Oral Reading

Last week as part of our homework, students in Room 8 prepared a couple of pages from a book they enjoyed reading to share with the class. At first it was a bit scary but they soon learned to use their voice for expression, pace the reading and check with the audience to see if they were listening.

Lots of people want to do more now....

Comparing Whales

Last week Ethan wanted to compare the size of whales using place value blocks and this is what he made.  He made up a scale and put the whales into the order from the book. Ethan has columns for the baleen whales, the toothed whales, dolphins and porpoises. Hear him talk about what he did over 2 days last week.

Record and upload audio >>

Island Bay Marine Centre

Last Friday we went on our school trip to the Island Bay Marine Centre.  We are studying The Wonder of Whales this term and we learned that there are lots of whales in the Cook Strait and off the east coast of the South Island as there is so much food for them there.

We were met at the Centre by Jules who took us to the aquarium and the touch-pool where we used our senses to touch, smell and look at lots of different starfish, anemones, sea cucumbers, sea urchins and limpets.  We also saw lots of marine animals in the tanks there, including lobsters, octopus, seahorses, and turtles.

  After morning tea we said goodbye and piled onto the bus again.  Thanks to  Jules and all the parents who helped out- we had a fantastic time!

The NZ Ballet

Last week we were lucky enough to have the Royal NZ Ballet came to school to show us how they workout and train and then they performed some scenes of Cinderella. The dancers were amazing and were so strong and flexible.

The male dancers could jump so high we all clapped. Did you know that all their steps and routines are  in french?

Wacky Hair Day

Last Friday the whole school had a wacky hair day to support Oxfam's Fair Trade Fortnight. The money raised goes to help farmers in poor countries make a living wage that can support their families.

On Friday of Week 4  the year 7 and 8s will be making fairtrade coffee for parents before school.

My Thoughts

Today Room 8 students had their first try at using our new mind mapping programme. They worked in pairs copying a mind map and adding on to it.

A mind map is a way of recording main ideas and key words to summarise a text.

 Working together and sharing ideas is a good way to learn new skills.

Cross Country

Congratulations Charlotte for winning the Year 4 girl's race. You are a star !

Blowing up a Plastic Zip Bag

Today we added 1/4 cup of water and 1/2 cup vinegar into a ziplock bag.

 We zipped the bag up but left a little gap to drop in a tissue containing 3 teaspoons of baking soda. 

We zipped up the bag and thew it outside.

What happened ?

It foamed up and filled the bag before popping it open. Very exciting!

Why did this happen?

What happens inside the bag is actually pretty interesting - the baking soda and the vinegar eventually mix . When they do mix, you create an ACID-BASE reaction and the two chemicals work together to create a gas, (carbon dioxide - the stuff we breathe out)  Gasses need a lot of room and the carbon dioxide starts to fill the bag, and keeps filling the bag until the bag can no longer hold it any more and, POP! 

M and Ms

Using your Observation Skills

We dropped different coloured m and ms into a half full container of water and watched to see what happened.

We saw the dye come off the lollies but it didn't mix for a long time. The coating dissolved in the water and soon we were left with the chocolate middle. 

Why didn't the colours mix?

M and Ms have a wax coating which stays on the dye and makes a barrier when the  colours meet.

Do you think it  would make a difference if you use warm or cold water?

National Science Week

 

This week is National Primary Science week and all the students at Muritai School are working on physical science investigations!
Room 8 enjoyed making lava in a cup.
Will it still work if you use sugar instead of salt? 
Try it at home!

How does it work?

It looks a bit like a lava lamp because the oil floats on top of the water because it is lighter than the water. Since the salt is heavier than oil, it sinks down into the water and takes some oil with it, but then the salt dissolves and the oil floats back up to the top!!!

What do people in Room 8 do on a Rainy Day?

They build awesome towers !

How Can Whales Float?

Today we explored floating and sinking and how a large mammal like a whale can float. We tried floating  raw eggs (whales ) in both tap water and salt water to see if there was any difference

We put the eggs in cups with tap water and salty water .

In tap water the egg sank and in salty water the egg floated.

Why did this happen?

 In our Salt Water Egg experiment, because the egg is denser than tap water, it pushes away water particles so it can make space for itself hence the sinking motion. But in the case of the salt water, since it is heavier than ordinary tap water, it is more capable of holding the egg up – hence the egg floating.  Objects sink when their own density is greater than the liquid’s density.

The same happens to whales. They float because the water they swim in is denser than tap water. The denser the water the easier it is to float.There are other things that help whales to float as well. Can you find out what they are?

We also learned a new word today when the salt we stirred into the water did not all dissolve. We made a saturated solution where the salt could not all be absorbed into the water. Can you think of a way we could make it dissolve?

Have fun and try this experiment at home.

A Character Description

Over the last week we have written amazing  descriptions of Fudge, a character in a series of books written by Judy Blume. We started with Tales of a fourth Grade Nothing. 

Fudge is the annoying little brother who drives his big brother crazy with his antics. Sometimes we are Fudge and sometimes we are more like Peter.

Come into class and see our writing.