Aboriginal Art

We made Bull Roarers which are originally from Australia.  They were used in the outbacks of Australia by the Aborigines to communicate to other tribes by spinning them over their heads.

Firstly we had to sand the edges.  Some of us found it very tricky.

After we sanded them we transferred our design onto them then carefully painted them using fine paintbrushes and skewers.  We tried to use designs and animals found in Australia.

Below are our finished Bull Roarers.  

Fractions, Fractions and more Fractions.

We have been on a self discovery journey learning about fractions using materials.  We are finding out what fractions are and how they work.

Firstly we wrote what we knew about fractions.
Then we played with fraction blocks to see what we could discover.

Below is us using the blocks to discover what they are.  We found out they have a bottom number and top number.  The bottom number tells us how many pieces the whole is cut into and the top number tells us how many of those we have.  We also found out they get smaller in size even though the bottom number gets bigger.

We then looked at making equivalent fractions using the blocks.  We know that the blocks have to fit under each other exactly for them to be equivalent.  It's fun and interesting finding out which fractions are equivalent.  Aren't we good at working fairly as a group, taking turns??

With information gathered from drawing around the fraction blocks to discover equivalent fractions, we began to look at how we could use our knowledge of multiplication to work out equivalent fractions.  

Investigating Absorbency

We have been learning about different materials.  One of our investigations has been testing different types of paper to discover which was the most absorbent to the least. 
First we made a prediction on ranking the papers from most absorbent to the least.  Next we discussed what a fair test is to help us set up our investigation.  After that we wrote up our method of how we were going to run our investigation, we ensured everything we did had to be the same for every piece of paper for it to be a fair test.
We then cut the pieces of paper all the same size, some of us found it challenging, but we all got there in the end.
This is us cutting our paper.

After we had cut our paper we got a beaker of coloured water.  Then we put each strip of paper touching the bottom for 2 minutes.  When we took the paper out of the water, we measured how far the water had risen up the strip of paper.
This is us testing the paper.

Most of our results were similar to each other.  We discovered our predictions were different to our results.
We learnt it is important to follow the method exactly as it is written or it is not a fair test.
Written by Alex, Charlee, Isabella, Ciaran, Ashlee, Olivia, Michael, Daniel, and Anna.

Mathematical Geniuses At Work

Problem Solving Friday

Every Friday we do problem solving math relating to what we have been working on during the week

Your Mathematical geniuses are working on division problems.  They are encouraged to represent their understanding by 'show me don't tell me'.

Below are busy minds working out this weeks problems.