3/4 SV

Inquiry

Balloon Powered Cars 

Last week we started building and testing the frame of our balloon powered cars. We learnt that an important aspect of an engineer's job is to test each part of a machine before building the next part. Before we added the balloon to our car frame, we needed to make sure that our car rolled straight and smoothly. 

Experimenting With Elasticity

Students tested elasticity by dropping three different balls (table tennis, bouncy rubber and marble) from a specified height to see which balls bounced higher. Each ball was tested 3 times over 3 different heights. Students hypothesised which ball they thought would bounce higher and why.

Science Week

Last week during Science Week, we had a wonderful afternoon experimenting with Lava Lamps! This is an easy experiment to do at home as well, because all you need is a clear glass, cup or bottle, oil, water, food colouring and a fizzing tablet (for example Aspro Clear or Alka Seltzer).  Here are some pictures of both 3/4S and 3/4B conducting their experiments and watching the different ingredients reacting to each other.

Literacy

We are writing Portal Stories! Portal stories will engage students in creative writing, where they will learn how to use description to entertain the reader, as well as learning how to construct a narrative using paragraphs and compound and complex sentences. 

Grammar Grab! 

During our Writing Sessions we are incorporating Grammar Lessons with a different focus each week, we are calling these short and sharp lessons...Grammar Grab! 

Last week we played a game to learn about using co-ordinating conjunctions: for, and, nor, but, or, yet and so. The students rolled one dice to decide which conjunction to use, then rolled another dice to give them a topic. They then had to create a sentence about the given topic using the coordinating conjunction! It was a lot of fun, and it is helping students to create compound sentences.