GEOMETRY

We have been learning 2 dimensional and 3 dimensional shapes. We have been about verticies (corners), faces (the flat parts), and edges (the sides where pieces join up). We designed robots and made nets to build our own robots.

Geometric Shapes on PhotoPeach

Curious George

Lets read some stories about George

I wonder where the first rugby ball came from . . .

We have been following the Rugby World Cup and got to wondering. We wanted to know who invented the rugby ball and how rugby began.

I wonder how rugby began . . .

Writing - Remember

Last week we worked on capturing a moment.  We used our five senses to help us take a snapshot of that time.  Makaela wrote a wonderful piece which takes you right into the scene and helps you share it with her.

Remember . . .

Remember when Nanny died . . . the taste of grapes in your mouth.  Remember the smell of peppermints and roses.  Remember the touch of material and cotton, and the hard wooden seats.  Remember everyone crying and the roses sitting in pots, and the big brown crate sitting in the middle of the room.  Remember hearing people sobbing and the violins playing.  That was the day Nanny died.

By Makaela

Signatures from the All Blacks

At Rebel Sport there were heaps of people lined up to get the All Blacks autographs.  The line went from the All Blacks tables right around the store and all the way out the door.

But look who was first!

She took her teddy bear for the All Blacks to sign.

Ben Franks signed it along with Sonny Bill Williams, Conrad Smith, and Isaia Toeava

Don't you wish you'd been there?

Maths Oral language

 Every Thursday we practice explaining how we work out our maths problems.  We try to find out as many different ways as we can to work out the problem and explain what strategy we have used.  Then we work out which is the most efficient.  We are also able to check that we have the right answer by making sure we use at least two different strategies.  Have a look at the last two problems and some of the strategies we came up with.

 

Makaela's Crystal

We tried out the new Mimio viewer in our classroom.  It let the whole class look close-up at Makaela's crystal.

Makaela and Tobias wrote these wonderful stories about it:

My Crystal

On the weekend I made crystals that look like the moon in the sky with lots of stars.  They are like blue hedgehogs dancing in the moonlight.  My crystals shine like a thousand stars in the sky.  They are like snowflakes falling on me.  They look like lollies covered in sugar.  Tiny blue lights shining up at the sky.  I made my crystals out of magnesium salt and for a little bit of colour I added food colouring.

Makaela's Crystal

In the weekend Makaela made some crystal out of hot water, magnesium salt, and blue food colouring.  The blue colour makes the crystal stand out lots.  The crystal looks crispy and shiny.  It is thin, spiky and sparkles when the light hits it.  I would like to have a go at making a crystal.

Fruit Platter

Today the Year 4's in Rooms 13 and 14 went to learn how to play golf.

The Year 3's worked with Anna.

We made a fruit platter because as part of the Home Play Challenge the character Spoke loves fruit kebabs. If you don't have kebab sticks you can make a fruit platter instead.

We had mandarins, kiwifruit, pears, apples and bananas.

 

We cut the fruit up or peeled it. Anna had to cut up the kiwifruit, apples and pears because they needed a sharp knife.

 

This is what our fruit platters looked like. Don't they look delicious!

  

They tasted good.

The kiwifruit was the first fruit to vanish! The bananas were very popular too.

After we had finished eating we went to the Kitchen Garden and put our fruits scraps into the compost bins.

Thank you Sonja and Anna for getting the yummy fruit for us. Maybe you could make a fruit platter at home with your family.

Moving Sand

The PTA kindly got lots of sand for Kowhai and Totara Team's sandpit.  The truck dumped all the sand outside the sandpit.  Dugan asked us if we would help move it into the Kowhai sandpit.  We all worked hard and quickly got the job done.  Didn't we do well?

 

Here we are making sand castles when we had finished the job.

Bridge Reports

We all had a go at designing and building our own bridges.  Have a look at them.  Aren't they terrific?  We also wrote reports about them.

 

Bridges Report

Introduction:

We started to build our bridges because we were learning about bridges.  We knew what each bridge looked like because we went on a walk to see them.  I made a plan to make a bream bridge but it had to have something pretty on it so it would look good.

Design:

My design is a tied arch bridge.  Now it looks like the Fairfield bridge.

Building:

I brought in all I needed. I used cardboard boxes and I started to build.  I used glue and cellotape.  I cut tabs to stick things on but the arches did not need tabs to stick them on.  It took a really time.  Then I had to paint it.  I got it done.

Evaluation:

I think I did pretty well.  I think it is as good as my design because none of it looks different.  I think I think I could have done the abutments better by making them stronger and reinforcing the cardboard.

By Makaela

Bridges Report

Introduction:

One week Mrs Nicholson told us we were going to make bridges because we were learning about bridges.   We had to bring in our own cardboard, wood, and whatever else we needed.  I thought that I could bring something on the last two days.  I did but I needed more toilet paper rolls.  I only got two so I went to my Mum’s work.  The next day I got four paper rolls the same size as the others.  I got some cardboard from home and from my Mum’s work.  I walked to school with all my cardboard and toothpicks and what I needed. 

Design:

My design was a beam bridge but when I was finished I thought that my bridge could be better so I cut out some arches and put them on top.  It then looked like the Fairfield Bridge.  My bridge had a path on both sides.  My abutments were really cool.  They are like all other abutments.  I thought that my abutments were quite crocked.

