Defining 'ecosystem'

Today LH3 put their thinking caps on and investigated the meaning of 'ecosystem' - this is some of the information we found from the internet which we're now going to combine with our other findings and write our own definitions.  Have a look at our 'comment's below.

...in the hub we Built Knowledge = Found Out and Brainstormed.
At home we're Making Meaning = Considering and Knitting Together.
Then we're going to Apply Understandings together.

(We haven't yet discussed the importance of referencing our work so please excuse us this once!)

Did You Know? (I didn't!)

Don't believe it?  Visit Google Maps, type in North Korea and see what happens...


Thanks to The Skinny (student blog) and Learn Something Every Day - Visit Learn Something Everyday for more fun facts!

Maori Language Week is on it's way

As some of you may be aware, Maori Language week isn't too far away.

We've been very lucky to have some students from Melville Intermediate offer to teach us (thanks Hayze and Mackenzie, we think you're awesome!!)  Their blog comes up on the first page on Google when you search 'Maori mihi' (which is a special Maori greeting, giving info of where your ancestors are from) so they're obviously very knowledgeable - nothing like learning from the experts.

LH3, please have a go at loading on all the Maori words you're already familiar with (and the English version of it) below - I'm interested to see how we get on!

Also, feel free to use this space to communicate with Hayze, Mackenzie and any other Melville Int. students in the comments section.



These are some Maori words/phrases we know (Maori = English)... at AnswerGarden.ch.

The 'Wonderful Readers' look at Inferencing

Today everyone in the hub learned about Inferencing when we read.

The Wonderful Reading group - that's us, Courtney, Ruby, Meg, Damien P and Albert worked together with Miss Holland.

We worked together to find out the right meanings. To start with, we didn't really know what inferencing meant, so we used dictionaries and the internet to find out what it meant. Some of the meanings were confusing so we talked about what it could mean and helped each other.

Today we were in Building Knowledge - We Found out, Brought what we know, Brainstormed, Guessed and...

We were in Making Meaning - We Organized and Knitted together.

Tearno and I have decided that the next thing we will do is Apply Understandings. We need to collaborate and work as a team to have the same understanding. We will decide on one meaning together.

Here's some of what we think and know (we made it in Popplet):

We hope you liked our post and catch you later!

From Hossain and Tearno (from the Wonderful Readers)

Presentation Day for Shade

As you can see this is our Tagxedo.

 

On Friday, Mark, Debi and Kaela Rush came to our school to meet the year 7's and 8. We showed them our presentation and we talked to them about our school and how they can help us to create shade over our playground.  Here's our Prezi presentation.

We felt our presentation went good because they agreed with us most of the time.  We thought the pikelets were a nice touch and we enjoyed making them to calm down our nerves.  

They were really kind and were a great audience.  We did pretty well in representing our school and really enjoyed the experience.  It was exciting to be able to talk with such successful business people!

(Click photo to enlarge:  Here's us giving the presentation and taking everyone on a tour of the school.  We were so proud and even popped some sparkling grape juice to celebrate!)

By Fatima and Hana

Swimming Lesson Wrap Up

Swimming lessons for our year 5 and 6 students have wrapped up now but what fun these leaders had!

Take a look at the last of our photos...

Untitled from Sarah Holland on Vimeo.

Swimmers - it's time to reflect.  Why don't we have another go at using the thinking hats to structure our reflection?  Please use the yellow hat (positives), black hat (negatives) and red hat (emotions and feelings) to share with us your experience.  What do you think about the hats now that you've had a chance to think about them - do they help structure your reflection or do you find them confusing? 

Congratulations - 2,000 hits!

Myspace Code Generator

Blog Bus Stop: Week 5, Term 2 - Mind Mapping

This week, I'd like you to add anything you think is relevant to our Ecosystem Popplet (a neat mind mapping tool).  This might be an idea or thought you think you know about ecosystems, something you've found out recently or a link to a relevant picture etc.

Go for it!

Click here to go through to make additions.

(I've sent you all requests to join which will allow you to log in and add your ideas.  Simply click one of the little circles that appears on the edges of each popple to add the popple off to the side.)


