Elementary Class Visits Australia

"Fasten your seatbelts. This twenty-two hour Quantas Airline flight to Melbourne, Australia is about to take off!"

Thus began the Elementary class's multidisciplinary study of Australia. For the past few weeks, our Elementary students have been surfing near Bondi Beach, touring Tasmania, studying Australian cartography and landforms, speaking in Aussie slang, creating Aboriginal-styled artwork, eating Vegemite, pumpkin scones and Brisbane oranges, and avoiding (and studying) large Australian insects. Children have been so busy they haven't had time to snorkel around the Great Barrier Reef, listen to the didgeridoo or observing the crocodiles at Crocosaurus Cove yet. All while developing reading, writing, math and social studies skills.

This amazing unit was designed and implemented by our awesome Elementary teachers, Mrs. Hannon and Mrs. Hatziyannis, whose creativity, enthusiasm and passion for their classroom make their program unrivaled. Why are children so enthusiastic? This type of multidiscipilinary, integrated continent study brings all forms of intelligence - linguistic, emotions, musical, movement and spatial reasoning, and logical-mathematic together to create rigorous, relevant, and engaging learning. The "virtual" field trip provides the context for our students to make connections across disciplines in a meaningful way. Students see a purpose to their learning, even though Australia is on the other side of the globe.

So if you see an Elementary student this week, be sure to say, "G'day, Mate! Have a ripper of a trip!"