile. The response from the parents about the movie was fantastic and there were a lot of laughs!

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Term 3 2018, Liverpool Public School - Week 9

This week we started our session with a colouring-in activity. The students were colouring different kinds of fish, cut them out and then stuck them on a lollipop sticks. The students used those fish in their performance in the second part of the session. We played the story that we had recorded earlier and the students, using their characters (the crab, dolphin, turtle, shark, starfish, small fish), performed the story.

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We also did this term’s evaluation. The students answered three questions, and stuck them onto a huge cardboard turtle. The questions and some answers were:

1)      How do you feel at Wandering Books?

• I feel very happy because we are learning about sea creatures.

• Ahh if you ask me I will say “I love this place, I love colouring, and crafting and many more”.

• I like this place because I learn so much about art and craft and enjoy myself.

2)      What have you learnt at Wandering Books?

• I learnt how to cut better.

• I learnt to know more fish and learnt about different places in the sea and more knowledge.

• I learnt about this place, I learn some fish and water and had some new friends to play and to make art and craft.

3)      What do you want to do next term?

• Next term I want to learn about nature and land animals.

• I want to dance and sing.

• I want to do origamis.

The parents have also shared their opinions using their own languages as shown below (translated into English):

• This group is to help and encourage the kids. They are doing a great job. Thanks to all the coordinators.

• It was a wonderful experience for me and my kids. We enjoyed every moment in this program and we wish to see more of that in the future. Good luck and thanks heaps.

• Hey!! This is a wonderful idea Ayat and I love it ... and the ladies are so helpful and loving ... should keep it up.

• This was written in Arabic: “A beautiful educational program for kids, which allows students to know more and to develop more friendships”.

• This also was written in Arabic: “A very nice and purposeful educational program. I thank everyone who had a role in preparing this program, I was happy and really loved this experience. Thank you again and I wish you all the best and success with all your work which benefited and gave joy to all students”.

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Term 3 2018, Marsden Road Public School - Week 8

This week we made invitations for our screening next week. We had cards for the kids to fold and colour in and decorate with English and Arabic stickers with all the details.

The kids and parents enjoyed teaching the English-speaking facilitators how to read the invitations in Arabic and listening to them make mistakes and learn.

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We made a big boat out of cardboard. The kids enjoyed making it “drive in the water” and we talked about different words for boats in different languages. We then laid the boat down and I asked the kids questions in English and Arabic and they wrote their answers on the boat. The questions were:

1)      How do you feel when you do these workshops?

2)      What did you learn here?

3)      What would you like to do next term?

They asked for another question, so we suggested ‘Someone who you met at Wandering Books’. The kids were excited to draw and write on the boat and some of them started drawing pretty pictures or writing other words they knew like dog and cat.

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Term 3 2018, Liverpool Public School - Week 8

The workshop started with making three sea creatures – crabs, deep sea fish, and turtles. The students were very excited and happy exploring with different materials, working in groups with their parents and proudly sharing their outcome with the rest of the class and in photos.

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The second half of the session was the storytelling time. Lana had written a beautiful story for the kids which included all the creatures they had made. The students had a great time interacting with the story, predicting and acting the narrative with much joy and enthusiasm.

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Term 3 2018, Marsden Road Public School - Week 7

Today was the final day of filming and it was very busy. Small groups filmed the final scenes that we needed.

The kids who came out in the groups did well – being fish talking to each other, crabs sunbathing, deep sea creatures being creepy. Some of the boys held the backdrop of the coral that the kids had made.

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Some children were very helpful with packing up today. It was a very busy session.

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Term 3 2018, Liverpool Public School - Week 7

The students were enthusiastic this week about the program. The parents were involved in the craft making and it was nice seeing different ideas develop between children and their parents. The parents also enjoyed socialising with each other.

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We made different sea creatures to add to the net such as soft and hard corals, jellyfish, bream fish and wrasse fish.

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Term 3 2018, Marsden Road Public School - Week 6

A teacher from the school heard the kids narrating/reading the story during the recording and she was so impressed! She said she had been listening and that they were doing such a fantastic job. The kids were pleased, and it was really encouraging for them.

Today we made big love hearts for the final scene of the movie, using big sheets of cardboard. We made lots of mess with sparkles and confetti style hearts and other cuttings! The kids enjoyed this and added their own flair to their hearts. They took all session making them.

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While the kids were doing art, some groups went to record the narration for the video. This wasFANTASTIC. The kids were so into the reading and expression. They were all so kind to each other and supportive and helpful. Some children helped others who aren’t reading yet. We all talked about how practice helps you get better and that we all had a time when we couldn’t read yet. The children showed empathy and genuine support to each other including words of encouragement, pats on the back and hugs without my prompting. Not once did they correct each other in rude or patronising ways.

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Term 3 2018, Liverpool Public School - Week 6

We created coral reef structures by cutting out various staghorn hard coral templates and attaching them together.  The students then painted them a colour of their choice – after seeing how the corals look in nature.  The next step is to add salt crystals to the structure to react with ammonia so that the coral looks like the polyps of real coral.

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The pieces students create that can’t be hung from the net could be displayed around the room. We talked about how coral grows and that they are in fact animals not plants. Corals have algae as their “best friends” and it’s the algae that eat and digest food for corals.

The students are really happy to finish their crayfish from last week.  As they work on their projects, the students are chatting away to each other and talking about music they love.

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Term 3 2018, Marsden Road Public School - Week 5

Today we made crabs from all recycled materials from Reverse Garbage! It was more of a challenge than most things we made and for this reason it was extra helpful having extra hand to help the children. Almost all the parents helped too. Lots of cutting intricate parts!

Some children like to sit with their parent and make things together.

