Digital Microscope

Ms Udy has been helping some of us use a digital microscope in class. We even worked out how to take photos with it, which was very exciting.

In a literacy group, we looked at our skin and some leaves up close, then wrote descriptions about each. We were amazed to see that tiny freckles show up on the computer screen like a big bruise!

As part of our Think It Friday work on Spies today, some of us chose to work with Ms Udy to investigate objects with the microscope and write, draw or talk about them. Some amazing discussions have been had!

 A leaf with the midrib showing.

Close up of an amethyst, showing the colours we couldn't see with the naked eye.

Left: Penny G's blonde hairs (on a bright green table).

Below: Ms Udy's mix of dark and blonde hairs. We all thought it was really funny that Ms Udy has lots of different colours in her hair!

Quite a few of us asked Ms Udy how we could get a microscope like this one. Luckily, we found out that the school has a few of them in the science store room, so we'll be able to use them again. In case any parents are interested, here is a link to the kind we used:   Zoomy Digital Microscope

Senses - Taste Tests

As part of our work on senses, we have learnt about taste with Ms Udy. We learnt about sweet, sour, salty, bitter and umami flavours. We each tasted four liquids, and tried to identify whether they were sweet, sour, salty or bitter. We also talked about further experiments we could do at home.

1. Blindfold taste test: One person arranges lots of small pieces of food, with a variety of flavours, on a plate. The other person is blindfolded, and has to try to work out what each food is. Does it make a difference when you hold your nose so you can't smell the food?

2. Dry mouth tasting: With a clean cloth or paper towel, one person wipes their tongue so it is dry. The other person brings them pieces of food to try (with or without a blindfold). How hard is it to taste the food when your tongue is dry?

Here is the slide show we used - look out for the plate with lots of ideas for blindfold taste tests :) 

SENSE QUIZ

Today we continued our learning on Senses.  With Mrs Lunn we did a quiz.  She gave us a little scenario and we had to decide what sense we would use.

Here is the quiz we used so we can do it with you at home... you'll see how COMPETENT we are!

OUR FIVE SENSES

This week we have been learning about our Five Sense with Tim and Harold in the Life Ed truck.  We have been doing some extra learning about them in the classroom too.  We have five senses:  Sight, Smell, Touch, Taste and Hearing.  These are the what we use to experience the world around us.  Time told us all about how our senses send messages to our fabulous brains to process the information we are hearing, seeing, smelling, tasting and touching.

  

One of the activities we did was a 'Guess the Sound' game...

You could play it at home with us!

Test your sense of hearing.

Think It Friday - Bears

Last Friday, we heard a story about bears (We're Going on a Bear Hunt) and talked about other stories we know that have bears. We talked about real bears and bears in stories - where they live, what they eat, and what else they do. After some discussion about our options, we were let loose to design or make something about bears to share with the class. This could be a song or poem, a design or model, a story or book review, a play or puppet show - it was really up to us! Wow, there are some creative thinkers in Piako Rua! We came up with lots of different ideas. We had lots of fun designing, researching, making, writing, reading, building and presenting!

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Catapults and Chemicals!

Some of us have been doing science experiments with Ms. Udy this week.

One group made catapults and checked how far they could fling a marble. We used popsicle sticks, rubber bands and plastic spoons. Each group had building time, practice time, then three turns that were measured. We were able to make modifications in between our three turns, and we worked out the average distance of each group. It was lots of fun and we learnt some interesting things about measuring and comparing distances. Unfortunately Ms Udy was too busy helping and measuring to take any photos on that day! Here is a link to the kind of catapults we made:
https://littlebinsforlittlehands.com/popsicle-stick-catapult-kids-stem-activity/

Later in the week, another group made potions. We started with mixing vinegar and baking soda and learning about chemical reactions. We learnt a little bit about acids and bases and how they react with each other. We each got to make a reaction with some red food colouring so it looked like lava coming out of a volcano! Next, we mixed up water and food colouring, then added different amounts of sugar to each colour. When we stirred them really well, this made some colours more dense than others. We very carefully poured them on top of each other, or used the big droppers to stack the colours on top of each other.
 
