In our first week back we continued to explore measurement and how it connects to decimal numbers
Thomas measures the width of his belly button?
Harper and Tiger try to wrangle an unruly tape measure
Oscar realises that letting go of the tape measure measures gravity, not height.
Science
For science, we’ve been looking at states of matter (solids, liquids and gases). In Week 3, we looked at how chocolate can melt when it’s sitting on a plate placed on top of a bowl of heated water.
In groups, the students planned and conducted an experiment in which they changed one factor e.g. “will the chocolate melt faster if it’s cut into smaller pieces?”
Luke and Daniel exploring how different liquids melt at different rates
Ethan, Sienna and Luke wishing the experiment was “how much chocolate can I fit in my mouth?”
Ethan wishing the experiment was “how many marbles can I fit in my mouth?”
Poppy worries about the experiment’s effect on her last pedicure.
Writing
For the last three weeks we’ve exploring the conventions of effective storybooks, and using what we’ve learned to plan our own.
It’s required our full creative powers to come up with good ideas that are original and entertaining. The students have been sharing their ideas with the class, getting feedback, and improving their ideas where necessary.
Most of us are now at the stage where we are ready to start the first draft of our story.
Aston ponders the metaphysical themes in the great literary piece: “I Want My Potty”
Grandparents Day
On Friday of Week 3, we had our annual Grandparents Day. We performed some songs and dances as a whole school and then went back to our class for some learning about the past. The year 4’s asked the grandparents about what school was like in their day. Using that information we compared and contrasted using Venn diagrams.
Amongst other things, the students were fascinated to learn that left-handed students were punished if they didn’t use the “correct” hand!
Our Science Topic this term has focussed on Materials.
We have looked at Solids, Liquids and Gases.
We wanted to know if all liquids mix and we made an excellent discovery about water, food colouring and oil. Ask your child to explain the experiment to you!
Our Year 1 and 2 classes participate in Physical Education lessons together. Today we visited Alice’s Wonderland through Yoga.
We developed our concentration and listening skills. We followed complex instructions to manipulate our limbs into yoga positions thus enhancing our kinesthetic body awareness. We stretched and laughed our way through our PE session………we even finished the session with some mindful breathing and relaxation. An excellent way to end our first day back for Term 2.
I thought I’d take a moment to share with you some of the special events we had in Term 1.
ASB Get Wise Session
In early March we had a representative of the ASB Get Wise programme, Jadyn, take the years 3 and 4’s for a session.
The objective of the session was to improve the student’s financial understanding i.e. how money works, real money vs digital funds etc.
It was an upbeat, engaging lesson that the students learned a lot from. I wouldn’t trust them with your credit cards just yet though… ; )
Reptile Park Visit
On March 15th, Wentworth Primary visited the Reptile Park at Ti Point, Leigh.
For many of us it was our first visit. It certainly was for me, and I was impressed with the place. The students were able to get up close and personal with a number of reptiles (though we did keep a healthy distance from the alligator).
Teddy Bear’s Picnic
On March 23rd we had our Teddy Bear’s Picnic. It was great to see the splashes of colour and the variety of stuffed toys. I didn’t bring my teddy bear to school because he suffers from social anxiety ; )
The picnic was a fundraiser for the Kiwis for Kiwi charity and $240.00 was raised.
Year 4 – 6 Camp
The major event of this Term! It may have been at the regional park, but it was certainly no walk in the park: running, sliding, swimming, diving, shooting, flaming, climbing, kicking…all the intense verbs!
The Year 4’s coped with it all admirably. I’m sure it stretched them all in one capacity or another, and I’m sure they won’t forget it in a hurry.
We have been learning how to write and give instructions. Firstly we watched a you tube clip on how to make a paper helicopter. We then wrote instructions on how to make the helicopter for a year 4 student to follow. From this exercise we discovered written instructions alone were not adequate. Therefore we discussed how we could improve by drawing diagrams along with the instructions, draw pictures/diagrams only and making a movie with oral instructions. We have broken up into teams and trying out which set of instructions are most successful You will have to wait for the outcome but this is how our written instructions worked out or not!!
This is us giving instructions and the outcome.
This is what the helicopter should have looked like.
Our Year 4, 5 and 6 students went to Shakespeare Lodge for a four day camping trip………..not to be outdone, our Year 1, 2 and 3’s all decided to have a mini-camp here at school.
Tents, pancakes, egg toss, egg and spoon races and an egg hunt topped off a fun-filled day.
Whoever thought pitching tents, eating pikelets, and playing games in the sun could be so much fun!! Egg throwing and catching was interesting especially when some people got egged. Lastly we finished by having an Easter egg hunt. It was really difficult as we had to find two halves of a laminated egg with the same pattern. At times we had to negotiate with others that had the same pattern.
As part of our Science this term we have been learning about light and dark and what makes shadows. On a recent sunny day, we went outside and figured out how to make the biggest shadow we could…
And the smallest shadows we could.
And then we had a lot of fun trying to get away from our shadows…but we couldn’t!