... and while you're thinking about ecosystems, have a look at this video made by Junior G (Year 1 and 2 students in Melbourne, Australia) - they are beginning to understand hte interconnectedness of ecosystems.  This might help you to add to our Popplet.  (Be sure to pop through to their site and give them feedback on this video and their other minibeast learning - hard to believe they're a junior class!!)

Make your own Official Seal

Have you ever seen an movie where someone takes melted wax and presses a special design down on it to seal an envelope or letter?

This website will make your own original seal for you!  (Thanks Baiba for the heads-up)

Have a go at changing the settings, once you think you're happy go ahead and click 'go' - not happy?  Keep making changes until you are.  I made mine black and white but you can make coloured ones too.

Once you've made your own you can save it to the server and them email it to yourself - you might like to use it as part of your email signature or include it on home learning to show it's your work.

I had a go at making one:

Let us know through the comments that you've made one and email it to me - I'll add it into this post so we can see all the fun designs.

Choice Challenge: Week 5, Term 2 - Baking!

This week, as well as a Blog Bus Stop, we're giving you a Choice Challenge!  These challenges will be hands on and probably a little different to your traditional homework.

We're all about home learning, and we know learning doesn't just happen in books.  This time, you're challenged to create a home baking masterpiece.

Take a look in on of your cookbooks at home or jump online - it's up to you.  I found this fantastic website that displays all the recipes in illustrations... http://www.theydrawandcook.com/recipes - just search for cookies/bars, cakes/pies, other deserts, or muffins to get you started.

Please ask someone at home to take photos of you whilst you're baking and bring them into school (you can email them to yourself if you need to) to load up on the blog and in KN.  We know you're busy people so let's try to get our baking done by not this Monday but the next (13 June.)

Here are some examples from They Draw and Cook:

 

Have fun!

LH3, What vision principle do you think this challenge sits under?  Building learning capacity, collaborating, making meaning or break through?

Science Fair

Attn Year 7's and 8's!

As mentioned, we've been lucky to have been accepted into the Auckland Science Fair competition.  You're able to work either individually or in pairs and if you really stretch yourself and put a stellar effort in your chances are great at getting through to the Auckland finals where your experiment will be judged by professional scientists.

You're welcome to take a look at this presentation that gives you an introduction to the process.

Click here to see in full size.

Thanks to Mrs Carol Duffield for sharing the original text content!

Piping Hot Pikelets

Today the year 7 and 8 students made pikelets in preparation for our guests arriving.

We followed the recipe in the Edmonds Cookbook (a real Kiwi favourite!) and worked together to make the tight deadline perfectly.  After four batches we were well and truely ready to tuck into them... the pikelets were delicious, even if we do say so ourselves.

Click to enlarge (collage made with Picasa)

Notice the yellow goop?  We whipped the cream in the bottle (Miss H didn't think to bring a beater, whoops!) by separating it into two lots - when we shook the bottle for two long we found ourselves with butter!!

The leaders involved will update you on all the exciting details from our presentation (hopefully on Monday.)

McDonald's are coming to visit!

Hi everyone,

Today we got an email back from Mrs Rush at McDonalds and are very excited! They will be coming in to meet with us, talk about shade and look around our school.

By Edwin and Damien P.


We've been working hard and doing lots of investigation, trying to make our deadline of tomorrow. We have also decided to make morning tea for our visitors to make them feel especially at home. The presentation will go really well, I can feel it already!

Miss H

How does having fun help your learning?

Does reward mean more to you than punishment?  It does to these people...

Life in Zimbabwe by Vincent

About life in Zimbabwe. The people in Zimbabwe eyes like a dogs. In Zimbabwe they have computers, watching TV, radios and DVD. The dogs in Zimbabwe they eat vegetables, meat, chew bones and flies. Some dogs are live in the rocks and eat ducks when people are sleeping.

In Zimbabwe we can save monkeys. For fun in Zimbabwe we can use computers but sum people they have no computers. My school in Zimbabwe is Shiriyedenga Primary School. Now I live in New-Zealand.

Starting Science Fair...

Today the year 7 and 8 students carried out an experiment to test dishwashing liquid and it's effect on different liquids (in this case, milk, water and apple juice.)

