Families celebrate events with different traditions.

This term Rooms 4, 5 and 6 have been learning through the transdisciplinary theme of "How We Express Ourselves"

An inquiry into the ways in which we discover and express ideas, feelings, nature, culture, beliefs and values; the ways in which we reflect on, extend and enjoy our creativity; our appreciation of the aesthetic.

Using the central idea of "Families celebrate events with different traditions" we have been exploring the concepts:

• There are many parts to organising a celebration. (Connection)

• People celebrate in different ways (Perspective)

• There are different reasons for celebrations. (Causation)

This unit of inquiry kicked off with a surprise celebration day. The children were asked to arrive at school wearing party clothes. The children were encouraged to look for evidence that there was a celebration taking place. Each room was decorated with balloons, streamers, table cloths and flowers. During the day the children participated in three activities: making a party hat, baking a celebration cake and playing party games. At the end of the day the children were told that unfortunately there was no money for Team Take Off to have an end of year party. Little did they know that the teachers had actually told a wee lie, to provoke some action! The children were not happy and have decided that they deserve an end of year party day and will make this happen by fundraising. Lots of ideas were discussed, from taking lotto tickets to selling cookies and having a garage sale. Watch this space as later in the term the children will be deciding what action to take!

Over the last few weeks, we have been exploring different celebrations. Starting with celebrations we are very familiar with eg. birthdays and Christmas through to celebrations from overseas. Each time we are focusing on these Approaches to Learning: research skills and thinking skills. The children have learnt how to ask a question to get some information and then to listen to the answer. Afterwards, we can use our research to make comparisons between how people celebrate. They have learnt that everyone celebrates in different ways and people celebrate for different reasons.