Box Hill North – 1/2C & 1/2J

Literacy

This week Red group in 1/2C FINALLY did their presentations! They talked all about animals and the different types of animals there are! There are warm-blooded, cold-blooded and vertebrate and invertebrate animals. There was also a slide show full of amazing animal facts! Animals are sweet!

1/2J have enjoyed practising their plays (see invitation on last weeks Blog)! There are 3 different plays that we have been practising, including a magnificent adaptation of Pippi Longstocking! We can’t wait to act them out for us.

We started our Christmas Activity Books this week! We have been working on them during literacy and they are full of Christmas related activities. Word searches, colouring, songs, code breaking problems and lots more! The whole of 1/2 C and J LOOOOOOVE doing them!

Maths

We’ve learned all about some interesting things you can do with shapes like tangrams and tessellations! We flipped, slid and turned some crazy shapes and traced around them which got got pretty tricky because we had to move the shapes around without breaking them up. We also cut out our own little tangram set in 1/2C which will provide thousands of hours of fun and excitement over the holidays!

Tessellations are shapes that can fit together to make patterns, without any gaps in between. Most of the shapes we found have straight edges that fit together eg. triangles, hexagons and squares. Some shapes that do NOT tessellate are: circles, semi-circles and other stuff with curved edges. It is very tricky to make a curved shape tessellate, but it can be done if you ave gaps between the curves.

2008 – the year that was…

We thought we’d write about the greatest year ever, 2008! Here are some of the things that we found sooo much fun!

ZOWIE DAY! Zowie day was awesome because we ate lots of yummy treats and got to wear crazy clothes!

Scienceworks It was really fun especially if you liked science like Noah and Neen!

Box Hill Excursion We loved getting presents from Cento like the Money box and Watch. The tour was awesome as well, especially the market (except when we went past the fish monger and the butchers – PHEW!).

Making fun stuff! Candy cane reindeer, Christmas stars. Popcorn. 1/2J made some bon-bons, ANZAC biscuits, Pancakes… the list goes on…

Big Bang Party Night We almost blew up the school! (relax… not really)

Putting up the Christmas tree We made a big mess of the classroom and had to clean up lots of tinsle. Apologies to Andrew our cleaner.

Earn and Learn We’re nearly finished Earn and Learn and 1/2 C really benefitted because we almost bought ALL of our remaining Zowie points! We can’t wait to do it again next year in grade 3!!

Author Studies 1/2C looked at lots of Roald Dahl books, including Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The Twits, Fantastic Mr Fox, George’s Marvellous Medicine and Dirty Beasts. Both 1/2C and J also looked at a lot of Dr. Seuss books! 1/2J really loved reading Pippi Longstocking and the Magic Faraway Tree!

Harmony Day Orange is AWESOME!

Magic Maths Incursion The dice kits were funky!

Whole School Sports Day Chris whooped Mr P in the teachers race.

Healthraiser A completly original creation made up entirely of the 1/2′s own superior brain power  (with inspiration from the 5/6s)

Fun Run We run because it’s fun!

Footy Fun Day FUN!

Swimming So many of us learnt so much in such a short space of time. So much sensible, practical fun! Then someone went and ruined it all by pushing Chris in the deep end. Thanks for that Sarah!

Thank you to all of you who cared about the BLOG! We really appreciate your comments and your thoughts! We hope you have enjoyed reading it as much as we did writing it! Yay!

By 1/2C and 1/2J (the greatest team of all time) – it won’t be the same without you next year, Chris!

Edited by Maddy Coenen and Gemma Schade

P.S. Thanks to Chris for writing such a great BLOG, especially when I’m sick at home – Neen

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE! Have a safe and happy holiday.

SEE YOU BACK AT SCHOOL ON FEBRUARY 2nd, 2009!!!

Dear Parents, Caregivers and Grandparents,

Next Thursday 18th December 1/2J will perform their Literacy Plays for you, commencing in our classroom just after 2:30.

The three plays include;

• Little Red Riding Hood
• The Seven Foolish Fishermen
• Pippi Goes To The Circus.

We hope some of you are able to attend.

A special thank you to you all for assisting in finding costumes and props.

From the students of 1/2J and Janine 

What a week it’s been in 1/2! And we’re back blogging for another week!

Writing

This week we continued with our normal writing workshops, publishing and making our writing folders nice and fat!! We also did something a bit different. We wrote letters to the preps about what 1/2 is like. The letters talked all about what’s different in grade 1/2. Things like, Earn and Learn, Chair Bags, different sports, excursions and how we eat our lunch at LUNCH TIME! The preps are going to LOVE the transition!

