Jims Reply

Here is our reply from Jim.

Jim Hickey Reply

Letter to Jim Hickey

Today as a class we wrote a letter to Jim Hickey, asking him some questions about weather and telling him what we have been learning about during topic time. Below is our letter we sent him.

Letter to Jim Hickey

Water Cycle & Clouds

We have been looking and learning about the Water cycle and clouds in Barrhill.

We have learnt that there are 4 parts to the water cycle -
1 - Evaporation
2 - Condensation
3 - Precipitation
4 - Collection

We looked at how the sun heats up the water from the oceans, lakes and land, causing water vapour (invisible gas) droplets to rise into the air, cooling down and condensing together to form clouds.  The clouds are then blown over the ocean by the wind and when they reach land they are forced higher still into the sky.

The higher the clouds get the colder it gets.  The tiny droplets of water condense even further causing it to become so heavy that they can not stay up there.  They fall to the ground as rain.

When the rain hits the ground it soaks into the soil, feeding plants, some water ends up in puddles and others ends up in streams, which flows into rivers and then into the ocean.

The sun heats the water again and the cycle begins all over again.

Below is a close activity that you could have a go at doing in your own time.

Water Cycle Close Activity

Poem Presentation

Your child would have come home with a newsletter about the Year 5 & 6 MPS Speech Competition which will be held on Wednesday 4th September.  As a Year 3 child we do not participate in this event, however it is important to build our confidence when speaking in front of large groups.  Due to this, Barrhill children will be presenting a poem to the class.

I have sent home 4 different poems and a marking guide with them today.  They are to choose one of these poems to present to the class on Friday 30th August (Week 5).

Please help your child to practise presenting the poem over the next few weeks, in preparation for the above date.

Weather Forecasts

In topic we are learning about weather and the effect it has on our community.  We have been learning about seasons and Water Cycle so far.  We have also transfer this to our Maori unit - looking at how to pronounce the weather in Maori.

Each day we post our weather map outside our classrooms, showing what the weather is like around NZ.  We have also been videoing ourselves giving a weather forecast.

Below are some videos from the past two weeks.  We will endeavor to keep adding to these.  Enjoy, we might have some future weathers presenters in Barrhill.

Reading Eggs 5 Week Free Trial

There is a 5 week free trial for Reading Eggs that is available for you to use at home.  Below I have attached the advertisement with the website that you go on.  This is a great programme for helping to develop Reading Skills.

Have a go and see what you think.

Procedural Writing

We are also going to be looking at Procedural Writing this term as it ties in well with our Topic, and science experiments.

Today we had a go at first trying to blow a bubble with bubblegum (wasn't very successful) then we went outside and had a go at making bubbles with dishwashing liquid and water.

We learnt that a Procedure has 4 parts;
1.  Title
2. Goal
3. Materials
4. Steps

Here is the procedure that we wrote for blowing bubbles.

Blowing Bubbles

Goal: To try to make the biggest bubble that we can.

Materials:

• Dishwashing Liquid
• Water
• Bowl
• Scissors (to use to make bubble with)

Steps:

1.  Put a little bit of water into the bowl.

2.  Add some dishwashing liquid to the water.

3.  Mix the water and dishwashing liquid together.

4.  Swish the scissors around in the water, lift up and blow gently.

Below is some photos and video of Barrhill children making bubbles.  It was lots of fun!

Poetry

We are going to looking at Poetry this term.  We started this week by looking at Colour Poems.

We had to think of a colour, brainstorm all the things that are that colour eg, Yellow - sun, sunflower.  We then choose 4 of our ideas and extended them further by adding adjectives to describe it.

We then took our descriptions and put them into sentences.

Here are some photos of us working hard, there are some examples of our work in our Writing corner page.

Barrhill Children.

Meadow Fresh Competition

We are competing in the Meadow Fresh Competition again this year.
We need to collect the stickers off the Meadow Fresh milk for the term, and then we have the potential to win up to $500 of sports gear for our school.

Your child will be coming home today (Friday 2nd Aug) with a notice about it.

Below is the website that you can go onto for more information.
Have fun

http://www.coolourschools.co.nz/

Miss Ish

Start of Term 3

Well, we are almost at the end of Week 1 of Term 3.  We have been busy doing science experiments this week, learning about Weather and how it is formed.  I hope all the children have had fun and learnt lots.

We have been talking about Studious and Persevering which are the MPS Value we are focusing on this term.

I look forward to seeing you all again at our 3 Way conferences next week.  If you have not made a time yet, go onto the website or contact the office and they can book one for you.

Here is a photo of Barrhill on the first day.  Good looking bunch aren't they!

Geometry

Here are some photos of us working together in cooperative groups, talking about Geometry, what we know, the difference between 2D & 3D shapes.

Have a chat to your family about what they know.  See if you can find some things that are 3D shapes at home.  Take a photo and email to me or bring along to school and we will take a photo.  Good luck hunting!!