Inquiry - Movers & Shakers: Oreo Tectonics IT task

Our inquiry groups recorded their learning of the different plate boundaries using pic collage.

Inquiry - Movers & Shakers: Tectonic plate boundaries

Today we watched a YouTube clip and listened to a quick rap that helps us to understand and remember the 4 tectonic plate boundaries but with a focus on 3 of them:  convergent/collide, divergent/divide, transform/slide. Our favourite part was replicating them using Oreos which of course we got to eat when we were done... and on the topic of Oreos, we also couldn't help but notice that they are getting considerably smaller!  

Gliders

Getting ready for our glider competition!

Here are some of our gliders so far.  We were pretty lucky to be given some coreflute (the stuff that real estate signs are made out of). It's easy to cut and is nice and light.  Some of us brought other recycled materials from home such as foam, cardboard tubes, plastic bags and umbrella material.

UPDATE:  see below for the winners in our categories
- Fly the furthest
- Most innovative design
- Tidiest construction
- Sturdiest construction
- Neatest trick

Voted one of the most sturdiest design

Voted tidiest construction and neatest trick

 

Voted tidiest construction

Voted tidiest construction

Voted most sturdiest construction... 

after it broke on the first test and was then reinforced with lots of masking tape!

Voted most innovative design

Voted most innovative design

Our Recycled Plastic Action Heroes

We're in agreement that using recyclable materials was challenging!  Our action heroes are made entirely of plastic milk bottles and tops, with capes made out of plastic party table cloths.  Some lucky ones got a touch of spray paint.  Our action heroes feature in our comic strips displayed in our classroom window for other students to read... but that's to share in another post.

Plastic - Take Action

It was clear that although we are an Enviro school, plastic packaging and plastic shopping bags are an ongoing problem.  We need to keep talking and sharing our enviro learning with each other, our families and friends.

We thought it would be a great idea to create action heroes out of recyclable plastic as educational tools to share our enviro messages.  Together as a class we designed our task.

Plastics - Explore Alternatives

After agreeing that superheroes and action heroes are catchy and motivating educational tools to get a message across, we researched all things superhero/action hero.  We collated our research and ideas on "mood boards".  This was the fun part!

Our Liquid Stacking

Wearable Arts

Last Friday 3 classes took a trip to the museum to check out the Wearable Arts Exhibition.  While we couldn't take photos of the costumes, we were able to take photos of the fabulous head pieces we made to show off under UV light.

Through this activity we learned there are many different techniques we can use to change a plain piece of paper (+ sellotape & scissors) into a funky piece of wearable art!

Also having seen the costume exhibition and delving more into what the inspiration was for some of them, I think we are ready to see where our collective creative minds will take us.

The UV glow moment!

"Sticky Noting" what we hope to learn for Bike Week

Wallwisher now called Padlet is a bulletin board type programme that operates in real time i.e you see the changes as they happen. Children can add sticky notes with questions or sticky notes with information and website links for others to read. Very useful when brainstorming as I am able to put the bulletin board up on our class smartboard while the children are adding their notes and links. Did we get silly notes on the board for all to see? Yes definitely - the beauty of exploring and having fun with a new programme!

The Catapult by Daniel and Aidan

Daniel and Aidan have put together a poster on the Catapult they built along with two boys from Room 23 and with Mr Cavanah's expertise and know-how.  We're thinking it might be great for launching water balloons for our end of year "let go" celebrations!  

Senior Science Expo 2012

The video is finished!  Hurray!  We love using iMovie - it's so easy.

Science Expo through the eyes of Poetry

Our Science Expo has been and gone and what a fantastic opportunity it was for our senior children to demonstrate and teach to their fellow "Hillcresters".

A video is in the making and will be posted soon, but in the meantime here are a few poems about the expo for your reading - Samantha and Olivia are sharing.

Science Expo Preparations - dominoes, toilet rolls, marbles, bits & pieces everywhere!

Busy, busy, busy.... designing, creating, testing, redesigning... Rube Goldberg would be proud...