One-step-at-a-time - goal achieving cartoon doodle video

The Transparent Egg Experiment

 For this experiment you'll need:

Materials

• a raw egg (you may want to do a few in case your egg breaks)
• a hard boiled egg (so we could compare it to the raw egg)
• white vinegar (poured 200ml vinegar in each jar)
• 2 glass jars or plastic containers with lid (we used glass jars)

Method 

Place your raw egg in a jar and cover it with vinegar do the same in a separate jar with the hard-boiled egg. You will notice the reaction of the egg shell with calcium carbonate and vinegar.  It will bubble for the first day (below) 

The second day you need to change the vinegar. After 48 hours we carefully rinsed the raw egg and noticed it was transparent! Cool! Isn't it amazing? Basically it is an egg without a shell! I will let your curious minds figure out how the egg shells disappeared..

Bet you the tamariki can't wait to get their hands on the raw egg to see if it bounces!!

Watch this space for some of the tamariki's hypothesis and conclusions...

“Mad Scientists”

Our inquiry learning this term is based around better understanding the skills/attributes a scientist needs to have – wonderings, hypothesizing, forming questions, following methods/procedures, recording data, looking at controls, observational drawings, writing conclusions etc.

This week Room 1 tamariki have been delving in some science experiments.

The first experiment the tamariki looked at during the week was ‘Colourful Chaos’. The tamariki were in small groups and had to come up with a question as to what they wanted to find out when mixing detergent with the milk that had food colouring in it. They then had to predict what they thought would happen, write down their equipment list, method, observations and lastly form conclusions at the end of the experiment (based on their question and hypothesis).

There were lots of surprised reactions when the children saw what was happening. By the end of the lesson the students having done further research were able to describe the changes they saw, explain what is happening to the milk, explain that detergent particles have two ends one that likes fat and the other water, and also discuss the differences and similarities of the different types of milk used in the experiment.

Enviroschools/Whangawehi Workshop 1

On Tuesday we began our first Enviroschools/Whangawehi workshop here at school. This workshop was about starting to plan the beginning of a new school song. What do our children consider special at Te Mahia School? Why do they think living in Paradise is pretty cool? If you have a school song who is it for, (the intended audience). We as writers are writing for our whanau, community members, people who have not been to Mahia and future families and children who may enroll at Te Mahia School. We had to keep in mind when writing a song the following things. Minds are like flowers, have fun, be inspired by other songs you like listening to, be prepared to get rid of the parts you don’t like or attempts from your first go. Of course, Mahia Iz Paradise was our initial song to listen/view and was enormous inspiration for our task we were about to do. We also wanted our children to be a little clearer with different genre of music; Rap, Hip Hop, Reggae, Pop R&B, Rock, Waiata.  We then had a go at writing a line or two and beginning this process. Whanau, there are already some catchy lyrics written down and we even had people on guitar and drums with potential music to match the lyrics. This was so much fun and highlighted how music is so good for the soul. Will keep you posted with how our next session goes and the progress we make. Exciting times!

Why Subtract When You Can Add?

We are about to get underway with strategy learning in addition and subtraction for the next few weeks. As we identify what strategy stage we are currently working in, we need to reflect on the strategies we already know and use. At the senior end of school, using strategies that are efficient is crucial as we think mathematically and really consider word problems and equations we need to solve. If a strategy we choose takes us 4 steps to get an answer, maybe we need to consider a different strategy that can take us 3 or even 2 steps to get to the answer.



Here is a You Tube tutorial about reversibility and tidy numbers. Does anyone use these strategies already? What are the clear part of the tutorial? What questions do you have? How could you model this with different equipment other than a number line? Start THINKING about your tutorial you are going to create with a new strategy you learn about in the coming weeks. We will be collaborating with each other to become very efficient and professional. Are you ready?

Learners as teachers!

Learning assessments were underway this week with Room 1 students doing their STAR assessments (reading). Whilst certain year groups were doing assessments the rest were learning chords on the guitar and drumming away on bins. Some tamariki have picked up chords on the guitar quite fast and help other classmates to learn guitar as well. It is important that tamariki realize that they are not only learners but become teachers for their peers as well.  
We have many talented room 1 tamariki who love to share their talents especially musical talents with others. Ka mau te wehi tamariki!!