Kapa haka

This week is Matariki ( the beginning of the Maori new year): Room 8 has found some great information for their homework!

What does Matariki mean? Matariki is a cluster of stars which is only visible in the early morning for a short period of time. Matariki has two meanings, both referring to a tiny constellation of stars; Mata Riki (Tiny Eyes) and Mata Ariki (Eyes of God).

Why is Matariki important? This group of stars is important to Maori as it helped them to know when to plant their crops. It was also seen as an important time for family to gather and reflect on the past and the future.

Why do we celebrate Matariki today?
Today Matariki means celebrating the special place we live in and giving respect to the land we live on.

Year groups around the school have all been celebrating in different ways. Today we had Kapa Haka and we celebrated Matariki by learning Whai - String games!

Fractions!

We are learning about FRACTIONS at the moment!
Here is a cool tutorial about fractions...http://www.sheppardsoftware.com/mathgames/fractions/fracTut1.htm

Here is a fun game you can try...http://themathgames.com/our-games/fraction-games/play-fraction-balls-1/

Matariki

What is Matariki? In Kapa Haka this week Mr Chadwick has been talking to us about Matariki. Next week we will be doing some fun activities to celebrate this special time of year.

For homework this week your task is to gather information about Matariki.
Yesterday we discussed where you can find information. Here are some suggestions the class made:
Lachlan - talking to experts
Mila - newspapers
Alex - Library/books
Lucy B - Internet
Here are a few links you might find useful:
http://www.matarikievents.co.nz/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matariki

Remember we do not want people bringing in pages and pages of information. So you need to summarise the information you have found into a few sentences.

More fizzing and foaming - making Witches Brew!!

What do you think would happen if you mix baking soda, dishwashing liquid and food colouring in a tall glass and then add vinegar!??
Can you remember which ingredient is the acid and which is the carbonate?

Some more things to think about:
What effect does the dishwashing liquid have on this experiment?
Does the shape and size of the glass effect the experiment?
What is the name of the gas that is made by mixing an acid and a carbonate?
To watch another cool fizzing experiment take a look at this great clip Mrs. Chao found!!

The Fizz Inflator!

This term we are investigating Temporary and Permanent Changes. We have been learning about solids, liquids and gases.
Last week we started looking at Chemical reactions, and what can make them. We looked at the 'fizz inflater' video on the Year 3-4 Science wiki.
Today, the children of Room 8 taught Miss. Collier how to conduct this experiment by giving her step by step instructions.

Photographer: Alex Brown Room 8
The experiment shows that an acid (vinegar) and a carbonate (baking soda) can make a gas (carbon dioxide) when mixed. It blows the balloon up.
After the experiment we discussed what would happen if...?
- there was more vinegar
- a bigger bottle
- we used a water balloon etc

This week Room 8 will be working in groups to modify (change) the experiement by changing the...
-amount of vinegar
-amount of baking soda
-size of bottle
-size of ballon
The children will need to predict what will happen (hypothesis) and plan (equipment, ingredients, method) before conducting their experiment. They will then need to observe (watch) and record their findings (results).
Keep checking the blog to view updates of our experiments!

Room 8 Garden

Some of you may have noticed that our vege patch is coming along nicely.
This afternoon we pulled out some of our rolly polly carrots to see how they were going, we cut some of our rainbow silverbeet and spinach and we even tasted some of our herbs!
Unfortunately, our purple cauliflower has big holes in their leaves from white butterflies. We are on the look out for ideas to keep those butterflies away!

Photographer: Alex Brown Room 8

Performing Arts

At the end of last term and for the beginning of this term Room 8 have been doing Performing Arts with Mrs Hooke. The children all worked very hard to create a fantastic dance! This week they were able to perform in Assembly.

We were excited and a bit nervous about performing in front of the WHOLE SCHOOL. We did really well and Miss Collier was very proud.

Plus we won the 'Muritai Bear' for being the best class in assembly. Go Room 8!!

Presenting our News Reports

This week we have been presenting our carefully planned News Reports on an article of our choice.
Our presentations have gone very well so far with people using loud, clear voices to speak to an audience. Our buddy assessors have to watch very carefully to assess us against the criteria.
They have given some very thoughtful feedback for us to work on and improve our News Reports. One thing many of us need to work on is eye contact - this means looking up briefly at times to the audience while we are presenting.

News Reports

Click on the image to make it bigger and easier to see!




What are we looking for in a News Report?
Eye contact (Did they look at the class?)
Clear voice (Could everyone hear them?)
Did they tell you Who, When, Where, What, Why?
Were they prepared? (Did they know what to say?)
Your buddy will assess you against these 4 things after you have presented.

Earth Day!

Yesterday was Earth Day. To find out more about what Earth Day is Room 8 looked at this website on our class projector.
Then we talked about some of the things we already do to help look after our environment. We came up with things like: turning off the lights when we are not in the room, picking up rubbish, recycling, biking or riding our scooters to school instead of driving and many more great things!
Next, we had to think about What else can we do??
We thought we could start composting at home, re-using things like milk bottles and ice-cream containers, using public transport like buses and ferries or sharing rides!
As part of our Healthy Lifestyle Inquiry we have made a Year 3 and 4 Garden! Check the slide show of what we did on earth day and look at our much our veges have grown! We are very pleased.