LITERACY NEWS

This year one of our school improvement goals is centred around improving writing at Mary Immaculate. For the past two weeks the students have been engaged in a school wide writing stimulus focused on ‘The Jungle’. Here at Mary Immaculate, we have created our very own jungle called the Manda Jungle. The word ‘Manda’ means forest or woodland and was given the name to make connections with the land of our Dharawal community. 

Teachers have also been transforming their classrooms into interesting and engaging learning spaces that replicate what you would see, hear and feel if you were to visit the jungle. Students have been engaging in a teaching and learning cycle where students have been immersed in quality literature that not only focuses on our theme of the jungle, but demonstrates what authors do when they write an imaginative text. 

This week each class had the opportunity to visit the Manda Jungle. This interactive experience allowed students to explore, plan and discuss an imaginative story they would write that was prompted by their visit to our jungle. There were lots of things to look at and explore and write about. Some of the things students were wondering were, where did the giant eggs come from? Why was there a crate in the jungle? What was in the crate? Whose eyes were peering through the foliage? Was there evidence of human interaction with the jungle? They then used these wonderings to write their imaginative text. It has been wonderful to see the interest and enthusiasm this writing stimulus has sparked and the fantastic writing produced by the students.

The Manda Jungle