Technology in Term 2

More fantastic bird feeder designs

Most of the class successfully designed and made a bird feeder in the last couple of weeks.  The children were following the design process and discovered that sometimes there are challenges with getting a design from paper to the actual prototype.  Some displayed great perseverance and ability to problem-solve when things didn't quite work out!  

Here are some of our finished feeders. Great job Room 17!

More photos of the bird feeders and designs will be posted on a Google Slide presentation soon.

We are now designing bird houses and bird baths. Lucky birds!

Science in a Van

On Tuesday we had a very exciting visit from Science in a Van.  The presenters showed a range of science 'stunts' involving forces.  They even involved Mrs Marshall who had to pull a tablecloth off the table without the items on it falling onto the floor.  They 'wowed' us all by swinging a board around with   3 glasses of water on it.  Not one glass fell off.

Carolyn wrote:

I think Room 17’s favourite was when the man was putting three glasses (with water) on a white board and was spinning it around spirally.  The three cups stayed on the whiteboard!  And the science behind was... a force was helping the cups stay on the whiteboard.  Some of us thought there was a magnet helping the cups to stay in place.  Well there wasn’t because how do we magnetize the water?

The most excitement came later with bubbles.  Thanks to some super bubble mixture from the US, Alan was able to create amazing bubbles which stayed in the air for a really long time. We learned about the different gases contained in bubbles.  He even pumped 'dry ice', otherwise known as carbon dioxide, into a bubble.

 

We will definitely be incorporating more Science into our learning over the next two terms.

Bird feeders underway

Thanks to our photographer Eleanor who did a wonderful job of capturing everyone hard at working designing and making bird feeders out of recyclable materials.

Tomorrow another group will have their turn.  We hope to encourage many native birds to our school environment so we'll be making sugar water too.

Chrysalis

We watched a butterfly emerging from its chrysalis this week. It was a male monarch (distinguished by its black spot on each hind wing) and an unlikely survivor in our New Zealand winter.  Sadly the second chrysalis didn't emerge.  If you see it winging its way across the playground, wish it well.  It has to survive until next Spring.

Fractions in Room 17

We have been exploring fractions in Room 17.  The children are able to compare and order fractions, showing a range of ways how these are larger or smaller.  I introduced a game of fraction war which can be played using a pack of cards.  It raised some interesting questions from Hugo H and Hugo J who were sensibly using a calculator to convert their fractions into decimals when they were too close to compare.  They asked, which was the winning hand 0.6 or 0.64? This will lead into a deeper understanding of the place value of decimals.

Here are some photos of working with fractions this week.

Ordering and identifying equivalent fractions:

  

Different strategies used for solving fractions of a set e.g. 30 cookies shared between 6 friends.  They each get 5.  1/6 of 30 is 5.

Victor was using his multiplication facts.  He is developing his ability to explain his thinking further.

Posted by Mrs Robyns.

Mandarin stories from Ancient China

We have been enjoying a range of stories from life in Ancient China.  Today the children were invited to problem solve like the main character, Wenchang, in the story 'Wenchang attains his prize'.  There were lots of good ideas for how Wenchang might solve the problem in order to cross the bamboo bridge.  

The children then had to solve the puzzle given to them.

Vitruvian measuring activity results

Here are the results of our measuring investigation earlier in the week. I graphed the results to show the children how quickly you can spot who is the tallest in the class, who has the same height and arm span and who has a longer arm span than height. If you were to create a drawing of the children they would be either a square shape (like the Vitruvian man), a long rectangle or a wide rectangle. The children might want to investigate members of their family to see if their arm span is the same as their height.

Comparing and contrasting two birds found in New Zealand

This week I was really impressed with how the children in Room 17 were able to use their growing knowledge about birds in New Zealand to compare and contrast using a venn diagram. They used knowledge gained from their visit to the Botanic Gardens and from their research with Miss Bridgeman. On Thursday afternoon they investigated the structure and function of the feet and beaks of different birds. For homework they might want to design an imaginary bird and label its special beak and feet which are adapted for a special purpose. You can read their venn diagram information here. We welcome encouraging comments! from Mrs Robyns