Living or Non Living?

Yesterday at lunchtime  the staff had a a big debate in the staffroom about living and non-living. We were still divided when the bell went so we decided to get your opinion.  Your child should have come home yesterday with a question to talk to you about.

The question was:

Is a picked apple living or non-living?

Thanks to those who discussed this with their children, and sent them back with an answer.  

Below are the results and reasons why;

Living 

4 people think that the apple is living.

Reasons:  

• Apple can reproduce
• Non-living things do not decompose
• It is a living organism
• Seeds inside can grow.

Non-Living 

16 think that the apple is Non-living.

Reasons:

• Can not grow when it is off the stalk
• It is not getting fed by something living.
• Not getting fed by the tree.
• It does not do all these 7 things, which a living thing needs;
• 1.  No movement
• 2. No Respiration
• 3. No sensitivity
• 4. No Growth
• 5. No reproduction
• 6. No excretion
• 7. No nutrition

We had a great discussion this morning about this, and feel that we still need to do some more research before trying to agree on a definition.  If you have any information, please send it along with your child and we will share with the rest of classes.

  

Dance for Asthma Video

Some children and Miss Walker have produced a dance video for the Dance 4 Asthma Competition.

They have spent a lot of their own time during lunchtimes, coming up with ideas and practising.

Well done Miss Walker and all the children who were involved in this.  What a great video, all the best for the competition.

Below is the link for you to click on to view it.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=QTAolxfZbgY

Miss Ish & Barrhill

Information Reports

In Barrhill this term we are going to be looking at information reports.  Yesterday we went onto the National Geographic Kids Site and did some research on Monarch Butterflies.

We looked at what features a Information Report has.  We found that there are different parts to a report, these are:
1. Title - What is it you are writing the report on.
2. General Statement - What group does it belong to, Non living/Living
3. Description - Features - What it looks like, Food - What it eats, Habitat - Where it   lives etc
4. Evaluation - What you think on the subject/topic

We read through the information and watched the videos, recording facts on the Monarch.  From then we as a class wrote a information report on the Monarch Butterfly.

Here is what we came up with.

Monarch Butterfly

Monarchs belong to the butterfly family.

The Monarch butterfly has orange wings with black veins.  It has a small body with two long antenna on its head.  The wingspan of a Monarch is 13 centimetres long.

Monarch butterflies live in forests in Canada, Mexico, Pacific Islands, Australia and New Zealand.  They fly over 2,000 miles each year.  Logging is destroying the Monarch butterflies habitat.

Monarch butterflies eat nectar from Milkweed, Clover and Goldenrod. 

I think Monarch butterflies are bright and beautiful insects.

Farm Visit

On Wednesday Barrhill, Coleridge, Double Hill and Mt Hutt walked down to Mr & Mrs Isherwood farm.  While we were there we looked at some machinery, animals, and general things you find around the farm.  We took photos of interesting things that we found.

Here are some photos of what we saw and looked at.

Juliet, Naomi and Holly just hanging around

Close up of Sam

Wouldn't mind having a go on this!

Molly & Polly trying to eat Miss Ish!

The dog wasn't too sure about all of us invading his space.

Mt Hutt

One of the baby goats.  They were CUTE!!!

We found some stakes in the shed

Some Pigs - a bit muddy!!

Woody the horse.  He wasn't that keen on all of us and showed it by running around kicking up his hooves!!

Welcome to Term 2

Welcome back to all the Barrhill children and families,

I hope you have all had a relaxing holiday, catching up on sleep and time with your family.

What did you get up to???

I can't wait to see and hear what you got up to during your holidays!!

For the first week I had my cousins nine year old daughter come and stay with me.  We did lots of fun things together, especially once the sun began to shine!

On Thursday and Friday I attended a conference in Ashburton on Teaching.  I went to lots of different courses on new ideas for the classroom. My brain is now full of new and exciting things and I look forward to putting them into our classroom programme over the rest of the year.

I'm really looking forward to seeing you all again.  Get ready for a busy, exciting and informative term.

Here are some pictures of some of the things I did on holiday, bring some things along to show me what you got up to.

Miss Ish