Touch coaching

On Tuesday we were very lucky to have Grant Milne from Otago touch visit us to teach us some touch skills. Grant had lots of fun games for us to play. We learnt how to place the ball correctly on the ground and how to change our direction to get away from the opposition.

Clutha Valley has touch teams from Year 5 up. Miss Grant thinks we will have some fantastic touch players in a few years time! Keep practicing those skills. 

Time

In maths we are currently learning to tell the time! On Friday we looked at the minute and hour hands on a clock. We then made our very own clocks. Then we coloured in 1/2 of our clock and talked about this being half an hour. 

Here our some photos of us testing our buddy. We had to show an 'o'clock or 'half past' time to our buddy and get them to read it to us .

What's so cool about heat? School experiments.

For inquiry we have been split up in groups across the school and we are doing experiments with different teachers twice a week in the afternoons involving hot or cold.  In Kanuka we are learning about insulation and how the adaptation of blubber helps to keep penguins and other animals in Antarctica warm. 

This experiment involves a participant holding their hand in icy cold water to see how long they can last. We then smother their hand in margarine (acting as the blubber) and cover it in glad wrap (acting as the skin and feathers) to see if they can keep their hand in the water for longer. 

Check out our experiment and results below ... 

Blubber Experiment

Aim: To see if margarine will insulate our hand in icy cold water. 

Hypothesis:

“If you have glad wrap and butter it is a wee bit water in the icy cold water.” - Wyatt

“When you don’t have the glad-wrap and margarine it is colder” Jake

“The margarine will work” - Tarquin

“It will help keep our hand warm.” - Cam

“I don’t know” - Josh

“It will be just as cold with margarine.” - Henry 

Equipment:

Margarine

Icy water

Bowl

Glad Wrap

Knife

Hand

Method:

1. Fill a bowl with icy cold water. 
2. Put bare hand into icy cold water. Time how long participant can keep their hand in water. 
3. Once hand is removed, dry hand off. 
4. Cover hand in margarine and glad wrap. 
5. Put the hand back in the icy cold water. Time how long they can keep their hand in the water. 

Observations/results:

The insulation helped the participants keep their hand in the water for longer.

Participant	Time without insulation	Time with insulation
James	51 sec	3 min +
Felicity	1.32min	2.41 min

“Their hands got colder without stuff on it.” - Cam

“Ice is cold.” - Aimee

“Cold water can’t get through to your skin with margarine and glad wrap.” - Tarquin

“When margarine and glad wrap is over your hand it is warmer in icy cold water” - Henry

Conclusion:

Sea animals like penguins and whales can live in cold placed because their bodies are covered in blubber/fat. This fat acts as a layer of insulation. We also use different forms of insulation to help keep ourselves and our homes warm. These include; layers of clothing, jackets, wetsuits, and pink bats in our walls. 

What's so cool about heat?

 Our inquiry topic this term has been 'What's so cool about heat?' 

As one of our experiments we made chocolate smores in the microwave and watched what happened to the marshmallow when it was 

heated ...

Here is what we found ...

 It went up and down and it popped and made a loud noise. It exploded. - Aniska

It exploded in the heat and then it went down. - Madi. O

When we took the smore out of the microwave all the cool air came in. -Olivia

When we put the smores in the microwave they exploded because the heat was toasting. The microwave had to go for 10 seconds. - Jake

When it was in the microwave the smore got very big. When it stops the smore got small again. - Chantal

When we made smores we put them in the microwave. It exploded, all the marshmallow went on the plate. - Madi. F

When i saw my marshmallow it was exploded. The chocolate was coming out. It tasted delicious. It exploded because it was so hot. - Henry 

 Bang! The marshmallow exploded because of the heat. - Ben

We put the marshmallow into the microwave. - Cosine

When I put the smore in the microwave it went up, up, up and then it exploded. - Gemma 

When I put the marshmallow in the microwave it got really really hot. It tasted like milo. It got bigger - yes it did. Until it got too big. - Wyatt

The marshmallow exploded in the microwave. It was big and squishy. It was absolutely sticky when I ate it. - Penny

 The marshmallow was melting because the heat was making it too warm. When Miss Grant put them in the microwave they melted. - Ollie

It exploded. When it came out it was hot. It was yum. - Savana

When I made my smore I put it in the microwave. The marshmallow got fat because the heat made it fat. - Sam

 When the smores were in the microwave they bursted because it was warm. It was yum, yum, yummy! - Jayden

It blew up in the microwave. It was over cooked in there. - Lucy

When the smores went up they looked like a volcano. -

It went up and down and it popped and made a loud noise. I held my ears it was that loud. It blew up because it was hot. - Georgia

I put marshmallow in the microwave for 10 seconds. It expanded until ... it exploded because it got too hot. - Tarquin 

When I put the marshmallow in the microwave to make smores Miss Grant turned on the microwave for 10 seconds. Then the smore almost exploded with the heat. - Heather 

When I put my smore in the microwave my marshmallow exploded. Boom! My marshmallow shrunk. Then I could eat it. Yum! - Harry

We had lots of fun making smores! Look out for our fantastic instructions on how to make smores at your own place.. coming soon!  

Big Book - Mice in the Kitchen

Yah Miss Grant has worked out how to upload videos!

Here is a video of the wonderful readers in Kanuka reading our Big Book. 'Mice in the Kitchen' by Jill Eggelton. 

Our Big Book is one of our favourite parts of the day. We have a new big book each week that we read daily with a different purpose. 

Monday - Comprehension.

This is when we read the story and answer questions about the text. Who the characters are? Where the setting of the story is? We also talk about problems and solutions in the story. 

Tuesday - WOW words. 

We search for interesting words and talk about what they mean. Sometimes we even brainstorm other words that mean the same thing. We have a WOW words chart in our class-room and we try and use these words during our writing. 

Wednesday - Fluency and Phrasing. 

This is when we talk about full stops, commas, speech marks, ellipses, bold writing etc. And what all these mean for us when we are reading. 

Thursday - Phonological patterns. 

On a Thursday we look at the words in the story and look at different spelling and sound patterns. Sometimes we might look at rhyming words or word families, blends, digraphs, or word endings.

Friday - Response to text. 

On a Friday we respond to the story we are reading. We do this differently each week through art, writing, drama, or oral language. 

Daffodil Day

Well done to the Kanuka class for supporting Daffodil Day on Friday. Lots of the Kanuka children came dressed in yellow to show their support, or had faces painted, daffodils to wear or gold coins to donate. Well done to all of you! As a school we raised $193.10 to go towards cancer reseach. It definitely feels like spring is upon us.

Winners of the best dressed competition. Can you spot the 3 Kanuka kids? 

The Kanuka children with their prizes for best dressed.