Stunning Art!

D1 and D2 have been learning about an artist called Kandinsky. They have made some 'circles' art in the same style. We really love this quote that Mrs Thompson put up in the classroom...

The children's 'circles' art!

D1 have also finished their Hundertwasser 'lollipop tree' paintings with Mrs Sutherland. They are bright and colourful and you won't find any straight lines...because Hundertwasser doesn't like straight lines!

We love all these gorgeous colours up on the walls!

Here is a close up of one of the pictures by Eva:

Lovely colours and patterns, Eva!

Art...art...everywhere!

Many classes at school are learning about art and artists this term. In D1, we started by learning about cool and warm colours and we created a piece of art using our intitials to show what we knew.
Here is our display:

Isn't it colourful!

We had 2 pieces of paper at the beginning - one for warm colours (red, orange, yellow) and one for cool colours (blue and green). We used pastels to draw lines like spokes on a bike wheel on each of the pieces of paper then smudged the pastel with our fingers. Lastly, we chose one of the papers to be the background and one to cut our initials out of. We hope you like them!

Underwater Fireworks!

Science, science and more science! Last week we even made underwater fireworks! Here is what we did - and you can try this at home!

• fill a glass bowl or jar with water
• in a test tube (or little container) put 3 ml of oil, 2 drops of red food colouring and 2 drops of blue food colouring and use a stirrer to mix it together
• gently drip the coloured oil into the water and watch the fireworks begin!

As the coloured drops exploded, they sunk to the bottom!
It looked really cool!

When we looked at the top of the water, you could see large oily blobs floating there.
What we learnt about oil and water with Mrs Thompson has come in really handy!

Making Lava...

We did an experiment in D1 called 'Groovy Lamp'! It was showing us a little bit about lava. This is an experiment you can try at home!

• First you need a little test tube (or a jar might work)
• We put water in the test tube up to the 1 ml mark
• Then we added 2 drops of red food colouring
• We filled the test tube up to the 4 ml mark with oil (we remembered that oil and water don't mix...so we could see the oil staying on top of the red water)
• Finally we broke up an antacid tablet and dropped little pieces in. We could see some bubbles forming on top of the water but they didn't go up into the oil...

This was a little bit disappointing. We waited...and waited...and waited...then it was home time! Mrs Sutherland left the test tube sitting on the bench and a little while later...

Floating bits of 'lava'!

What is happening? The bubbles are carbon dioxide and they rise to the top, through the oil, carrying some blobs of red water with them. When the bubbles reach the top, they burst and the red water sinks down under the oil again!

Do you remember why the water sinks? Tell a friend what you think!

Cross Country

We have just finished our cross country running for 2017. It is always so hard at the start - long distance running is SO different to the short bursts of fast running that we do in many of our games and fitness activities. The longer running fits so well with our school value of Diligence this term - we start fast, work hard and finish well!
Here are our first 2 runners home - for the boys, Johnny, and for the girls, Ciarra. Well done to all the runners. You can be so proud of your efforts in training and on the day!

Great run, Johnny!
Just look at all that mud at the finish line to welcome you home!

Go Ciarra!
I think your mum needs a medal for being a great cheerleader too!

Explosive Science!

Which one of these bags do you think will make the biggest "BANG!!" when we pop them?

A supermarket bag, a snaplock bag and a paper bag...

We tested the snaplock bag first. We thought it was quite a 'tough' plastic and it was! Johnny had to stomp it with his foot to make it pop! It did make a loud bang...but was it the loudest? It didn't break the tough plastic - it popped along its 'zip'!

Next we tried the paper bag. Eva had a great go at popping it but it just wouldn't burst! I think we were all giggling too much by then! Mrs Sutherland had to help and...BANG! It burst through the bag with 2 really big rips! Was this one going to be the biggest bang?

Finally we got to the supermarket bag. Many of the D1 children thought it would be the loudest because it had the most air in it...so they thought it would make the biggest bang. Zane used all his muscles...but it only whooshed the air out quietly through 2 tiny rips in the seam at the bottom of the bag. What???!!! 

