Quick intro to me and my work, and a very brief overview of the Creative Schools program and the five habits. Students pretty quiet so went very quickly into main warm-up - see screenshot - about chocolate bars - which would be good at science and which would be a good friend - discuss with your table mates (mostly groups of three). Took some coaxing but then had some great answers - Milky Way and Mars got lots of votes as best at science “because - space!”, another said Caramello because koalas are an animal to study in biology etc. 

As their current curriculum content is the respiratory system, and Tom had indicated they were weak with spelling their vocabulary, we decided to do a vocab-related respiratory system review as a kind of introduction to Creative Schools. Students had access to a bunch of different craft materials and letters, and we gave them a word list, told them to choose one word and create a creative representation of it using the materials. Assigned students to random groups of 3 or 4 after getting them to line up in birthday order without talking (lots of good creative solutions to that!).

Some groups took a while to get started but by the end everyone had created something worthy and could give an explanation of it. Many went with the more obvious “diaphragm” (but at least they got to practice spelling it!), but my favourite outcome was the group who picked “alveoli” without really knowing what it meant, they just liked the sound of the word, and were able to link it to “ravioli” and after chatting with Tom understood that they were air sacs which they immediately linked to ravioli (and made some out of paper) - they’ll never forget this term again!

Short session (1 hr 5 min total) and students so engaged with hands-on activity that we didn’t spend a lot of time on reflection, but looked again briefly at the wheel and focused on discussing collaboration, as they had all complained when I put them in randomised groups, but most then worked well.

Happy with how it went, the students were really receptive after initially just being quiet, and we managed to meet our goal of revising a little curriculum content while also getting students used to how a Creative Schools lesson will work.

Happy to note they all enjoyed the hands-on activities (Tom says anything that looks different to traditional book work is always well received), and after a little prompting every group ended up having some great creative ideas. They were not happy about collaborating outside their friendship groups but generally speaking this went fine, just a couple of students less involved.

We plan to start on the rocks/minerals content next session which, because of assessment tasks, will be a bit over a fortnight after our first session. Amanda to consider best way to creatively introduce our FIFO ideas.

Need to consider the tech issues a little with our podcast idea, some students have iPads and some students don’t have device at all.

Need to email the school coordinator and get started thinking about these possibilities.

Real-World Algebra - We split in two groups outside the classroom, stand in two circles and go around once. First student proposes a real-world situation (e.g., "I'm baking cookies"). The next student says "Yes, and that's like maths because you're measuring ingredients," and so on, with each student connecting everyday cooking activities to mathematical concepts.

World Hunger Comparison Activity

• Concept: each grain of rice or lentil represents 10 calories of daily food availability

• Form 7 groups of 4 students each 

1. Each group receives:

   • Country cards with calorie information and context

   • Rice and lentil supply

   • Paper for visualisation

   • Markers

2. Groups calculate how many grains of rice represent their assigned country's daily calorie availability 

3. Students count and separate rice grains to create visual representations 

4. Groups design a creative way to display their findings on paper… e.g.

   • Draw country outlines and place rice within

   • Create comparative charts

Each group briefly presents their visualisation 

Reflection with the students (one photo)

After the session:

Planning with the Teacher
 (refer back to your original Term Plan document, discuss successes, explore challenges and make changes.)

Working with students
 (what is emerging, what is engaging them/not, what’s making them curious.)

Ideas moving forward
 (ideas for next session, future lessons, discussed with teacher, do you need the teacher to do anything before you return.)

Resources
 (do you need anything, who will source it?)

How can you share learning outcomes/stories of transformation with the wider school community (e.g. Connect newsletter, staff meeting, school newsletter, school social media platforms)

1. Find a partner whose place of birth is closest to where you were born 

2. How can you do this without words?

3. For any solo students, find the person whose place of birth is closest to yours

Speed Debating

1. Sit opposite your partner on each side of the desk

2. Each pair will have a statement taken from the 2025 Vote Compass questionnaire

3. Each station will have 60 seconds to debate your POV - for or against, regardless of your personal belief

4. One side will rotate left, the other will rotate right

Results

1. What was the strongest ‘for’ argument you heard?

2. What was the strongest ‘against’ argument you heard and why?

3. What was the weakest ‘for’ argument you heard?

4. What was the weakest ‘against’ argument you heard and why?

5. Discuss your views

6. Have they changed regarding any of the statements?

7. If so, why?

Reflective Questions

1. Create a question relating to something you heard today but don’t understand

2. Write it on a post it note and stick to the white board 

3. What is something that you discovered today that you didn't already know?

Successes

• Engagement!!!

