One of the best things about having a class blog is participating in projects with other schools. For one of our last projects of the year we are sharing procedures about how to play games with our friends, Mrs Monaghan and A Room with A View in England and Mrs Yollis in America.

Beanbag Toss

Origami Rabbit (technically not a game, but still fun to do!)

Duck, Duck, Goose

Australian Rules Football

 
Australian Rules Football is a very popular game in Australia. It is quite a different version of football to the one our friends in A Room with a View play.

There are many, many rules to this game. We have included the main ones in our procedure. If you want to learn more about the rules, click HERE.

What is your favourite game to play? Why?

Can you teach us a game?

Guest Post by Cooper and Jack

Basketball is a popular sport and people around the world play it. According to Wikipedia, basketball was invented in 1891 by a PE teacher called Mr Naismith. He wanted a game that was not as rough as football.

In 1949 the National Basketball Association (NBA) started in America. It is now very popular and worth billions of dollars. In America there is a National Basketball Association. It is called the NBA and there are lots of teams. Some of them are Chicago Bulls, Los Angeles Lakers, Miami Heat, New York Knicks and Toronto Raptors.

There were only thirteen rules of “basket ball”. These are the original rules which we have copied from Wikipedia.

1. The ball may be thrown in any direction with one or both hands.
2. The ball may be batted in any direction with one or both hands.
3. A player cannot run with the ball, the player must throw it from the spot on which he catches it, allowance to be made for a man who catches the ball when running at good speed.
4. The ball must be held in or between the hands, the arms or body must not be used for holding it.
5. No shouldering, holding, pushing, tripping or striking in any way the person of an opponent shall be allowed. The first infringement of this rule by any person shall count as a foul, the second shall disqualify him until the next goal is made, or if there was evident intent to injure the person, for the whole of the game, no substitute.
6. A foul is striking the ball with the fist, violation of rules 3 and 4, and such as described in rule 5.
7. If either side makes three consecutive fouls it shall count a goal for opponents.
8. A goal shall be made when the ball is thrown or batted from grounds into the basket and stays there If the ball rests on the edge and the opponent moves the basket it shall count as a goal.
9. When the ball goes out of bounds it shall be thrown into the field and played by the person first touching it. In case of a dispute, the umpire shall throw it straight into the field. The “thrower-in” is allowed five seconds. If he holds it longer it shall go to the opponent. If any side persists in delaying the game, the umpire shall call a foul on them.
10. The umpire shall be the judge of the men and shall note the fouls, and notify the referee when three consecutive fouls have been made.
11. The referee shall be the judge of the ball and shall decide when the ball is in play, in-bounds, and to which side it belongs, and shall keep the time. He shall decide when a goal has been made and keep account of the goals with any other duties that are usually performed by a referee.
12. The time shall be fifteen-minute halves, with five minute rests between.
13. The side making the most goals in that time shall be declared the winner. In the case of a draw, the game may, by agreement of the captains, be continued until another goal is made.

This is a picture of the first basketball court.

A basketball court looks like this:

Picture from Word by Picture website

When you play basketball you need shorts and a t-shirt because you get hot. You also need a basketball and a pair of shoes that are easy to run in, like Nike, Asics or Adidas.

Basketball is good for your health because you run around and become fit. It is also good fun playing with your friends.

Photo taken by Jack

Do you like basketball? Why?

Tell us about a basketball game you have played.

We are currently on school holidays after finishing Term Three on 18th September. We packed a fair bit into our ten week term. In addition to learning about procedures (more here), reports, finding the main idea and supporting details of a text, comparing texts, skimming, scanning, summarising, fractions, decimals, location, data and natural disasters we also had some special events, including:

– A First Aid course

– A Hoop Time Basketball tournament

– Working with Miss Newton and Mr Sinclair (our pre service teachers)

– An Athletics Day (sorry, no photos – we forgot to take the camera!)

– Winning a T-Ball grand final

– Cooking

– eSmart Week and a cyber safety workshop with Susan McLean

– Developed growth mindsets and completed a ‘Seven Day Growth Mindset Challenge’.