So... which one was the winner? The paper bag was the loudest, then the snaplock bag and finally the supermarket bag. If you are allowed, try this again at home and see if you get the same results!

What makes the 'bang' noise? We did some investigating and found out that air is made up of molecules that push against everything they touch. This is called air pressure. A few of the D1 children talked about pressure when they were predicting what would happen - well done! Because we squeezed the air into our 3 bags,  the air pressure got bigger and when the bags popped, the high-pressure air rushed out! That change in pressure makes a shock wave that travels to our ears as a loud POP! The loudest pop comes from the highest air pressure...which was in the paper bag!

We had a really interesting question from Zane too. He said that we were blowing carbon dioxide into the bags and wondered if we would get the same if we used oxygen? Now that's an interesting idea to think about! 

One explosion down...many more to come!

Celebrating Success

It is wonderful to honour children who work so hard at their homework! In D1, these children have learnt EVERY spelling word or EVERY memory verse for the whole of term 1...WOW! One super hard worker, Jada, achieved BOTH of these goals:

Amazing effort everyone!

A Visit from the Fire Brigade

On Friday we had an awesome visit from one of Palmerston North's fire crews. Gary and Belinda gave a talk first about fire safety and checked what we all remembered from the Firewise programme we did in year 1 and 2. We still knew a lot - Gary and Belinda were impressed!

Gary (the boss) and Belinda (she said she was the newest member of the crew)

Then we went outside to look at the truck and the special equipment:

Fire trucks are so cool...

Belinda showed us the gear that they use - hoses, axes, ladders and more!
There are so many pieces of special equipment hidden in that truck!

That's Zane dressed in Belinda's special fire fighting clothes.
They are quite heavy and very warm to wear but they keep you safe and that is SO important! 

Tim and Harold

We have been enjoying visiting the Life Ed truck over the last week. Tim is the teacher and Healthy Harold is a giraffe who helps him! We have been learning about our bodies, our feelings and what it means to be a good friend. Tim and Harold always make us laugh a lot...but Tim told us that a happy brain will actually learn better than a sad one!
Here are some photos of Tim and Harold at assembly on Friday:

Tim and Harold had a lightsaber battle while the Star Wars music played...

Does Harold know where his brain belongs?
Not on his knee, not on his bottom... (I think he was tricking Tim!)
Yes - in his head!

Oh no! Tim got hurt in the playground! What will Harold do?
He will be a kind friend and help him!

Maths Superheroes...

It was great to celebrate some hard workers in maths at assembly on Friday. Gold and silver certificates were given out to the children who had earned them - it takes a lot of work to achieve these awards! Well done to all the children for their efforts!

Great work Alastair, Huntar (who has 2 silver certificates!) and Jason!

D1's Shooting Stars!

In our room we have a special place where we show great examples of work. We call it our Shooting Stars Wall.

Eva was the first person to have her work put on the wall. She was showing us what good writers do:

Way to go, Eva! 

We can all learn from her great example. Check it out next time you visit us in D1!

The Story of Amos - Part 2

God told the Israelites that he was going to 'measure' how good they really were. He talked about using a plumb line like builders do to see if everything is straight and true. Sometimes things look good...but are they really?

We tried to draw some straight lines on the whiteboard then we held a plumb line beside them to measure if they were really straight.

Fono did a great job of drawing a straight line - look at how close
her line is to the plumb line!

The lines we thought were straight were not really straight at all! God wants us to live His way - not just doing 'good' things but doing 'God' things! He will measure us by His rules.

The Story of Amos - Part 1

D1 has been learning about Amos from the Bible. We had a treasure hunt around the room for some clues about Amos and found these...

These 2 pictures show us the jobs that Amos had - he was a shepherd and he grew figs!

These scrolls had messages inside...

Amos was a messenger for God - a prophet. The 3 scrolls showed us the message God sent to the Israelites:

WARNING - Prepare to meet your God!

CHOICE - Are you going to choose to do good or evil?

PROMISE - If you choose to do good, God will come and be with you always.


What would you do if God sent this message to you?