This letter is about :

1. Childnet International Competition

2. October Contributions

3. Cut Off dates for projects

4. Peering ahead to the year 2000

 

1. Childnet International Competition

Congratulations to all of you!

Your contributions have come together to form a wonderful collection of informative and artistic pages. Your project leaders have been beavering away lately, tidying up the index pages so that we can showcase your work to the best of our ability.

The Childnet International competition entries close today. Our project is entered. The judging will take place in the next few weeks so we will let you know how we have fared - we means each and every one of you with all of your students.

We expect the competition to be rather steep this year, and because our Polygon Project won a prize last year we think they may well try to award the prizes to other groups this year. So let's all just wait and see.

 

2. October Contributions

This has been a fascinating month. The entries are a delight and come from Japan, Hawaii, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Germany. Within some of these countries however, there is more than one school or group contributing.

This month has seen a wonderful contribution from a group of schools in Japan who "share" a river system. The schools along the banks of this river system have written three progressive stories with superb illustrations by the students.

This month we have contributions from 3yr olds to adults. It is great to share experiences and observations without the usual age barriers formed by our school systems.

 

3. Cut Off dates for projects

Some projects within Earth Calendar Online are nearing completion. Pitter Patter Project and Grandfriends Project will each finish on December 31st.

Holidays and Festivals will finish on March 31st, 2000.There have been no announcements about the completion dates for Exploring the Street or for Children and Nature. They are certainly continuing past December 31st however.

 

4. Peering ahead to the year 2000

Please put your thinking caps on for the year 2000. We are now ready to announce that we are planning a suite of projects which will be under the banner of

"Goodbye 20th Century - Hello 21st Century"

At this stage as we are still planning these projects, we would very much like to build in your ideas as well. Here is the general idea.

We plan to have a collection of projects in which students can write, draw, photograph, do craftwork, make music, etc about life in the 20th Century e.g. transport, health, migration, communications, environment, commerce, clothing, food, International relations, religions, entertainment, etc

Any ideas you have for themes would be welcome as well.

Then, we want to encourage students to examine the known technologies in the world in the year 2000 and predict the effect these may have on society in the 21st Century.

It promises to be a most interesting year and we would like you all to think about inviting others to join in creating a valuable resource of information from around the world and a fruitful brainstorming about the future.

Once again, thank you for sharing the Earth Calendar Online experience with us. Please encourage your students to revisit the site and see all the changes and the way in which their work is being showcased.

Best wishes,

Judith Bennett, Sydney, Australia