Observing - being meteorologists!

We have set up an observation window in our classroom. We look through this window towards the sky and try to work out what type of clouds there are!

Come in and try and see if you can work out the clouds in the sky! Do you know the difference between cumulus and stratus?

African Art

Mr Pearse came in and taught us how to mix colours to make a sunset. We then turned these backgrounds into silhouettes of a landscape scene from Africa. Here is an example of one. The rest are displayed in the classroom. Come in and check out our amazing work!

Making plastic out of milk!

Did you know that you can make plastic out of milk? That is what we did in Science today.

If you mix warm milk and vinegar together, you make something called 'casein'. (This comes from the Latin word meaning 'cheese'). Casein forms when the protein in milk meets the acid in the vinegar. The casein in the milk does not mix with the acid (vinegar) and so it forms blobs. 

We then squished the blobs together, flattened them out and dried them. It turns into a substance like plastic if you leave it long enough!

SPCA Visitor

Room 9 and 11 managed to raise an amazing $641 at their craft and bake sale for the SPCA. Today we had a special visitor (Helen) come in to collect the cheque. She was very impressed with our efforts! This money is going to help to build the new shelter for the animals.

(Keep an eye on the SPCA website - Helen said that she might put one of our photos up there!)

Oobleck - Experimenting and making a mess!

We had fun today experimenting with Oobleck. What an amazing mixture it is! We mixed cornflour, water and food colouring together. We discovered that Oobleck is a non-Newtonian fluid; it has properties of both a liquid and a solid! You can slowly dip your hand into it and it feels like a liquid, but if you squeeze it or punch it, it feels like it is solid. It is the change of pressure that causes the change of 'state'. Applying pressure to the mixture increase its viscosity (thickness). At the places you apply force, the cornstarch particles get mashed together, trapping water molecules between them, and the oobleck turns into a semi-solid object.

The word 'oobleck' comes from a story by Dr Suess called 'Bartholomew and the Oobleck'. 

Observational Science Drawings

Today we went to visit our Kindle 2 buddies. We helped them to observe like scientists. They had to look carefully at a monarch butterfly and then draw what they saw. We gave them 'feedback'. These were tips, so that they could improve their drawings.

Cross Country Success

Congratulations to all the children who completed the Cross Country yesterday. Everyone put in a wonderful amount of effort to complete the two laps of the North ground track!

 Aidan, Poppy, Toby and Brooke all got in the top five at their year level, and will now go on to represent our school at the North Zone Competition.

A special 'well-done' needs to go to Brooke who managed to get first in the Year 3 girls race. Well done Brooke. Your medal looks awesome!