Even though it’s been a different week, the staff and students have been optimizing their learning time.

Last Thursday APS hosted a group of teachers from other schools looking to implement Positive Behaviour for Learning  (also known as School Wide Positive Behaviour Support) with support from Anthony King from D.E.T. Leanne Peterson had time to share our learnings from our implementation of PBL over the last few years. It was great to take this opportunity to showcase our learning, processes and routines,  but also to reflect on the work that has gone into developing our PBL framework.

Curriculum Day
On Friday, while the students enjoyed a curriculum day, the staff had a professional learning day looking at the Victorian Curriculum 2.0. It was a successful day with each teacher engaging with the content of different curriculum areas, navigating the website and understanding the planning, teaching and reporting elements. Thank you to Mel Jacobs for providing such rich learning for our staff.


National History Challenge

  
 
Since Term 1, many students have been joining Ms Fletcher and attending a National History Challenge lunchtime club. The club was a chance for students to look at this years theme- crisis and conflict- and explore an area of history they were passionate about. We had three students complete their entries this year with many more students working through their personal projects.

We are very excited to share that Surina Morri in Year 6, has been invited to the Victoria State Award ceremony in the next fornight. Surina has been awarded a silver medal in the Women's history category. Congratulations Surina! (Surina has continued to investigate and explore this area as part of her PYPX.)  Certificates will be handed out in tomorrow's assembly for those that participated in the program. 


Around the school happenings...

With many families taking the opportunity for a long weekend, Monday was a much quieter day than usual. The school was back in full swing by Wednesday with the year 6 students continuing to work on their PYPX ready for their Exhibition next Monday, the Year 5 students continuing their Leadership Unit of Inquiry, Year 2 heading off on Beach Patrol and the Foundation students were treated to making Gingerbread cookies!

We also had a very excited relay team head off to Lakeside for the State Athletics Championships on Wednesday. The team, consisting of Oliver Wilson, Monty Irlam, Dominic Dezsenyi and Terry McNally, represented themselves and APS with the highest level of sportsmanship. The team placed 3^rd in their heat and an outstanding 7^th place in the final. This is a huge achievement to compete at the State level. Well done team, we are all so proud of you!

Finally, a really big thank you to the APS community for your support over the last few weeks while I’ve had the opportunity to be Acting Principal. It is an absolute privilege to support your children on their learning journey and to work with the team of teachers and education support staff here at Aspendale.


Thank you,
Amelia

SKILLS: 20 plus years working as a chef

FAVOURITE THINGS TO COOK: all things sweet and decadent but my favourite thing is making pizza dough every Friday night for the family for the perfect homemade slice. 

FAMILY: 2 kids now in high school, both proud alumni of APS.

PETS: I am a crazy cat lady with 2 cats that totally rule our house and boss us around.

INTERESTS OUTSIDE THE KITCHEN: Yoga, this month of finish my 200hYoga Teacher Training. I love going to the movies or binge watching a good series. 

BEST HOLIDAY: Camping in summer just south of Byron Bay. We swim everyday, lay on the beach with a couple of good books and leave the clocks at home.

WHY IS BEING CANTEEN MANAGER AT APS SUCH A SPECIAL ROLE: My kids have such fond memories of getting lunches from the APS school canteen and I loved volunteering when they were younger. The canteen is a place that can link the school community and foster connections and memories. I look forward to getting to know the loyal volunteers and welcome new people into the space so we can create an even strong sense of community. Next year will be exciting when we reopen the canteen 2 days a week. I can’t wait to introduce some new menu items as well as keeping the long time favourites. 

Aspendale Primary School is please to welcome back Story Dogs this term.

A big welcome to Carol and Bertie who will be visiting our school once a week.

Story Dogs
Story Dogs enables a child and a dog with their volunteer handler a weekly one-on-one reading session held at the child’s reading level throughout the course of a school year. The literacy program is based on the Reading Education Assistance Dogs (R.E.A.D.) model. The READ program has successfully proven the educational benefits of reading to dogs since 1999.

