Mr. Rees' Class Blog » HSIE

Eggcellent Stick Insects (HSIE: Who will buy?) – Part 2

Mr. Rees — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 11:57:59 +0000

After selling out in record time, our new stock has finally arrived. Several eager volunteers have been assembling the kits and we are ready go. We will start selling in the Infants Playground with Group 4 and then Group 6 (Tuesday) and Group 1 (Wednesday). There are 100 kits available for sale (same as last time – they didn’t last long). Good Luck!!

3-6 students who already have permission notes can bring them to the classroom before school and at recess (not lunch).

Quote from previous post:

After selling the first 100 hundred kits, the class has made $200 with $90 going to cost of supplies. The class then decided to spend another $90 of their $110 profit so that they will have enough to make one hundred more kits. If they sell all of these kits their total profit will be $220. Gross sales of $400.

Sales so far:

Group 1 – (will sell later)
Group 2 – 18
Group 3 – 56
Group 4 – 66 (Infants) 62 in one day, wow!!
Group 5 – 42
Group 6 – 18 (Infants)

Day 2: 20 sold

Day 3: 35 sold

Day 4: 48 sold (sold out)

Day 5: 6 sold

Day 6: 75 sold (16 kits remain)

Day 7: 19 sold (sold out)

Total : 200

You put a great deal of effort into our class business and it certainly shows. I am very proud of all of you.

EVERYONE, WELL DONE !!!

Assignment: Create an advertisement for a known product (HSIE: Who will buy?)

Mr. Rees — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 08:15:30 +0000

Create an advertisement for a known product. Make sure you think about the techniques you can use to help influence your target audience.

It may be in the form of:

DVD (T.V. advertisement)
CD recording (radio advertisement)
Drama (live TV infomercial)
Powerpoint presentation (newspaper/magazine advertisement)
Poster (billboard advertisement )

You will present your advertisement with a speech to class during Week 9.

In your speech, explain the type of advertisement you have chosen and the techniques you have used to influence your target audience.

We will discuss the following advertisements in class and how they have been successful.

Eggcellent Stick Insects (HSIE: Who will buy?)

Mr. Rees — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 07:16:01 +0000

All our work on our unit ‘Who will buy? and setting up our business seems to be paying off . Group 3, who were the first ready, were lucky to be the first to market. At the end of the first day they have sold 19 Kits and Group 5, who started second, squeezed in an early sale this afternoon. By tomorrow afternoon we will be able to see how quickly group 5 can catch up. I have been very impressed with how knowledgeable you are about stick insects and how well you explain it to potential customers.

[Update]: Thursday 19th Aug

The 3rd group has now had a chance to hand out their permission notes and pamphlets, though we will be unable to see how many kits they sell until Monday. Somehow we have SOLD OUT and have made enough money to pay all of our loan from the bank (Reesbank). We will need to start putting together more kits ready for Monday. We had to turn away at least 20 customers, so hopefully they will be back on Monday.

We will start selling in the infants area later this term and let the groups who have not started have a go at a new market.

Well done everyone!!

[Update]: Monday 22nd Aug

We made an extra 45 kits from the last of our supplies and again we have SOLD OUT. We now have to wait for more supplies from overseas to arrive (1-3 weeks) before we can sell again. Great job everyone!!

After selling the first 100 hundred kits, the class has made $200 with $90 going to cost of supplies. The class have now decided to spend another $90 of their $110 profit so that they will have enough to make one hundred more kits. If they sell all of these kits their total profit will be $220.

Sales so far:

Group 1 – (Infants)
Group 2 – 15
Group 3 – 46
Group 4 – (Infants)
Group 5 - 39
Group 6 – (Infants)

Day 2: 20 sold

Day 3: 35 sold (sold out)

Day 4: 45 sold (sold out)

100 total (+55)

First Settlers’ homes: WONDERFUL, AMAZING and CREATIVE

Mr. Rees — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 09:29:32 +0000

WoW!! A class full of WONDERFUL, AMAZING and CREATIVE First Settlers’ homes made by you (with help of course). I was so impressed I am going to give you all a MERIT CERTIFICATE. You can see the houses in the gallery below.

