Our turn to take care of the Chooks!

This week is our turn to take care of the chickens. Room 1 was very helpful and invited us over on Friday to tell us what they had been doing with the chickens last week.

 Room 1 then took us out to the chicken house to show us what we would need to do. 

Friday STEM Day!!

Since Easter is coming I decided that today we would do some activities that involved plastic easter eggs. We completed two activities today. One was an egg spinning trial and the other was a team egg structure building activity.

For our first activity we worked in pairs. For materials we used a plastic egg, our recording page, and a stop watch app on the iPads. First we had a little tutorial on how to use the stop watch app. Then partners found a spot and took turns timing how long the egg would spin. Each team had 4 trials. At first I put a bit of play dough inside the eggs to weight them a little. Some teams decided to take the play dough out and found out the egg would spin longer without it. I love seeing the students coming up with ways they can change and make these activities better and different.

For our egg structure challenge we grouped into three teams. The materials we had to use where plastic Easter eggs and play dough. The teams had only 25min to create a structure that would be measured for height. A big part of this challenge was working as a team. This proved harder for some teams than others. The more we do these activities the more the studetns realise its important to work together and value each memebers ideas.

 The timer was set and going to remind us how much time we had left.

This team constructed the tallest structure. 

 Here is our data from each team.

Surprise Mail!!!

Room 2 was super lucky today to get a special delivery from Carterton school Team Kawakawa Teina.

We loved reading their letters.

Up, Up, and Away!!!

We made some awesome hot air balloons today and we even got to put ourselves in them. We are excited for the up coming Wairarapa Balloon Festival and the balloon visit next week. 

Friday STEM Day!!

I'm sure you already heard that we had some awesome fun creating boats with tin foil on Friday. before we started creating we discussed what sinking, floating, and capacity are. We started by sketching a plan. We then set off on our own or with a partner to create a boat we thought would not only float but hold weight.

 Working with tin foil is pretty tricky, but room 2 did an awesome job giving it a go.

Once we made our boats we tested if they could float and hold weight. Some of our boats sank and quite a few held lots of weight.

 Koby and Hugo worked as partners and where the first to be succesful in having all 48 marbles in their boat. It was awesome to hear them discussing how they needed to spread the weight out and not just have it all in the middle. The also realised the fact that they made a boat that had a bigger area to put the marbles helped it stay floating. 

 Olivia's boat stayed floating with all 48 marbles as well. Ka pai Olivia!

 Joeys boat looked awesome and stayed afloat.

 Brodie built an awesome boat, but there were a couple low spots and down it went to the bottom of the tub. I was so impressed that Brodie didn't get upset, but set right back to creating a better boat he showed awesome resilience. 

 Here we are back at the drawing board trying to figure out how we can make our boats better.

These three got super creative and decided to add some extra pieces to their boats.

 Islas second attempt held all 48 marbles. Way to go Isla!