We have been exploring the stories and symbols that make up the important days of Holy Week.

We began our journey listening to the events of Palm Sunday:

God’s Story: Palm Sunday from Crossroads Kids’ Club on Vimeo.

We then explored parts of the story of Holy Thursday, especially when Jesus washed the feet of his disciples and shared the Last Supper with them.

This week we will be finding out about the events of Good Friday and preparing our part of the whole school Holy Week Liturgy. At the Holy Week liturgy we will be leading reflection on Good Friday.  Evryone in Year Two has been asked to make a cross at home with their families.

I have made mine.  First I found two sticks on my afternoon walk:

Then I overlapped them and got some wool:

I then wrapped the wool to connect the two sticks together:

Have you made your cross yet?

Our Inquiry “Waste not, Want not” has continued to travel along. After finding out and sorting out where food comes from and that advertising is a big a influence on the choices made about the food we buy, we are now ready to take some action.  After reflecting on the amount of food waste we all contribute and linking to the Church season of Lent, we are exploring ways to be less wasteful.

Thanks to the families who have already submitted a “Leftovers” recipe.  We will be collating them into a mini recipe book.  It would be great to have a few more great tips.  We were shocked to discover that Aussie throw out $8 billion worth of edible food every year!  This fact and many others can be found at the Food wise website: http://www.foodwise.com.au/foodwaste/food-waste-fast-facts/  By making a recipe book of leftover recipes we may be able to reduce our waste and help our families save money.

Lent is a time to think about how we can give up things.  In class we have been discovering the three Lenten traditions of PRAYER, FASTING and ALMSGIVING. Here is a quick snapshot of Lent:  What’s the story with Lent?

Fasting during Lent can be focused on giving up things.  In Year Two we are talking about giving up being wasteful of food and also about giving more to others – kind words, smile, helping hands, encouragement.  This has also lead us to our Inquiry action and focusing on almsgiving.   We are beginning to work on planning a special school event to support Project Compassion.  Pope Francis quoted scripture saying we should all have life and live it to the FULL.  Many children never experience feeling full because they live in poverty.  We can make a difference in the lives of many children by giving to Project Compassion.  The next few weeks of Inquiry learning will be very exciting…

This seems like a pretty easy question.  We have demonstrated an understanding that food can be bought from a variety of types of shops such as supermarkets, butchers, bakeries etc.  We also understand that a lot of the food we buy in shops is produced somewhere else such as in a factory.  We have also been able to explain that food to begins with comes from plants or animals.  This is where things start to get a bit fuzzy.  There are many people in Grade Two who are not sure which foods grow on plants or on a tree or underground.  There are even more Grade Two students who do not know which foods come from certain animals.  Many of our classmates thought that bacon comes from sheep and many had no idea where we get lamb from.  This may be something you can be talking about at home as dinner is prepared and/or shared 🙂

Whilst we have been talking about where food comes from, we realised that a lot of us grow some of our own.  Here is a photo of my garden:

I am growing cherry tomatoes, cucumber, spring onions, mint and thyme.

I would love to see some photos of your vegetable & herb gardens.