Story Dog Volunteers are guided on working with children to go at the child’s pace and use the calming presence of the dog to support comprehension during each 20 minute reading session. Books are chosen to be fun and interesting, and are matched to the literacy level of the student. During a session, the volunteer handler often speaks through the dog. Adapting the learning environment by involving the dog such as “Simba doesn't understand what is happening on this page, could you help him out?” encourages the child’s confidence to navigate ‘teaching’ the dog in a trusting and shared learning environment.

Inclusion Leader

Jessica

Our students have eagerly been awaiting news of how they fared in the Australian Maths Competition in August.

On Friday, at assembly we will present the awards for Best in school, top 3 scores in each year level, High Distinctions, Distinctions and Credits! Well done to all that gave the competition a go we hope you will try your hand at problem solving again in 2025.

Thanks, 
Carla Youngs

High Abilities Leader

We are days away from our PYP Exhibition Evening on Monday and our students are busy fine tuning their ideas and organising how they would like to present their ideas.

It is a very exciting time with A LOT or printing and hands on building happening. Check out this week's Acknowledgement of Country to see Mali's PYP action. 

It has been a very busy 6 weeks and we are very proud of what our students have created. The event will run from 4:00pm to 6:30pm on Monday the 11th of November. Year 6’s will be set up in the gym and in 6M and 6D classrooms. We warmly welcome the whole APS community to come and view the culmination of Year 6’s Primary School PYP journey.






 

PYPX Blog Week 4:  Abi and Ollie F

Hi we are Abi and Ollie F both from 6W. Our inquiry unit is researching different issues. ‘How bee extinction will affect the food chain’ (Abi) and ‘An inquiry into how hydropower and how this could replace fossil fuels’ (Ollie F). We are counting down the days till PYPX… 11 sleeps! Powering ahead, this week is our making week and we have been busy creating 3D models, trifolds and games to name a few. 

We also voted on the design for our PYPX invitation. Well done to Anna and Surina on their winning design!

Who were our Guest Speakers this week?

We have also been lucky to have 3 guest speakers since our last blog! We are very thankful to Dans Bain, Mayor Jenna Davey Burns and Ms Fletcher. Thank you for taking the time out of your busy schedule to come and chat with us.


Dans Bain 

An artist that advocates for respect and equality in the community and striving for a future free from violence. Dans spoke to Year 6 about her art piece called ‘The Lost Petition’ that was created in  2021 for International Womens’ Day. It was great to hear about the amazing work Dans Bain is doing in the community.

Cait Fletcher 

On Tuesday 28th of October Ms Fletcher, who is a great teacher from our school and has been here since 2016 spoke to us about how she became a teacher. She spoke about her passion for history, traveling and inclusion for all. She did a great job at sharing her life journey and how she ended up at APS. She also told us how she teaches and her style.

Mayor Jenna Davey Burns

Last week, the mayor came to speak to us about what it means to be the mayor. She talked about how you take action when you are the mayor and how you can get elected. She values input from kids and is very open about aspiring change. Jenna was very excited to hear all of our PYPX issues and offered solutions on how we can take action.

Year 6 Actions are happening…
Hudson and Gus have been proactive in getting in touch with 1millionTurtles and the Executive Director of the Tasmanian Devils.They were able to ask questions that they wanted to find out about these organisations.

Hudson was able to ask the webex meeting with 1millionTurtles how many different species of Freshwater Turtles there are in Australia and if the new net protectors are helping to keep the foxes away. He found out about Turtle Island in NSW and initiatives that are happening like TurtleSAT and extra road crossing signs in the hot spot areas.

Gus met with Kathryn McCann she answered all 7 of his questions! 
- What imapct will the Tassie Devils have on Tasmania?
- How will you chnage the negativity around the building of an expensive stadium?
- Does Tasmania really need a footy team? 

