May the FORCE be with You!

We have continued to explore different areas of FORCE over the last few weeks. The children have been involved in looking at magnets, electricity, gravity, pulleys and levers and wheels and axles.

The next stage of our inquiry involves the children deciding on an area of interest and working with a partner on a design brief to create a machine that solves a problem my making a job easier.

Our writing this term has a strong connection to the design brief process with children composing procedures detailing the process involved in how to make or do something.

Mia wrote about how to serve when playing tennis:

1. Hold the tennis ball up.



2. Put your tennis rachet beside your hip.



3. Hit the ball in the square.



4. Throw the ball up above your head.



5. Swing your rachet.
   

In Mathematics we had fun exploring 2D and 3D shapes. The children created some great patterns and tesselations and were able to tell me that tessellations had no gaps.

It is hard to believe that we are almost half way through the term!

Welcome Back

Welcome back! I hope everyone has had a relaxing break over the holidays and enjoyed having time to do things with their family. We have started our term with a couple of busy weeks! Swimming got underway last week and I must congratulate everyone for getting to school early so that we could leave on time. It is most impressive to see everyone so organised and the same thing continued this week. Great work everyone!

In the classroom we have begun exploring simple machines as the next part of our Inquiry Unit, May the FORCE Be With You. JSS began looking at how wheels and axles work and talked about how clever the first person who invented the wheel must have been. They wanted to make their work easier by reducing the friction when they tried to move an object and the wheels worked beautifully for this. Much easier than trying to push or pull something along the ground! Changing the position of the axle produced some crazy movements of the carts we made! No wonder the inventor put the axle in the middle of the wheel, it was a much smoother ride.

In Mathematics we are learning about 2D and 3D shapes. Can your children explain what these terms mean? We found lots of different shapes in our classroom and in the playground during a Shape Hunt. The photos show children thinking about the attributes of different 2D shapes and sorting them into groups.
It back to the routine of home reading and spelling homework. Please try and make it a habit to keep the spelling books in with the home reading books. That way they will be at school on Fridays and Mondays when we need to test and update the lists each week.
Thank you to all those parents who have offered their help in our classroom this term. It looks like another great term ahead.

Having Fun With Symmetry

How great do these pictures look? JSS had some fun creating symmetrical pictures of ourselves and some of our friends. It was quite a challenge to get the opposite side of the face an exact copy but everyone had a try and produces some wonderful pictures. We hope you like these examples.

JSS have worked with wonderful interest and enjoyment this term and are ready for a relaxing holiday. I hope everyone enjoys their break and returns ready for another great term together.

See you then!

Forces in Our Playground

JSS have been exploring the forces at work in our playground. We found lots of examples of simple machines and were able to identify the type of force needed for them to work. I hope you are hearing about levers, inclinded planes, wheels & axles, gears, screws, pulleys and wedges at home. I am impressed with the number of children who have explored http://www.edheads.org/ and had a go at the simple machines activities. Fantastic work JSS!

Great Activities at CSIRO!

WOW! What a fantastic day we had at the CSIRO Education Centre. Each group of children was able to try two different sessions. One was about Froces, Movement & Simple Machines and the other was about Toy Science. The sessions were very hands on and everyone was able to investigate different machines and toys to learn about how they work and move. The long bus drive was certainly worth it.

Did you tell your parents about your favourite machine? Could you explain how it worked and what made it move?

The excursion had been a great launch for our next inquiry and we are looking forward to learning more about forces.

Lots of Visitors at JSS.

Thank you to all the parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, brothers and sisters who came to visit us. It was great to see so many people in our classroom and they all had great things to say about our projects. I was so proud of the confident way everyone presented their work to such a big audience. Well done JSS.

JSS learn Mandarin

We have been learning Mandarin in JSS! We were very lucky to have Declan's Dad visit us and teach the children a song so that they can say good morning to you in Mandarin. A big thank you to Vince for all his preparation and spending time with us. Declan kept the ball rolling and helped us practise later in the day. I hope you have heard the song as the children sounded great at school.