Water Cycle Games to Play

Our Questions

We asked lots of open-ended questions about clouds...

Here are some of them.
How are clouds made?
How many different types of clouds are there?
What are clouds made of?
Why are clouds white?
Why are some clouds black?
What is a cloud?
Why do they float?
How does the water drops get into the cloud?
What is water vapour and how is it made?
How did the clouds get their names?
What makes the clouds let out the rain?
Why do the clouds move?

How do Clouds Form?

Types of Clouds

Click to learn more and play cloud games

Different clouds can be seen at different levels in the sky

We watched these videos...

Clouds

We are learning about clouds.

Fossilisation

WALT... sequence pictures and explanations to show the fossilisation process Here is an example of today's lesson. We had to put the pictures in order then match the explanation.

Fossilisation

How Fossils Are Formed

What's A Fossil?

Fossils

We are learning about fossils.

Fossils

• Fossils are traces of things that happened long ago
• Plants and animals can become fossils
• We have only discovered a small number of the plants and animals from the past
• Fossils are not the original, only a copy 

Animals

• The most famous fossils are of dinosaurs
• There are also fossils of sea creatures and mammals
• Sometimes many fossils are found in one place because of a flood, earthquake, or other disaster

Plants

• The most famous example of fossilised plants is petrified wood
• Ferns, tree leaves, and other plants have been found, too

How are Fossils Found?

• Fossils are often found by accident
• Paleontologists and geologists use clues in the rocks to find good places to hunt for fossils
• Excavating fossils is hard work, and must be done carefully

How is a Fossil made? 

• A fossil is made when a plant or animal is covered quickly with mud or ash
• The organism’s tissues are replaced over a long period of time with minerals from the soil it was buried in
• Fossils can be dated by the layer of rock they were found in, or by radiocarbon dating

Clues to the Past

• Many fossils give us an idea of what life was like long ago
• Plants give clues about the diet of animals
• Animals give clues about the availability of plants and the climate when they lived
• Many clues fit together to make a more complete picture of what the world was like long ago

Can We Ever Really Know?

• No matter how many clues we have, we can never really know what life was like long ago
• We can make an educated guess, and fill in the gaps using what we know about life today
• It’s fun to imagine what it was like when the dinosaurs lived.  Try it next time you feel bored!

Solar System Suduko

Play Solar System Suduko. It's fun and gets you thinking!

E Mail From a Planet

Today we imagined that we were visiting one of the planets. We had to send an email to our family and friends to tell them about our experience. We had to include a “photo” that we took while visiting the planet.

Our address in the Universe

WALT... understand that the Universe is a huge place
... write our address in the Universe
... design a Planet stamp to put on your envelope

(Your name)
7 Ironside Drive
Wanaka
Central Otago
South Island
New Zealand
Southern Hemisphere
The Earth
The Solar System
The Milky Way Galaxy
The Local Group
The Local Supercluster
The Universe

How big is the universe? For a long time, people believed the universe was infinitely big and it went on forever in every direction. Today, we know that is not true. The universe does end somewhere very far way. But the end is so far away that our regular measurement units are no longer useful to measure it.
The distance from Wanaka to Auckland is 997.58 kilometres.
The distance from the Earth to the moon is 356,000 kilometres.
The distance from the Earth to the Sun is 150,000,000 kilometres .
The distance to even the nearest star is more than 40,000,000,000,000 kilometres.
You can see that our regular units of distance don't work for the size of the universe.

Instead, astronomers use a unit of distance called the light-year
One light-year is the distance that light travels in one year: one light-year is equal to 9,458,000,000,000 kilometres. Using this new unit makes astronomical distances easier to express. The nearest star is 4.3 light-years away. (Remember that the star is still the same distance away, whether we express it as 40,000,000,000,000 kilometres or 4.3 light-years).

WOW!

Star Lab

We had Star Lab ( the portable planetarium) at school last week. Will, the educator from Otago Museum, told us lots about the sun, the phases of the moon, the life cycle of stars and constellations including Greek and Maori tales. We all learnt heaps! Lots of great questions were asked too.

Music Performances

Space Lunch Game

Refresh your skills and knowledge about healthy eating.

Play this Game and Learn

Play this game and learn about the Solar System

Planet Sizes

Click on the graphic to see the planet sizes.

Play Planet Games

Make A Planet






Planet Sliding Puzzle






Shape Match










Memory






Hangman