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 Hello from Foundation Quarrier 

100 Days of School

Foundation Q have been very happy to be back at school even though we have had a very busy term. Some of our highlights so far have included celebrating '100 Days of School' on Tuesday the 29th of July. Our class members grew old overnight and came to school moving VERY slowly that day. We made fairy bread with 100's and 1000's, compared our collections of 100 items (cotton balls, Lego pieces, beads, stickers, pasta, match sticks, beans, lollipops, Minecraft swords, MnM's), made necklaces with 100 Fruit Loops, did craft and had lots of fun! When we grow up we want to be.....

Ollie - YouTuber         Evelyn - Teacher        Zaria - Gamer        Sydney - Fire Fighter

Buddies & Science

Our Grade 5/6 buddies have been helping us learn all about chemical reactions in science. We have enjoyed conducting different experiments each Monday and are learning how to record the materials and procedure used, how to make a hypothesis and write a conclusion.

Some experiments we have done include:

• Dancing Raisins
• Disappearing Letters
• Crystal Names
• Candy Chromatography

An easy experiment that we conducted was 'Sticky Ice', you could try it at home. 

You will need: ice cubes, water, cup, piece of string, salt

Experiment: Fill a cup 1/2 way with water. Place several ice cubes on top. Try sticking a piece of string to the ice cube. What happens? Now place the string on top of an ice cube and sprinkle some salt on top. Count to 30 and life the string out of the water. What happens to the ice cubes now? Can you catch 2 ice cubes at once?

Science Behind It: Water typically freezes at 0 degrees Celsius. When salt is sprinkled on top it lowers the freezing point, making the ice melt slightly. Since you sprinkle such a small amount of salt, the ice quickly refreezes trapping the string.

Gardening

In gardening we have been helping Daniel create an underwater wonderland. This week we placed plants that look like seaweed and coral into the soil for the fish we unboxed last week. It is looking really good and we are very proud of our efforts! 

Investigation Time, Literacy & Numeracy

During Investigation Time we have been practising our Literacy and Numeracy skills. Mrs Q has been getting us to write down our plans for Investigation Time. We are getting better each time we do it!

We also have a Reporter during Investigation Time now. Their job is to come up with a yes or no question, they ask each class member and record their answer using tally marks. Mrs Q gets the Reporter to make a prediction - will most people say yes or no. During Reflection Time the Reporter gets to report back with their findings. 

In Initial Lit we have begun learning about digraphs. Did you know that's what we call 2 letters that go together to make 1 sound. Some digraphs that we know are 'ck', 'th', and 'sh'.

In Maths we have been learning about time. We can identify a digital clock and an analog clock and can name their distinguishing features. We know that when the long hand, the minute hand, points to the 12 that it is an o'clock time. The small hand, the hour hand, tells us the hour. Half -past times are trickier to read. When the minute hand points to the 6, it is half past (half way to the next hour) and the minute hand tells us that it is on the way to the next hour by sitting in between 2 numbers. 

Mrs Q read us a story 'One Minute' by Somin Ahn, all about one minute and how sometimes one minute can be fast and sometimes it can be slow. Mrs Q got us to see if we could work out how long one minute is, we got close but no one got it right. To show us that a minute can sometimes be short and can sometimes be long Mrs Q got us to do things - writing our name as many times as we could in a minute felt like a short time but doing star jumps for one minute felt like a REALLY long time!

Fire Education

Last week we had some officers from the Bendigo Fire Station visit and teach us all about fire safety. We know what a safe fire and an unsafe fire looks like and know when to call 000 for the fire brigade, the police or an ambulance. The fire fighters showed us what they wear to protect themselves when there is a fire. We even got to hear what they sound like wearing their safety mask. Our homework was to talk about a safe meeting place for our family if there was an emergency in our home. Next week they are coming back to see us again and show us their fire truck, we can't wait!

Book Week

Last week was Book Week. We enjoyed reading some of the short listed book week storybooks and especially loved dressing up as our favourite book characters. 

Our favourite books of ALL TIME are:

Mae - Dragon Number Eggs                                                      Zaria - Kitty Book

Ollie - Harry Potter #3                                                                Indie - The Fairy Book

Noah - The Footy Book                                                              Dorian - Dinosaur Book

Atlas - The Minecraft Book                                                       Sydney - Minecraft

Rylan - The Train Book                                                              Bella - Unicorn Book

Lily - Cat in the Hat                                                                     Matheo - One Piece

Evelyn - Dragon Egg                                                                   Thomas - Soccer Book

Lochlan - The Footy Book                                                        Annabelle - Monkey Puzzle

Jago - Stellaphant                                                                         Kobe - Unplugged

We are looking forward to the rest of the term because we have some exciting things coming up like visiting educators from the Fire Brigade, Coliban Water and the City of Greater Bendigo Waste Department.