Mini Camp
Rain, wind, tent city (inside) pikelets, and sausage sizzle. What more could one ask for! That is what we got last Friday for the Year 1 to 3 mini camp. We had the best time ever regardless of what the weather threw at us.
Katipo – Year 3 blog
Dads Day
Last Friday we had the privilege of having our dads and some of our family members share the morning with us. We had so much fun!! In Year 3 we did a tech challenge that involved us being split into two teams. The challenge was from BP Challenges called ‘Getting the message across’. We were given the scenario: some friends are trapped on the other side of a wall and across a deep ditch. They are behind a locked gate and do not have the combination to undo the lock.
One team had to write a message with the combination, put it in a container and make the throwing device using rubber band power. The other team (at the same time) had to use the supplied equipment to make a retrieval device to collect the message container once over the wall.
Both teams were separated and not allowed to communicate.
Have a look at the photos below to see how we got on.
PE
In PE the children have been learning to work as a team with various team challenges. This week the challenge was get the hula hoops around the circle one clockwise the other anticlockwise without letting go of hands. Some of the learning was how to communicate positively and not to get frustrated with people. We did a great job.
Long O Sound
We have been learning all the spelling patterns for the long o sound. Check out our rhymes we made up to help us learn the different spelling patterns.
Performing Arts
We have been participating in Performing Arts with Gracie. Gracie is extremely creative with what she is teaching us. This week we had to get into groups and create different objects and animals in a limited time span. It was heaps of fun. See if you can figure out the objects and animals we created in the photos. Another part were with a buddy one of us was a puppeteer the other person was the puppet and we had to mold them into the action Gracie told us. Take a look at the photos below and see if you can guess what we are doing and creating.
Introducing the Kakariki Class of 2019
We decided the Kakariki would best suit us being cheeky, chatty Parakeets, beautiful in colour and song.
You can listen to what they sound like through the link http://nzbirdsonline.org.nz/species/red-crowned-parakeet# and I’m sure you will agree it sounds very much like our busy class.
These are the wonderful faces of the Kakariki with their amazing smiles.
Aboriginal Art
We made Bull Roarers which are originally from Australia. They were used in the outbacks of Australia by the Aborigines to communicate to other tribes by spinning them over their heads.
Firstly we had to sand the edges. Some of us found it very tricky.
After we sanded them we transferred our design onto them then carefully painted them using fine paintbrushes and skewers. We tried to use designs and animals found in Australia.
Below are our finished Bull Roarers.
Fractions, Fractions and more Fractions
We have been on a self discovery journey learning about fractions using materials. We are finding out what fractions are and how they work.
Firstly we wrote what we knew about fractions.
Then we played with fraction blocks to see what we could discover.
Below is us using the blocks to discover what they are. We found out they have a bottom number and top number. The bottom number tells us how many pieces the whole is cut into and the top number tells us how many of those we have. We also found out they get smaller in size even though the bottom number gets bigger.
We then looked at making equivalent fractions using the blocks. We know that the blocks have to fit under each other exactly for them to be equivalent. It’s fun and interesting finding out which fractions are equivalent. Aren’t we good at working fairly as a group, taking turns??
With information gathered from drawing around the fraction blocks to discover equivalent fractions, we began to look at how we could use our knowledge of multiplication to work out equivalent fractions.
Investigating Absorbency
We have been learning about different materials. One of our investigations has been testing different types of paper to discover which was the most absorbent to the least.
First we made a prediction on ranking the papers from most absorbent to the least. Next we discussed what a fair test is to help us set up our investigation. After that we wrote up our method of how we were going to run our investigation, we ensured everything we did had to be the same for every piece of paper for it to be a fair test.
We then cut the pieces of paper all the same size, some of us found it challenging, but we all got there in the end.
This is us cutting our paper.
After we had cut our paper we got a beaker of coloured water. Then we put each strip of paper touching the bottom for 2 minutes. When we took the paper out of the water, we measured how far the water had risen up the strip of paper.
This is us testing the paper.
Most of our results were similar to each other. We discovered our predictions were different to our results.
We learnt it is important to follow the method exactly as it is written or it is not a fair test.
Written by Alex, Charlee, Isabella, Ciaran, Ashlee, Olivia, Michael, Daniel, and Anna.
Mathematical Geniuses At Work
Problem Solving Friday
Every Friday we do problem solving math relating to what we have been working on during the week.
Your Mathematical geniuses are working on division problems. They are encouraged to represent their understanding by ‘show me don’t tell me’.
Below are busy minds working out this weeks problems.
Matariki
The Story of Matariki
We have been learning about myths and legends this term. To tie in with Matariki we focused on retelling the story by creating all the characters using as many natural resources as we could.
Below is the completed display.
Flax Weaving
The Year 3 students helped to teach the Year 5 and 6 students how to make Matariki stars out of harakeke (flax).
The Year 6 girls were shown how to cut the flax, ensuring they followed all the Maori protocols for cutting harakeke.
We are learning how to strip the harakeke to prepare it for weaving.
Mrs King showed the Year 6 girls how to begin the star. It was very tricky, but some of us persevered and succeeded.
This is all of us completing the star with our Year 3 buddies helping.
We all managed to complete a star of some sorts!!
After we had finished weaving any pieces of harakeke we did not use had to be given back to Papatuanuku (our Earth Mother).
We also learnt we are to never step on or over the harakeke.
We also learnt we are to never step on or over the harakeke.
