Red Puppy Appeal Day

Today we had a coin trail for the Red Puppy Appeal.  We Lorraine in to speak to the school.  Lorraine has a guide puppy called  Geffry.  Geffry's brother is also in Wanaka and his name is Geo.  There was lots of money on the guide dog outline and we think we collected between $400 and $500 dollars.  We will let you know next week.  Geffry is being socialised at the moment and will go into training when he is one year old. 

Mathletics

Thanks to all those parents who turned up to learn about Mathletics tonight. We are lucky to have had Kiri at school to teach teachers and parents about the benefits of Mathletics. Click on the link to find out more. A note is going home on Thursday about it, so look out for it. At the bottom of the note your class teacher will record a log in name and password so they can access it for free for two weeks. The cost per child will be $22 for the rest of the year. This will allow your child to access the programme online 24/7. Pod 4 used this last year and there were huge benefits for the children in the pod in basic fact speed and recall, motivation and skill level. The children loved it because it is so interactive, challenging, rewarding and there are lots of incentives such as certificates, avatars etc. Wanaka Primary would like as many children as possible with a log in so they can use it at home and at school. It works out $2.20 per month ( half the price of a coffee!). You will not be disappointed. A second notice will go out next week so that you can purchase this lisence. Make sure you get this in by Tuesday 1 April as this will be the cut off date. Take advantage of this lower price as it is usually $99!

Keyboard Skills

A big focus for our school this year is our keyboard skills. It is important to learn typing skills so that we can type quickly and accurately using all our fingers. Annie has sent us a challenge and wants us to practise hard so that we get better each week. Typing is an imporatnt in our fast finiher time and in our reading activities. Kerry is going to randomly choose six students from each class to complete a pre test. They will be assessed again at the end of the year. Go Room 16. How fast can you get? Practise hard.

Also try out keyboarding games for kids by clicking on the 'Learning Games for Kids' logo.

Have fun!

Duathlon

Today was our duathlon.  It was lots of fun and Ella won the Year 4 girls race and Scarlett the Year 3 girls race.  Well done to everyone.  It was great to see everyone competing and trying their best.  Also well done to those children in the competitive part. I was so proud of you.  Here are some photos from our day. 
Annie

How to Make Popcorn

Ingredients/Equipment:

Salt

Butter

Icing Sugar

Popcorn kernels

Pan

Popcorn maker

Method:

1.  Pour the kernels into the popcorn maker.

2.  Heat the popcorn maker.
3.  Wait until the popcorn has finished popping.
4.  Pour it into a bowl.

5.  Let it cool.

6.  Choose out of butter, salt and icing sugar.
7.  Eat it.
Neve (Year 3)

How to Make Popcorn

Ingredients/Equipment:
Popcorn maker
Bowl

Popcorn kernels
Optional - icing sugar, salt or  butter

Method:
1.  Put the kernels in the popcorn maker.
2.  Turn the popcorn maker on.
3.  Wait until you hear no more popping.
4.  Put the popcorn in a bowl.
5.  Add sugar or, butter and salt (optional).
6.  Eat the popcorn.

Caitlin (Year 4)

Students in the Community

Caitlin and Izzy working with Ben

Ben is a year 13 student from Mount Aspiring College.  He comes in each week as part of the 'Students in the Community programme.  Ben was a student in Annie's class many years ago.  We enjoy him coming and helping us.  Thank you Ben!

Making Popcorn

We made popcorn on Friday because we are going to writing instructions on Monday for making popcorn in a popcorn maker.  Here is the sucess criteria we came up with on Friday after looking at some models of procedural writing.

Success Criteria Procedural Writing - Making Popcorn

Write a goal/title e.g. How to Make Popcorn
List all the materials, ingredients, tools and equipment
Write the steps with doing words (verbs) at the beginning e.g. Add, Put, Turn, Pour, Wait
Number each step
Put the steps in the order they happen
Include all the steps needed
Use topic words (Popcorn words)
Add a picture to help the readers understand better
Try hard words in the margin
Make sure all capitals & full stops are confirmed
Check my work (proof-read)

Progress on our experiements

The seeds in the dark have germinated and the shoot is about 3 cm long. The one in the sun has just sprouted.