PYPX Blog Week 3:  Lucy C & Charli

Hi we are Charli and Lucy and we are going to tell you about this week of PYPX. This is our last week of doing research on our PYPX issues. Also this week we have been adding information to our padlets and brainstorming ideas. We drew a visual of our dream exhibition set up for what we want our exhibit to look like.



Guestspeakers: Lisa & Mr Powell

Lisa

Last Friday we were lucky enough to have Lisa McHugh visit the Year 6’s. She talked about how deaf/hearing impaired people communicate. She also shared her experience with how deaf/blind learn sign language - they either hold their hands and sign following the actions, you sign on their hands or their backs. Sometimes you might draw the outline of a room on someones back so that they can try to work out where you are going. It requires a lot of trust! 

Lisa shared her personal experience as someone operating in a hearing world when she is half deaf. Lisa drew a picture to show us what the ear canal looks like and which parts she can hear with and without aides. It was interesting to her how people can be born deaf and others develop it - even people with the same condition can hear and others cannot! We had a lot of questions about people who are deaf and deaf/blind students and how they dream.

Jack

On Tuesday we had Jack Powell come in to talk to us about his job as a firefighter and what he had to do to achieve that goal. Before he became a fighter he had to do an academic test, social skills test, beep test, an interview, training skills, saving skills and try on a uniform all before he could become a professional firefighter. Before he could become an official firefighter we have to do a ceremony with lots of marching. When he was a trainee firefighter they were very strict at the academy. They would yell at you because they know you could do better and to see if you could handle the pressure. He was also a teacher here at Aspendale for 11 years before creating his dream of being a firefighter. We thank you Mr Powell for coming and sharing what it is like to be a firefighter.

Change Makers, Action & More checklists

One of our lines of inquiry is a spotlight on change makers and individuals who are acting for change. We have been researching the Sustainable Development Goals as well as Kingston Council and Aspendale Beach Patrol. We have been trying to think of actions that we will take, I think my action will be ‘participation’ and Charli is thinking about ‘lifestyle choices.’ 

Each week we get a checklist that has everything to keep us on track, things like creating a blog, video and information that we can transfer to our padlet. We can also chat with our families about what we can do at home. We’ve been checking in with our mentors and coaches and we thank them for their time in helping us to have a successful PYPX!

PYPX Blog Week 2

Hi, I’m Niels S - a Grade 6 student, and we are doing PYPX which is an independent inquiry into something that interests us. 

My issue is exploring the challenges of a sustainable future and how we can support animals - so I have made a place on a website called Padlet where everyone can put their ideas down. 

We also got to make our own website that would be featured at the end of the school year’s PYP Exhibition.

On Wednesday, this week we hadtwo people visit us. The first guest was Sammy Vella, a relief teacher who is regularly seen at school with a passion for art. She is now a professional artist- who creates, exhibits and sells her art to our community. She showed us her amazing ocean artwork and the deep midnight zone’s creatures painted with care.You can visit her artwork here: https://www.sammyannstudio.com/shop-home 

The Second visit was by Ms Bourke, also from our school, and her dog Dave. Dave is a therapy dog which means he is trained to help support humans - he understands more things than the average dog. Ms Bourke also explained how whenever you see a dog there is a chemical reaction that makes you feel happier and calmer.

This week we’ve been focused on mentor meetings as well.

Our mentor is a teacher in the school who will schedule meetings with us, to talk a bit more about PYPX and get to know us more and the issues we’ve been doing.  Coaches are different from mentors. They are Year 6 teachers who help you with your PYPX learning, help us organise our week and with our own website.

Families in Year 6 have also been shared a few key facts of information to help their students at home:




Year 6 students have been experimenting with the Key Concepts when helping set up their research in Cornell notes.
We are asking:

PYPX Blog Week 1 

Hi were Evie , Keeley Isabel and Freya Year Six students from 6M & 6D. We are here to tell you what we have learnt and done this week for our PYPX. We hope you enjoy reading about what we have done this week! The four of us have decided on our issues

- An inquiry into the animals endangered due to climate change and their habitats and how it affects them (Keeley)

- An inquiry into the effects of social media on younger people (Issy N)

- An inquiry into how the climate affects the growth of different crops in different seasons & countries (Freya N)

- An inquiry into how fast fashion has an effect on the world (Evie)

We will be finding out more about the checklists we got, our padlet, google site and our coaches and mentors. 