Which house did you like and why?
[use the photo number if you don't know who owns the house]

Assignment: Homes of the First Settlers

Mr. Rees — Thu, 27 May 2010 08:35:00 +0000

The First Settlers’ homes were very primitive, and ranged from bough shelters with only a roof and no walls through to bush and bark huts, log cabins, slab, wattle-and-daub, thatched and sod huts. Since there was an abundant supply of timber, it was used for walls, roofs, floors, doors, windows and even chimneys.

postcard of an Australian Family Hut circa 1880

Assignment:

Read the information on this website about different types of housing of the first settlers, including aboriginal housing. Also look at the wonderful photos showing some examples that may give you ideas.
Design and make a ‘First Settlers’ home. Choose from a Sod Hut, Slab Hut, Bark Hut and a Wattle and Daub Hut). Use a cardboard box/s as your base to work on and make sure to plan where you are going to put the doors, windows, etc.
Write and publish a procedure (with pictures) to tell/show us how you constructed your house. Visit Jenny Eather’s ‘Writing Fun‘ website if you need help with your procedure.

Due Date: Monday 21st June (Week 10)

If you would like a challenge, or have the time, try and create your house so the roof can come off and then decorate the inside (see example). I like detail!

[Updated]: Everyone has made a wonderful house. I have added a few pictures below, though you can find more in the Gallery.

Excursion: The Rocks Walking Tour

Mr. Rees — Thu, 20 May 2010 09:55:29 +0000

Today we went on an excursion to The Rocks to help us with our HSIE unit about British Colonisation. The tour began at First Fleet Park where we met our tour leader. We discussed the journey that Captain Cook took to Australia (then known as New Holland) as well as the arrival of the first fleet. We then explored The Rocks to see how the convicts and settlers lived. Some of the places we visited were the Nurses Walk, Suez Canal and Argyle Cut.

Click here to view full screen

Click below for the Jigsaw Puzzle

[Your web browser does not support frames or is currently configured not to display frames. However, you may visit the related page.]
How quick can you complete the puzzle?

Comprehension: European Settlement of Australia

Mr. Rees — Wed, 05 May 2010 11:02:44 +0000

Australia’s first group of European migrants arrived in January 1788. They came on a fleet consisting of two warships, three supply ships and six ships which carried the main group, almost 800 convicts. Governor Arthur Phillip was in command. When the fleet reached the planned destination of Botany Bay, Governor Phillip was disappointed to find that it was not suitable for settlement as fresh water was limited. So the fleet continued a few kilometers up the coast to an inlet Cook had named Port Jackson. Here Phillip found what he described as ‘the finest harbour in the world’. On its shore, at a place he named Sydney Cove, Phillip established the first European settlement in Australia.

Port Jackson, 26th January 1788

The main reason for a British settlement in Australia was to provide a place of punishment where convicts could be sent. Phillip’s task was to establish such a settlement and make it self-supporting as soon as possible, so that the British government would not have to pay large amounts of money to keep it going. this was an enormously difficult job for several reasons:

The people who were to build the settlement were convicts. Generally they were not good workers and very few of them had any knowledge of farming or carpentry – the two skills most needed in the new colony.
Unlike Aborigines, who lived well off the land, the new settlers did not understand the Australian environment. Nor, in the early years, did they have much success in finding fertile land or growing enough food to feed the whole settlement.
The new convict settlement at Sydney Cove was very isolated. The nearest European settlements were in the Dutch East Indies and at the Cape of Good Hope.
It would take up to 18 months to get news to Britain and back.

Because of these difficulties the first British settlement in Australia was lucky to survive it’s early years. the supplies they brought with them ran out, the first attempts at farming failed and while waiting more than two years for a second fleet to arrive from Britain, Phillip’s small band almost starved. It took some years before the British penal colony was successfully established on the edge of Sydney Cove.

Sydney Cove, 1845

Comprehension Questions

1. How many ships were in the first fleet?

2. Who was the governor of the settlement?

3. Why was Botany Bay not suitable for their settlement and where did they move?

4. What was the name of the first settlement?

5. What was one of the main reasons the British settled in Australia?

7. Why would it take one and a half years to receive information back from Britain?

8. Why did the first settlers almost die?

Using the Convicts on the First Fleet Database list some information about one convict in the first fleet? When using the database you can search for particular names or you can leave all fields blank and just click [Start Search].