The seniors were introduced to some key words and researched them before knitting together what we found to give a definition we would all understand.  They started to give examples of each term under the headings (eg. they had a go at writing their own hypotheses once they understood what one actually was.)

They're still working through the details but you can click on the following image to see the document that they're all working on.

See how we got on here (photos):

Moving Milk! on PhotoPeach

and video:

Learners, what did you guys think of the experiment and your learning?

Daily Journal Writing by Paton

We are learning how to include hyperbole and metaphor's in our writing.

My story is more like a thriller but it is a cool story I would like to get your opinions on whether I should carry on with it or leave it as a cliff hanger so here it is.

When I was little I used to play in my garden and I always felt a big lump the size of an elephant. I never knew what was until it I asked my parents so many times that I think that they got mad because I asked so often but there was never an answer. So one day I went out into my garden and started digging. As I got closer to whatever it was, it seemed to get colder and at one point it was so cold like the Antarctic ocean. Then all of a sudden there was a big bang. I had hit something. Something hard and wooden. The wood seemed to be fossilized. I opened it and inside was white cloth. It was like snow. I removed it and to my astonishment there lay a person missing half their skin. I tried to scream but nothing came out. I thought to myself shall I run away or shall I carry on? Then I saw something twinkling at me like a star.

By Paton

Daily Journal Writing by Jamie

For journal writing on Tuesday we wrote about a mystery trunk that we find under our house. We had to include a Metaphor and a Hyperbole. Here's mine...

One day when I was lying on my creaking, groaning bed I felt a sudden urge to go down to the basement and explore. I was a shadow as I tiptoed past my parent's room. I could hear their breathing. I was so quiet. When I got outside I let out a breath I hadn't realized I'd been holding. The chilly, winter breeze froze me to the very bone. When I opened the basement door the moonlight reflected off a rusty piece of metal. Excited I ran towards it. It was a clasp. I snapped it open, realizing it belonged to a old, worn, down, leather trunk. It took an eternity to open the elephant sized lid. As I peaked inside I fell to the ground laughing. After all that, I was now the owner of... A pair of moth eaten socks.

Debate: Should an 86-year old have been fined?

Please read the following article:

(click on picture to go to article)

Do you think this was fair?  On one hand, the law is the law and who is to say we can bend it for certain individuals?  ... but on the other hand, imagine a Grandma who follows the law in every other sense and just got a bit confused - should such a hard line be drawn?

What do you think?  State if you agree or disagree with Mrs van den Bogaart's fine and explain your thinking.  (See comments)

What interesting results - 5 of you said she should still have to pay and 10 said Mrs van den Bogaart should be let off her fine.

Graph made online using Create a Graph

There has been an advancement in this story... Click here to find out what happened regarding the fine.  How do you feel about that??

Funky Photo Letters

http://metaatem.net/words/

Looking for a fun way to display headings?  Take a look at this site that takes images from Flickr and turns them into headings for you.  Fun!

We love lunch!

Absolutely no reason to share this video besides the fact that it made me smile - though that's reason enough in itself, don't you think?!

What makes a 'perfect' school for you?

Hi everyone!

I stumbled across this article on a UK news website last night (ins't the internet great at helping us connect with the world!)  It's interesting to note the similarities and differences in what we'd like from our school.

Click to read the full article...

Where do you see similarities in what we have and what they want?  We're very lucky to have some comparable features!

What, in your wildest dreams, do you wish we had?

We are Guardians!

This term we're going to be learning about ecosystems!  We've already shared our prior knowledge (we call this bringing what I know, which is at the building knowledge stage of the Inquiry rocks) and now we're about to hit our new learning.

Today in LH3 the learners each selected a word from the list of content specific vocab to explore.  Each student is becoming a Word Guardian (to a few words) and are responsible for becoming the experts of their words, providing us with a student-friendly definition and preparing any posters, images or short video clips that we might need to develop our understanding (which we'll share when we come across those words in our learning).  When each of us clearly understands a few challenging words, we can teach each other and understand them all!

The students were presented with a list of words to choose from and they selected their first word to investigate using dictionaries, the internet and the science books in the library (we have a huge collection right now to read.)  It was our first go at using Google Docs today and many had a go at logging in without any problems.  As we progress, the definitions will be updated and loaded to our blog!

