Hot Air Balloon

This morning Room 10 invited us out to see their hot air balloon fly. We saw Mr Crawley hold the balloon over the primus to heat the air inside the balloon. He did this because hot air rises. We learnt that by watching pictures rise when they were on the wall over the heater. It was exciting when the balloons flew but sadly, they didn't go very far. The most exciting part was when the last balloon caught on fire.

Thank you Room 10.

Picnic Lunch and a Play

All of the classes had lunch together and a play on the playground. 

Bouncy Castle

Part of our time at Carters was spent on the bouncy castle. I am sure the children must be worn out by all the exercise.

Slippery Slide

In the afternoon we joined Room 10 on the slippery slide. That was fun!

Mrs Cummings had a great time throwing water on the children.

Picnic Day at Carters Beach

All five classes from the Middle school had a lovely day out at Carters Beach today. We bussed out and then went off in different directions to have a fun time. Room 11 started at the beach.

Kapa Haka

The students in the middle school have been learning some waiata(songs) and the actions as part of Kapa Haka. They performed at our special awards ceremony today. They were awesome! I am so proud of them.

Safe Walking with Constable Teri

A few weeks ago we had Constable Teri visit us to talk about safe walking and what we can do to keep ourselves safe when out walking. The children went out and practised.

Bouncy Egg 3

Sorry about the delay in publishing our results from the experiment. 

We have been very busy completing some more which I will get onto the blog as well.

We went outside to try bouncing our egg and it was just as well because it made a mess when it finally broke.  We also attracted an audience of senior children who were fascinated when the egg bounced.

The School Garden

Last week we joined the rest of the Middle school and went over to the garden to do some work tidying and planting. Today some ladies from the Westport Garden Club came to view our work. they were very impressed!

Here are some pictures.

Bouncy Egg 2

What did we notice?

The egg was floating this morning.

There was a lot of foam on the surface.

There were lots of bubbles on the egg.

When we took the egg out, the shell was soft and bouncy. 

Parts of the egg shell are coming off in layers.

when we put it back in the glass, the egg sank again.

Bouncy Egg

We are doing an experiment about making an egg bounce. We found out that eggshells are made of calcium, just like our bones and teeth. We put a raw egg into a glass of vinegar, which is an acid. We noticed that bubbles started to appear on the egg. Foam is beginning to rise to the surface. We will check on the egg tomorrow.

Little Blue Penguins

Yesterday Melanie Bailey talked to Room 11about the Little Blue Penguins that live in a colony in Oamaru. We learnt lots of things about what makes them different from other penguins. We also learnt about what the people of Oamaru are doing to protect these creatures.

I was impressed with the questions that students asked and the connections they made to previous learning. 

Thank you Melanie.

Photos from our show

Cheryl took these photos before and during the item. Enjoy!