Popcorn Seeds from the Supermarket

Tomorrow we are going to plant lots of popcorn seeds bought at the supermarket, in a small green house.  Do you think it will grow?  Most of the class think it will not grow.  Some think it will grow.  I wonder who will be right?  Watch this space!

How Popcorn Pops

The kernels are a seed and when you heat it up, the inside turns into steam. The steam pushes on the inside of the shell. The shell explodes and turns into popcorn that you can eat(diagram included in published work).

Roman (Year 3)

How Popcorn Kernels Turn Into Popcorn

There is a tiny bit of water in the kernel that heats up and steams and tries to boil, but the hull traps it in there. When the pressure gets too great, the kernel turns inside out and turns into popcorn. (diagram included in published copy) Jamie (Year 3)

How Does Popcorn Pop?

This is how popcorn pops. When the heat goes on the seed it makes steam in the seed and it gets really hot, like a classroom full of children! Then it explodes and turns inside outbecause it is too much for it. It turns into a fluffy piece of yummy popcorn. (diagram included in published copy) Harry (Year 4)

Popcorn

The inside of the popcorn seed boils until it is very hot, then the water turns into steam. The steam really wants to get out of the popcorn seed. It pushes and pushes and pushes until it explodes and it turns inside out. Then it is fluffy creamy-white popcorn. They are very different shapes and sizes - some are bumpy, some look like bumble bees and some look like ballerinas. ( diagram was included on her published copy) Georgie ( Year 4)

How Popcorn Pops!

The seed has a little water in it and the heat turns the water into steam. The steam is kept in the seed. The hull (shell) traps the steam and the steam pushes and pushes until the power is so great. The seed turns inside out and the starch turns into fluffy white popcorn and the hull is soft. ( Diagram included in published copy)
Otis (Year 3)

Watch Popcorn Pop

Watch Popcorn Pop

Shared via AddThis

Maria Gill

On Monday Maria Gill visited our school.  She is a New Zealand author and we have lots of her books in our school library.  We learned about native birds and their predators and how we need to look after our special NZ native birds.  She chose ten children to represent the predators and the native birds.  Visit her website at   http://www.mariagill.co.nz/

Watch out Birds!  Predators on the Hunt!

Maria Gill - Author

Evie with one of the Native Bird Puppets

Bike Skills Day

Room 16 Ready for Action!

Slow Bike Race

On Friday Pod 4 had a bike skills day.  Room 24 came out to help us.  Thank you to Robyn and Room 24 children.  This week have have been doing lots of fun activities about bikes and bike safety in our reading time. 

Timeline

Timelines help us to keep track of things that happen on certain days or in certain years. They help us understand history and tell us what happened when and how much time went between events.

WALT...place events on a timeline

80,000 BC - Cave men and women in prehistoric America received quite a surprise when they placed maize (early corn) kernels too close to the fire — voila — the world’s first popcorn!

•1492 - As Columbus set foot on American soil, popcorn was there, too! Native Americans who greeted Columbus enjoyed snacking on the fluffy white stuff and made quite a fashion statement with their popcorn necklaces.

•1620 - Popcorn played a starring role at the first Thanksgiving. Native Americans in Massachusetts brought bowlfuls of popcorn to the potluck feast!

•1700 - Colonial women made the first tasty breakfast cereal by pouring milk and sugar over popcorn.

•1885 - The first popcorn “machine” was invented. Until then, poppers were made to sit in front of stores to attract attention. But vendors wanted to be close to the crowds — especially the crowds near movie theatres. So poppers were made that could be pushed on foot, pulled by horse or mounted on trucks.

The Physical Properties of Popcorn

WALT... find out about the physical characteristics of unpopped and popped popcorn

We looked at unpopped and popped popcorn and answered these questions as a class.

Questions:
What colour is it?
What size is it?
What shape is it?
What does it feel like?
What does it smell like?
What does it taste like?
Have the physical properties of the popcorn changed?
If so what are the differences?