• They were all interested in what their next topic was

• Loud and passionate debating

• One particular student who is usually less engaged was one of the most animated and engaged

• Adding components to the session based on student response. We decided to get them to add their strongest and weakest arguments onto post it notes rather than just discuss

• Moving between stations was quick and efficient

• Getting students to put their name on the back which meant that they were then accountable for what was written.

Challenges

• 60 seconds was almost too quick. They all had so much to say

• Some students found it difficult to disagree with some of the statements

• Obvious white male privilege evident in some of the answers and debates, along with elements of racism and inequality. Although a challenge, it also helps with deciding how to structure future sessions

• Natural formation of groups into boys and girls

I’m not sure who is enjoying this more, us or the students. We purposefully used the warm up because we knew students would gravitate to those they were familiar with however we were curious to see how they would then manage to present opposing points of view. It was like watching a session of parliament. They were all so animated and got louder and louder, even those who were very quiet to begin with. Using post it notes to gather feedback, pose questions and share findings enabled us to further understand the students who were participating properly amongst the noise and those who could do better. Being able to write down that they wanted to understand tax breaks, subsidies and the difference between income tax and property tax helps us to plan sessions while their ideas on what they felt was the strongest and weakest argument for and against a topic indicates that the students definitely encompass different parts of the political axis. Many of their views appear to be influenced by social media, parents and possibly what they heard during the political campaign so it will be interesting for all of us to see where this leads as they begin to set up their political parties and decide on policies.

1. The first person holds onto the end of the wool and says a food they love.
2. If anyone else in the group also loves that food, they call out:
   “I LOVE that too!”
3. The person who shared then chooses someone else to throw the wool to (gently!) — but they must remember to keep hold of their piece of the string.
4. The next person catches it, says a food they love, and the process continues.

• Students design posters, flyers, or digital ads for their food creations
• Encourage creativity and use of persuasive language.

Time to introduce William Dampier, the English explorer, pirate, and naturalist, who was the first Englishman to chart part of the Australian coastline and the first European to study its landscape, flora, and fauna scientifically.  

We started the lesson by showing examples from his field book. The warm-up was whittling our drawing stick and making ink from rocks/leaves.

As they are whittling, I read the dream time story of how the birds go there colours.

Field Book Pages - Birds

Looking at feathers, habitats

Work Stations: Geli prints/Rubbings/Drawing

Cut out a native birds and add it to the collage.

We had half the books which we have the year 6’s and the year 5’s had books Nathan had printed. They both worked out fine and they enjoyed whittling the sticks, but we didn't see any birds today!

Next week we can look at plants… with more experimenting making inks, rubbings and prints

They can talk about the habits and how they have used them very well already!

I need to get some better printing ink for the geli plates. I only have 2 plates, but I think it will be fine.. And we need some paper.

I need to think of warm up activity that we play. Maybe we give them all a plant to go find

Because our challenge is stillness and quietness, we adopted the Breath Marks exercise.

Materials: A sheet of paper for each student - any size, loose leaf

or in a journal/workbook, preferably blank but it can be

lined. Texta or marker pens and a timer.

Set Up: Each student needs a space where they can sit or lie

comfortably, on their own for 5 minutes and have the

materials close to hand.

Rules: Ask students to breathe in and out, making a mark on

the paper each time they breathe. Special breathing is

not required, no deep breaths or holding of breath, just

normal breathing. Any kind of mark can be made – a

dot, a line, a shape, a squiggle. During the activity the

only sounds made by the participants are the sounds of

the pens making marks on the paper and the sounds of

Breathing.

Today's activity connected recipe scaling with understanding food needs in communities.

Divides students into 7 groups of 4

Recipe Analysis & Scaling (15 minutes)

1. Collaborative Work: Students share their family recipes with their group

   • Which is the most cost effective recipe? Vegetarian?

   • Which has the easiest storage or longest shelf life?

   • Which is the most nutritious?

