Term 3, Week 6

We were so sad to farewell Miss Giraud on Friday, but we had a great time making our beautiful spring mural so do come and look at our finger-painted daffodils, sheep and blossom tree (you might also see our rainbows showing the spectrum of primary and secondary colours we have learned to mix!). You will spot some clouds in our sky full of sunshine, and on these clouds you can read about our early learning for our energy topic, looking at where energy comes from and how plants create sugars (photosynthesis) for animals to eat (and how animals also get eaten!). Our ideas about the other chemical processes in the food chain (digestion, metabolism and decomposition) are all written up in our writing and topic books.

During the rest of the term we’ll move on to exploring the nature of chemistry and the material world beyond the context of the food chain, in order to practise problem solving like scientists. This week we’re going to make some predictions about the differences between oil and water, and conduct some experiments to test our ideas, finishing up with some classroom lava lamps on Thursday. We’ll be writing up our predictions and observations, so take a look in our books or ask us about our learning!  In art we’ll use our painting skills in a new context, exploring the landscapes shown in illustrated Maori myths and legends. We’ll copy some of the patterns and designs we see, and then develop our patterns to build elements of the natural world – earth, water, fire and air. In maths we now begin to think about time, building our word bank, ordering the days of the week in both english and te reo maori, and reading the time – to the hour – on an analogue clock face (so no more tricking us about our bedtimes :)).

A further reminder to pay swimming fees to the office, and to return swimming assessment forms so that the children can be correctly grouped when they begin lessons in Week 8 :)