JUMP ROPE FOR HEART

On Thursday we had our school jump off for JUMP ROPE FOR HEART. This term Year 2 and Year 7 have been studying health and fitness and decided to take part in Jump Rope For Heart. The whole school thought it would be great fun and a fantastic way of getting fit as well. All this term each of the classes have been busy practising their rope jumping skills and learning new tricks in preparation for the "JUMP OFF".

Some classes devised a whole class routine to a song but we decided to do our own individual or group routines to one song. We had some very talented skippers. We even had some of the teachers do a routine.

We were very proud of our efforts and the money we raised ($6000) will go towards heart research.

HOW DOES FLOODING AFFECT THE GROWTH OF PLANTS?

We have been investigating how different conditions can affect the growth and survival of plants. We really want to know how EXTREME weather conditions can affect the growth of plants. We will be asking our parents and neighbours how the drought in South East Queensland has affected plants in our gardens at home and at school.

We would like to know how the growth of plants is affected in a flood.
We thought that maybe Mr H's Year 5 class in Emerald could help us with this!

We have some questions that we think they might be able to answer. They could leave comments with their answers.

• What was the flood level?
• How long did it take for the water to go down?
• How long did it take to clean up the mess?
• Did any trees fall over because of the flooding? How many?
• Did any plants survive the floods, if so which ones/what kind? How many?
• Were there many plants left in the school grounds after the floods?
• Have some plants grown back?
• Did any older plants survive?
• Did any young plants survive?
• What did you notice about your gardens/school grounds?

Our 3D shapes

In Maths we made some 3D shapes. 3D stands for 3 dimensional. we made a cylinder, a cone, a triangular based prism, a rectangular based prism, a triangular based pyramid and a rectangular based pyramid. A pyramid has an apex which makes it that shape. A prism does not have an apex because they don't all connect in one place. The only shapes we made that can roll are a cone and a cylinder. The only way a shape can be a prism is if it has to bases that are parallel.

Our Vincent Van Gogh Pictures

This term we have been learning about the expressionist artist Vincent Van Gogh. We looked at some examples of his art work such as "Starry Night" and "Sunflowers". We discussed his style of painting and the techniques he used to create the illusion of movement. We used his ideas of wavy and curvy lines in his work to create our own pictures in the style of Vincent Van Gogh.

I thought it would be effective if we put our pictures into a slideshow using One True Media and use a song that was written by Don Mclean about Vincent Van Gogh called "Starry Night".

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Parts of a plant

I found these two pictures that label the parts of a flower and the parts of a plant. There have been some technical words used in the labelling of the plant that we haven't included in our diagram. There is also a technical word that we didn't include on our flower diagram. Can you find which words I am talking about?

Flowering plants

flowering plants

Year 4 and 5 have a look at what I found. It is called a "myplick". It is a slideshow that you can add music to and then post it to your blog. This is one I found about the parts of a flower. This could be another way to present information - maybe even the life cycle of your bean plant!!

HOW DO BEAN SEEDS GROW?

In class we have started our investigation into "How does extreme weather affect the growth of plants?" We decided that before we could answer this question we had to learn a bit about plants, how they grow and what they need to grow. We have started growing our own bean seeds and we will be taking photos of each stage of their growth so we can see the life cycle of a plant.
I have found a video from you tube that speeds up the growth of a bean seed. Olivia thought it would be good if we could actually watch it grow in "real time" but that would be to hard to observe so this video can show us what it's growth is like.

Our Plaster Bricks

In class we are making plaster bricks.We are in groups of 3 and 4 and we are learning to make plaster bricks stronger.We have dropped our 1st bricks and we have made a 2nd brick and we are going to drop them as well and we have brought in other materials to make them stronger.The things that groups brought in were Sand,Small metal rods,Staples,Food colouring,Fluff,Sticky tape,Honey and Glue.We are going to drop them this week to see how long they will last.The winning group was Sophie,Nick and Tahlia's and their brick didn't break at 2 metres.
By Emily and Sophie.

Direct Democracy and Absolute Monarchy

Last Term in Inquiry we were learning about Absolute Monarchy and Direct Democracy. Absolute Monarchy is when there is a ruler that rules the land and tells everyone what to do and he is allowed to make all the laws. Direct Democracy is when there are lots of groups but the only ones who are allowed to make laws. They are called the Citizens.

THE ASSUMPTION

Today we celebrated The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. As a whole school we went to church and took part in a mass to celebrate when Mary was taken to heaven body and soul. This is a very special day within the Catholic Church and it is one that the Church considers a "Holy Day of obligation" This means that as catholics, on this day we should go to mass. The Catholic Church used to have many "Holy Days of Obligation" but over the years this has changed and now there are only two. The other day is Ash Wednesday.