Stunning Six

This afternoon we had some electrical challenges to solve! First, we had to use wires, batteries, and light bulbs  and make the light bulb glow. The next task was to add another piece of wire to our circuit, and make two bulbs glow.That was more difficult! Well done Monique and Mary who were the first to achieve this.

The next challenge was to make a small cardboard propeller and attach it to a motor. We had to make a circuit which would make the fan work.

We took a break to watch a DVD about how light bulbs work, and then our final task was to see if we could make the fan and the light bulb work together! Congratulations Christie and Halley, who were the first to do this!

We had fun learning some new basketball skills with the Jets this morning.

This afternoon we learnt about some of Pablo Picasso’s portraits.

We began by drawing a face. We made extra noses, eyes and mouths and put them in a pile in the centre of our desk groups. We made a second face, this time with a mixture of features glued on, in slightly unusual places.

Mrs Hoskins showed us some of Picasso’s portraits. We talked about traditional portraits and how Picasso’s are different. We thought about why Picasso may have made his in this style and the effect of altering features and perspectives. We decided that by breaking the rules and adding lots of detail and texture, Picasso makes you spend more time looking. We talked about how the view of someone’s face changes as you know them, and also when you look at them from different angles, or very close up.

Lastly, we began portraits with unusual colours, patterns and angles, in the style of Picasso.

Well done team! You did a great job leading this afternoon’s Kakapo Sharing.

Well done too, to the play group. We all enjoyed your performance!

This afternoon we had an exciting play-off between the top 4 Electroctiy teams. Congratulations Fergus and Cody!

This afternoon we had more fun orienteering! This time we had to collect the words of a well known proverb.

First place:

Second:

Third:

Here are some more photos from today:

As part of our work about different sources of energy, we have been learning about how a dam makes electricity. Because there are lots of rivers in New Zealand, hydro power is the most common way to produce electricity here.

We have learnt that the advantages of hydro energy are that it is a renewable form of electricity generation, it produces few or no greenhouse gas emissions and the water is free. On the downside, land has to be flooded for dams to be built, and if there is a drought, less electricity is produced.

Here are some diagrams we drew to show how a dam works:

Water is stored in the dam. It is released down through huge pipes called penstocks. The power of the falling water turns the turbine and drives the generator in the power station. A tailrace is a channel which slows the water back to its normal speed and takes it back into a river or lake.

Following on from photographing parallel and perpendicular lines, today we looked at some art which creates illusions with lines. The artists were Bridget Riley and Gordon Walters. Both artists play tricks with your eyes! We also looked at some of Escher’s pictures, to see some complicated optical illusions.

We created our own line drawings:

At maths time today, we ventured forth with cameras, ipods and ipads and photographed parallel and perpendicular lines in our school environment. This is what we found:

At creative writing time we have been learning how to express an opinion and back it up with reasons and evidence. So far we have written persuasively about the best pet to have, the best item to put in a school time capsule, our opinions on whether or not we should commemorate ANZAC Day, our views on the length of the school year, and the best place to buy takeaway food in Palmerston North!