– Dressed up as a favourite character from a favourite book to celebrate Book Week.

– Continued our #globalpal Twitter project with Mrs Monaghan in England, Mrs Yollis in America and Ms Shannon in Darwin.

– Went to Allambee Camp

– Some of us also went to Tasmania to visit Mrs Smith and our friends in 5/6CS. We also learnt about Australia’s convict history. Click HERE to read Mrs Smith’s blog post about our visit.

– Said ‘Goodbye’ to Mrs Laffan (our principal) with a special Mrs Laffan dress up day, flash mob dance and assembly.

No wonder we were all very tired at the end of term – we were busy little bees!

Our last term for the school year begins on Monday 5th October.  It is sure to be another busy and exciting term. Check out the ‘Curriculum’ tab in the ‘Parents’ section at the top of the screen to see what we will be learning about. There will also be ‘Where’s William?’ Day on Friday 10th October, a Genius Hour Day, Grade 6 Graduation, Christmas Carols and Awards Night, a Christmas Skype with Mrs Monaghan and some High School Days. We will also be welcoming Mrs Egan, our new principal for Term Four.

What did you enjoy most in Term Three? Why?

What are you looking forward to doing in Term Four? Why?

Miss Fenech, UPPS’s PE and Science teacher, has a class blog too.

Click HERE to read her latest post. It’s all about our PE session this week!

We are practising our basketball skills so that we are ready to participate in ‘Hooptime’ later in the year. The wordsearch below comes from the people who organise Hooptime.
 

What ‘basketball’ words can you find? Tell us in a comment!

This term we are participating in interschool sports with four other schools in our district.

The sports we are playing are:
– Football (AFL)
– Netball
– T-Ball
– Rounders

Each week we travel to another school to play against their school team. So far we have played two rounds and have three rounds left. Team games are a lot of fun and we are enjoying playing interschool sport. For some of us, the sport we are playing is one we know well and for others, we are learning a new game, skills and rules.

Thank you to George’s Mum, Bende and Mrs Laffan for taking the photos.

What sports do you play? Tell us about the them!

How do you make sure you show good sportsmanship?

We are focusing on recounts in writing at the moment. So, recounting our recent excursion is a perfect opportunity for us to share our recount writing skills with our blogging friends! We wrote most of this text as a whole class earlier today in our writing whole class focus.

Football Clinic

On Tuesday 24^th February we travelled to an oval in Broadford for a football clinic. A dozen players from an AFL club named Essendon Football Club met us there and taught us new skills.

Our day started with a 20 minute bus trip. When we arrived we noticed footy players waiting patiently in their cars. We also discovered an oval filled with footballs, cones, handball targets and tackling bags.

Students from local schools assembled in the centre of the oval and the players introduced themselves. We heard from the players who included David Zaharakis, Paul Chapman, Dustin Fletcher, Adam Cooney, Brent Stanton, Tom Bellchambers, Joe Daniher and Heath Hocking.

We kicked off the morning with an activity called ‘Sink the Boat’. Some students had to handball the balls out of the boat (inside of the white cones) and other students had to handball them back in.

We spent four minutes at each station. The second station was designed to practise handballing. Teams stood on each side of a square. Inside the square was a giant tennis ball which we had to knock by hitting it with a football. The idea was to keep the tennis ball away from your team.

We made our way around to six other stations. Activities included handballing a ball through a target and kicking practice. There were also tackling stations which were pretty popular, especially as we are not allowed to bump or tackle at school!

Watch the video below to see us in action.

We were very lucky to meet the people we normally only get to see on TV or playing at big venues. We never usually get to talk to them, let alone have them show us skills and drills, sign our shirts or pose for photos.

Lots of people made it possible for us to participate in the clinic. Thank you to…
* Miss Fenech for organising for us to attend the clinic
* Rosie and Frank for being our parent helpers
* Parents who dropped in to see us
* Players from Essendon Football Club
* Organisers from the AFL

We had a wonderful day and would have loved to stay and play for longer.

Do you follow a football team? Which one?

Have you participated in a sports clinic before? Tell us about it!

What do you think of our recount writing skills?