Calendar Art

Our photos are finished! We are very proud of our spring tapestries and the nature photos we took of them. We have decided to use them for the calendars that will be sold in the next few weeks. Parents, get your child to show you which photo is theirs so you know what you're buying, or come into Room 8 and look at a hard copy. Also, if you click through to the vimeo website you will be able to view them full screen. We hope you enjoy looking at our fantastic spring tapestries!

Spring Tapestries from Georgie Hamilton on Vimeo.

Weaving: Creating Spring Tapestries

The last few weeks, Room 8 have been learning all about using fabric and fibre in visual art. This week we have been concentrating on creating a spring tapestry using hessian as the backdrop and sewing patterns or objects that represent spring to us into the hessian. They are almost finished and are on their way to some lovely mums who are going to frame them for us. Have a look at the clip to watch us in action and to catch a glimpse of what the final product might look like!

Collage Cards

To say thank you to all the visitors we had over the Centennial weekend, we used our collage skills that we have learned this term to make beautiful thank you cards. We used ribbon, beads, cellophane, coloured paper, craft scissors, buttons, glitter and lots more to create the card we had designed. Watch the slideshow to see the results!

Room 4 and Room 8: Buddies!

To have a break from production practice, and to practice getting along with others, Room 8 got to visit Room 4 and have some time to do different activities in their classroom. We got to write letters and cards with them, play different reading and maths games, and even use their dress up box! Lots of the kids in our class loved the dress up box, and Gail remembered them loving it even when they were in her class when they were in Year 1!

We enjoyed playing together, sharing and being kind, and having great learning conversations.

Jump Jam Inside: Blame it on the boogie

Guess what? Today Room 8 did Jump Jam inside! It was amazing. I couldn't even believe we were doing it. It was the best thing that happened since Term 3 started. It was so fun I even thought I'd burst. That's how fun it was. It was raining outside so we stayed in the warm, dry classroom. We did the Coconut song and Blame it on the boogie. Watch the video if you want to know how we do it.

By Jack

The Finished Timeline

After our second painting session, our timeline on the windows is finished! We think it looks pretty cool. What do you think?

Important events in the 2000's

Our learning this term is centered around the upcoming school production. For the production, our class and Room 4 are presenting the 2000's. We're really excited since all of us (except for our teachers) were born in the 2000's.

So far, we have created a timeline of the important events of the 2000's. We got into groups and we are busy researching our events. We decided to draw our timeline too, and now we are painting it on our windows! This has the added bonus of blocking the sun so that it isn't in our eyes when we're trying to work.

We are halfway through painting the windows. Take a look and see if you can recognise what the major events we picked are. If you can't, GOOGLE IT!!!

More Measurement

Here are the maths groups to show you again how clever they are at putting their group mates in order from tallest to shortest. As with last week, the person who took the photo had to arrange the group so that they were in the right order. You can tell who took the photo by looking at the sign that someone is holding, saying "by ____ ." We hope you like the photos!

Social Studies: Changes in the last 100 years in Venn Diagrams

We have been looking at the big changes that have happened in the last century (which means 100 years) as part of our production and centennial. Today, we looked at old School Journal stories in groups, and made Venn Diagrams to show how the world had been changed by events, like the invention of electricity, and also how some places had changed, like hospitals and schools. We talked about how technology has improved all areas of life, so that we don't use heaps of the things that we used in the past!

Check out the photos to see our Venn Diagrams.

Science: Baking Cookies

Today during science we continued to look at the changes that can happen when materials are mixed, heated and cooled. We baked cookies and observed them when the dry materials were mixed together, when the wet materials were mixed with the dry materials, when they were baking, and while they cooled. Then we conducted the final test - taste! They were very yummy.

Photos by Josie.

Maths: Volume and Capacity

This week we are looking at volume and capacity for maths, which we have decided means comparing sizes of different objects and how much they hold compared to each other. We did lots of experiments today using different containers, measuring cups, jugs, and counters and water to fill up the containers. We looked at ordering objects, estimating size and estimating the amount different objects could hold. Each group also got a turn to take photos of the fun. Have a look at their fantastic photography!

Science: How can we change eggs?

Yesterday during science, we looked at eggs and how they can be changed.  Syris cracked an egg open for us, and we looked at the shell, the egg yolk and the egg white.  We talked about whether the egg could be put back together again and decided that it couldn't.  We even remembered the old poem, "Humpty Dumpty!"

We also talked about what changes we could make to the parts of the egg.  First we crushed an egg, then we mixed an egg yolk and white together, and then we beat the egg yolk and egg white separately.  We worked out that each part of the egg changes differently depending on what you do to it.  

Next we looked at heating eggs and all the different ways an egg could change when it was heated - soft boiled, hard boiled, poached, scrambled and baked into cakes and muffins!  Once again, we realised that these changes couldn't be reversed - once the egg has been changed, it would be very hard to change it back again!

Photos by Toby and Isobel.

Science: Making Jelly

Yesterday Room 8 made jelly out of jelly crystals and water.  We were trying to see if hot water or cold water mixed our ingredients faster.  We are learning all about mixtures and how when two or more things are mixed they can make a new substance. 

If you would like to do this experiment, you will need: some jelly crystals, hot and cold water, some cups and something to mix with.

1. Put a few jelly crystals into a cup.

2. Pour hot water into the cup.

3. Watch and see how much of the mixture has dissolved.  Smell the mixture to know the difference.

4. Stir the mixture, observe the colour.

5. Repeat the process with cold water.

We found out that hot water made the mixture mix faster without being stirred.  We also found that the two mixtures smelled different!  

The Process of Clay Making

In Room 8, we are busy creating a self portrait from clay. So far we've made our clay face, practicing techniques like using slip and cross hatching to attach noses and other knobbly bits. We've also packed them up and sent them to be fired, planned our paint job using Picasso for inspiration, and started painting our beautiful faces! We're not quite finished yet, but they're looking pretty cool! Take a look and see for yourself ...

The Life Cycle of the Butterfly

Last week, we were learning all about the life cycle of the butterfly. We talked about how they started out as eggs, hatched into larva (we call them caterpillars), change into a pupa (another name for this is a chrysalis) and then finally reemerge as a butterfly. To show this cycle in our classroom, we got into groups and chose one part of the life cycle that we wanted to paint. We created a design of our window and thought about the colours we would need to mix to make our window beautiful. We told Mrs Hamilton how to draw the outline for our window, and then we painted it! It was lots of fun and a bit messy, but now it looks fantastic.