Friday, 31 October 2014

HUNTERVILLE CROSS COUNTRY

Well done to all those who presented Halcombe School at the Interschool Cross Country in Hunterville today.
Miss Campbell was so proud of you all.Congratulations!
A huge thank you to all the parents who came to support and provided transport.

Take a look at some of the Room 4 runners



CLAYTON, AN EXPERT CAME TO HELP

On Thursday morning at 9am Clayton, a local milk expert who worked at Fonterra, came to help us learn! Once Clayton introduced himself and answered our questions we made butter.

To make butter we used one litre of fresh cream (red top) and a pinch of salt. We used a hand mixer and blended it until it turned into cream then finally butter. We saw the water from the milk separate and the texture change. We all tasted it and rolled it in our mouths to make it more of a butter texture. 

Here are some of the things we learnt written by Anna and Heather: 
·         Milk has a substance in it that is used to make plastic buttons.
·         300,000,000 litres of milk go through Fonterra every day.
·         All old milk bottles had a silver top.
·         Cow’s milk is most like humans milk.
·         Butter in NZ is yellow because we feed our cattle grass, other countries have white butter because they feed cattle grain.
·         There is mould on Camembert cheese.
·         It is fat that makes chocolate smooth
·         Fat helps brain development.
·         There are good and bad bacteria.
·         There is water in milk.

KEEP IT UP GREEN TEAM

The Green Team enjoyed scrambled eggs on toast for breakfast!

The Green Team is always working hard to keep look after our environment and take care of our chickens.

Keep it up guys! Thank you to the chickens and Room 1's garden (parsley) for our breakfast.



Thursday, 30 October 2014

PET DAY

On Wednesday it was Halcombe School's Pet Day.

Lots of students brought their pets to school. There were lots of prizes given out after serious judging!
Each student also created rural pet day art. Room 4 did rural creative photos and recyclable animals. We all were super creative!





Saturday, 25 October 2014

SCIENCE: EXPERIMENTING

We are learning to experiment with changing different variables.
Original
Materials:
Method:
-milk
-food colouring
-shallow dishes
-detergent
-eye-droppers or straws
1. Pour milk into a dish to a depth of about 1 centimetre.
2. Using an eye-dropper or straw, add a few drops of food colouring to the milk in different places.
3. Using a separate eye-dropper or straw, add a drop of detergent to the middle of the milk.

Today we followed the above experiment then made changes. We did the same experiment but with different types of milk. We all took turns and were all a part of the experiments. Each group created a recording chart on the computers to help them to make observational notes. We also timed how long each reaction lasted for.


We were puzzled by why different types of milk made different effects when mixed with dishwashing liquid and food colouring. We made comparisons and needed to answer these questions: 1. How did the results change? 2. What might the various results relate to?

Here are some of our thoughts so far:
Grace, Tommy, Aaliyah: The yellow top milk was very fast to react. The green top was the only one that had bubbles in it that went around the bowl and swirled around together. The amount of fat in full fat milk and cream caused the reaction to take time and the colours did not fully mix.

Emma, Azi, Fritha, Willow: The fat content in the different types of milk made changes in the speed of the chemical reaction. For example cream had 32grams of total fat per 100g in it which made it very slow with less of a reaction. The mix of the colours when experimenting with the fattest milk types were not as combined and in some the main colour stayed white.

Anna and Regan: The results changed by the fact that the higher the fat level, the slower everything moved. Also, the fatter the milk was, the longer it took to complete the full chemical reaction.

Zoe and Heather: The different milks all had their own reactions. Most of them started out very fast, then swirled and slowed down at the end. There was quite a range in time difference, from 1 minute and 5 seconds to 1minute and 45 seconds.




Blog post written by Danielle and Miss Campbell

Thursday, 23 October 2014

MILK ARTICLE

Our reading group has been reading an article called ‘Why We Drink Milk’ written by Suzanne Havala Hobbs to help us write our exposition about the importance of drinking milk.

