CSI Private Eye

Here is the link for the CSI website.

CSI Literacy Cloud

Antarctica Inquiry - Who's Eating Who

Use the website below to help you work out the Antarctic food chain.

Who's Eating Who?

Maths Website

Follow the link for some great Maths games!

AbcYa

Our Class Dance - Cuckoo to You!

We had great fun creating this dance as a class. We brainstormed our dance steps through movement. Mrs Jackson was very impressed with the creativity shown. It was a great example of 'participating and contributing' as well - everyone had a part to play and each individual dancer added something special.

Our new Technology Unit

We are very excited about our new technology unit. We are going to be creating board games for the junior school. These games will be learning games.
To begin this unit we got together with Room 6 and played a whole lot of different board games. As we went around the different games, we evaluated the games and identified a range of different things about them such as what equipment there was and whether the instructions were easy or difficult.
It was nice to work with Room 6 and share this experience.
To begin with we brainstormed our favourite games and what made these games great to play.

Cricket with Otago Cricket

We were very lucky today to have Jess come to Outram School to teach us some cricket skills. We practiced our catching and throwing skills, then Jess taught us a great new game. Thanks for spending the morning at Outram School Jess!

Midnight Gang Drama Activities

To finish off term 3 we began a drama unit based on our class book this term 'The Midnight Gang'. We really enjoyed this great book by David Walliams.
To begin our drama learning we first completed some warm up activities that focused on using our bodies to sculpt and show a variety of things. We worked in pairs and acted as sculptor and statue, we also worked in groups to create a variety of objects or scenes. We used our bodies as props and tried to show as much as we could through gesture and expression. Having only 30 seconds for our groups to work on our image made it a real challenge! There was lots of quick thinking involved!
We are going to further develop our drama skills by recreating parts of the book in groups. We will be focusing on developing our characters, using dramatic space and using our bodies to tell a story.
In Room 7 we know that some of us find drama a bit tricky, so part of our learning has also been about giving new things a go and challenging ourselves to step out of our comfort zone.

Can you see a car?

Another car

Being sculptor and statue 

Golf anyone?

This group is showing a cooked breakfast!

A washing machine

Time for some cricket

The Aquavan

On Tuesday we were very lucky to have the NZ Marine Studies Centre 'Aquavan' visit. This tied in perfectly with our current Inquiry topic of Sustainability.

During the session we explored:

• our local waterways and what a catchment is
• how our waterways can be polluted
• how we can protect our local waterways
• what animals live in our waterways and how they are affected by changes in the environment
• how scientists test and measure water quality

We took part in some great hands on activities that helped us to better understand the key ideas. The opportunity to touch and hold some of the wildlife was a real bonus!

Padlet - Egypt

Enter the information you have found with your group on the padlet below.
Do you remember our password?

Friday investigation Egypt

Friday Investigations - This week...Egypt

Use the link below to find out more information about our topic this week.

National Geographic Kids - Egypt

Padlet - Managing Self

Brainstorm ideas, add them to the Padlet.

Managing Self

Inquiry - Kitchen Chemistry

We had completed a few experiments this week as part of our inquiry learning. We really enjoyed the one we completed today that involved using milk, food colouring and dishwashing liquid. We have been learning how to follow the scientific method, creating hypotheses and recording detailed observations. We have also been learning how to complete scientific drawings.
This experiment would be a good one to try at home!

The colour 'bursts' because the soap molecules are attracted to the fat molecules in the milk - they pretty much have a game of chase!!

The Mini Golf Challenge

The Mini Golf Challenge is back! Today for the end of term we created mini golf courses. We worked in groups. This challenge had a big focus on our 'Key Competencies', in particular 'Thinking', 'Participating & Contributing' and 'Relating to Others'. Carolyn was our special guest golfer and she was impressed with how creative the courses were.
This is a great challenge to end the term with - well done everyone!!