2. Inquisitive Task: Groups select one recipe then answer:

   • How many servings does the original recipe make?

   • What are the key ingredients and their quantities?

   • If we needed to feed 100 people, how would we scale this recipe?

Reflection & Sharing (10 minutes)

1. Each group briefly shares their recipe, scaling calculations, and one insight about hunger in Australia

2. Groups summarise the mathematical principles they applied (ratios, proportions, unit conversion)

Added sand from today’s creative habits 5 min

We found out in the last week that the principal has said only food tec classes can be in the food tech room so we have had to think about how to change our plans a little, especially for week 6 and 8. We are now thinking abou thawing a session where we will start to digitally document our ingredients and then the final session 8 we are still wanting to have a session in the currently empty canteen, culminating in donating our food to a charity. 

If any new skills introduced they need an explicit demo in person rather than in any worksheet type documentation. Jasmine can help identify if they are new by checking hte weekly planned activity when Andrea sends it through.

Inquisitive, disciplined, persistent

Today’s main activity was a bit too simple an activity for the size of the group.

They seem into food and are looking forward to eating! They are very fond of sweet things.

Jasmine to share documents with students via onedrive going forward.

Jasmine to comment on appropriateness of activities if they are too small for suggested groups. 

Jasmine to get the fried rice recipe from the student and we will share the making of this. 

School facebook 

Compass (intranet) to raise awareness with families 

Andrea and Jasmine to share photos with each other via google drive 

Sourcing Materials - inquisitive, collaboration, persistence, discipline

1. Find a collection of five sticks

2. They must be shorter than your arm

3. They must be longer that your hand

4. You must stay within the grassed area

5. How quickly can you do it?

Jodie Says - Creative Habit Warm Up

1. Just like ‘Simon Says’, use your body actions to show the correct Creative Habit

2. You must only move when ‘Jodie says’

3. Once someone is out, they become a spotter.

Making 3D Creatures

1. What is the difference between 3 dimensional and 2 dimensional?

2. Create a 3 dimensional creature using your found objects and others that are in the boxes

3. You can gather extra materials if you need them

4. How can you do this without staples or glue?

5. What tools can you use?

6. What do you need to remember regarding your safety and that of those around you?

7. Go…

Which creative habit did you use today?

1. Which coloured paper corresponds to the creative habit you feel you used most today?

2. Discuss with a partner why you chose that colour

3. How can you attach this to your flower to begin your Creative Habits flower garden. Will you stick it flat, roll it up, overlap it or do you have another idea?

4. Attach your paper to your flower, cut it out and have it ready to add to the garden.

Successes

• Complete engagement with everything today by all students

• Higher number of green ‘happy’ zones today that prior to previous sessions

• Problem solving because adults were only able to answer a question with a question

• Imagination was awesome!

• Collaboration, particularly when students didn’t know how to do something. Other students would come and offer to show them and help

• Working independently 

• Remembering their creative habits and being able to reflect on which creative habit they were using and why or determining which creative habit they might need to use and how

• Ongoing reflection of Creative Habits throughout the session

Challenges

• We had to do a quick modification and move the activities which were initially planned for outside, inside due to complications with one of the students. This also meant that we changed the warm up so that it was suitable for inside but still contained body movement

• We weren’t able to do our Reflection at the end of the session because of National Simultaneous Storytime however, Katy will do it with them after recess. 

The working with tools today definitely engaged the entire class, even those who are usually more withdrawn. Unfortunately one student who would have enjoyed this activity, is having some difficulties with school so wasn’t in class today however the class decided that they needed additional time to work on their creatures so we are going to continue the activity next week. I’m hopeful she will see the creatures during the week and want to participate in the next session. They were curious about how to join pieces together without glue and were engaged in working out solutions. Even though they were working independently, they were also quick to help each other and share their projects. They also came up with great suggestions for which creative habit their creature had and why. 

‘My creature’s superpower habit is imaginative because it imagines what it can create in its head’ … student

One student also suggested that he wanted to draw his creature when it was finished but thought we could do it like we had in one of the earlier sessions so they could each draw their creature with a partner and then swap the drawings and add to them. We will incorporate this into their next session. They are curious about what we are doing each week but also able to come up with suggestions for driving the project forward.