We are really good readers but we had to work extremely hard to clarify some words and get a clear understanding of what some parts of the article meant.
Words we had to explore further:
·      Osteoporosis
·         Dietary
·         Perpetuated
·         Porous
·         Brittle
·         Nutritionists

 GROUP TASK: explain what one or more of these words means in your own words by COMMENTING BELOW
Here are the reasons for drinking milk which we found in this one article
Ø To prevent osteoporosis
Ø Doctors and professionals recommend milk to help say healthy
Ø Milk is a great source of Calcium
Ø Milk has the minerals and vitamins that you need

Blog post by Anna and Jessie.



Monday, 20 October 2014

HOW DO YOU LEARN & PRACTICE BASIC FACTS?

Here we have started brainstorming ways that we learn and practice basic facts at home:


Everyone help to add to our brainstorm by commenting below. We how we can share and try some new ways at home this week!

Blog post created by Azi, Seth and Alyssa

MATHS WORKSHOPS

As well as normal group teaching in maths, we have been signing up for workshops. We do this because we don’t quite understand something or  we’re nearly there but we need more help.
If our maintenance score is lower than 6\10  that means we need to attend a workshop. If we feel we might pick up some extra tips on that area we will come along too.
 
Room 4 Maths class, have you signed up for “Grouping with Remainders” and “How many?” for this week yet? Make your decisions and sign up now
!

Blog posted by Kai, Emma and Fritha

Wednesday, 15 October 2014

Reflection on Reciprocal Reading Leading

Our group has been learning to do Reciprocal Reading
Reflection from today’s leader: Cameron                                                                                                                                                                              
Being a leader requires skill, big voice, experience and delegation. Today I struggled with saying the right words and getting used to guiding the group. Our group only read half the article today but we expanded and unpicked the text. I look forward to being the leader of Reciprocal Reading again.

Blog post by Cameron and Azriella

Tuesday, 14 October 2014

MATHS PROBLEM

On a tramping trip everyone got into twos. One person was left over. Then everyone got into threes. One person was left over again. When they got into groups of four, fives and sixes there was still always one person left over. How many went on the tramping trip?

Monday, 13 October 2014

Cross Country Training

Cross Country training has begun!
Today we got out on the gravel road and did our best for our first training afternoon. There was panting, puffing, sweat but thank goodness no tears. Well done everyone for your first try. Now that we have got a good feel for running again, it is time to set some goals and steps to achieve them.
Here are some prompts to start you thinking:
- At what point do I want to stop and walk? Is there any reason why?
- Do I run with anyone? Does that person help or hinder my running success?
- Do I want to get a certain place on race day?
- What does 'mental toughness' mean in connection to running?
- What does it mean by 'a consistent, steady pace'? 
- What do I think of when running? What can I think of when running to help me?


Here are a few of our goals:
·         Holly’s goal is to come in the first three and keep a steady pace.
·         Willow’s goal is to keep occupied so that she doesn't stop by keeping to a beat with her steps.
·        Cameron’s goal is to keep a steady, consistent pace the whole time.
·        Ash’s goal is to never stop at the hill.


Material World:
We are learning about 





Milk is a mixture of substances.
We can change milk into other products. Changes can be physical or chemical.

PET DAY CREATIONS

These activities are for ALL Room 4 children to present on Pet Day (29th of October).

Prior to Pet Day, children are to create an animal using recycled materials and take a photo of a rural scene. There will be two class sessions where the children can create their animal once they have collected materials that they need. Please note that the animal maybe created at home.

Task 1:
You must design / build / create / construct an animal using only recycled materials
Possible materials include:
· cardboard tubes, milk bottle tops, plastic, cans, tins, old gardening tools etc. 



Task 2:
Take a creative photograph of a rural scene
· The photograph needs to be able to be sent to room4@halcombe.school.nz
· Alternatively, children can use the class camera at school
· The photo needs to be received by Miss Campbell by Friday 24th October for printing and backing



Any questions … ASK. Have fun creating for Pet Day.
Good luck!

Thursday, 9 October 2014

CROSS-COUNTRY REMINDER

Make sure you remember to pack your running clothes and shoes. We will be starting our training programme from Monday.
Miss Campbell can't wait!!