Mathletics

Inquiry - Goldmining in Central Otago

Our inquiry topic this term is goldmining in Central Otago.  The area is celebrating 150 years of goldmining.

Everyone in the class had to make a Miner's Permit before we were allowed to begin, as miners were not allowed to mine for gold without one.

Last Wednesday we all had a turn at learning to gold pan, this was a lot of fun and everyone found some "gold"!!!

Olivia's grandad came into school last week and showed us five nuggets of gold that he has had for 30 years.  These gold nuggets came from the Cardrona River and had a value of $4000.00.  We were all very surprised at how heavy they were.

Middle School Duathlon

We had a great day for our duathlon, the sun was shining and there was a lot of cheering from the spectators throughout each race - great to see, well done.  Here are a few photos of some of Room 15 as they run down the last hill to the finish line.

Instruction Writing

We are learning to write instructions learn. Use this interactive site to practice making sure your instructions are clear.

Tell Us What This Message Says!!

How Does Popcorn Pop?

The popcorn kernel has tiny droplets of water inside. When this water heats up it turns to steam and builds up pressure inside the popcorn kernel. When the pressure finally becomes too much the kernel explodes and the two sides fold back on themselves, exposing the white starch.

Progress Report 1 on Popcorn Seeds

On the 8th day after putting our seeds into the cups we checked them and here are some of the results:

Both of the above photos are of the cup that was kept in the dark.

This photo on the left is of the cup that was kept in the light.

Maria Gill - Author

Today we had a visit from Maria Gill from Auckland. Maria is a non-fiction children's author who enjoys writing about conservation.
She explained how she became a writer and what is involved in writing a book.  It can take quite a long time from writing the book until it is published, sometimes 2 years. 
Maria read us part of the story of The Call of the Kokako.  This is a beautiful book about the endangered bird, the kokako (known as the mysterious grey ghost). Now we have to read the rest to find out what happened.  Half the book is pictures and information about the birds and the other half is a story about saving kokako in the Matahina Forest.
She also showed us her book
New Zealand's Hall of Fame: 50 Remarkable Kiwi.
This is an colourful non-fiction book on famous New Zealanders
such as Sir Edmund Hillary (Climber), Dame Susan Devoy
(Squash player), Sir Peter Jackson (Film Maker), Margaret Mahy
(Children's Author), and many more.

Bike Wise Day

We were supposed to be having a bike wise day today (Wednesday).  It was cancelled because of the rain, so will now hold it on Friday. We bring our bikes and helmets to school and take part in fun activities that will be set out on the school field, such as:
Slow Bike Race
Circuit which includes weaving between road cones, riding under the high jump pole, riding along a wooden plank
Riding a figure of 8
Riding around tight U shapes and then winding through cones
We will attach some photos from the day.

Wow, what a fun day we had.  Some of the senior students (Year 6) came out and gave us a hand as well.  They were great - checking our helmets for us, helping us with activities.  The slow bike race was really funny - very difficult though because you needed great balance so you didn't fall off.
We hope you enjoy the photos.

Facts About Popcorn

Here are some facts we have found out about popcorn!!!
Popping corn kernels are harder and drier than ordinary corn.
The pericarp (the outer covering that protects the kernel) is hard fibre and makes your poos float.
People have been eating popcorn for over 7000 years.
The oldest known popcorn was found, still fluffy and white in a bag attached to the belt of a mummy in Chile.
In the 1700's colonial women made the first tasty breakfast cereal by pouring milk and sugar over popcorn.
The popcorn kernel is actually a seed.

Parts of the Popcorn Plant

We looked at the popcorn plant and labelled the parts.  Hopefully our seeds will grow into a plant as healthy as this.

Growing Popcorn Investigation - Fair Testing

We began an investigation on Friday with growing popcorn seeds.  Investigation: How do Popcorn Seeds Grow the Best?
Things We can Change or Vary: Depth of the seeds, types of seeds, light or dark, warm or cold, water or no water
Things We can Measure: Length of stalk, how fast it grows, how many grow

Today, Monday, 5 March we put a piece of paper towel into four plastic cups.  Next we put six seeds down the outside of each paper towel. Then we added two dessertspoons of water to each cup. Finally we placed each cup in its position (ie warm, cold, dark or light) .




