Howick Historical Village

Check out this video of us at the Howick Historical Village..

The Dinosaur Tooth

We are so lucky to have Mrs Clyde in our class.  She often brings in exciting objects for us to look at.
Last week she brought in a Dinosaur tooth...interesting!!!!

We had a chat about what sort of dinosaur the tooth might of belonged to. Where might it have lived, what might it have eaten?
Here we have two fabulous writers sharing their stories.

Great descriptions Tom and Ashton.

It's a Wrap for Genius Time V1

Thanks to all the parents and families that supported us both in and out of the classroom with this experience. 

V1 was completed on Thursday 6th July at 1:30pm when Team 8 had the chance to present their learning to their class and families.

I am so proud of what our children achieved. Many new skills were learned including things like 'using a base to make something stand up on its own, or investigating the best way to stick two pieces of cardboard together, or how to sew in a straight line without running over our fingers so that Mrs Turner didn't have a heart attack'.

I was most proud of the reflections that the children made about their 'creations', and what they would do differently next time. I can't wait for V2!

Here are just some of the photos I took...

A Civil Engineer Visits Team 8

Today we had a very special visitor. Her name was Kirsten and she is a civil engineer. We learned all about what civil engineers do. 

Did you know that civil engineers design and help to build our roads, bridges, services(sewer and wiring pathways) runways and tunnels?

She showed us a heap of pictures and told us about all the different types of bridges and how they work.

We tried out making bridges with our bodies. Can you guess what type of bridge we are trying to make?

THEN... The most exciting part happened! Kirsten let us build our very own arch bridge. Team 8 did a super job working together as a team to put all the wedges in place. It was a little tricky, we had to check what side of the wedge we were putting towards the middle. 

 Look how strong arch bridges are!!!! we can even stand on them! 

Afterwards, Mrs Clyde told us that the very top wedge of the arch bridge was called 'they keystone'. It is the strongest part of the arch.

We get to keep the 'bridge kits' in our room for the next few weeks, so if you have some spare time come in and have a play - Can you make a bridge that is strong enough for you to stand on?

It was a pretty cool experience. I think that some of team 8 might take this new learning into their Passion projects/Genius time next term!

... watch this space :-)

Stop, Drop and Draw...

Today we trialed a new way to increase our reading comprehension called Stop, Drop and Draw.

First we read until Mrs Turner said STOP. Then it was time to DROP (close) our books, and DRAW  about what we remembered so far.

Jarrett and Tom are very good at drawing and could remember everything that happened in the story.

The BEST part was getting to talk about our pictures with a buddy. Mrs Turner was extremely proud of all the oral language that came out of this task. Maddie and William especially showed how brave they were at sharing their ideas and took turns talking about their pictures.

What great comprehension this group had! I think we'll give it another go next week!
Great work Team 8!