Building:

When we got to start building I started with my beams.  I cut all the ends off then glued them together.  After gluing my beams together I cut a little into my toilet paper rolls, to make tabs, and glued them to the bottom of the bridge.  When that was done I got the scissors and cut little holes about two centimetres from the sides.  Then after putting holes in my beam I got my toothpicks and put them in but they fell through.  So I waited for the hot glue gun.  When they were on my bridge I cut out two arches and went to Mrs Nicholson with line drawn in my cardboard to show the holes that go through.  It’s like windows.  When Mrs Nicholson had cut them out, using a craft knife, I got it back and glued it on.  Then I cut out some abutments and glued them on.  Lastly I glued on my string for the fence.

Evaluation:

I think my bridge could have been better.  But I think it is good enough.  I think it was a great idea to bring cardboard, toothpicks, and paper rolls because they were easy to work with and the bridge was strong.

By Brodie

Creating a New Platform for the Dental Clinic

The concrete truck arrived and parked ready to mix up the concrete.

The men pulled out the scoop for the concrete to flow down.

They swept the concrete into the right place on top of the builders metal bars which reinforce it.

They began to move the concrete so that it was evenly covering the pad.

After using a tool to add water and mix up the concrete they had removed most of the air from the concrete.  Then they completely smoothed the surface over.

Finally it was finished and the concrete truck could leave.  Now we just had to wait for the concrete to dry and harden.

Paper Bridge Challenge

John Kerr and Sally came to visit us to talk about what an engineer does.  This was to help us to learn more about bridges.  John told us there are lots of different sorts of engineers.  John is an aircraft engineer.  A civil engineer helps build bridges.  A civil engineer decides how to build things that don't move, like bridges.
John challenged us to make a bridge from only one piece of paper using staples or cellotape.  Once we had finished our paper bridge we went to test it.  They tested it by hanging a bag off it and filling it with water bottles.  We recorded how many water bottles each bridge held.  The bridges spanned across two tables.  Joshua and Ezekiel's bridge held four bottles.
Then John brought out a bridge he had made and tested it.  It held all of the bottles except the large juice bottle.

Here is John's bridge.  It is a beam bridge with a supporting triangle truss.

Here he is placing the bottles in.  He used a pen to balance the bag off the bridge.

Walking the Hamilton Bridges

It was scary.  The beam bridge was making noises.  Thump, thump, thump went the beam bridge.  The cars were travelling over the joins in the bridge.  The noise was scaring me.  I was hurrying past the beam bridge to get away from the thumps.

By Hodan

My eyes were wide open looking off the Fairfield Bridge into the Waikato River.  I was interested in the water.  While I was walking across the Fairfield Bridge I felt thrilled.  When I came off the bridge we went to look underneath the Fairfield Bridge.  The piers were gigantic!  Next we had morning tea beside the Waikato River.  I enjoyed walking across the walkway beside the Waikato River. The arch bridge was amazing because it lights up at night.  It was high up and I felt like I was a bird. 

By Tobias

I’m looking around under the bridge.  The water is moving.  The birds are sitting on the top of the bridge.  My legs are sore from walking.  It is nice to stop for a rest.

By Aldrey

Jumping quickly to the end of the bridge I went under the Fairfield Bridge and looked at it.  Poles were underneath.  I went onto a wood bridge, and we thumped and thumped.  We thumped to see if there was a troll underneath.  We went to climb some stairs and the parents came up the ramp.  We went under another bridge, which was called the Whitoria Bridge.  It was a beam bridge.  Next was Claudelands Bridge.  There was a train bridge with the Claudelands road bridge.  I noticed triangles under the road bridge.  They are trusses under the Claudelands Bridge.  They look like diamonds in the middle and when you look on the side it looks like triangles. I love going on trips.  It’s fun.

By Kiana

 

 

Newspaper First Edition

We are planning to write a newspaper to share with the classes in the school to show them what we are learning.  Here is a copy of our first edition.

Mosaic Pavers

Last year the children in Room thirteen designed and made some garden pavers.  We were very lucky to get the materials all donated.  Unfortunately the pavers could not be placed into the garden as the Property Committee had not decided where they wanted them to go.  This year all of Totara Team got to lay their pavers.  We took our pavers down to the kitchen garden where we lay them in the ground.  We dug up some ground the depth of the pavers and then we put the pavers in the ground.  We had to check the pavers were even by lifting them up and filling in the gaps with dirt.  Then we put the pavers back on top and pushed them down.  The gaps between the pavers were then filled up with soil.  Finally we jumped up and down on the pavers to make sure they were secure.

Here are our pavers.  What do you think of them?

Unfortunately we placed our pavers in the wrong place so Dugan has moved them behind the hall into the kitchen garden.  If you have time go and look at them.  They look great!

Being Ready to Learn

Ready To Learn

We all discussed what we thought 'Being Ready to Learn' meant and wrote down our ideas.  We thought about what we needed to do before class started, during our class time, and after school, to be ready to learn.  We also discussed what 'Being Ready to Learn' would look like, sound like, feel like, and think like.

We decided we might need some help remembering some of the things we needed to do, when we arrived at school, to help us to be ready to learn so we made up a 'STOP' sign.  We have placed our sign just inside the classroom so we see it when we arrive at school, and on the door leading onto the deck where we hang our bags.  We will look at it to remind us of all the things we need to do.  

What do you think of our sign?

Farewell to Jasmine

Today was Jasmine's last day in our class.  We are sad to see her go.  But we know she will have a lovely time in her new home in Perth.
We all bought in some healthy finger food and had a shared lunch last Friday to celebrate her time with us and to wish her and her sister a fond farewell.