Planets of the Solar System

On Friday we explored the features of the different planets of the Solar System. We noticed that some have craters and land features. Other planets are gas giants that have amazing swirling clouds and some even have dark spots.



The students observed the different features and then created their own plants to add to our class Solar System.



We used watercolours for the plants and then while our planets dried we used white paint for the stars.



Some stars were bigger than others because they are further away!



Pop into Tautoru to check out more of our creations.

We're exploring at Space Place!

On Monday we went to Space Place and it was quite simply out of this world!

There were loads of hands on activities.

     

Troy from Space Places taught us lots about The Sun, Earth and Moon. Did you know that The Sun is a star? And its not even a ‘large’ one, troy said its only a ‘medium’ star compared to others out there.

There was even an awesome theatre called the planetarium, where they could project the night sky onto and zoom in on planets, moons and even star constellations! They also showed us a short movie that was both educational and hilarious. A great combo.

      

Check out more of the cool photos from our big day!!   

Our Inquiry- The Earth, Our Home

We have begun our new inquiry: The earth, our home. This inquiry will take us to space as we explore our place in the solar system and learn about the changes that we observe between the sun, earth and moon. We will be focusing on growing our scientific skills of questioning, observing and recording like scientists using tools such as role play, diagrams and models.  Our character strengths of perseverance, teamwork, creativity and of course, curiosity, will help us on our journey.

Our Learner Attribute for this term is I am a goal setter. This attribute is about growing the capacity to clarify what I know, what I don't know YET,  think of steps to help me learn (such as asking questions, observing, creating and sharing ideas), and then share my new understanding when I've learned it.

So off we go in our new inquiry journey!

I Am Curious

First, we gathered our questions in the 'I Am Curious' stage. We are wondering about things like:

Why is the moon out during the day and why do you only sometimes see part of the moon?
Where does the sun go at night?
What is a star?
Why do we only see the Milky Way in certain places?
What are the seasons?
How do the seasons change? What causes these changes?

First Ideas

We then collected our first ideas: Where does the sun go at night? This will give us a starting point to see how much our understanding grows over time and how our thinking changes from what we thought at the beginning. Here are some of our first ideas that will grow over time as we learn:

I Am Exploring

Next, we will launch into our 'I Am Exploring' phase where we will experience information in different ways to grow our understanding and answer our questions, beginning with our visit to Space Place. I wonder what discoveries we'll make and what new questions we will have?

Blast Off Into Space!

If you had to travel our solar system, what would you take?

On Friday we used our character strength of creativity to design a rocket to take us to visit our solar system. We shared ideas and came up with a plan. We drew the outside then designed the inside with lots of detail to show all the things we would need to pack (plenty of our favourite toys of course!).

Our rockets are displayed in Tautoru so come in and have a look at what we have packed to travel to space.

Waking Up Our Brain

Starting the morning with a fun physical activity sets us up for our learning and helps to get our blood moving and brains turned on.

We started a morning this week with 'Go Noodle'. It is a high energy aerobic exercise. The students really get into the guitar riffs and turntable scratches. 

Teamwork

We have spent some of the time in the afternoons this week discussing and developing our ideas around teamwork. Each base group completed an activity that required teamwork, communication and, at times, a lot of resilience and perseverance!



This group are trying to cross a river of doom as a group careful to not lose anyone along the way.



Groups also worked on moving a hoop around a circle while holding hands. There were a lot of discussion and patience required with this one.