WELCOME TO TERM 4!

Welcome to term four. We're excited to be back and we can't believe we only have 9 weeks left of Year 2. There's so much learning still to do!

Right from the start of the day, we were reminded of how connected we are in our learning, that it's not just us and Mrs M. 

We had 'welcome back' tweets from the Kinderkids and Mrs Glynn's class in Houston, Texas, plus a surprise skype call from Mrs Cassidy. 

She showed us all the leaves in her 'fall' backyard. It was cool to see her autumn trees. We don't notice the changing of the seasons as much in our climate. We found if amazing that it was a 27C autumn day in Moose Jaw and only a 25C spring day in Brisbane. Mrs Cassidy was having a heatwave!

Then Mrs M surprised us with some gifts - books from Mrs Cassidy and Mrs Knee, plus lots of books that Mrs M bought for us while she was overseas. 

We can't wait to read them. Some of them are even signed by the author! We already think, just by looking at them, that many of these books we'll want to read over and over!

Because Mrs Knee knew we were planning a marine inquiry this term, she also sent us some marine stuffies (a horseshoe crab, hermit crab and a moon jelly) and some shells and a whelk egg case from the beaches of New Hampshire. 

We can't believe how BIG some of the shells are and we've never seen anything like the whelk egg case before! We wonder if there is anything like this in our Moreton Bay habitat?

We ended our first day back with the biggest surprise. Last term, we were closely following Mrs Knee's daughter Abi, a marine biologist, while she was collecting data about marine life on Lizard Lsland, up on the Great Barrier Reef. 

We skyped with her and after she sent us some photos, we had LOTS!!!!! of questions. We were expecting for her to just email the answers to us, but guess what she did? She created a site on Shutterfly and made an ebook for us. We were amazed to get our questions answered this way and think Abi should write more books. What do you think?

Click here to view this photo book larger

What a way to start the term! We're so lucky to be part of a network of classes and people from around the world.

We are really excited about our learning, about the conversations we will have and the connections we will continue to make.

Come back to see what we're doing and PLEASE leave a comment because your comments help us LEARN!

WHY POPCORN POPS

This term we have been learning about where our food comes from. We investigated why popcorn pops. First we looked at a corn kernel. It was solid, hard, smooth, pointy, light, teardrop shape, yellow, hard outer shell and transparent. Here's a Bubbl.us I made about it.

After popcorn is popped it's fragile, puffed, very light, has holes in it, larger, cloud shape, white, brown inside and edible. Here's another bubbl.us about popping corn.

After we looked at the corn kernel and the popping corn we were wondering what was causing it to explode.We found out that the moisture in the kernel was making the moisture evaporate then there was no more room for any more steam and that made the corn kernels explode.


by guest blogger
Tom

OUR TRIP TO THE EKKA

On Thursday the 5th of August we had a trip to the Ekka on a train. We had to walk to the train station. We had to change trains once. We were squashed in like banana's and the other passengers were staring at us. 




When we arrived we saw cows and lots of cow manure. We had to be really careful where we walked...not everyone was so lucky!!

We had our morning tea and then we split up into groups. First we went to the Cattle Pavilion and we got to pat them. Some of the cows weren't very happy.

Some of us also saw bulls, the Dog Pavilion,  horse stables, goats, the Agricultural Pavilion, the auditorium and the Government Pavilion. 



We all saw the reptile show. No-one was game to pat a snake. Others got to plant tomatoes and a few lucky people got to milk a cow.

We met for lunch and after that we got our showbags. Then it was time to go home. 

At the train station everyone began to scavenge through their showbags, try on their masks and test their toys. 




On the train some of us played The Non Talking Game which Miss Mac loved! Others were playing with their remote controlled whoopie cushions.

We wish had such a great day. We can't wait to tell Mrs M all about it when she comes back.


Do you have an agricultural show where you live?
What do you love best about your show?

OUR HENNY PENNY CHICKENS

This term we have some chicks and some eggs that will hatch. We are keeping them in 2R Shining Stars classroom. The eggs are kept in an incubator which is shaped like a dome. It's a container that is heated.  It has lots of eggs in it. The eggs hatch every day.

When they hatch they are put into a clear plastic enclosure. They have lots of room to walk around and plenty of food and water. The enclosure has 9 chicks in it. They have fluffy, yellow feathers. One of them is fluffy black and she is sleeping right now.  

When they first hatch they look like they are wet, sick and sleeping. This is because they are exhausted from pushing the egg open. When they come out, their heart is beating so very fast. Once they dry and get their strength back, they look happy and healthy. We are happy and proud to have them in our classrooms for a while. :)

The construction site at SJV School

The first day back from holidays we came back and saw there was a construction site at our school. During the holidays the old Hall and the Multipurpose Room were knocked down. The hopscotch courts and the handball courts were gone too, they were dug out by machines. When we came back we saw two diggers, lots of dirt and people who were working at the construction site. One was in the digger, the other ones were working on other things. They were wearing helmets, brightly coloured vests and work boots. There was a giant, wide open space where the school buildings were demolished and a big fence around it. Half our school has vanished!

It's taking up some of our oval space and we don't have our undercover playing area. We have to go to the Pre area to play at second beak. It's really fun there and it's good to be back...it reminds us of prep.

It;s going to take a long time until the new building is finished.

Mrs M sure is going to get a surprise when she comes back.

USING THE BEE BOT

On Thursday we used the Bee bot and our DS's to play a direction game.. The Bee Bot had to start on number one and Sam had to roll the dice and we had to look at the number and work it out and then we had to write it in pictochat on our DS's.

It's like an maths game. A bee bot is a robot that you can program to stop and go -move forwards, backwards, left and  right.  Mrs M got it for us at a work shop. We like the bee bot. Thank you Mrs M!!!!

Number Family

A number family is a number triangle that has three numbers on it and you have to use those three numbers into sums. You have to draw a triangle then at the edges you put three numbers then you work out the sums in the number triangle. When you do the subtraction sums the biggest number always go's first and in addition the biggest number always go's last.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MRS M

Today was Mrs M's birthday and Sam's Mum helped us give Mrs M the best birthday present ever - a Storybird!

Happy Birthday Mrs M on Storybird

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MRS M! We hope you had a great day!

TALKING IN COMIC CHAT

Today, some of our class were lucky to be chosen to chat with some year three's from Parklands State School on Comic Chat.

Children in Queensland State schools are not allowed to skype like we do or have a blog that is public for all to see.


 We were lucky to be invited into a chat room in the Education Queensland Learning Place to talk to the Year 3's about our learning and their learning. 
It was a long conversation but lots of fun. We want to chat again in Comic Chat because it is so good. 

First you get to chose your avatar. In stead of talking on line like Skype, you type in what you want to say and then it comes up in a speech bubble with your avatar. 
We think it's a shame that we can't skype this class but we'd love to chat in Comic Chat again because it helps you improve your typing skills and it's fun!


Have you ever used Comic Chat?
How have you used it in your class?

OUR KANDINSKY PICS

We have been investigating 2D and 3D shapes.

Mrs M told us about a Russian artist called Kandinsky. His art is called Abstract art.

He uses lots of 3D and 2D shapes.

We made our own Kandinsky-like pictures to demonstrate our learning of 2D and 3D shapes. Our drawings also include straight lines, curved lines, open shapes and closed shapes just like Kandinsky.

Have a look at our Animoto with our Abstract drawings.

By LukeGem and NoahGem.