Do you know why different liquids and solids do not mix together? (Willow) or How animals evolve based on climate change (Harry D) Why actors get paid more than nurses when nurses are saving people? (Molly) How fast does climate change happen? (Elod)

What are the causes of mutations? (Sean) and Why is yawning contagious? (Huddy)

This week as part of our PYPX journey we have been able to choose our coaches from the year 6 teachers and get a mentor from the other teachers from around the school that are interested in our topic. Our mentor and coaches will guide us through PYPX. We will check in with our coaches every few days and we will check in with our mentors only a few times throughout the 6 weeks.

Padlet and Google Site

This week for PYPX we have been working on all sorts of things but something we have been focusing on in every session is our Padlet, our Padlet is like a fun way to brainstorm all your ideas, add links to websites, images and anything else we can think of. We are also working on a google site to make a blog about what we have been doing in our sessions.

PYPX Blog Week 2

Hi, I’m Niels S - a Grade 6 student, and we are doing PYPX which is an independent inquiry into something that interests us. 

My issue is exploring the challenges of a sustainable future and how we can support animals - so I have made a place on a website called Padlet where everyone can put their ideas down. 

We also got to make our own website that would be featured at the end of the school year’s PYP Exhibition.

On Wednesday, this week we hadtwo people visit us. The first guest was Sammy Vella, a relief teacher who is regularly seen at school with a passion for art. She is now a professional artist- who creates, exhibits and sells her art to our community. She showed us her amazing ocean artwork and the deep midnight zone’s creatures painted with care.You can visit her artwork here: https://www.sammyannstudio.com/shop-home 

The Second visit was by Ms Bourke, also from our school, and her dog Dave. Dave is a therapy dog which means he is trained to help support humans - he understands more things than the average dog. Ms Bourke also explained how whenever you see a dog there is a chemical reaction that makes you feel happier and calmer.

This week we’ve been focused on mentor meetings as well.

Our mentor is a teacher in the school who will schedule meetings with us, to talk a bit more about PYPX and get to know us more and the issues we’ve been doing.  Coaches are different from mentors. They are Year 6 teachers who help you with your PYPX learning, help us organise our week and with our own website.

Families in Year 6 have also been shared a few key facts of information to help their students at home:




Year 6 students have been experimenting with the Key Concepts when helping set up their research in Cornell notes.

PYPX Blog Week 1 

Hi were Evie , Keeley Isabel and Freya Year Six students from 6M & 6D. We are here to tell you what we have learnt and done this week for our PYPX. We hope you enjoy reading about what we have done this week! The four of us have decided on our issues

- An inquiry into the animals endangered due to climate change and their habitats and how it affects them (Keeley)

- An inquiry into the effects of social media on younger people (Issy N)

- An inquiry into how the climate affects the growth of different crops in different seasons & countries (Freya N)

- An inquiry into how fast fashion has an effect on the world (Evie)

We will be finding out more about the checklists we got, our padlet, google site and our coaches and mentors. 

Do you know why different liquids and solids do not mix together? (Willow) or How animals evolve based on climate change (Harry D) Why actors get paid more than nurses when nurses are saving people? (Molly) How fast does climate change happen? (Elod)

What are the causes of mutations? (Sean) and Why is yawning contagious? (Huddy)

This week as part of our PYPX journey we have been able to choose our coaches from the year 6 teachers and get a mentor from the other teachers from around the school that are interested in our topic. Our mentor and coaches will guide us through PYPX. We will check in with our coaches every few days and we will check in with our mentors only a few times throughout the 6 weeks.