Maths

This week we had a new topic called CAPACITY! Capacity is how much stuff you can fit into a container (it’s got to be the same units, like how many teddies, how much sand, or how much popcorn!) Oh yes, we also did an interesting maths lesson that included mathematical concepts, science theories and explanations and Neen even managed to include music! What an intergrated curriculum we run!

WE MADE POPCORN! It was maths because we had to measure in measuring cups, tablespoons of oil, and making cones out of a single piece of paper that would have the largest capacity for our yummy popcorn! It was science because we talked about why the corn kernals pop into popcorn. When the kernal gets heated up, the insides expand and eventually force their way out. When you hear the pop, it means it’s an explosion where the kernals get blown inside out! Neen managed to make it music because she set up the music on her laptop and played popcorn music!!!

Inquiry

 We’re almost finished our ‘Why Is It So?’ inquiry unit. We all got to draw some new pictures of scientists and compare them to the drawings we did at the start of the term. There were lots of different scientists, because we know that there are HEAPS of different types of scientists, not just mad scientists (Neeeeen)…

We have also explored all the differnet types of scientists, what they do, what they use and how they use their skills to help us live better lives! What a wholesome unit!

Reminders

We have 2 weeks to go! Over the next few weeks we will be having Zowie days and class parties. Stay tuned for more notices on that!

Christmas is coming…

We had Report Writing day on Friday, so that’s why there’s no blog for this week.

Maybe you could look at the stars and the moon, do a science experiment, cook something for lunch, collect some rocks, plant a tree or some vegies, ride somewhere and look at wildlife, fly a kite or make a paper plane. All great science activities.

Remember… science is all around us, you just need to look for it!

Fun Run! 

The weather was cloudy and the skies were dark for the BHNPS Fun Run (poor Mr P – every time he organises a sports day it rains!!). The 1/2s ran a distance of 1km. Well done everyone who competed and tried their best. We all got ribbons for participating.

Results were :

1/2C – 1st Noah, 2nd Hyu, 3rd Ben, 4th Nathan

1/2J – 1st Zac, 2nd Jake, 3rd Connor S, 4th Finbar

Literacy

In 1/2J we have been reading Pippy Longstocking. Anna says, “Pippy REALLY should be more sensible,” but we all LOVE that she’s such a funny character. This week we created an open-minded portrait.  First we drew a head/shoulder picture of one of the characters. Then on the inside we wrote what the character was thinking about a particular part in the story. We did a really good job!

We are all busy publishing our best writing for our Writer’s Gifts. Thanks to our mentors and parent helpers for assisting with this.

Inquiry

This week we were Geologists and looked at rocks. We found out about sedimentry, metamorphic and igneous rocks. Finbar, Zac and Conor brought in some of the rocks they collect. Some were quite beautiful. Hyu brought in crystals and an amythest. We also found a really cool website called “Rock Hounds” which had information and photos of different types of rock.

We are all in the middle of an “eggsperiment” called “Shell we give it a go”. We made predictions and drew a diagram. Now we are observing (watching) for changes.

This morning two of our scienterrific mums came in to speak to us about the science they use in their jobs. Jo is a medical researcher who works in IMMUNOLOGY. She told us that she uses mice in her research because they have a similar immune system to humans. Karen is a Radio Therapist who works in a hospital treating patients for cancer. She showed use how to measure up a patient so they can have radio therapy. Ben was our pretend patient and he had blue lines all over his face.

Reminders

Next Thursday afternoon is our BIG BANG (science) PARTY NIGHT!!!!! It starts at 4:30 and goes until late! Sooo make sure its an early night on Wedneday night. Please return permission notes and money ASAP.

This Blog was written by : Noah, Anna, Adam, Josh (and Janine)

Inquiry

This week learnt about the Moon. The Moon has lots of craters because pieces of rock smash into it. The moon is made out of grey rock (not cheese) and it does not shine by itself. It reflects light from the Sun. It takes the Moon about 1 month to orbit the Earth and when it does this it also changes its shape. Some of of the shapes are; new moon, waxing crescent, first quarter, waxing gibbous, full moon, waning gibbous, last quarter, waning crescent.

We had our first Science Sleuth presentations this week. They were AWESOME! Helen and Anna made Gloop – it was soooo messy and we LOVED it! Darcey rubbed a balloon and made her hair stick up. Connor S showed us all kinds of optical illustions which made us dizzy! Megan showed us a chemistry experiment from Scienceworks. Conor M demonstrated and explained all about the weather station his family uses. Ben brought in his microscope and showed us how it works. We are REALLY looking forward to our next presentations.

Here are a few photos from last weeks Scienceworks excursion…

Maths

We’ve been learning more about fractions, but this week we found half of a group eg. half of 20 is 10. Some of us even found thirds and quarters. We also enjoyed drawing shapes outside on the basketball court and shading the fractions.

We are starting to earn lots of money with Earn and Learn and have been practising how to trade in our coins for notes.