(Click the image above to see how we're getting on with our definitions)

Trying to get shade for our school...

The year 7 and 8 students have been given a very exciting challenge! Stonefields needs shade over our playground area to protect our amazing students from the sun.  The only problem?  Shade isn't cheap!  The seniors of the school have been investigating how we might get some funding to help pay for the shade.  We were told that McDonalds might like to help out, so we've been doing some investigating.

First we phoned directory to get the number for the new McDonalds up the road (after writing a script, talking about different possibilities and roll playing the call):

... but they couldn't help!  So we tried phoning head office (after we found the phone number through 'google'):

Success!  So we phoned the owners of McDonalds but they're out of the country right now.  We got the email address of another person and will send them an email.

Stay tuned....

Finn, Nathan and Fatima

How successful are your Googles?

Have you ever done an internet search and struggled to find exactly what you're looking for?

Have an idea what you need, but can't quite think of the ideal search keywords?

It can be hard to find the exact information you're looking for online sometimes, but luckily Google have made searching easier for us.

By using the 'options' bar on the left hand side, you're able to filter out results you do or don't want showing.  For example, if you're searching for a current news story, you'd probably want to choose 'recent results' rather than leaving it as you found it.  You won't be interested in results from years ago as they won't be relevant for you.

Have you tried the Wonderwheel?  This can be a great way to find related topics you hadn't specifically considered.

Are you feeling more confident about searching?  Why not put your skills to the test and try A Google A Day - this site gives a new (and challenging) question to answer each day - you'll certainly need to have sharp 'googling' skills to succeed.  Good luck!

Do you have any handy hints to share?  Please add them to our comments!

(Thanks to Mr C for bringing my attention to a Google a Day and Mrs Beasley for the other Google info and screenprints!)

A visit from a Biologist!

On Friday, during the second block, Annette came over to share her insect presentation with us. Annette is a biologist from the University of Auckland and she spends a lot of time studying insects.

First she shared a Powerpoint about what types of insects live in different areas and told us how to classify if a creature is an insect or not. We learnt that insects always have 6 legs, 2 antanae and 3 body parts (head, abdomen and thorax) - which means that spiders aren't even insects! We also learnt that bugs are a certain type of insect, which means that not all insects are bugs! All of these creatures though are called invertebrates because they don't have a backbone, instead they have an exoskeleton (their 'bones' are on the outside instead of being on the inside, like the are with humans and animals.) We asked lots of good questions were able to answer some of the ones she asked us.

Then, we were tested on our knowledge. Annette gave us little containers that had creatures inside them. We had to decide whether the creatures were insects or just invertebrates, and note down special characteristics (exactly what they were.) Some of the insects were saw were alive! There was a big selection, including a monarch butterfly, a white-tailed spider (NZ's main poisonous spider), an earwig and baby cockroaches. We had fun trying to recognise what they were but some of us were creeped out by the live insects - especially the spider!

We were also shown a little bottle filled with alcohol and lots of dead invertebrates. These are known as pitfall traps. They are placed in the ground and the invertebrates fall into the trap over a period of days, and show the scientists the insects that are in the area. The pitfall trap that Annette showed us came from Motatapu Island and had lots of scary spiders (called arachnids.)

She also showed us a collection of insects that she'd caught and found herself, and that she'd pinned herself in a wooden box. They were all labeled and looked amazing.

We really enjoyed having Annette along to Learning Hub 3 and hope she comes back again. It was great to hear from a real biologist and it was clear that she knew a lot about invertebrates!

By Craig and Ben

Insects with Annette! on PhotoPeach

Blog Bus Stop: Week 4, Term 2

 

How multicultural are we?

Choose either one or two places that you most closely associate with... this might be the place you were born, the place you've lived for the longest, where your grandparents are from, the country from which the language you speak originates... you decide.

Choose one place marker (use the same one for your one or two entries), write your first name for the title and justify your choice - remember to keep any personal details quite general (don't forget, cyber safety).  Please don't be any more specific than a suburb.

We'll have an ELO for those of you who would like a lesson on using ScribbleMaps.