 

Writing with a Story Arc

At the end of Term 3, those of us in 'The Jungle' literacy group were focusing on planning before writing our stories. We listened to some stories from Ms Udy, then learnt about the story arc. Once we understood all the parts of the story arc, we were able to identify these parts in the stories Ms Udy told us. Next. we told our own stories to friends, then to the whole class, ensuring that our story has all of these parts. We could choose to tell stories from our own lives, stories we had made up, or retell fairy tales.


Now we were ready to start planning our stories on paper. We used different kinds of graphic organisers to plan our work, then we told our stories to friends, using the graphic organisers as a guide. Finally, Ms Udy let us start to write the stories in our books! When we had finished writing, we revised our stories, then Ms Udy helped us to edit them so she could type them up for us. We all got to draw pictures to go with our work. This process took a longer time than usual, but our stories were longer, more organised and more complex when we went through this process. We were very proud when Ms Udy asked us to read our stories to the whole class!

Here are just a few examples: 

My Birthday by Madison Oppatt

On my birthday I had inflatable limbo at my party. I had invited lots of friends and some of my family. I was a little upset on my birthday because Sophia couldn’t come. I wish Sophia could have come. I really wanted to do the limbo, but first we had to play other games like Pin the Horn on the Unicorn and Pass the Parcel. Then the wind came and the inflatable limbo flew away! I was really upset that I couldn’t play it but mum said, “It’s okay, you can try to find another game.” I looked around and I saw my pinata so I went and got it. We had fun with the pinata and we got some lollies from the pinata. Then my Dad came along and threw more lollies. We had fun. I had a Fluttershy cake. I didn’t want my birthday to end but before I went to bed I got more presents. Even without doing the limbo, it was a really good party.

Rapunzel by Vanessa Woollaston

Once upon a time there was a little girl named Rapunzel. She lived with her family in a palace. Rapunzel had really, really long hair. It was golden and beautiful. A wicked witch wanted Rapunzel’s hair for herself. So the witch stole Rapunzel at night time and put her up in a tower. Over time the witch convinced her that the witch was her real mum and she was only safe in the tower. The witch called, “Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair.” Nearby, a prince heard the witch so he came to see what was wrong. But Rapunzel hit him with a pan and tied him up using her hair. The prince tried to convince her that she had a real family. Then she remembered that she had a real family and she figured out that the witch was evil. She left the tower with the prince. They got married and lived happily ever after. They had five children and went back to live in the palace. The end.  

WELCOME BACK TO TERM FOUR

 We have started Term 4 by having loads of fun!  Yesterday a group of kids made ANZAC biscuits.  They were delicious!

We also had a Rich Task for Maths to complete.  Mrs Ruawai got us to make up our very own Computational Thinking maze.  We had to come up with a character and either avoid characters or collect tokens.  We then got someone else to write the code to solve the challenge.  We
had a blast!

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Check out Royce's amazing maze!

CALENDAR ART

We were super busy in the last two weeks of school, getting our calendar art done.  Here are a few photos of our calendar pictures...

RIGHT CHOICE DAY

We held Riverdale's Got Talent at school on Friday.  Courtney and her sister Caitlin performed a dance and Ava sang.  It was so great to see how confident the girls were performing.
Then we had a sausage sizzle for lunch.  It was a great way to end the term!  Thanks Mr Bron for organising the day for us.
 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ISALEI

This is Isalei.  We celebrated her birthday on the last day of school, even though her birthday was the next day.  Isalei is proud of her Samoan culture.  We honoured her by getting her up the front and having Ms Udy singing Happy Birthday in Samoan.  Then we all clapped her seven claps while Ms Udy counted out loud in Samoan.  Isalei thought it was fantastic.  

Manuia lou aso fanau Isalei 

INTRODUCING ONE OF OUR SINGING SENSATIONS

This is Jorden.  He started in Piako Rua in Term Two.  In this photo he is singing into the microphone.  We have a microphone in the class.  At the start of the day, and after any break time, we get together for a song.  One child is allowed to sing into the mircophone.  They even get to choose what the song is!

At the moment our favourite songs are:

• Old town road
• Up
• Fight Song
• Hakuna Matata

MAKING OUR OWN CODES

Last week Mrs Ruawai gave us a challenge.  We have been busy learning how to write code to get from one place to another but this time... we had to draw in the characters and any obstacles that our character had to avoid.  Then we gave our maze to a friend to write the code for.  Our job was check that they got it right.

We LOVED it!