Word Study

This week we read “The Ning, Nang, Nong” because we are focusing on the different sound at the end of words – ang, ing, ong and ung. In 1/2J we drew things from the poem and gave them speech bubbles with the words. The illustrations were quite funny!

Reminders

Please remember that Tuesday is the Cup Day holiday.

Please remember to send back money and notes for out BIG BANG Science Party Night on November 20th.

On Tuesday 11th of November Zac, Emma F and Evie will make their Science presentations to the class.

Today’s BLOG was written by Zac, Hyu and Jack.

…and what a week it has been in 1/2 J & C!

Inquiry

We like the MOON!

We have been coming up with different questions about the moon, which we hope to answer over the next couple of weeks. Questions like: Can the moon be destroyed? (Connor) What would happen without the moon? (Sarah) Is it true that some planets have more than one moon? (Joel).

We have also been looking forward to the excursion, where we are hoping that many of our questions will be answered! More on the excursion is coming up…

Maths

‘Fractions’ has been our new topic, and we have been learning how to make fractions using our new toys in Janine’s room. Virtual pizza’s and chocolate bars have been vital in our learning and have shown us that fractions can be part of real life. We know how to use 1/2 (half) 1/4 (quarters) 1/8 (eighths) and 1/16 (sixteenths) for those of us who like a challenge. Number crunchers looked at simplifying fractions as well. Who needs to wait for year 7, ey?

Writing

Writing this week took a different turn as we began the week by reading a book called, ‘Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No good, Very Bad Day ’. We got to write about a really good or really bad day. Some of us got a bit morbid, but it was all in the name of good story-telling!

Our writers’ gifts are starting to get fat as well! Publishing is a lot of hard work, but we know you’ll appreciate all of our hard work at the end of the year!

Excursion

WE WENT TO SCIENCEWORKS! What a tiring day it was!

Some of our favourite parts were the Nitty Gritty Super City, which had lots of fun things like a play kitchen, Lego town, wall building area and, Sarah’s favourite, the big boat that we had to load lots of stuff on to.

The Planetarium was Joel and Connor’s favourite place because the ceiling was sooooo massive and we learnt how to find different planets in the sky. (I liked the Planetarium too! – Janine)

Emma (and Chris) liked Sportsworks. In Sportsworks you got to race against Cathy Freeman, judge a gymnastics routine, snowboard, rock climb and test your strength! There were so many different and interesting things to do at Scienceworks. We could have stayed there forever, but the bus driver was pretty keen on leaving at 2pm sharp! We can’t wait to go back soon!

Blog by Emma F, Joel, Connor S and Sarah.

Welcome to our Term 4 blog!

We didn’t write last week because the Edublogs server wasn’t working.

Inquiry

This term we’ve been talking about Science. Our Inquiry is called “Why Is It So?” This week we looked at different pieces of science equipment, like microscopes, safety goggles, test tubes and test tube holder, syringes and eye droppers, petrie dishes, funnels and pipettes.

Then yesterday two of our “scien-terrific” dads (Ian and Steve) came in to talk about the science they use in their jobs. Ian even brought in a volcano that erupted all across the floor. It was very exciting though! Steve showed us how to make paper using wood chips and we looked at printed pictures on special paper through a special, mini microscope.

Thank you to Steve and Ian.

Maths

We have been using money over the past two weeks. Last week we used coins to make amounts up to $1 and $2 and practised adding coins too. This week we focused on giving change from $1 and $2. Some of us completed activities about budgeting, adding totals and calculating change.

We also started “Earn and Learn”. We can earn money for good listening, outstanding work, asking great questions and being helpful. We can also lose money for being unsafe, wasting time, being silly and not having our school hat. On Fridays we all get “pocket money”.

Word Study

We have been focusing on the /ck/ sound at the end of words. Many words have ‘ck’ to make the sound (pack, snack) but some words have just a ‘c’ (like magic, plastic and fantastic) and others end in ‘k’ (pink, think).

Janine taught us this rhyme to help us work out if its ‘ck’ or ‘k’;

 ”If there’s a long a then you only use k” This could help us remember when we get confused with words like snake/snack and make/mack.

“Our new toys”

Today we are writing our blog on “Wal-E” and “Eva”. They are our data projector and our Interactive tablet. We LOVE them!! We have all had a turn using the interactive pen and drawing lines and shapes. We think it will be an AWESOME tool to use in the classroom and are VERY excited to have one in our room. (1/2 C is suddenly quite jealous. Here’s hoping Neen is a good sharer). (Don’t worry guys, I am – N).

Reminders

Please remember our excursion to Scienceworks on Thursday the 23rd. Students need to bring their lunch and morning snack in disposable packaging.

