Twenty-first Century Learners

Earthquake in China's Sichuan Province

Free Rice - UN World Food Programme
I thought this site might be relevant because of our study of Asia and China. It is to support Myanmar cyclone survivors and quake-hit China.
Check out this press release from WPF site
For each word you get right, Unilever will donate 20 grains of rice through the UN World Food Programme to help end hunger. You will increase your vocabulary skills and get smarter while helping others less fortunate than you.

A woman carries her belongings salvaged from the rubble of her home in Yinghua.

Beijing, 21 May 2008 - The World Food Programme is purchasing a fresh batch of relief food for distribution to earthquake survivors in China's quake-stricken Sichuan Province. Click on the map for more detail.

Measurement

This is from an English site so the money part of it is in pounds, but the rest is about weighing on scales and measuring with a ruler.

Gut Instinct

Can you match Viral Vinnie's appetite for English, Maths and Science? Play Gut Instinct and find out!

Questionaut

Journey through strange worlds and test your knowledge of English, Maths and Science on this magical mission to recover your friend’s hat. This is great. See how you go.

Story Maker

Write a story about the picture.

Make a New Year Poster

Around the Chinese New Year, people often put up a poster with this word on it - upside down! It's the only time when a Chinese word is posted upside down intentionally. If you want an extra homefun activity to do make a poster and bring it to school. This site will help you with your poster.

Chinese Counting Game

A simple counting game. The good thing about this game is that it says the name in Chinese and shows the symbols for each number. Try it and see if you can learn the pronounciation of the Chines numbers.

Make a Tune Game

Create some Chinese music. Each lantern plays a tune. Click on a series of lanterns to make up a tune, then click on the speaker to play the tune.

Play 'The Red Envelope Game' (a matching game)

Play 'The Red Envelope Game'. For Good wishes, Chinese people give each other red envelopes. Each has a decoration that stands for different wish for the New Year. Match the envelopes with the same decoration , and they'll be filled with coins!

Learn to Fly!

Would you like to learn to fly an Orion aircraft? Click the Orion. Make sure you don't crash!

Did You Know ...

Fun Facts

• China is the world’s largest consumer of Coca-Cola.

• Ice cream was invented in China when a milk-and-rice mixture was combined with packed snow.

• China has more English-speaking people than England.

• China has the most televisions of any country in the world.
• China’s native animals include pandas, tigers, dolphins, monkeys, alligators, reindeer, yaks and snow leopards.
• Colours have symbolic meanings in China. Red and gold are seen as “lucky” and are used in weddings, celebrations and on New Year’s Day. White and black are mourning colours, used in funerals and sad occasions. Because of this, wedding dresses are traditionally red. The colour blue symbolizes heaven and the sky.
• There are several thousand characters that make up the Chinese language. English only has 26.
• Year 4 are expected to know 2,000 of the over 40,000 written Chinese characters. By the time they leave college, they will know 4,000 or 5,000 characters. Each character is learned by looking at it and memorising it. Unlike the 26 letters of our alphabet, words cannot be sounded out letter by letter.
• It is considered good luck for the gate to a house to face south.
• The Great Wall of China is so large that astronauts have seen it from the moon!
• China has the largest population of any country in the world.

Chinese Zodiac Word Search

Try this Chinese Zodiac word search

Measurement - Length and Area

Try these measuring games and activities.

An armadillo shell comes to school!

Dara brought an armadillo shell or armour to school today for show and tell. A friend of her family found this at the recycling centre. This caused a great deal of excitement and interest. Not many of us knew much about these animals so the first thing we did was google it. First we went to wikipaedia but the information was very hard for us to read and understand. We then changed our search to 'armadillo info for kids and found some great sites. Read some of the info we found out.