This is how popcorn pops!

Did You Know?

• Popping corn is different from ordinary corn; the kernels are harder and drier.
• Each kernel has a hard, yellow outer layer of starch called pericarp.
• Popcorn is made up of starch, fibre, vitamins and water.
• The white fluffy stuff is the starch that’s been cooked by the heat.
• The pericarp is hard fibre and fibre makes your poos float.
• When popcorn explodes it can expand up to 30 or 40 times its original size.
• People have been eating popcorn for about 7000 years.
• The oldest known popcorn was found, still fluffy white in a bag attached to the belt of a mummy in Chile.

Our Science Experiments & Fair Testing

Fair Testing


Conducting a fair test is one of the most important ingredients of doing good, scientifically valuable experiments. To insure that your experiment is a fair test, you must change only one factor at a time while keeping all other conditions the same.

Scientists call the changing factors in an experiment variables.

We brainstormed all the different things we could change (vary or measure).  We then decided on two things we could change  eg light/dark and hot/cold.  We then decided on how we would measure what we saw happening.  Each of us asked a question and recorded this on our sheet.  Over the next few weeks we will watch what happens and record our measurements.  Lastly we will write what happened. 

We will let you know how things are going next week.

Science Investigation Worksheet

Big Ideas about Popcorn

• • 

  Kernels contain starch and moisture.

• When you heat the kernels, a change of state happens, in which the moisture changes into steam-this is a physical change.

• The popping of popcorn is actually a small explosion which occurs when the pressure of the steam is so intense it bursts the tough outer coating of the kernel.

Popcorn

Watch this You Tube video of popcorn popping. We have been learning about popcorn this term.  We have looked at the plant and its life cycle. We have also worked on fair testing and have plants in the light, dark, hot and cold.  We will let you know how it goes.   Next week we are moving onto looking at how it changes.  Room 15 and 16 made predictions on what happens when corn pops.  Lots of very good predictions!

My Mum

My mum is extremely kind because she makes all the meals.  She's funny and she has sea-blue eyes.  She is a gentle person has skin like light brown branches.  Mum's really tidy, just like a clean-up dwarf.
Ethan

My Brother

My brother is so nice because he plays with me and my sister, and my dad.  He is kind because he kicks rugby balls up in the air for my brother and I to catch.  He has brown eyes and is tall with brown hair.  He goes to boarding school and sometimes we talk on the phone too.
Jack Year 3

Holly

Holly was a best friend ( BFF) to me.  She didn't know her three and four times tables, but she could count to one hundred in fifty seconds.  She could do back flips and cart wheels, also the splits.  I couldn't do those!  Holly liked to walk to the nearest park and liked to bake by herself at home.  She never asked for help when she needed it.  Holly wanted to be good at baking baking o she tried most of the time.  She is now eight years old and is always hungry. 
I have moved to New Zealand and I've missed her with all my heart and everyday I stare out that drive, wishing she was walking up the steps and then cuddling me.
Evie Year 4

Grandpa

Grandpa loves gardening and he comes down to Wanaka a lot.  Mum and Grandpa Julse loves doing gardening together.  He is a very good cook.  When he is at our house, he makes really yummy salads and foods for dinner.  Oh, he is SUCH a great fisherman and he's even caught a baby shark!  Grandpa Julse loves eating big meals and having wine.  When he has his meals he laughs and then snorts, while he is laughing.  Seriously, he laughs like a pig!! Grandad is a strong and loving grandad.  He has a smile that shows you that he loves you. His lovely strwberry-brown eyes have a sign that he is the kindest person.  He also is a very friendly Grandpa because he talks to lots of people.  He loves music, especially ' The Eagles'!  His hair is a brown colour, like the most beautiful mountain on a sunny day. Oh, and last of all he listens to stories at dinner time.
Scarlett Year 3

Parts of a Popcorn Plant

We looked at the parts of a popcorn plant today. Use the diagram to practise!

Parts of a Plant & Plant Life Cycles

Go to these sites to practise what you learned in class.