COMING SOON – Stay tuned to more information on our 1/2 Party Night called “THE BIG BANG”.

This blog was written by Lewis, Kai, Jake and James (and Janine)

Literacy

In 1/2 C we have been lucky enough to have a super star wordsearch-maker called Nathan, make us a brilliant Healthy Wordsearch for us! It was really tricky and we had a lot of fun doing it! Thanks Nathan! We also began making posters for our stall in the Healthraiser, using persuasive language to grab peoples attention so they buy all our healthy snacks. We have also started making our portfolios. They are heaps of fun to make and decorate!

1/2 J also did some posters for their stall, like Megan who is going to sell ‘Megan’s Magical Muffins’!! Anna is making ‘Anna Bananna’s Banana Bread’. Other people are making Fruit Sticks, smoothies, slices and juices, creating some very attractive posters for their stalls!

Writing

We started our writers gift books, printing off some published work we have worked on over the term. It is very exciting because the grade 1′s haven’t done them before! There is bound to be some sensational work being produced over the next week and all through term 4!

Maths

The 1/2′s have been learning about area. Area is the space a shape takes up. We have to measure area using a ‘uniform’ unit, like Unifix or tiles to get an accurate measurement. Some of the activities were great, like making a ‘snug’ newspaper blanket for a soft toy and measuring the area. Very cute!

Inquiry

We are looking forward to our Healthraiser which is on the 19th of September (next Friday, last day of school). We have been making advertisments and planning all the things we need to do for the special occasion. There are going to be lots of yummy and healthy foods that we will sell, for very reasonable prices! We also decided that the money will be going to a charity. Congratulations to our actors who gave a short presentation at assembly today, making the school aware of the Healthraiser! Fruit Salad, YUMMY YUMMY!!!

Sidenote

This term 1/2C had grand plans of a fishing excursion this term (fishing is a great way to learn the value of hard work, patience, self sustainablility and healthy nutritions food). However, we seem to have run out of time this term. Perhaps in mid October we could find an excuse to get into the Snapper frenzy, to be continued…

Reminders

Tuesday -> 5/6′s shopping centre (no money required).

Wednesday -> Teachers dress up as students and students will be dressing as teachers. Gold coin donation!

Thursday -> Footy Fun Day! Order food just like at the footy, but have your order in by Monday.

Friday -> OUR HEALTH RAISER! Also, end of term! YAY! Don’t forget to bring our food!

Also, all of next week we will be presenting our homework tasks! Thankyou!

Blog by, Megan, Gemma, Sam and Tyson.

We apologise that there wasn’t a Blog last week because all the 1/2s were celebrating Zowie Day!

Writing

Because its Fathers’ Day on Sunday this week we all made special cards for our dads. They looked like business shirts, suits and even overalls! We wrote sweet messages and poems for the “men in our lives.” Last night we had Fathers’ Day BBQ, then most of us gave our cards to our dads.

Literacy

In 1/2J the Blue Bandicoots presented their passion projects. We learnt lots about netball, dinosaurs, dogs and marsuipals. This week we also read lots of books written by Margaret Wild. We really enjoyed “Chatterbox”.

In 1/2C we read some Dr Seuss books as a special activity for Literacy and Numeracy Week. Some of us have started a new mini project too. It’s about animals.

Maths

For the last 2 weeks we have been learning about SHARING (simplified division). We have practiced sharing counters, teddies, bugs and numbers into groups and sharing one by one. We’ve used arrays, counting charts and done lost of INVESTINGTING about how to share one number in lots of different ways. A few of us even worked to find all the FACTORS of numbers like 24 and 36. The most important thing to remember when sharing, is that each share needs to be FAIR.

GAMES DAY!!

Today was Games Day for Literacy / Numeracy Week. The whole school worked in multi-aged groups (with our buddies) and went to different teachers classrooms. We got to do 5 different activities across the whole day. By the time we had finished, we were EXHAUSTED, but we did have lots of fun.

Erin thought “It was exciting to play games in the 5/6 rooms.”

ETM thought “When I went to the 3/4 room I liked meeting new people.”

Adam thought “I liked it when my buddies and I had to solve tricky maths problems with matchsticks.”

Harry thought “It was fun to play Yahtzee.”

Maddy thought “I liked working with lts of different kids.”

The 1/2 “Health Raiser” (FRIDAY 19TH SEPTEMBER)

On the last day of term 3 the 1/2s are holding a “Health Raiser”. Everyone in 1/2 is cooking a healthy snack that you might like to buy! We will sell our healthy snacks in the gym. We hope you will enjoy the food. We might decide to use the money we raise to support a health charity or try to buy posters, DVDs or library books for the school about “What we need to be healthy”. By Conor and Mikala

Today’s BLOG was written and edited by Maddy, Adam, ETM, Erin and Harry.