Kitchen Chemistry - The Coloured Ice Cube Experiment

Last week, as part of our Inquiry learning 'Kitchen Chemistry' we carried out an experiment on a coloured ice cube. We used our growing observational skills to make statements, complete drawings and make wonderings. It took around 15 minutes for the ice cube to melt completely. We also noticed that condensation formed on the outside of the jar and bubbles came from underneath and on the sides of the ice cube.
We wondered what would happen if you changed the water in the experiment. This is called changing a variable. We wondered what would happen if:

• we changed the temperature of the water
• we added salt to the water
• we added white vinegar to the water

This week we tested our different ideas. We found that:

• the hot water made the ice cube melt a lot faster! It only took 3 minutes to completely dissolve
• the vinegar looked a lot like our control sample, in that the colour dissolved slowly, creating lines of colour that sank to the bottom as well as colouring the water

The salt water was the most interesting. We noticed a colour change in the water from the moment we added and dissolved the salt. As the ice cube melted, a layer of red colouring formed on the top of the water. We discussed this and decided that it was because salt water is more dense than fresh water and the ice cube had fresh water in it so it sat on top. This made us wonder what would happen if we mixed the two waters together - would they separate again? We tried it and we found that they didn't. We had lots of great discussion today about what we saw and it was wonderful to see Room 7's curious minds in action!

Our control sample - cold water

Hot water - the ice cube lasted 3 minutes only!

White Vinegar

Salt water

Observation of a Candle

As part of our new Inquiry learning we became scientists! We used some of the skills that scientists used - observing, collecting, comparing and predicting, to see what happened to a candle when it was lit.
We already had some ideas about what would happen, but looking really closely and using our observation skills we found some new things that we hadn't thought about. We noticed that the flame of the candle was actually blue at the bottom and that the wax didn't dribble down like we thought it would.
We have had discussions this week about 'States of Matter' and we noticed that the candle was 'solid' but after it was exposed to heat it became a 'liquid' (wax).  We saw the heat affecting the air above the candle too.

New Zealand Sign Language Song

A Tricky Tongue Twister!

Today during current events we read an article about a tricky tongue twister. We had a go at it and decided that it was indeed pretty tricky! It doesn't really make much sense but it is fun to try. People were asked to try and say the phrase 10 times. Have a go at it yourself...

pad kid poured curd pulled cord

Poetry

Looking for something different to read? Looking for some writing inspiration? Have a wander through this website...

NZ Poetry Box

Term 2

We are about to begin Term 2!
What awaits us....
Well - we have lots on this term! Things to look forward to:

• Kiwi Golf
• Life Education with Pip
• Senior Tramp

So much is happening! It's going to be a busy but great term!

I look forward to seeing everyone on Monday!

ANZAC Padlet

We are beginning our unit on the ANZACS. Before we begin, lets have a think about what we already know about this topic. Working with a partner, brainstorm your ideas then add them to the padlet below.
To access the padlet, click on the link then type in the password on the whiteboard. Double click to add a new note. Remember to add your names so we know who is sharing their great ideas!

Padlet - anzacbrainstorm

Radio NZ Children's Treasure Chest Link

We had a look at this website today and found a great chapter book to listen too. You can explore this link as well! Remember to add any stories you listen to to your reading log. Also remember - double check your understanding of any new words - a new word you  understand is a new word you can use!!

Storytime Treasure Chest

Our NZ Bank Notes

This week we had a conversation about who Kate Sheppard was. After some further discussion we found that we don't really know a lot about some of the people who feature on our bank notes. We will be focusing on this for the next week or so.

Use the link below to help you research:

Brighter Money

Historical Park Visit

Today, as part of our Turangawaewae Inquiry topic, we visited the Outram Historical Park. While there we completed a range of activities. We had the chance to have a good explore around the various buildings and see all of the amazing collections.We found the Jail house quite dark and spooky! Zelda from the Historical Park talked to us about life in early Outram. Here are some photos from our visit.

In the Machinery Shed, looking at the threshing machine

What was life like in early Outram? Here are some items you might have found at home

Our classroom today looks quite different compared to this old one!

Miss Bennie checking Katelyn's work

Morning tea time in the sunshine

Gathering in the courthouse

The knowledgeable Zelda