Head, shoulders, Knees and toes

As you all know or now have done, some twice - Leane ;) our new unit of Inquiry is on How the world works where we have been focusing on the complexity of the machine/system that is our body. So far we have looked at our skeleton; what it does and how it is put together, as well as our muscles. Have also learnt how both systems work together so we are able to move. At the moment we are looking at our joints and what role they play.

Last week groups were given a task to build a working leg with some materials (elastic bands, paper clips, dowel rods, rubber tubing, and popsicle sticks). This was a bigger challenge than we first thought, but in the end we all able to make working models (with a little help).

This week taped up our thumbs to see just how much we need them. We discovered that we need them a lot! During the experiment we had some tasks that we had to do, colour in a picture, button up a button, tie a shoelace, zip up a zip and a few others. Some we found only a little bit harder than normal while other tasks were almost impossible to do! I think we all know have a new appreciation of our opposable thumbs! You can find out more about thumbs and who has them HERE



Drawing, a bit hard but something we could do without too much trouble

Exhibiting our advertising campaign open house

Last Friday we opened our doors to the public to show everyone the result of all our hard work over the last  six weeks. We had a great turn out of both students and parents who took time out of their busy schedules to check out our work.

Here are some photos from the great afternoon:

Week 13 homework

This week the homework will be reviewing and practicing for the end of unit test.
You can find the parts of the scope and sequence for mathematics that we have been following and learning and what the test will be on here

Worksheets: I have printed out a large amount of work sheets for the students to pick from tomorrow.These sheets cover all the areas of the S&S (scope and sequence). Students will be asked to take what they feel they need to work on.

Maths Practices Book: here are the pages that students can work on in their book. These pages cover many of the areas of the S&S.

• Fractions and decimals p.138
• Decimals - place value p.139
• Equivalent decimals p. 140
• compare and order decimals p.142
• addition and subtraction of decimals p.144-149
•  addition and subtraction of fractions p.114,115
• addition and subtraction of unlike fractions p.118, 119 (not part of the S&S)

(click on the picture of link)

pappa's pizza is a fun way to learn about fraction (more for beginners then the advanced)

Fraction flags is good to brush up on visually seeing fractions

weekly letter week 11

Last week was a shortened one with developmental talks on the Wednesday. Even though we only had four days we manged to squeeze a lot of work into them. The Friday before we handed up our projects for the Year 5 Exhibition and our advertising and marking campaigns as well. Last we we put posters around the school, gave out flyers to classes to get information about the Exhibition to the school community and our ad campaigns were put up on the wall outside the classroom.

One of the big things that happened at the start of the week was that we started our new Inquiry unit. In this unit we will focus on the what and how our body needs for us to move and stay alive as well as function. We plan to develop a good understanding of what our body needs to function (food, water, air) and how does it function when we need to do physical tasks.

The unit was introduced with a surprise game of blind football. This was to get the students to start to think about what they are doing by turning a familiar activity like football and putting it in an unfamiliar setting - not being able to see! The game was a hit and they all learnt a few things about themselves and their bodies even before I started asking them questions ("I had to use my ears to see"). We followed up our game later in the week with the challenge of putting together a jumble of bones into a human skeleton. This had the effect of people feeling their ribs and trying to figure out if they had one or two bones in their forearms. We now plan to progress from the skeleton and work to muscles and how the two systems work together so we can move.

I have been talking to Peter about us going on a hike (behind the hospital) later in the unit so we are able to put our new knowledge and understanding of the human body into practice. Questions and statements that the students should be able to answer by this time would be things like What do I do to stop my body feeling so tired? By eating this food this will help me do......by giving me.....

How the world works

central idea

The Human Body is a complex and versatile system.

Key concepts: Function, Causation

Related concepts: Systems

What lines of inquiry will define the scope of the inquiry into the central idea?

·         How our bodies function

·         What our bodies need to stay fit and healthy

·         How our body systems differ from other species

The developmental talks on Wednesday went very well and many of the students were proud to show

their parents the work they have achieved so far this year. I think some students not only surprised their

parents but themselves as well with just how much work they have done in class this year.

So that was our week in school :)

sorry for the strange formatting at the bottom of the page :/  

Karl Chilcott

Over the last five weeks we have been lucky enough to have the artist Karl Chilcott work with Year 4 to not just help us make a town out of wood houses but to teach us more about wood and sculpture and for the lack of a better word becoming 'one' with your materials.

We started off learning about each other, our likes, dislikes and things that are important to us. Karl shared what he does and why he does it. He also talked about his installations in nature and how he gets his materials and why (he contacts the roads and traffic authority and takes wood that has been cut down by them during road maintenance etc). Above Karl wanted to demonstrated that different types of trees have different wood. Each type of tree's wood has a different feel, smell, weight and sound. By giving out different varieties of wood Karl turned our class into an orchestra. 