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We had decided to get one of the parents to play the grandmother octopus for the video and someone kindly offered. Some children wanted to help dress her and others preferred dressing up themselves. The parent seemed to enjoy herself too! 

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Term 3 2018, Liverpool Public School - Week 5

This week we launched straight into the creation of costumes or stuffed toys based on animals from the Great Barrier Reef that live in tropical waters.  We spent the entire session chatting, creating, solving design problems, working collaboratively with students, teachers and parents. The students worked in pairs or trios with a few of them working individually.

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One child created an advanced shark design – solving problems like how to create serrated complex teeth on a 3D stuffed toy design. Some children worked as a family with their mother to create the crayfish (lobster) design – together they loved the fiddly multiple pieces they were to assemble. Some other children worked with their mother to create a shark and a turtle – adorned with fabric. One student enthusiastically offered to help with all aspects of the cleaning afterwards!

Many of the children worked with their parents this week, designing, creating and decorating their sea creatures.

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Term 3 2018, Liverpool Public School - Week 4

This week, we began with designing mini-costumes of animals from tropical waters of the students’ choice. They worked in pairs or trios to complete the designs. We had a lot of students this week - they were very enthusiastic about creating something for display. We are starting to get regular students who return each week but we are also gaining more. One of the parents had created origami creatures of land animals for the children. He showed the students how to make a kind of coral shaped fan from origami which was wonderful – having a parent actively engaging like this and showing the students a skill is just wonderful. 

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We then had students begin their designs. Converting a 2D design to a 3D design was demonstrated to the students, showing how to cut shapes out so that there would be overlaps to attach.

We finished off with a song called I wish I was a fish. Many of the younger students love to colour in, preferring this to the open designs/creations. We also learnt about sea stars and their radial symmetry as many of the students chose sea stars to colour in!

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Term 3 2018, Marsden Road Public School - Week 4

Today we made deep sea creatures on rainbow scratch paper. It was very special and the kids were super excited about this art project in particular! 

When they arrived they brought their afternoon tea to the front to take the roll and explain the activity.

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They were focused and almost silent while making their artworks. We had pictures of deep sea animals on the board. It was interesting talking about the different animals and their unique traits such as glowing head torches or being able to see their spine, or a squid with barbs or the one that hides in the sand. The kids really used their English to talk about the sea creatures. 

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Term 3 2018, Marsden Road Public School - Week 3

Huge turn out today and one of the happiest sessions! We coloured in coral to stick on a big cardboard box as a backdrop to our movie. 

The kids were unbelievably calm during the colouring in! They were silent at points, even in their huge numbers.  

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We then dressed one child up as the wave monster. She had a great time! The kids were so creative! Some of the kids stayed colouring but a lot of them got involved, making and creating. Some kids had the idea of going under the material at the back of the costume to be her big wave which was a cool effect!

While some of us were filming, many kids were creating all kinds of different things, sticking things together and dressing each other up happily.

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Term 3 2018, Liverpool Public School - Week 3

This week we cut out story characters (tropical marine life from Finding Nemo). It was very absorbing for the students and they loved holding their character up at story time. The students’ confidence and knowledge of English is building. The activity which encourages the children to give voice to the characters builds literacy skills, practises a wide range of vocab and dialogue and is very creative. The students really like this activity as it put them into the story.

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The students were absorbed in the activity of colouring in the fabric map of the world – Great Barrier Reef and the Eastern Australian current. There were eight students around the fabric all colouring in together! 

We previewed a costume as a taster of what they could create with coloured paper / cardboard next week. They loved putting it on and posing in it and many were asking questions about how it was made. 

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Term 3 2018, Marsden Road Public School - Week 2

Today we made shark headbands, practised reading the script for our video and sang the Ten Little Fishies song with the YouTube video.

The kids took ages making headbands but were so happy. Some were super creative, giving their sharks curly moustaches and tattoos and laughing a lot.

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They understood so well and helped each other with unknown words. We talked about the meanings of "wise", "defeat", "deep sea creatures" and "sunbathing".

Lots of the kids enjoyed drawing on the white boards after they had made their sharks. The children’s English is improving by the week.

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Term 3 2018, Liverpool Public School - Week 2

We set up the tables and chairs for the children. We also arranged blankets for a reading and story area. The food was fantastic this week for which we’re really grateful.

Many of the students were fascinated by the wonderful origami that one of the parents had brought along. They were very keen to learn for themselves. Some were interested in colouring them in using the photos provided of fish and animals.  Many others were wanting to take them home and make their own.

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We told a group story in English and Arabic with pictures. It was an abridged version of Finding Nemo – a great hero’s journey with a story arc of finding new friends made along the way and incredible sea animals throughout.

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Term 3 2018, Marsden Road Public School - Week 1

Wonderful first week back. Lots of people and some newbies including toddlers and happily involved parents!

We made little fish on popsicle sticks for the movie. The kids spent most of the session colouring them in, cutting them out and sticking a thick popsicle stick to them. 

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There are some lovely relationships forming between the kids. Some kids know each other from class but others didn't know each other before this group.

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Term 3 2018, Liverpool Public School - Week 1

We had a lovely reception from the school. The meet up at 2:30pm for adults was really well attended – fathers and mothers from friends of Liverpool.

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Some students from the ESL class joined today. They were thrilled by the crab taxidermy and the fish pictures. A great group of students from India, Iraq and Cameroon and Syria stayed until 3pm – some until 4pm. They loved the colouring in and sketching of a crayfish with seaweed. One of the parents stayed to do sketching and colouring – he is an artist, keen to contribute his skills to the group and keep coming back. He’s offered to create a paper fish (origami) for next week and his children can show other children how to make them.

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