Taylah's Birthday Disappeared!

We celebrated Taylah's birthday at school today because her birthday has disappeared! We were really worried because it was there last year. We had a cake and sang happy birthday but this year it has disappeared right off the calendar! Taylah was born on the 29th of February 2000. It was a leap year. The 29th of February is only on the calendar every four years. If she only celebrated her birthday on the 29th every year it would mean that she is only 2 and won't turn 3 until 2012!
We celebrate Taylah's birthday every year in the last week of February. She can pick which ever day she wants. Now that's special.
Happy 9th Birthday Taylah!

Sprouting, Sticking and Reading!

On Tuesday afternoon one of our science groups planted some mustard seeds on cotton wool in some plastic drinking cups. Chrissie found a bright , warm window sill for them to sit on in the blue room. No one was allowed to touch the seeds but everyone was allowed to look at them. Today at lunch time we noticed that our mustard seeds are beginning to sprout. Can you see what looks small white tails sticking out of some of the seeds? We can't wait to see what happens next

In Sue's art class today we started work on a pasta and match stick collage. We stuck the pasta and match sticks on any way we liked with PVA glue. When we go into town tomorrow Sue is going to buy some gold spray paint. We are going to spray our collages with the paint and let them dry and then we are going to hang them in a group together on the wall. When they are finished we will take some photo's and post them in the Virtual Gallery. Sue has lots of pieces of our art work that she wants to exhibit there over the weekend too.

On Thursday mornings we go to the primary school across the road and borrow books from the library. We saw Deb there. Deb used to work at our school last year and she was really happy to see us. Kimmy works in the library and she helps us to find books.

Last week we borrowed narratives from the downstairs area. This week we borrowed information texts from the upstairs shelves. We like information books the best. The library has thousands of them! We are learning how to choose books that are easy enough for us to read by ourselves but we still like to borrow books to read with an adult too. We love sharing our books with a friend at partner reading time.

What kinds of books do you like to read?

Science Groups- Gardening

Hi Everyone,

Last week the gardening group planted some sunflower seeds. This week we saw the first shoots pop up from under the ground. It is not the right time to plant sunflowers but it will be interesting to see how well they grow. Today we planted some more. We will compare the two groups of plantings over the next few weeks.

This week's gardening group also planted some mustard seeds in cups of damp cotton wool. They put them in a warm sunny place on the window sill. We will look the sprouts every day and hopefully watch them grow!

Assembly Awards

Tim and Jeremy both received reading awards at our Monday morning whole school assembly. They are both using initial and last letter sounds to help them figure out tricky words. Well done boys!

Science Groups

Hi everybody,

We have science groups on Tuesday afternoons. We have 3 different activities to do. This week some kids learnt about magnets. They watched a 'Curious George' video and then used the information to find lots of hidden magnets in the classroom, like the one in the fridge door! They tested for magnets using paper clips. They also had a great time playing around with washers and magnet wands.

Another group did some more experiments about floating and sinking. It was to see that the shape of an object helped it to float, not just how heavy it was or what it was made of. A lump of plasticine sinks but if you shape into into a boat it floats. Cody and Sam are pumping the water from our water experiments into our garden bed, using a hand pump that Gail's class made!

The last group went into the garden to plant some seeds. We are going to take care of them and watch them grow. We found a good place to plant them that had just the right amount of shade. What kind of seeds did we plant? We will tell you next week!

100 is a Big Number!

100 is a really big number! We have been using fingers, toes, paper clips, cotton buds, buttons and all sorts of things to make collections up to 100! The Junior Crew classroom is a buzz with the sounds of counting.

Assembly Award Winners

Taylah, Luke, Lauren and Sam got awards at our whole school assembly this morning. Chrissie is holding up a beautiful painting, that Sam made last week, out of nappy wipes painted with food dye.

Check Out Our Maths Blog!

Hi Everyone,

This Shark Numbers to 60 game is great fun. You will find it in our maths blog if you click on the picture. We love playing games like this on our Smart Board. This a game that we can all play together because it has different levels !

Little People with Big Hearts

Hi Everyone,

Today our school raised $800 for the bush fire relief appeal. We were allowed to come to school in casual dress if we made a gold coin donation. Our gold coins are worth $1 and $2. Everyone in our class brought money from their piggy banks to give to people who don't have anywhere to live because their homes burned down in the bush fires. People all over Australia are donating money to the bush fire appeal this week. Sue forgot to take some photo's of us in our casual clothes but she is going to put some other photo's on the blog when she gets home. Have a great weekend!

Junior Crew Explores Earth

Hi Everyone,

Our theme for this term is ' Earth, Wind , Fire and Water'. Today we started the' earth' part of the theme. We discussed, drew and wrote about all the things that you can find in and under the ground. We had lots of really good ideas. We know there are many different living and non living things to be found under ground !

Say G'day

Michelle and Melissa came to visit our room today. They brought puppets! We used the puppets to practise how to say hello to people that we don't know well. Everyone got to have a turn. It was great fun!

A Blanket of Smoke

Our school was covered in a thick blanket of smoke today.

Bush fires are burning not far from where we learn. Some of our teachers stayed at home today to protect their properties and animals. Some of Val's cattle died in a fire last night.

The CFA have been working hard to put out fires all over Victoria. Lots of houses have burned down and more than 100 people have died.

There is a blue sky above that grey smoke we just can't see it! There is a big hill at the back of the picture with the basket ball court on it. You can't even see that. The smoke smells horrible. We have to stay inside and play because kids with asthma can't breathe properly.

The grass around here is really brown because we have had a heat wave. and a drought. It has been over 40 degrees Celsius for a couple of weeks. The grass is like that everywhere around here. That is why the fires are burning so well.

We know what to do if there is a fire at our school because we have a fire safety plan and we have been practising our safety drills. We know where all our safe meeting places are and how to get to them. We know how to crawl on our knees if the smoke gets to thick and how to stop, drop and roll if our clothes catch on fire. We know we are safe and the teachers will look after us if there is a fire at school.

Peep and the Big Wide World

Hi Everyone,
We want to tell you about this great website called 'Peep and the Big Wide World'. We have been watching the videos every day this week and they are excellent! They teach you lots really cool things about maths and science. The video changes every day and there are games and activities to go with every episode. Chrissie is CRAZY about Peep! If you would like to visit too, just click on the Peep picture.

An Email from Nicholas

Dear Sue and Chrissie

Nicholas is enjoying quiet day at home.
'I had fun playing some maths games and when Tianna said I could use the computer. I ran to see what I could play. I played a matching word number game and find the bone game. See you next week. '
from Nicholas

Which Picture Do You Like The Best?

On Monday afternoon, the Junior Crew kids are going to make some pictures like this. I made these ones to show them what they would look like when they are finished. Can you believe that that all we will use to make them is:

• 4 pieces of coloured card
• a coffee filter
• a glue stick
• a nappy wipe
• Food colouring
• a paint brush
• a black felt tip marker

When they are dry we will exhibit them in our Virtual Gallery.

Do you like the picture on the top, or the one on the bottom?

Why do you like that one the best?

The Junior Crew kids are going to post comments, telling me which picture they prefer.

You can join them if you like!