Tool safety








after all the hard work, ready to paint our houses.

homework week 12

Homework this week

Due Thursday

• Spelling sheet
• maths practice book pages146 and 147
• get someone (mum, dad, sister, etc) to teach you something new that you can do with your body (like juggle, skip rope...). After you have learnt it you need to write them down as instructions so others can read your paper and learn how to do it themselves. You will need to take your time and set it out neatly and in order (e.g. step 1..., step 2...) so everyone can read your work.

Due Friday

• Reading diary (not everyone is doing this every week, please make sure you remember to do this as well!)

*Next Wednesday we will be having our end of unit maths test. We will start to review and practice for this later this week and continue until the day of the test. I will be making photocopies and give page references as well as post helpful videos and information on the blog. 

BAMBA menu week 13

                               School Menu  

Week 13                                  25^th-29^th March                                                       

                 

Monday               Pasta “calabrese”

                 Veg:   Pasta “bean calabrese” 

Tuesday              A heavenly meat mix with bulgur

                 Veg:    A heavenly soya meat mix with bulgur

Wednesday         Soya mince cooked in a tray, with curry

                 Veg:   Same as above

Thursday            Thai fish gratin with basmati rice

                 Veg:   Thai quorn gratin with basmati rice

Friday                 GOOD FRIDAY- NO SCHOOL

                 Week 14- 1st-5^th April: Easter break                            

                           

Every day we serve milk, water, salad, hard bread and margarine.                                                                

homework week 11

Here is the homework for this week:

Due Thursday

• Maths Practice book page 116
• Write about what you learnt on Monday afternoon playing football (at least 10 lines)
• What is one thing that you can do with your body that maybe others can't do or you might be able to do better than other people. You will demonstrate this to the class on Thursday morning
• Spelling sheet

Due Friday

• Reading diary

Weekly letter Week 10

This week was the second week of reading weeks. Even though we were very busy finishing off projects, learning the art of wood sculpturing and focusing on fractions, we still had time to fit in reading activities.
On Monday Lyam's mum took some time out of her busy schedule to pop in and read us a book in...Dutch.

The class found it very intresting to listen to the reading, finding words that are the same in their language and working out if their understanding of each page was similar to the real one when Lyam's mother translated each one.The book was a very good one and I would recommend it to both children and adults. 

BAMBA Menu Wks 11 & 12

                               School Menu  

Week 11                                  11^th-15^th March                                                       

                 

Monday               Sausage casserole “Yokohama” with fusilli   

                 Veg:   Soya sausage casserole ”Yokohama” with fusilli

Tuesday              Cooked fish with parsley sauce and potatoes

                 Veg:   Vegetable Caribbean, parsley sauce and potatoes

Wednesday         Spinach lasagna

                 Veg:   Same as above

             At Guldheden school there is served a vegetarian buffet

Thursday            Chili con carne with bulgur

                 Veg:   Soya chili con carne with bulgur

Friday                 Chicken gratin, mango chutney and rice

                 Veg:   Quorn gratin, mango chutney and rice

                               

School Menu  

Week 12                                 18^th-22^nd March                                                      

                 

Monday               Chili fish, potatoes, honey and lime sauce   

                 Veg:   Beetroot cakes, potatoes, honey and lime sauce

Tuesday              A flat meat loaf, potatoes and brown sauce

                 Veg:   Cabbage pudding, potatoes and brown sauce

Wednesday         “Yokohama Quorn stew

                 Veg:    Same as above

             At Guldheden school there is served a vegetarian buffet

Thursday            Strong spicy sausage stew with rice

                 Veg:   Strong spicy bean stew with rice 

  

Friday                 “Cowboy” soup with bread and cheese

                 Veg:   Soya “cowboy” soup with bread and cheese

                                                

    Every day we serve milk, water, salad, hard bread and margarine.                                                                 

                            

Homework week 10 and activities this week

Homework this week:

Due Friday:

• Our at home project on advertising and marketing are due

Because we have our two projects due this Friday, this is going to be focus for the week. There is no spelling as our test time is taken up by end of reading week activities on Friday morning. We are all doing a good job developing our understanding of adding and subtracting fractions, but if you would like some extra work to do at home, please see me.

This Week:

This week we will are going to be busy working on and finishing our two projects that are due this Friday. We will continue to develop an understanding of adding and subtracting fraction with the help of Michelle our resource teacher (one group has started to develop short 10-15 min lesson plans to teach to the class on Friday). In writing, we will continue as well with our jingles and have a look at haikus as well. Karl will be joining us again on Tuesday where we will start to carve our houses.We are in our second week of reading weeks so we will continue to focus on reading and poetry and finish off the week with 'come as a character from a book day' on Friday.

Some students will be meeting up to talk to our resource teacher Michelle this week so expect a hard hitting interview posted here soon!

I will also put up a photo post of the work that we have done so far with Karl after this Tuesday.

A nice surprise

Last Monday Vida and Emily asked me if they could go down and talk to Mike in the office. My first reaction was to ask them if there was something wrong , did something happen? are you ok? No, they wanted to give Mike an envelope of money to give to charity! They informed me that they spent the weekend baking muffins and raising money to give to Bibi Jan Charity. A very selfless act, well done girls! :)