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STUDYLADDER

Room 8 students are now using Studyladder. This is an online educational program where students log in and access learning activities that will help with reading, writing and mathematics. Everyone has their own user name and password. You earn points and rewards for completing activities so get started and have fun! Check out your Homework Book if you forget your user name or password and remember to log out when you have finished.

SCIENCE FUN!

Room 8 is celebrating science by having fun with experiments. We have been making predictions and observing and describing what happens. Check out exactly what we have been doing...

We thought like scientists today by making a prediction about what would happen before we did the experiment. We had some ideas because we knew what had happened with vinegar and baking soda yesterday. We predicted what would happen when a plastic bottle with 3/4 cup of vinegar had a balloon half filled with baking soda placed over the neck of the bottle. The balloon was lifted so the baking soda went into the bottle and reacted with the vinegar. Some of us thought it would explode, others thought the balloon might fly off. Some of us predicted the balloon would fill with air.

Check out this video and have a go but make sure a responsible adult helps!    

Wednesday was the BEST! Try this at home but check you have an adult help you and do it outside or in the kitchen sink. Put 1/2 cup of warm water and 1/2 cup of white vinegar into a small ziploc bag. Wrap 3 teaspoons of baking soda in a piece of tissue, add to the bag and quickly zip it up. Stand back and watch the bag POP! What happens is...

When the baking soda and the vinegar mix they create a gas called carbon dioxide. (That’s the stuff we breathe out) Gases need a lot of room. The carbon dioxide keeps filling and filling the bag until there is no more room for it and, POP! The build up of gas pops the bag open!

Click on the link to find the instructions...
Exploding Bag!

Tuesday... We had no idea what would happen when drops of food colouring were added to a plate of blue milk. It looked pretty but as soon as a drop of  dish washing liquid was added the colours swirled and mixed and looked really interesting patterns.  Why?

Dishwashing liquid is designed to go after the fat on dishes from the food we eat but there is also fat in whole milk.  When we dropped the liquid soap onto the milk it tried to break down the fat in the milk. While it was doing that it caused the colours to scatter and mix creating an amazing display!

On Monday we put plastic chippie packets into a hot oven for a few minutes. We found out that they 'shrink' because... 

Plastic chip packets are made from long chains of molecules called ‘polymers’. In chip packets these polymers are stretched out straight. When you heat up the packet the polymer chains start to get more energy. The chains vibrate and start curling up. The packet seems to shrink because all the polymer chains have curled up over each other.

ANZAC Assembly

This morning Mahora School celebrated Anzac Day with a special assembly. We saw a slideshow with photos of soldiers in the war. We sang 'Lest We Forget' and heard some poems. Rooms 14 and 15 made wreaths which were laid by our flagpole. Some of us are getting up very early tomorrow morning to attend the Dawn Parade.

 

These World War 2 medals belonged to Mrs Perry's father who was a sergeant in World War 2.

The Anzac Day Red Poppy

The red poppy is a symbol used to remember those who died in war.   Wild red poppy flowers bloom in spring in France and Belgium where many of the worst battles in World War One were fought.
Artillery shells and machine gun fire churned the battlefields up. Poppy seeds grow in churned earth. The colour red reminds us of the blood shed in those fields.
By Brennan

Today in History...

 Check out this very helpful invention by clicking on the you tube link...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RXOI3dwNOGs

Welcome Back : )

It was great to have everyone back today all refreshed after the holidays. Well done to those students who remembered to bring a water bottle. Birthday wishes to Lyrik who turned 9 on the 12th and to Brodie who had his special day today!

Holiday Time!

Enjoy the holidays - see you all next term :-)

Recycled Easter Bunnies

We made these bunny containers from milk containers. You can use them to hold all sorts of things.. even Easter eggs!

Growing a Grass Buddy

Growing a grass buddy is fun and simple. All you need is potting mix, grass seed, muslin cloth and a plastic cup. Check out our buddies...

FOOD FOR THOUGHT Supermarket Visit

It was great to visit New World Supermarket today to put our skills in reading nutrition labels. We know that per 100g it's best if foods have less than 10g of fat and sugar, more than 6g fibre and less than 400mg salt. You have to look very carefully at the labels. Thanks to Marie and New World and the parents who came with us. We are becoming nutritional label experts!

Letter Writing

We think it's very important to be able to thank those 'experts' who help out in our school. This week we have been learning how to write and set out a letter.
Our success criteria included...
* saying thank you in a sincere way
* saying what you enjoyed
* including details about something you learned
* an update on how the garden looks now
We had some super letters. Well done everyone!

What is the Food Pyramid?

We are really enjoying 'Food for Thought'. Today Marie talked to us about the food pyramid. We learned about the food groups - what we should eat most, sometimes and which foods belong at the top of the pyramid and are treat foods.

Growing a great ME!

Room 8 have identified characteristics to grow and develop. Check out these great examples...

T.H.I.N.K.

Our Garden

  Wow! Look at our garden now! Today with the help and guidance of Mr Durrant our vegetable garden took shape. We can't wait to monitor the progress of the veges. Thanks very much Garden Depot!

Writing Workshop with Stu Duval

New Zealand author Stu Duval shared his talents with our school. He is an author, artist and cartoonist. We learned to record ideas in lists and ways to combine them to make fun character names. Check out the pastel chalk pirate he drew!

Swimming Sports

Ready to start!

 Last week we had our swimming sports.
Everyone enjoyed the fun events and we have some fabulous writing to share which will be published soon.

Girls Noodle Race

Boys Floating & Kicking Race

We've Got the Power!

El Gregoe's show today was fantastic! We all enjoyed the magic tricks and meeting Eggy, Zazu and Ollie.
We learned more about the values that help us to be 'students who care' so that our school is a cool place to be part of. Check out these photos...