Padlet and Google Site

This week for PYPX we have been working on all sorts of things but something we have been focusing on in every session is our Padlet, our Padlet is like a fun way to brainstorm all your ideas, add links to websites, images and anything else we can think of. We are also working on a google site to make a blog about what we have been doing in our sessions.

Warren- Homestay in Nanjing
We were 2 of the 21 students that had the opportunity to travel to China! Part of the experience was to do a 3 day homestay with a family from our sister school, Xuri Jingcheng Primary.

Many of us parted ways and went to our family with a friend or two. We were lucky enough to join the family as a three. The host families took us shopping, to eat dinner and meals, to play at the arcade, take us to school and we set off fireworks! Some got to eat at McDonalds or at a hot pot/grill buffet.

Also, in Nanjing, some of us saw each other at the zoo or at shopping centers. The families were so kind to us, they paid for our meals, games at the arcade and made breakfast for us. The WeChat group chat with the teachers went a bit crazy, with Mr Dowling and Mr Pearce putting in hashtags before some words and some of us were waking up with many notifications from WeChat.

On the last day, when we arrived at Nanjing Station for the fast train, some of the host families cried and said they would miss us. Ms Fletcher also gave us a hug. Homestay was arguably one of the best experiences on the China tour.

Sam - Disneyland Shanghai

On our last full day in Shanghai, we went to Disneyland. We arrived at 10:00 and we got our tickets then we entered through the gate and we were in. The first ride we went on was the buzz lightyear ride and we shot the aliens while the ride was going then we went to the Disney Castle and had a pretzel and watched the parade then we went on the Zootopia ride and that was our favorite place to go because the ride was fun amd the line to it was interactive. And my favorite was the 3D planet ride because it made you feel like a bird.

Ms Fletcher added: We spent the whole day walking around as a group at Disneyland. It was lovely to spend time celebrating how much everyone had grown in China, sharing homestay experiences, favourite snacks and hanging out with the group. Disneyland was a lot of fun too- especially as Sam mentioned, the Zootopia ride. 

  



Marcus, Hudson and Willem
Hi I’m Marcus, I’m Hudson and I’m Willem and we went to China this year, we are talking about the people we met on the trip. There were a lot of people that we met along our ventures…. 

Here are a collection of those people: 

Without their help, our trip would have been very different. We would have not known what to do, we may still be waiting on the roads of Beijing waiting for Chandler’s bus. 

Chandler was one of the people we met who was our bus driver in Beijing. He was our favorite person throughout the whole trip, we don't know what his actual name is though. He was a bit of a reckless driver but it was always fun. Chandler did not know his name was Chandler though. Ms Fletcher wanted to state that Chandler was the favourite of many students during the trip and most morning students would be eager to get on the bus to stay Hi.  

Lily was the Beijing tour guide. She was the first person we met and she was super helpful!! When we went to all the places in Beijing she helped us get through security and sometimes cut the line, she also knew the best places to eat. She names all her bus drivers “Chandler” because she learned all her English from Friends, the show and her favorite character was Chandler.

Wendy was one of the reasons the trip could happen! Wendy is the coordinator of the trip and she met us in China. She was super helpful throughout the whole trip and helped us organize all the tour guides and bullet train trips.While we were in China, it was Wendy’s birthday.

Carol was our Shanghai Tour guide and she was really nice. When we were in Shanghai, there was a LOT of rain! Carol made sure that the bus went the right way. When the rain got really back, Carol took us on a bus tour of the town. Carol loved to see what we bought in Disneyland- she was impressed with the Finn’s Capybara but she couldn't understand why Ms Fletcher bought a Mulan purse- she thought it was for kids! 

Terry or better known as Tezza was Wendy’s helper. He met us In Beijing and came with us to some of our fun places. We got to speak to Terry most mornings when we had breakfast. Terry came to back to Australia before us and we hope to see him at Aspendale.

