Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Learning Celebration

Thank you to everyone who joined us for our recent Learning Celebration. Here are some photos from the day, taken by Kim Percy.

Happy holidays from all of us here at the Dharma School!

Saturday, December 10, 2011

Our Day of Carving

By Andromeda
Click for bigger

Not long to go!


This is gorgeous Tanya, the teacher of the Littles. She's very pregnant as you can see. On behalf of all us at the Dharma School, we wish you much love and health and support as you near the birth of your baby. We already know your baby is going to be very wise - she/he chose you as a mother, after all! xx

Family Tree

By Ruben


This is our school family tree, we love climbing it and playing around it. It's our favourite thing to do at school. The first day I came to this school I looked at the tree and thought "this is the best tree ever, I'm coming here every day" and I was determined to come there every day. Sadly the tree isn't on our land so we can't go there any more. But hopefully when the 190 trees we recently planted grow we can climb them and play in them.

I cant wait until the trees grow so we can climb and build cubbie houses in them, but I guess we'll have to wait. :(

Puppets

When asked to create an artwork about mindful consumption Ozzy created these incredible puppets. If you are lucky enough to be part of the school community you will see these puppets in Ozzy's performance at the end of Term Four.

Pauline Hanson
Mama Cass

This is What

By Andromeda

This is what the earth would look like if we stopped polluting. It would be peaceful and beautiful. Everybody would have enough to eat.

Friday, December 9, 2011

Nature Photography

By Gabriel.

Last week I walked around the school yard with a camera taking photos of leaves, flowers and trees.

This is a picture of a spider I found in our oak tree:


I liked this photo because I managed to get the flower in focus when the background was blurred:


To take this photo I had to lie on the undergrowth of our big blackwood tree:


This photo is of the flower of a blackberry bush that was growing in the oak trees:

Thursday, December 8, 2011

Nature Adventure

Instead of having our morning in the classroom, today we met at the Wombat Hill Botanical Gardens for a morning of nature adventuring with Bec, Patrick and Meg.


We started off by dispersing like seeds in the wind then writing about what we found once we'd landed.


Some of us were more creative with our writing implements.


We talked about the forest and all the different things we can do with wood.


We carved trees.


We jumped out of them.


We sat in their shade and ate our lunch.


Then we used them to try and light a fire.


Some of us even tried to eat them.


After a while we even started to look like them.


Our minds and our bodies were becoming one with our environment.


Until soon enough, the transformation was complete.

My Australian Refugee Story

By Andromeda

Chapter one
My name is Andromeda. I have a dog and a goldfish. My dog is called Ruby and my goldfish is called Goldy. I have blonde hair, blue eyes and I live in Daylesford. Daylesford is pretty much bush, but there are roads, houses, shops and schools. There are so many trees I am surprised that there are not many at my house.

I like fluffy bunnies. I also like sushi, climbing trees, going on holidays, going out for dinner, visiting my grandparents, going to Sydney and eating cakes.

I live with my two brothers Callan and Llywelen, Ruby my dog, two goldfish and both of my parents. My great grandmother has just died recently. If you were wondering when and how, in April we think she died because the night before she died she had bumped her head.

My best friends are Isobel, Yemaya, Ozzy and Lizzie. Yemaya and I have had ten sleep overs!

Chapter two
A bomb exploded in our town. No one was allowed outside of their house. My mum and dad were too worried to let us out of the house, so we couldn’t play with our friends.

Everyone was scared sick. Mum and Dad kept vomiting. I was too worried to be silly. We could not go to school which I really wanted to go to. I really missed learning.

People with guns came. One person with a gun came and knocked on our door. Mum answered the door. We all got taken out of the house, even the animals. Ruby got excited and jumped on the soldier. He smacked her really hard. Dad yelled at him.

We went to the boss’ office. Dad got yelled at. The boss went mad at Dad. They had a punch up. Some soldiers tried to stop them, but they couldn’t. We got put in a bus and left Daylesford. Dad got left behind. Everyone was really sad, Dad was too. The bus was taking us to the airport. Soon after Dad arrived everyone was so happy to see him. Everyone was worried about how we would pay for the bus and aeroplane.

Chapter 3
We got on the aeroplane and left. I was really scared. I had never been on an aeroplane before. I almost vomited from looking out the window. I wish people hadn’t started fighting, because I miss my friends and family.

The aeroplane was really crowded. We only got three pieces of food a day. An apple for breakfast, a piece of bread for lunch and sometimes if we were lucky at dinner we would also get a piece of bread. Sometimes, the bread was mouldy. I couldn’t wait to get there because the aeroplane was so awful. My stomach hurt so much from being hungry and thirsty all the time. At night when I tried to sleep I woke up with pains.

It was really smelly on the plane from everyone being unable to shower. We couldn’t even go to the toilet properly. The stench was so strong that my mum fainted. I tried to hold my nose for ages until I fell asleep.

Chapter 4
We landed 9 hours after we got on the plane. I was so relieved and excited to get off and walk around. I jumped out and got my bag. Straight away we walked together and were put on a bus and taken to a place I had no idea where it was.

When I got outside, I froze. It was so different. It was dusty. People were wearing these funny hats. There was food called dumplings. There were vegetable dumplings, meat dumplings. They were really yummy. The family loved them too. Here is a picture of me eating dumplings.


2 years later
My mum is now a really good Chinese cook. I am now used to the new food. I really like the differences. I go back to Australia about once a year.

Tipperary Springs

By Isobel 

In the morning we went down to Tipperary Springs with Katarina and Meg.


It took a long time to get there.

We walked........


And walked.....


Until I thought we were there...
But we only got to go to Boomerang Ranch.

All the boys sat together.


While Andromeda and I sat together.

We were looking for shapes within nature.


After about an hour we went back to school. We had a really great time.

Zero and Bess

By Zephyr

Zero is my dog the brown headed small Jack Russell. And Bess is our teacher Bec's dog. Whenever Bec comes to school, she usually brings Bess with her. Bess and Zero have snuggly time when they are both at school as well as lots of play fights.

how to make animated gif

Jack Russells are hunting dogs and Zero tries to teach Bess how to go hunting at school. Bess is a calm dog and Zero is a playful dog and you always see Bessie lying down and Zero jumping on her.

I always love watching Zero and Bessie play fighting at school, it's so cute.