Below is an example of information from the database:

John AYRES
He was tried at Old Bailey, London on 21 April 1784 for stealing musical instruments with a value of 50 shillings. He was sentenced to transportation for 7 years and left England on the Scarborough aged about 20 at that time (May 1787). His occupation was listed as shoemaker.

Bound for Botany Bay

Mr. Rees — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 07:54:04 +0000

We were dissecting the lyrics to the song Bound for Botany Bay as an introduction to our HSIE unit on British Colonisation. We then played the song a couple of times and had a sing-along. Everyone did such a fantastic job we decided to record it straight away. You can find the song in our Podcast or click on play in the player below. I have also added the lyrics so you can sing along.

Chorus
Singing too-ral-li-ooral-li-addity
Singing too-ral-li-ooral-li-ay
Singing too-ral-li-ooral-li-addity
For we’re bound for the Botany Bay

Verse 1
Farewell to old England the beautiful
Farewell to me old pals as well
Farewell to the famous Old Bailey
Where I used to cut such a swell

Verse 2
It’s seven long years I’ve been serving
And seven I’ve got for to stay
For beatin’ a cop down our alley
An’ takin’ his truncheon away

Verse 3
‘Tain’t leaving Old England we cares about
‘Tain’t ’cause we mis-spells what we knows
But because all we light-fingered gentry
Hops around with a log on our toes

Verse 4
There’s the captain what is our commander
There’s the bos’n an’ all the ship’s crew
The married and also the single ones
Knows what we poor convicts go through

Verse 5
It ain’t that they don’t give us grub enough
It ain’t that they don’t give us clothes
It’s all ’cause we light-fingered gentry
Goes about with a chain on our toes

Verse 6
O had the wings of the turtle-dove
I’d spread out my pinions and fly
Into the arms of me Polly love
And on her soft bosom I’d lie

Verse 7
Now all young viscounts and duchesses
Take warning by what I do say
And mind it’s all yours that you touches-es
Or you’ll end up in Botany Bay

Web Quest: ANZAC Day 25th April

Mr. Rees — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 09:44:31 +0000

ANZAC Day celebrated on the 25th of April is the day Australians remember those men and women who have fought and died in all wars defending Australia. The term ANZAC was the name given to the men who landed on the shores of Gallipoli (Turkey) on the morning of 25th April, 1915.

Find the answers to the questions and then type them into a comment (full sentences). Make sure you number each answer to match the questions below. Comments will be published after everyone has done their own.

Read The Story of ANZAC to gain an insight into the history and origin of ANZAC Day.

Go to the following site The ANZAC Day tradition and research the following questions:

1. What is ANZAC Day?
2. Why is this day so special to Australians?
3. What does this day mean today?

Go to Gallipoli and the ANZACs and research the following questions:

4. Why did the ANZAC’s land at Gallipoli?
5. What were the major events leading up to the landing at Gallipoli?
6. Did the ANZAC’s land in the right place?

Save your answers in the comments and then continue below.

Click here to interact with a gigapan panorama of Gallipoli, Turkey.

Find a partner and go to the following link, QUIZ .

One person is to act as the ‘Quiz Master’ and the other is to be the ‘Contestant’. Complete the quiz and see how much information you and your partner have learned about ANZAC Day.

Click to play ‘The ode’

FOR THE FALLEN—An excerpt

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.

Incursion: Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Tuesday March 23rd

Mr. Rees — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 23:08:12 +0000

We will be going on a virtual excursion to the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park for our H.S.I.E. unit on State and National Parks.

You will get the opportunity to observe up to five thousand live sea creatures, experience the habitats, ecosystems and behaviour of reef creatures, analyse the interactions that exist between reef creatures, appreciate the requirements for a healthy ecosystem; and discover the latest in reef research. Amazingly this occurs inside of the tanks as well as outside, a SCUBA diver will present some of the content. It is a live connection using the Connected Classrooms hardware.

What questions could you ask about the Great Barrier Reef?

SCUBA: Self Contained Under Water Breathing Apparatus

Web of Life: Coral Reef

[Update]: