Tuesday 29 May 2012

Room 4's Trip to the Observatory

Our class looked forward to our trip to the Observatory on Thursday May 22. It was a very informative session with our topic about the Solar System and the Night Sky.






A


When we arrived we were given instructions on what we needed to do and the things we would be learning.


This is the huge black dome.





Here we're entering the door of the black dome. It was so dark inside and we had to sit on the mat.

We were amazed at the scenes we watched inside the observatory. These were what we saw and each of these were explained.




This is the sun the biggest and the brightest star.



Do you know that the moon is the earth's constant companion in space?



The moon spins on its axis in exactly the same time it takes to go around the earth. This means that the people on earth can only see one side of the moon with the other side permanently hidden from view.


Mercury is the closest planet to the sun. It is also the smallest planet and the fastest moving.


Venus was named from the Roman goddess of beauty. Although it looks like a brilliant jewel from space, it is featureless because of it's thick clouds.


The Earth is the largest world in the inner solar system. It is unique because of its abundant water and life. It has abundant water because of its position in the solar system - it's neither hot nor cold, but just right - just like Goldilocks' porridge!


The earth always rotates from space it looks like a blue marble because it is dominated by water.







Mars is sometimes called the Red Planet. Its atmosphere is thin and contains no oxygen and humans can't breathe it. It is closer to the Earth.



Jupiter is so big that more than1,300 Earths would fit inside it. It has a very short day, rotating once every 10 hours.




Saturn has a beautiful ring around it. It is the second largest planet.



Uranus looks like a blue-green sphere. Its moons and a faint set of rings closely circles the earth.


Neptune is almost a twin of Uranus. Neptune's moons look like faint points of light in the sky.




Pluto shows broad light and dark areas. Its moon, Charon is about half the size of the planet itself.








These are the scenes from the night sky. Sorry you can't clearly see from here. At the observatory we saw the Milky Way, the different stars, constellation, the Southern Cross, a set of stars looked like a scorpion and other fascinating things in the sky at night.







Before we left we were allowed to ask questions. At the end the lady mentioned our questions were sensible.




We're really happy to have the experience of going to the observatory. It was a very interesting trip and we learned a lot.

Thursday 17 May 2012

Measurement - Perimeter

Our brilliant minds in Room 4 are learning to measure the perimeter of a shape and convert its units of measurement.

Perimeter is the sum of the distance around the shape. The units of measurement used are millimeters (mm), centimeters (cm), meters (m) and kilometers (km).

Maths Maintenance
Before we start our Maths we always do our Maths maintenance. This time we were in pairs practising our times tables. Each had to take turn asking for example, "What is 8 times 4?". After two minutes the bell was rung and they had to move on to another station which had a different times table strategy. We did this for 10 minutes which means we used a variety of ways to multiply.



Lucy and Joseph were using the playing cards.


Connor and Iuvale made use of the numbers on a fan shape.



Ijaz and Ciaran were focusing using the flash cards.


Kiana and Tim were doing the same.



Cortia and Scott worked out a multiplication strategy.


It was Samantha's turn to ask Nicholas.



Michelle helped Lennon and Savannah with their times tables.


Molly and Benzo rolled the small dice to find the product of two numbers.


Lexi and Bradley used the big dice.


PERIMETER
To find the perimeter each pair was given an empty box of grocery items such as a box of tea, crackers, washing powder, cereals, etc.




We traced the shape of the box of grocery item on the paper. Next we measured the shape of the box of grocery items using a ruler.



Molly and Benzo were deciding how long is one side of the box of crumbed fish.


The sides of the shape were measured in centimeters. Scott and Cortia were trying to find out how many centimeters are there on the width of the box of crackers.


Savannah and Lennon were watching Michelle adding the sides of their shape.


Ciaran and Ijaz added the length of the four sides of the box of the
washing powder.

Lucy and Joseph measured 62 square centimeters around the sides of a box of tissues.


Connor was finding out how to convert centimeters to meters.



Tim and Kiana measured their box of soup. They converted 52 square centimeters to 0.52 metres and then to 0.052 kilometres.


To convert the units of measurement we have to remember:
Small to big----DIVIDE (SBD)
Big to small----MULTIPLY (BSM)

10 mm = 1 cm 100 cm =1 m 1000 m = 1 km

We found it easy to find the perimeter of shapes. We have to be careful when converting the units of measurement.


Wednesday 16 May 2012

Cross Country

What a glorious day we had during the Cross Country on Tuesday May 15! Everyone had a fantastic time at St Albans Park. We appreciate the parents who joined us and supported their children.







Here we were getting ready in our classroom and lining up outside.
Mr O'Neill lead the prayer before we left school.








We walked around the park so that we would be familiar with the route we had to run.









We had to wait for our turn.






Meanwhile we had fun taking photos of our wonderful class.





The gorgeous girls in Room 4.....


.......and the good looking boys



It was wise to do our warm up before we ran.







The girls were first to run......


Then the boys.......


And the winners for Year 5 and 6 were.......
Boys: Joseph-first, Bradley-second Cortia-third
Girls: Isidora-first, Michelle-second Samantha-third
CONGRATULATIONS! We're proud of the winners and of everyone in our class for doing our best.






Gee, we were starving after our run, so we had our morning tea.















Mr O'Neill allowed us to play on the playground while waiting for the bus. Even Mrs McDonald and Mr Debenham had a go at the octopus!

What a blessed morning we had! We had great weather and awesome time. Everyone enjoyed the Cross Country very much.