Finn & Oli

Hi Im Finn and Im Oliver and 8 weeks ago we went to China

We are here to tell you about the school trip in Nanjing. We went to our sister school, Xuri Jingcheng Primary school.  Some of the classes we had were Maths, Music, Art and we had our own room, Sport class, and also a Morning exercise class

Our Sister School is bigger than we thought. It is tall - there are four levels for each building. When we arrived every morning the teachers met us in the conference room. We kept out things in there. We would then got to different classes.

While we were at our sister school, it was exceptionally hot. All day everyday we were sweaty! We couldn’t believe that they could fo their daily exercises in the heat. 

 

Morning Exercises

At the very start of the first day at the school we had to go outside and we did a lot of different exercises. Some were squats, some were high kicks and we marched on the spot. We ran! We also danced including some ballerina moves. It was very hot and some of the students from the sister school were in long pants! And then we finished and went to our first lesson.

Maths Class 

When we did Maths class we did fractions! We stood up and answered some questions. We broke stereotypes that Australian people are not as good as Chinese students!

Music Class

In music we did a hand clap to a Chinese song. Some of their students performed and some of ours did too.

Sports Class

When we did sports it was sooooooo hot we did running and then had to pull people on this this tire with wheels and then they pulled us. We also did dodgeball but then it rained we went in to the gym and did skipping.

Art Class

We had an art class as well. During it we were painting these thin sheet things with a strange blue liquid that smelt very strange, then you put a frame thing on the sheet, applied the blue liquid and then blow dried it then we finally hung it up.

Ceremony

We wore traditional robes, it was the year 1s graduation and Mr Pearce put a red dot on our forehead (for intelligence) and a leaf with water on it (to clean our mind) then we went up the front and wrote a Chinese character which was person and ment that you were 

Performance

We had to wear these robe things and we went down to the gym to prepare, our homestay families were there and then we perform ed our dance and sang the song "One Love” and we finished it and then we back to our conference room. Mr Johnston was a suprise guest!

 
Shopping: Warren, Lucy & Surina

We were 3 of the 21 people that went to China this year! In China, we had so many opportunities to do some shopping! 

Many of us spent our money on food, souvenirs or gifts for their family and friends. In Beijing, we went to a shopping strip called Wangfujing. There were portable shops and there was a really cool 3D screen too!

Also in Beijing we went to a place called Qian Men where we went shopping crazy and bought so much of a lolly called white rabbit which tastes of condensed milk. Ms Fletcher even bought a white rabbit tote bag. We also bought lots of customized hand creams which were based on your birthday! Also Ms Fletcher got a specially made fan with her Chinese name Fang Kai-lin on the fan!

 A lot of us also saved up our money to splash it on buying merch from Disneyland. In Shanghai, we went to an underground market.This meant we had to barter with them to get the cheapest price if you wanted to save a lot of money! Some of us were amazing and bartering - Frankie, Lucy and Surina were bartering champs! Mr Dowling did well too, getting a 900 yuan suitcase to 150 yuan.

Everything was so much cheaper there when you converted it back to English, because the cost of living was a lot lower than in Australia. For example, a 600ml bottle of Coke at a store was 4 yuan (around 85 cents). Shopping was so fun!!!

   
Language: Frankie & Marcus

Hi, I'm Marcus and I’m Frankie. We are talking to you about the Chinese language. We both went to China and picked up a lot of language and we would like to share some with you. One of the most helpful in home stay was ni hao which means hello and Xie Xie which means thank you.  There are over 50,000 different characters in the Chinese language. Did you know that Mandarin Chinese is widely considered to be the hardest language to learn in the world?

On the bus we always practiced a lot of words, the words we were practicing were really? How are you? Why? You’ve got this! and  too expensive!  Every day we would hop on a hopefully you learned some stuff about the Chinese language. 

   
The Great Wall: Isabella, Finn & Audrey

Hi my name is Audrey and I went to China over 5 weeks ago and on the first full day we were there we went to the Great Wall of China. While everyone was up at the first tower,  Ms Ma and I were stopping at every step but the end result and view out of this world. 