We'll be adding to the map later on, so please keep your choices this time to places that have to do with where you've lived, where you were born or nationalities.  It will be fun to see where we're all from!

Visitors - feel free to join in!

Watch a quick tutorial I put together here, to show two different ways you can find your area of interest and mark it if you need a hand and just can't wait for the ELO (I used Jing to record my screen - very handy!)

Visit: http://www.scribblemaps.com/#id=Whatmakesusus and see the results below (when you finish, click menu and save, the password is 'learninghub3')

Ever Been Stuck?

Take a look at this funny ad - what is the lesson we can learn from it?

LH3, please watch it and we'll feedback during feed and read on Monday :)

An Image in Time - Jamie, Craig, Fatima, Maddy & Ben

WALHT (We Are Learning How To): Write a interesting paragraph from a picture, using metaphor and personification.

This morning for journal writing we were doing a moment in time image.  It needed to include a metaphor and personification.  We chose between two images.  One was a globe with hands, the other was a rock climbing wall.  We hope you enjoy them.

When I look at the globe I think of each hand as a country and the globe as the environment.  Each time a hand comes away, a country stops caring, making it harder for the remaining hands to take care of it.  It will end up being a concrete wasteland.  If this happens the stars will never wink again.

By Jamie

It's Craig here - I've underlined the figurative language I used, can you work out which ones I've used where?

It all started when the universe ran over to our part of the solar system and popped a balloon causing a big bang.  That was the point when our part of the solar system was invented.  Then civilization started, they began to hold the world. Later on war was invented, civilizations crumbled making it harder to hold the world.  The Earth was beginning to feel like an anchor to the people who are still holding.  Later on in time our technology has begun to pollute the land and our environment.  More hands drop.  If one more pair of hands drop, our world will be a wasteland.   

By Craig

Standing alone holding the globe all by myself.  The globe felt like I was carrying a marble but the longer I held it, the quicker I realised I was holding a dinosaur sized globe.  I felt like giving up but the globe smiled as someone else helped me hold it.  I felt like a thousand weights lifted off my shoulders.

I felt like I did quite well because a couple years ago, I wasn't sure about metaphors and personifications.  Now I can write metaphors, personifications, and similes at ease.  Journal writing has helped me lot.  Journal writing is really affective because the teachers give you a topic to write about and you have to use figurative language.  I am looking forward to more journal writing so I can improve on my weaknesses.

By Fatima

As I steer at the rock wall it laughs at me. As I start to climb the wall I turn into nimble monkey creeping to the top.

By Maddy

As I am the great billy goat I am preparing to conquer this great big mountain and guess what, it laughed at me.  I think it will be a big challenge for me!

By Ben

Wet Park Scene by Damien H

I learned to set a scene based on the words "cold, wet, park bench." I learned what personification is and what a metaphor is.  A metaphor shows two things that are not the same but are similar in one important way and says it is something else.  eg. Ben is a monkey.  Personification is giving something that is not living a human trait.  eg. The stars winked at me.

Can you spot these in my setting paragraph?

"I shivered as the water torpedoes bombed the park making slippery wet puddles.  As I looked up at the black sky with white winking dot, I noticed the creak of the old swings that were desperate for oil.  The trees rustled as they were pummeled by explosive, clear droplets.  Their branches reached for the sky as they shivered in the wind."

By Damien H.

"Show, don't tell" by Paton

We wrote a scene setting focusing on 'show, don't tell'. I used the base words "Hot, dry, dusty."

We used adjectives, similes, personification, metaphors and hyperbole. We did this so when it came to writing our Mt Wellington story we knew what we were doing and then we could just get started right away.

I did not know those forms of figurative language and now I do thanks to my wonderful teachers and my determination!

"As I walked through the hot dessert the sun was beaming down on my back. The sand was dry and cracked and as a drop of my sweat landed on the sand it disappeared really quickly. I felt so dehydrated my throat felt like a piece of sand paper. Suddenly, sand started swirling around me. I fell to the ground, blinded by the sand. Tired and dehydrated, I lay down. As I looked up all I saw was the sun smiling at me. My eyes were heavy and as I closed my eyes all I saw was shimmering water."

By Paton

Skinny vs. Fat Sentences??

