Term 3, Week 1

Welcome back everyone to the first week of term 3, I hope that you all had a very safe, restful and enjoyable break :) We are excited to welcome a new teacher to our classroom this term, Miss Nardia Giraud, who will be teaching and learning with us over the next five weeks.

This term we begin our new science unit, Forever Now, looking at the ways in which energy from the sun is transferred and transformed through material world (chemical) reactions here on earth. In Room 3 we’re going to start by exploring what a scientist is and does, and find the scientist inside ourselves! We’ll also be looking at a very dramatic combustion experiment this week as a school, to get us energised about our new topic!

As the term progresses, Room 3 will explore photosynthesis, the way in which plants use the sun’s energy to power a chemical reaction that makes glucose (sugar) and oxygen out of water and carbon dioxide. Then we’ll look at how animals – like ourselves! - consume plant sugars (and other animals!), and how we digest and metabolise our food through a new series of reactions. We’ll be keeping it simple, but we look forward to developing our understanding of the world around us, and participating in some simple investigations to check out our ideas :)

Also this term, we will be firming up our ideas around place value as we move on to explore the idea of money, honing up our painting skills (this week we’re looking at blending black and white to create a grey scale showing shades of light and dark), practising our gymnastic, tennis and swimming skills, making some music, and expanding our ideas around te reo and tikanga maori as we continue with kapa haka and te ao kori.

Two reminders this week - please get those learning journals back asap so that we can start filling them up with amazing new learning samples, and also, please note that our three way conferences are coming up next week – get in quick to book the time you want!