 Hi, I'm Finn…. I remember the day that I woke up. I was thinking that this was going to be one of the best days of the trip and it definitely was.

 When we were walking up the Great Wall it was incredibly steep, but we kept climbing. the school gave us these yellow T shirts that said Aspendale Primary School in Chinese. 

When we finally got to the top it was amazing, there were different spots to look out and take photos but because we were so high up that when you looked out it was just clouds and whiteness. Then we finally started to make our way down and it felt way more steep than climbing up!

Hi I’m Isabella and a few weeks ago I went to China and it is definitely a trip that I will never forget. The first day in China we went to the Great Wall and I was really excited since I have wanted to go to the Great Wall since I was seven years old! 

When we arrived at the Great Wall, nearly all of us were busting to go to the toilet and when it was my turn I slipped on my back and hit my elbow on the floor and it still hurts 5 weeks later :( but at least the teachers got me an ice cream. Then we started climbing the Great Wall and at first it seemed kinda easy and then it just got harder and harder but it was definitely worth it since the view was amazing!!!! 

And it was so cloudy that in every photo that we took the background was white- as though we were hanging above the clouds. On the way down, Ms Ma and I, where really slow and when everybody was at the bottom we were still at the top. But when we finally got down we did some shopping and then went back to our hotel. This was definitely one of the best days of my life that I will never forget.

WEEK 2



Mali, Lucy and Adele:
We were lucky enough to be part of the 21 students (and 4 teachers) that went to China for 2 weeks,  just before the school holidays.

When we arrived in Beijing we met our tour guide and bus driver Lily and Chandler. They took us to the Great Wall, the Forbidden City and The Temple Of Heaven. We also went shopping in old town - we even went on a rickshaw! We all had a great time and loved seeing the amazing buildings and culture of Beijing.

We then made our way to Nanjing where we met our host families and visited our sister school! With the family we enjoyed experiencing the different activities and how ordinary Chinese people live.  We even went to school for a few days - taking part in the morning exercise routine. It was VERY hot while we were visiting our sister school but we still enjoyed all of our classes. 
  



We then made it to Lianyungang where we went to the beach and the famous monkey king mountain where we saw real monkeys. We also saw the school there and had a day with another host family. 

 Lastly we went to Shanghai.  We saw the Bund, bartered at a market and went to Disneyland! Where we all had lots of fun on the rides and the amazing experience. We even had two Birthdays during our tour in China. After Disneyland, it was time to go home with the experience of a lifetime!

Anna, Surina & Abi: Food and the Bund
  

In China we had so many different foods, each city had their own cooking style, so each new city meant more lovely dishes to try. 

We often ate from a lazy susan with big tables for everyone to sit and share food. We all became experts at using chop sticks!
Ms Fletcher (and all the teachers) were so impressed with how open APS cherubs were to trying new foods! For breakfast, we had buffets in most hotels - we still all chose to eat Chinese food! 

In Beijing, we tried the famous peking duck pancake. The pancake is a very thin wrap which you then put the duck, sauce and cucumber in. It was very good. In Nanjing, their famous dish is blood vermicelli and they are also very famous for their seafood. In Linuangang, they had a sticky pumpkin dish which was a mix of roasted and grilled pumpkin dipped in this sticky sweet water that made it freeze like ice magic. In Shanghai, we had lots of soup dumplings and spring rolls. Soup dumplings are very popular in Shanghai and they are delicious! They were quite hard to eat because they were filled with soup!

The Bund
The Bund is a mix of Chinese and French architecture! Nearby, is the French quarter which is where many of the French lived in Shanghai. The architecture looked like what you would find in Europe! At night, it was all lit up and very colorful with bright lights. Some of the students said it looked like a 'cyberpunk' future - it was pretty cool to see. We went on the bridge and took lots of pictures of the tallest building in Shanghai and the river in the background. From some of the hotel rooms, you could see the Bund.