Which do you think is best?

Skinny sentences are simple, straight-forward and quite boring!  Fat ones have much more detail and description... I know what I'd rather read.

Take a look at 3/4G's Blog and have a go at turning their skinny sentence into a fat one by adding adjectives - good luck.

"The boy opened the door."

If you post on their blog, copy the sentence into the comments here too please so we can check out your learning.  Rather have a go at 'showing, not telling'?  Go for it!

Margaret Mahy wins top children's book award

Margaret Mahy has won NZ's premier literary award for her book, The Moon and Farmer McPhee.

Mahy wrote her first book at 7 and is now 75 and still publishing now.

Be sure to pop down to the library - she is a true New Zealand hero and if you're not familiar with her books you should be!

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10726519

Where are we on the ladder so far?

I've recently started following Twitter and am finding it to be a great way to learn about ideas in teaching and learning.  A tweet came up that led me to Silvia Tolisano's blog where she talks about blogging.

In particular I was drawn to this image:

Which rung of the ladder do you think our blog is sitting on right now?

1. Static website
2. Two way communication
3. Local learning community
4. Global communication centre 

Have a go at posting a comment and please be sure to say why you came to that decision.  (Notice how the arrows marry up to the rungs to give you more info - have a chat to someone at home if you need a hand.)

Also, where do you think we want to aim for ideally?  Why?

Check out Storybird - Digital Story Books

Tonight I came across Storybird whilst looking for exciting new web 2.0 tools to use with you all (this one's not especially new but new to me.)

There are two ways to make a book using this website - either you can make a book by yourself or team up with someone else and take turns at completing a page or two and then entrusting the next section to your buddy.  What a fun way to collaborate and knit two different view points into one!  You use the artwork on the site and can either sort by artist (check out Paul McDougall in the search function and then choose 'shop' - gorgeous work!) or by theme.

Once you're finished you can keep a digital copy... we can even make a hub or school library online for others to read!

Here's one made by someone else - I love the message that sometimes, even though people can't be with us, in a sense they are.

What do you think?  I'd love to see some of you have a go at home learning time!  You can sign up using your new school emails and decide to buddy up or not - if you make a book you're proud of, let's link it in comments.

Distance. on Storybird

Fotobabble and the six thinking hats help us to reflect

This is our groups Fotobabble (made by Jamie, Hossain, Edwin, Ruby and Dani.) It is about the Six Thinking Hats which we use to help us to write a better Learning Journal. To find out more about these hats, check out this link that we found. The Six Thinking Hats - these hats were created by Dr Edward de Bono.

How have you used the Six Thinking Hats?

By Jamie and Hossain

Blog Bus Stop: Week 3, Term 2

 

Hi LH3 (and visitors!)

Keep an eye on our blog for Blog Bus Stops - these are activities we'd like you all to have a go at (before school or home learning times would be ideal.)  Sometimes these will be designed to get you more familiar with certain websites and eLearning tools, other times to share your ideas and opinions and sometimes they'll just be good fun!  Visitors, of course you're welcome to take part too!

So here goes, enjoy your first Bus Stop activity...

(Can anyone work out why it's called a 'bus stop'??)

(Click on post a sticky and load your comments on)

Swimming Lessons for Year 5 and 6 learners

 Have a look out of photo record of the first set of swimming lessons.

Thanks!
Meg

Swimming! on PhotoPeach

KnowledgeNET Learning Journals vs. Blogging

I think that our blog is very helpful because you get other people from all around the world to view and comment on your learning and get other opinions to help you improve your learning.

Personally I think that our blog is a bit more useful because you get to put all kinds of work on the blog and you can get more comments so you can improve on your work, but I think that knowledge net is still very useful as well.

Knowledge net is where you can reflect and it is quite personal, but with blogs you can put up your best work and be proud and show your best work to the world. I am in the making meaning stage doing compare and contrast between knowledge net and our blog. I am really motivated by the blog because everyone can view your work and you feel very proud.

When do you think we'd use each, LH3?

