Hands on Learning

Last week we had plenty of opportunities for hands on learning. We continued to investigate Simple Machines in a variety of ways including;

• Reading (using both books and websites)
• Watching educational videos
• Problem solving tasks and hands on experiments

Early in the week we explored force levers and made our own candy catapults. We did this with our buddies. We were exploring how by moving the position of the fulcrum or creating more tension we could make the candy fly further.  

On Friday we had further opportunities to explore how simple machines work. This time children explored how inclined planes work. The had a challenge to get a boiled egg from the chair to the floor without it cracking using only a meter ruler, 6 pieces of A3 parer, 10 paper towels and a roll of sellotape. Most groups were successful after several trials and many modifications. They quickly realised they needed to use the paper towels to create more friction and slow or stop the egg.

So that we didn't waste the eggs...we then made egg sandwiches. Children peeled and mashed the eggs with butter and mayo...then made them into sandwiches. A great Friday afternoon treat!

At the start of the week we were word detectives and examined the base words, suffixes and prefixes of some of our unit vocabulary.

We also had a session with Ms Rachel who taught us how information can sometimes be 'illustrated' to help us understand something. Diagrams and labelling will be a very important skill during this unit. We will use them to show our understanding and in our procedural writing. This week we just explored books and magazines for examples of how writers use diagrams and labels to help us understand information better. We added our findings to a shared page on padlet.

To start the week, we watched Ms Karyn model a simple procedure - how to make Fairy Bread. After exploring how a recipe is laid out, we had a go at writing our own procedure for how to make this....then we had a go! We all completed our draft writing and published this. We had to learn how to add a picture from the ipad into our google doc to do this.

Here is a published example:

Fairy Bread Fun

Task: We wrote a procedure (recipe) for how to make Fairy bread.

Success Criteria:

My writing has a title	*
It has subheadings	*
I listed the ingredients using bullet points	*
I included the steps in order	*
I used verbs and adverbs to describe what I did and how I did it.	*

This is my published procedure;

How to make Fairy Bread - By Carla

Needs:

White bread  

Plate

Sharp knife

Butter knife

Butter

Steps:

1.Wash hands

2.cut edges of the bread

3.Spread the butter on the bread

4.Put the sprinkles in the plate

5.Dip the bread on the butter side in the sprinkles

6.Push the bread down

7.Cut the bread into triangles

8.Eat the bread

Mathematics - Last week we reviewed our addition and subtraction strategies and worked on explaining our interpretation of two sep word problems. Children are becoming proficient in showing their understanding in a variety of ways. Next week we begin looking at the concept of multiplication.

Physical Education

Here are some updated PE pictures from their athletics and invasion games units. The children love getting active every week.