Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Questions for Atitjere

Here are some questions we have about your life in Atitjere.  We put a big poster up in our room and kids all wrote their questions on...

Here they are,

* Do you have pets?
* What Football teams are popular?
* What are some different kinds of celebrations that you have?
* What do you do to have fun?  What games do you play?  What toys do you have?
* What kinds of food do you have in Atitjere that might be different to Melbourne?  What is your favourite food?  Do you often eat witchety grubs?
* Do you speak another language apart from English?
* Do you do some kinds of Aboriginal art?  What do you do?  What material do you use for art?
* How is your school structured?  Do you have mixed grades like us?  What subjects do you do at school?  What grade do you finish at?
* Do you watch TV?  What is your favourite show?
* Do you have swimming pools at Atitjere?

Wednesday, June 4, 2008

Ascot Vale starts the ball rolling...

Hi there,
Here we are and there you are (hopefully reading this blog).  We are trying to set up a friendship with a community of kids in Central Australia.  One of our teachers goes north every year to work in remote communities.  She was telling us about Atitjere.  We want to find out more and more about that place.  It sounds so interesting.  It seems amazing that a place can be so different from where we live but still in Australia.

Here's a little bit about us...
Well, this is Melbourne and we are a grade 2, 3, 4 kids.  We are between 7 and 10 years old.  Our school is a bit different from most schools because we are multi-aged.  That means we mix up the grades in our classes.  As you have read, ours is a 2, 3 and 4 classroom.  We also have classes of prep, 1, 5 and 6 (all together).  Those kinds would be aged 5, 6, 11 and 12.  We like how it is because we have lots of different friends and we really help each other.  Also, our classes are double with two teachers.  Each class has about 48 kids.  Some of us walk to school, ride to school, take a tram,train or bus...
We can't wait to hear from you in Atitjere.  We will post again and ask you some questions but please also write to us and ask us anything you like.

(written by Ellen.  Ascot Vale teacher)