This is our Investigation
My Question: Will Popcorn grow better in the Light or Dark?
I will Change:  We could choose from putting one in dark and one in light or one in warm and one in cold.
I will Measure: We decided on 'How High the Plant will Grow'.
I will keep the Same: Same amount of water, seeds from the same packet, same type of cup, same type of paper towel, same amount of water, seeds on outside of paper towel.

We will keep you informed of our popcorns progress.

Wanaka A and P Show

On 9 and 10 March this year is the annual Upper Clutha A & P Show, which is held in Wanaka. It is the second largest agricultural and pastoral show in the South Island. This is mainly an agricultural show, judging farm animals, horse riding events, home baking, crafts etc and selling farm machinery and vehicles. There are hundreds of stalls selling food, clothing, toys, items people have made, basically anything you can think of. It is one of Wanaka's major annual events and is supported by the whole community.

Every class at each of the schools in the area put in some artwork. This is not judged, just for people to look at.
We are finishing our artwork at the moment and will put some up on the blog when we have finished in the next couple of days.

We looked at the Gerbera flower.  It looks like a single flower, but is actually hundreds of individual flowers.

Kimiya

Will

The petals were made by cutting shapes from paper and the centre has been given texture by using rice.





We each made a quarter section of a flower, then put them together to make whole flowers.
                                                

This is how our artwork looks all put together ready for the Show

Parts of the Plant

As part of our Popcorn unit today we looked at the parts and functions of a plant.  What the parts are called and what function each part has.

Inquiry - Popcorn

We have begun our unit on Popcorn with a KWHL Chart (What we Know, What we Want to Know, How we are going to Find Out).  We will fill out the last part of the chart (What we have Learnt) at the end of the unit.
We are now looking at the life cycle of popcorn.  We will add some of these when they are completed.

Some of our Friendship Recipe's

My Friendship Recipe  -  By Will

Ingredients
1 level cup of love
1 raised teaspoon of kindness
3 cups of thoughtfulness
1 bucket of smiles
10 scoops of laughter
3 tablespoons of respect
3 pinches of finely chopped arguments
Method
1. Add the love and kindness into a bowl
2. Mix together
3. Add the arguments
4. Toss in the thoughtfulness, smiles, laughter and respect
5. Serve on a platter of trust

My Friendship Recipe - By Layton

Ingredients

2 generous scoops of respect

3 cups of laughter

1 cup of caring

3 tablespoons of sharing

4 tablespoons of responsibility

2 cups of helpfulness

1 cup of trust

Dash of bad attitude and sadness

Method

1. Add the respect into a bowl
2. Stir in the laughter, sharing and caring
3. Mix together with responsibility, trust and helpfulness
4. Add bad attitude and sadness
5. Marinate overnight and serve

Square Dancing

We have been practicing a square dance with Room 16 to the "Popcorn" music.  It has been a lot of fun because this music has a great beat.  It is quite bouncy like popcorn popping.  It has been a bit tricky to pick up the steps  and all keep in time, but we think we have just about mastered it.

Maths

In class we have been focusing on basic facts, trying to get them up to speed.  We are trying to have them instantly rather than working them out.

Games help with this.  Try some of these.

Modigliani

Today we started looking at the artist "Modigliani". He was an Italian painter and sculptor, who worked mostly in France. He became known for his modern style. His graceful paintings are known for their elongated heads and necks, some of the faces have the look of masks.
We sketched our pictures onto black paper and will complete with pastels. Once finished we will attached some to our blog to let you see the results.

Here is some of our artwork. We think they are fantastic  -  What do you think?

By Holly

By Olivia

 

By Liam

By Emily

Graphs

In Room 15 we have been learning about graphing.
Pictographs
First we looked at Pictographs - This is a way of showing information using pictures
We looked at the different eye colours in our room and which way we all travel to school.
To gather the information we used a tally chart, then we put this information on to our pictograph.
We then came up with statements that explained our graph.

Bar Graphs
We then moved on to bar or column graphs. These show the information in bars or columns.
We still use the tally chart and explain our graph using statements. We are looking at coming up with our own question, then following through the same process.
We are all enjoying this and are looking forward to the learning more.