School sports uniform presentation

In term 2 Hub 3 started doing P.E and we had to get changed, we did not have a school sports uniform, so we brought our own old clothes. Damien, Fatima and Dani one day thought that we should have a school sports uniform. So Miss Holland suggested that we do a P.M.I presentation and present it to the Friends of Stonefields School, the Board of Trustee's and Miss Martin (she's our principal) Then after that, Miss Martin asked us if we would like to be in the design process of the school sports uniform! We were definitely going to say yes!

We were so excited, we were so privileged that we could help make the school sports uniform happen and be the first learners to present at the FOSS (Friends of Stonefields School) meeting! That night at the meeting, we presented our Prezi and everyone agreed with us. We should have a sports uniform because of a lot of reasons but our favourite reason is that it will represent our school at races, will look much more smart and will be more comfortable because not all of us have enough good exercise clothing at home.

We got to look at some sample uniforms and are going to be involved in helping to design the uniform and decide which one we get.

We think we need shirts with sleeves for sun protection (and most of FOSS agreed with us) but some people think short sleeves look sportier. What do you think is the best option? and why do you think that?

We are looking forward to hearing from you.

See ya!

Fatima and Dani

PMI about sports uniform on Prezi

A Wet Day at Stonefields by Damien P.

Damien has been working on using similes in his writing and did a great job of including some descriptive word choices.

We went outside to get some new ideas and then Damien had a go at writing about a wet day here at school.

Check it out!

Damiens day outside in the rain from Sarah Holland on Vimeo.

"At outside of the school it was a yucky weather and everything is wet. A yucky weather is rainy day and it is a very cold day that it is just cold as a fridge. It is a windy day just like a tornado and it is very strong too but it is too strong that the umbrella will blow off and gone. All the rain made a puddle and then all the puddle went into the drain and all the drain water will go to the ocean. The entire raindrop is making dripping sounds and some sounds are loud and some is light. The rain clouds are blocking the blue sky and the white clouds. The wind is blowing the branches and it is just like a moving tree."

 By Damien P.

Obelix - Weird Science Goop!

On Friday, Learning Hub 3 had their very own assembly. We sang a song that Hub 3 created with a little bit of help from Miss Smerdon. We did lots of awesome stuff like teaching how to make music with graphic notation and being mad scientists. You know what, it was really funny because we chose people to be to be a body and then we chose other people to be the arms. The body people put their arms behind their backs while the people who were the arms slipped their hands through and pretended to be the same person. The arms did all sorts of wacky things like feeding the body sandwiches and shapes and answered science questions. We were really proud of our assembly because we did almost everything by ourselves.

In the second block, we went outside and made obelix with Miss Holland. Obelix is a type of goop, made with cornflour, water and just to make it more fun, some food colouring (see how to make it here, it's pretty easy... http://sciencesquad.questacon.edu.au/activities/cornflour_slime.html) We mixed it together in our groups of 4 to 6 (which is called collaborating!) and had lots of fun and got messy!

The goop felt weird. It felt hard when you started to roll it around but when you stopped moving it, it fell through your fingers like slime. Very creepy! When we went to pick it up the slime parted almost like runny plastic might and when we punched it the slime was quite hard and you didn't get much on your fingers. It was like punching a tree trunk but a bit gooier.

Afterwards we talked about how things can be in different states. They're either solid, liquid or gas. This goop was strange because it was liquid and solid at the same time! Now we're going to find out why it does what it does because we haven't seen anything like this before.

By Dani and Maddy

(You should try this at home!)

Goop from Sarah Holland on Vimeo.

Be sure to watch right through to the end to see our video recordings of the goop in action!

Sometimes things don't come easy...

Sometimes things are hard and don't come easy.  We need to dig deep and keep trying to really stretch ourselves in our learning.  Here's a couple of neat little Notebook Babies videos for your enjoyment - keep trying just like this little guy did!

What's that you say?  Believe in yourself! Your success depends on yourself :)

Delicious!

Stuck for something interesting to do at home? Don't forget to check out http://www.delicious.com/learninghub3 - I'm loading links up all the time... you're welcome to get a head start on our next area of focus: science (specifically ecosystems!)

As always, all links we use go up there... why not have a good look around (use the tags to help you)

Why do we write?

LH3 put our heads together and created this list of reasons why we write - we know the main reason is to communicate but look at how in-depth our thinking went!