Thursday, 7 April 2016

We are learning about structure. We were were challenged to build towers and make paper people and flowers stand up.


To complete our challenge we needed to work as a team.  First we had to think of ideas, share them and then make a team plan.









First we thought about the Auckland Sky Tower.  Why and how does it stand so Tall?




We worked hard as a team to make our paper person stand up.


WE had to build a stick tower on a pillow.  We worked out that buildings need a flat hard surface to build on.


We worked very hard to build a play dough tower.  First it was too heavy and sold,  sometimes it was too skinny and it would bend and break.  We tried to make it hollow but by now the play dough was warm and floppy.  We worked really well as a team.  WE did Not give up.


Building a tall Lego tower is not as easy as it sounds.  It kept falling down but we kept trying.  We built a second tower part way up to support it.  Finally it worked.

Our challenge was to make a paper flower stand up.  We were only allowed to use paper and one other thing.  We chose cello tape.  Nathan remembered that plants and trees have roots to hold them in the ground.  We also remembered that stalks or stems hold the flowers up so we made a paper stem and stuffed it with paper.to make it stronger.  Then we used cello tape as roots to help it stand up.

We were the first team to finish.  Our tower crashed to the ground several times before we discovered that we needed strong foundations if we were going to succeed at building a strong tall tower.



We had match type stick and play dough.  It was very challenging but we worked well as a team to solve problems.

Thursday, 31 March 2016

Poem - Walking the Dog

1 April 2016

Today we shared a poem called Walking the Dog.

We learnt lots of things about the poem by reading between the lines and looking for more information.
We put a copy of the poem in our poem folder.

Please ask me these questions so I can show you what I learnt today.
Give reasons for your answers!

1,  Where did they go for a walk?  How do you know this?
2.  What kind of park was it?  How do you know this?
3.  Why did the dog run a figure of eight?
4.  How many times did the dog go for a swim?  Show the grown up that you are sharing the poem      with how you worked out the number of swims the dog had.
5.  How many times did the dog shake?  How do you know this?
6.  What does saunter mean and what is the word in the poem that gives you a clue?
7.  How may different sticks did the dog fetch?  Give two reasons for your answer.
8.  Who should be tired after the walk?  Explain why.
9.  Did the lady walk far?  Give a reason for your answer.
10.  What is the W word?
11.  Why do you think the lady did not say the W word?
12.  Who do you think wrote this poem?  Share your reasons for your answer.