Monday 25 May 2015

Communicating in Science - talking is important!

We are in our Explain phase of our Inquiry. Last week, we decided on a way we want to model, demonstrate or show our science learning. We have all come up with very different and creative ways to explain this!
This is us discussing and reflecting on our how we are going so far. We are explaining to a different group or buddy, how our 'creation' will SHOW our science learning.
This helped us to figure out what our next steps are and what else we have to do to complete our 'creation' this week.


Can we get further ideas from other groups??


How is my buddy showing their learning??







Monday 18 May 2015

Identifying and Classifying


Ci7cus have been learning and discussing different ways we can group things! We put on our 'scientist thinking hat' and came up with classifications for these shellssea creatures and other findings from the beach.

We had to use our observation skills to decide how we group them. Then we had to discuss and share why we've put them in those groups.

Here we decided to group them by colour.


Do you know how we grouped them this time?



This time they are classified by size: Large, Medium and Small.







We also grouped them depending on if they were 'round' or 'not round'. There was a lot of
discussion and debate with this one! We really had to be able to explain why or why not we thought
they were round. It depended on what part of the shell or sea creature you were looking at!



Some groups then used their classifying skills to group items into 'living' and 'non-living'




This made us WONDER and question - 'What makes something living?'

We came up with a list of things that might help us decide if
something is living or not. What do you think? Is there anything else
we can add to our list?





Tuesday 12 May 2015

The poppy project

At the end of last term we began finding out more about World War 1 and the soldiers'experience. We made felt poppies to contribute to the Palmerston North Poppy Project. In this photo you can see some of our felt poppies...they look a little different from the knitted ones...
Here is the whole banner and the blurb. When the display comes down this week it will be sent to Waiouru to join the national poppy project at the army museum. Lest we forget.



Sunday 10 May 2015

Building our science literacy


As a class we created a Padlet to use for our virtual word bank!


When we discover and learn new words throughout our Inquiry we add them on here. This gives us a place to share and communicate our science literacy so we can learn from each other!
Click on the link and check out what words we've been learning in science....

Beach life vs River life - OUR INTERACTIVE WORD WALL





River vs Beach Inquiry



How do environments affect living and non-living things?
29/04/2015
Our Trip to the Manwatu River, Estuary and Foxton Beach.

Here we are in the sand dunes investigating and observing the wind speed, temperature and what kind of living and non-living things live here!





We used all of our senses to observe and describe our environments! We had to think like scientists; ask questions, and make predictions.

(Estuary)




Image result for scientist thinking Our questions



Where do rocks come from?
How many grains of sand are on Foxton beach?
How do crabs get to the mud?
How did the rocks, shells and logs get on the beach?
Why is the sea salty? Is the river salty too?
Why do crabs bury themselves in the sand?
How are shells made?
How big can crabs grow? Does it change depending on where they live?

How is the beach made?
How many body parts does a crab have?
Why do crabs have a hard shell back?
What types creatures live in different shells?



When did the fish skeleton come onto the beach?
When you put your foot/hand in the wet sand, the surrounding sand becomes dry and when you release your foot/hand the sand becomes more moist than before - why does this happen?

Why does pumice come out of volcanoes?
Why do crabs have pinches?
What type of crabs are on Foxton beach?
Why are there plants in dry areas?
Why did the log go in the opposite direction to the way the waves were going - Estuary.