• The necks and backs of giant armadillos are covered in flexible "armour"
• Their heads are protected by a similar oval shield
• Giant armadillos are dark brown except for their heads, tails and the lower edges of their shells, which are nearly white
• Their front feet have large powerful claws
• Armadillos can live 12 to 15 years
• They live in burrows near water in grassland, brush-land, woodland and forest habitats
• They are omnivores
• Giant armadillos are endangered
• They are distant cousins of the anteater and sloth
• They rarely hurry but can run fast when chased by a predator
• The shell provides insulation ( a bit like pink bats in houses or our clothes on us!)

This is the most interesting fact we found!!

The armadillo has a particularly interesting way for crossing water. Its heavy armor shell causes it to sink. When it comes to a narrow stream or a water filled ditch, the armadillo will simply walk across the bottom, under water. However, when up against a bigger river, the armadillo will swallow enough air to inflate its stomach to twice its normal size. This increased buoyancy makes the armadillo float so it can swim across. Afterwards, it takes the armadillo several hours to release all the excess air from its body.

What are tangrams?

Tangrams are ancient Chinese puzzle patterns that consist of seven pieces.

Try some at these sites. Click the coloured tangram pictures below

Writing Instructions (Transactional Writing) for making Red Envelopes or Hong Bow

We are going to write the instructions for making Hong Bow (red envelopes)

WALT...

write a title
write a sentence to introduce what we are making

write our instructions in the correct order

use numbers to show order

start each instruction with a verb ( a doing word)

write down all the things that we need

draw simple diagrams to show the reader what to do

Making Red Envelopes

Look at our Hong Bow. Red is for happiness. I wonder who
will get these gifts?


Max, Dara and Ngaio with their red envelopes.

Grace, Blair and Baiden hard at work. What great self-managing

and co-operative learners!

Chinese New Year - Red Envelopes or 'Hong Bow'

WALT
... understand the significance of Chinese New Year and Hong Bow ... make red envelopes or Hong Bow
... read traditional stories about the Chinese New Year
... find out what 2008 is and what animal is our sign on the Chinese zodiac

Click on the Hong Bow to make your own red envelope.

Song about Chinese New Year

We are learning this song

Chinese games to play

Finding Out About China

We used a KWHL Chart to begin our inquiry. Todays WALTs were...

… use a graphic organiser (KWHL) to find out what we know, what we want to find out, how we can find out and what we learned about China as part of the ‘Find It’ stage of our inquiry

… plan and gather information so we can organise our thinking about China

Read some Chinese Fables

Read and listen to these Chinese Fables

Design a garden

Design your own garden. Choose from the historical examples below. Then click and drag the plants into place on the "plan" screen.
You can view the garden from different angles using the "front" and "back" buttons.

Create a City

Creativity is an essential 21st century learning disposition. I found this excellent site where the children can create a city.

Do you enjoy solving codes?

Enter the world of spies and espionage! Great for the brain!

Sudoku

A great game to get you thinking about numbers and problem solving

Fun Games to Practice Maths Skills

Add animals of different weights to the see-saw without tipping the scales to win!





Keep an eye on the goblet and point correctly to win this memory game..!




Can you escape from the Pentagonal Room....? Solve the puzzles to get out...! I played this for ages but couldn't solve all the puzzles. See if you can!

Pick up your fare, take them out and back home again on time. It's in English pounds but is fun!





Time for a quick game of Crazy Clock? What do the hands say?

China - Mapping Skills

WALT... find out about China byusing a map
... use mapping skills to read a map and create our own maps using these skills

Today Room's 9 & 10 worked collaboratively on mapping skills. Together we viewed a map of China from askasia.org for kids. We came up with a list of criteria to use when creating our own maps. Here is the list of things we need to include on our maps.

• Title


• Names of places eg cities, towns, rivers, mountains, oceans, deserts


• Compass showing N S E W


• Names of surrounding countries or islands


• Famous landmarks or man-made buildings


• Colours to show desert, ocean, fertile land


• Animals native to China and areas they live


• Key to show things like mountains, rivers etc


• Neatness in handwriting and pictures


• Correct spelling