A Shape to Contain the Feeling

This term we have been learning about New Zealand artist Gretchen Albrecht. Nature is her inspiration and her work is abstract. She splits up parts of nature and puts them together again in different ways. She uses colour to carry emotional meaning in her work.
Room 8 used several of her paintings (Garden and Rose) as inspiration for their work. They mixed their own colours so their work was different.

BP Challenge

On Wednesday Bennett and Fergus had their second trial at the BP Challenge competitions. They had to make a shelter with scissors, newspaper, string and sellotape. Rufus and Noah were  part of their group. They had 20 minutes to make the shelter.

The challenge was that it had to fit one person inside and that it was strong enough to have a tissue box on the top without breaking. It also had to be freestanding.

Wow they won the challenge as everyone elses broke or it was tied to a chair and wasn't allowed.

THE SCIENCE FAIR

Today Room 8 visited the fantastic Science Fair in the library. Students walked around all the exhibits reading the questions and checking out the conclusions. It was so interesting.

Wow, what will they investigate when they are Year 7 and 8s?

Portfolios

Our reports and portfolios went home today which is very exciting! This morning students shared their learning journey with others in the class. They shared the parts they liked the best and identified where they could see improvements.

Now it is time to have that conversation with their parents.

Sharing our Reading

Students in Room 8 have been continuing to share parts of their favourite stories with the class this week. They have shown me that they 

•  are more confident sharing their reading
• are more aware of how they read with their voice and choice of text
• know how good it feels to entertain other people

How can a Whale live in Icy Cold Water?

We have been wondering how can whales can live in such cold water?  We know that the female whales give birth and raise their young in tropical waters as the babies can't survive in very cold water.What do the adults have that helps them survive?

The answer...BLUBBER! Today we put vaseline ("blubber") in a sandwich bag and sealed it up to recreate the effect of a layer of blubber.  Then we plunged our hands into icy water -one hand in the 'blubber bag' and the other in just a single sandwich bag. 

We felt  the cold water in just the plastic water but the hand in the blubber bag felt no cold. The "blubber "insulated us from the cold water. Whales build up their blubber by eating huge amounts of food in the icy cold water where food is plentiful. As the young whales grow they start to get blubber by eating larger amounts of food. 

The Food Chain

Are these creatures from outer space?

No it's phytoplankton!

This week we have been learning about Whale migration. We've found out that Humpback Whales spend much of the year in the Southern Ocean around Antarctica, feeding on krill and other zooplanktons. Then, they migrate up past New Zealand to the warm tropical waters of the equator to give birth to baby whales. They stay in the warm waters until the baby whale (called a 'calf') is fat enough with BLUBBER  to survive the cold waters, before migrating back to Antarctic waters.

We have also been learning about the food chain and the importance of the sun to grow the  phytoplanktons. They provide 90% of the world's oxygen! That's amazing !  

Our Animal Reports

We were information detectives and found out a lot about animals over the past few weeks. Each student completed a detailed report and made a cover using Comic Life. Now the reports are up on the wall. Come and see them.

Clever Maths Thinking

We have some new students in Room 8 for maths . They had to solve a problem like 456 + ? =700.

The clever students solved the problem by jumping to the next tidy (10) number, then the next 100 and then to the hundreds number . It can be solved using an equation or a number line.

Can you see how they solved the problem?

Congratulations Ethan

Ethan was named  61st in the Top 100 students in the Mathletics Hall of Fame. Way to go Ethan!! We are proud of you !

Year 1 to 4 Assembly

On Friday the Year 3 and 4 students were in charge of running the Junior Assembly. The Year 3s were presenters and Yasmin and Theo from Year 4 gave out the certificates. 

Auriel and Bennett shared their Fudge character descriptions. Hamish introduced them.

Well done everyone!

Helping our Buddies with IT

On Thursday Room 8 helped their little buddies log on to a new programme called Reading Eggs. It's a bit like Mathletics but for reading.  It was a bit of a squeeze as some little buddies had to share their laptop with another little buddy but everyone got a turn. The others then read from the library corner or played games.

As you go you can collect eggs and its fun to play. Even the big buddies loved playing with it.

Our little buddies are very clever, know their sounds and we loved having them in Room 8.

Assembly

Last Friday Room 8 presented paragraphs of their animal report at assembly. After rehearsing in the morning, we were prepared and used a  clear and confident voice. Juggling a book and a microphone can be tricky but everyone did so well.