Living Things: Plants

What do plants need to survive and grow?

Today we started an investigation into that very question. 

We are planning on using the new planter boxes which were built by our maintenance team just outside our windows. 

We bought some seeds and gathered some soil.

We decided it would be best to start our garden in egg cartons. That way we can move them indoors to protect them from the birds, rabbits and other wildlife that visit. 

Today we planted beans, poppies and sunflowers. Soon, we will plant some marigolds, silverbeet and parsley as well. 

Over the next few days we will investigate what our seeds need to germinate and how we need to care for them once they start to grow. 

We're very excited about our latest project and look forward to having our very own garden. 

Book Week

We have been super excited about Book Week! We read quite a few of the award winning books and talked about what made them "good" books. I particularly enjoyed a book called 'Mr Huff' by Anna Walker. In this book the author very cleverly portrays emotions and how to overcome negative feelings. 

Well, Book Week culminated in today, our Book Fair and Parade. The children were super excited to be wearing their costumes all day and when the final touches were added, they all looked amazing!

A visit from Clifford added to our excitement!

Then it was finally our turn to parade. For some children it felt like an eternity. 

Congratulations on a super effort KC!

Twice the Awards!

Since our Assembly was rained out last week, we had twice the award recipients this week!

Congratulations to Cadence, Ano, Benita, Simron and Jemma! 

I'm so proud of you!

Learning about Living Things - Animals

At the beginning of the term I asked the children what they know about animals. The whiteboard was filled with a mind map of words showing their prior learning. 

My next question was, "what would you like to learn about animals?"

The next day Olivia asked, "can we learn about hibernate?"

Nash asked, "can we learn about habitat?"

So, we learnt about animals that hibernate and what a habitat is. 

We created a word wall which we add to each time we learn a new word.

So far, the children's interests have guided to explore animals that are nocturnal and animals that can camouflage. We've learnt about the difference between insects and spiders. 

Ano was particularly interested in fossils, so we talked about why they are important. We've even had a go at making fossils of our own. 

First we made the dough using flour, salt, used coffee grounds and cold coffee. 

Then we stamped our shells and left our dough in the sun to dry. 

Most of our creations made realistic looking fossils. The children are really pleased with their work!

I absolutely love the paths the children's interests take us on!

I wonder what question they will ask next?!

More Fraction Work

In our work on fractions, we have been trying hard to understand that fractions are about dividing shapes or objects into equal parts. We've practised writing fractions with a focus on the number at the bottom showing the number of parts the objects have been divided into. Today we did some more work on quarters and looked at thirds. The children have become very proficient at recognising equal and unequal parts. 

We continued to consolidate our learning using food. Today we used a box of Smarties. 

The children were divided into groups of three. 

First each group was asked to divide a paper plate into thirds. 

Next the children took turns to share their box of Smarties so that each received an equal portion. 

The last step was to check that the portions were in fact equal. Each child was asked to count their Smarties to ensure they were divided into 3 equal parts. 

And when all was done, the children ate their Smarties!

Maths can be so much fun!