Fraction Playdough Balls

We combined all the strategies we have been learning about multiplication, repeated addition and problem solving to work out fractions of sets of numbers.

Photo shoot

Can you spot the mystery person?

Tryathalon

This year, Ronnie competed in the Weetbix Tryathalon.  He trained after school and in lunch time sessions with Mr Dyer to prepare for the big day.

Here are all the competitors from Cockle Bay after they crossed the finish line.

Weka Day Camp chapter books

After our day camp, we spilt into writing groups and each group collaborated to make its own chapter book.  We each wrote a chapter and drew a picture with pastels to illustrate it.

Here are a selection of camp art, but you can see everyone's work on the Visual Arts page:

Here is an illustration of our tramp.

Here is an illustration of the orienteering.

Here is an illustration of cooking sausages.

Here is an illustration of erecting tents.

Here are the writers with their finished publications:

Kento, Liam, Jeremy and Green are the Adventure Writers.

Charlize, Kavesha, Taylor and Hayden are the Weka Writers.

Andrew, Rylee, Summer and Alyssa are the Camp Writers.

Ronnie, Bonnie, kate and Charlotte are the Botanic Garden writers.

Luke, Nico, Lincoln and Juwon are the Camping Machines.

Here are the promotional photo shoots of each writers' group:

Maui and the Sun

We read the Maori myth, 'Maui me te Rangi' and also watched the video of Peter Gossage's book,  'How Maui Slowed the Sun'.  This is read in Te Reo with English subtitles.  It was interesting to pick up how many words we knew, and hear the rhythm and pace of the Maori language.

How Maui Slowed the Sun by Peter Gossage

It was also interesting to hear how people in the olden days explained natural phenomenon, such as   shorter daylight hours in winter, through colourful, traditional myths.   Nowadays, scientists explain that the reason days are longer in summer, while they are shorter in winer, is due to the Earth's tilt on its axis.  The hemisphere that is closest to the Sun has the longest, brightest days because it gets more direct light from the Sun's rays.

We used cotton buds, instead of brushes, to apply the dye.  We tried very carefully to stay in the lines and not load our applicator up with too much dye.

Here is a finished sun to illustrate our re-telling of the Maori myth.

Before we even started our illustrations, we listened to the story again.  Once we had the main ideas in our heads, we brainstormed some of the key words we would need in our stories.  Then we wrote our own plan using verbs that described exactly what happened.  Over the next few days, we re-told the myth using our own words from our plan.  

This is Nico's story, but you can read them all on the Reading page.

Cockle Bay is a Sun Smart School

Cockle Bay is a sun smart school.  We decided to test for UV rays as these can harm your skin when you are exposed to them.  First, we threaded UV beads onto pipe cleaners, either as a little man or as a bracelet, so we could see the beads easily and they wouldn't get lost.  Then we exposed them to the sun.  We discovered that they very quickly changed colour.  As the beads were sensitive to UV rays, this demonstrated that the UV light was present.  Some people, particularly Juwon, have discovered that their own skin changes colour as well . . . to red.  When we took the beads back inside, they very quickly turned back to white.

We then protected the beads by putting a thick layer of sunscreen on clear film, and placing the UV beads underneath.  We discovered that the beads stayed white when we applied this protective layer.  This is how wearing a hat and shade clothing, applying sunscreen or playing out to the sun all protect us from harmful rays.

The next thing to investigate is to see if UV lights rays can go through our sun shades and the dome roof.  Watch this . space! 

Outdoor Classroom Day

Luckily this year, the National Outdoor Classroom Day was sunny and dry.  We went outdoors to do our Maths.  We used 30cm rulers to measure all the different things we could find in the Oak Tree Walk.

Sometimes, when we found extra long things like flax, we joined two rulers together to get our measurement.  Mathematicians call this 'tiling'.

We recorded our measurements in our Maths books.