Sunny day science

A recent sunny day was the opportunity we had been waiting for! We needed the sun to shine all day for us to be able to complete this science investigation. We needed to go outside and draw around our shadow three times - morning, midday and afternoon. We traced the outline of our shadows and made predictions about what might happen. We wanted to investigate if the place our shadow fell changed throughout the day and if the size of our shadow changed. We noticed that our shadow was cast on the opposite side of the light source (the sun). We saw how as the sun moved during the day the place our shadow fell also moved. We also found that our shadow was longer in the morning and afternoon and shorter in the middle of the day. We wondered why, so used a torch in class to investigate. We observed how when the light source (the torch or sun) was overhead it made a shorter shadow than when it shone from a low angle.

Our school-wide focus for the next fortnight.

Green Day planting

Today was a beautiful sunny day for our term 2 Green Day. As part of our science investigation into soil, we have been growing broad bean seedlings in class. It has been interesting to observe the roots growing in the soil through the clear plastic cups. We were beginning to notice that the roots were becoming crowded and tangled in the small cups. Green Day was a great chance to move our seedlings into larger pots so we can continue to see them grow.

Learning for sustainability!

Owairaka is proud to be a 'green gold enviro-school'. ☺ This week is 'green week' at school and we have been learning about what happens to our rubbish after we put it in the bin. At Owairaka we try hard to 'Reduce! Reuse! Recycle! We are careful with our rubbish and separate it into different bins to try to reduce the amount of rubbish that ends up in the landfill or rubbish dump. Our 5 bins are different colours but in room 16 our bins had no labels. Some people were confused about which bin to put different types of rubbish in. So we made new labels for our bins so that everyone can help look after our environment. We feel GOOD about putting our rubbish in the right bin and helping to look after our environment 😆

Buddy class clay art

Room 16's year 3 and 4 students enjoyed some time with our year 1 buddy class this week. We created 'minibeasts' from clay. 
We always enjoy helping each other and the teachers were impressed with the kindness and guidance shown. Check out our creations!