Moon Art

As you know Room 8's Reggio inspired provocation has been focusing on observing the Sun, Moon and the Stars. This week the children used visual art to show what they know about the colour, texture and shape of the Moon.

They used pastel, paint, glue, glitter and tin foil. Here they are in action...

And here are some of the finished pieces of art. They look fantastic on our wall. Be sure to come in and check them out!

Malcolm the Astronomer

Today Room 8 had a very special visitor. Malcolm Locke from the astronomy society came to talk to us about the Moon, the Sun and the stars. We contacted Malcolm through the astronomy society so that we could learn more for our class provocation. We sent him an email and we were very excited when we received a reply from him.

Firstly some of us shared what we had learned so far. A few of us read our descriptions about the Sun and the Moon. Malcolm was impressed.

Malcolm told us some amazing things. He told us that the Moon is made of volcanic rock and that the planet Jupiter has 63 Moons! How amazing would that look at night time?

Then we did an activity that showed us how big the Moon is in comparison to the Earth. For this Malcolm had a soccer ball that represented the Earth and a tennis ball that represented the Moon. This showed us that the Moon is a lot smaller than the Earth.

Today is also Matariki! What a shame it is cloudy because we wont be able to see the stars out tonight. The stars of Matariki will be shining brightly right up until April so we will be able to search for them another night. Maybe you could help your child find them in the night sky.

How to find Matariki

Matariki is found low on the horizon in the north east of the sky. Try looking here between 5.30 a.m. and 6.30 a.m.

The pot

1. First find the pot (the bottom three stars of the pot are also called Tautoru, or Orion’s Belt). To find Puanga (Rigel) look above the pot until you see the bright star. To find Matariki, keep going.

2. To the left of the pot, find the bright orange star, Taumata-kuku (Alderbaran).

3. Follow an imaginary line from Tautoru (the bottom three stars of the pot), across to Taumata-kuku and keep going until you hit a cluster of stars.

4. That cluster is Matariki. If you have good eyes you should be able to pick out individual stars. If it looks fuzzy, look just above or just below and the stars will be clearer.

Matariki in the night sky

Matariki

Thursday, June 18th is Matariki. A time that shows the beginning of Maori New Year and 7 beautiful, bright stars appear in the sky. Matariki is celebrated in many ways. Below are some freeze frame mimes of Room 8 showing their understanding of the different types of celebrations. The children really enjoyed incorporating drama into their learning this week.

This group is showing that Matariki is a time for sharing family stories and learning about how people used the stars in the past.

This group is showing that Matariki is a time for making things. It is a time to learn how to weave and carve.

This group is showing that Matariki is a time for making and flying kites.

This group is showing that Matariki is a time for planting trees and winter crops.

This group is showing that Matariki is a time to fish and gather kaimoana.

Well done Room 8! You have fantastic drama skills. 

Earth, Sun and Moon System

Today Room 8 learned how the Earth orbits the Sun every 365 days (one year) and how the Moon orbits the Earth approximately every 28 days.

Firstly they needed to find out what words like orbit, solar system and rotate mean. For this everyone was put into groups to discuss what they thought. Suddenly many children jumped up and started grabbing books that would be useful and contain the right information. Some children knew to look at the index page because they had learned this in their reading groups.

Next everyone watched a you tube clip that showed how the Earth orbits the Sun and the Moon orbits the Earth. I thought it would be a good idea to put this into action so that the children all had a clear understanding. Check out the video of three children demonstrating the Earth, Moon and Sun orbit system below:






Afterwards Carlos asked the class "Why the Earth moves?" Kaylee said "Because we need night and day".  Sheldon said "It's dark on the other side of the world right now".

Exploring Area

In Room 8 we have been doing measurement as part of our Friday afternoon strand mathematics. So far we have done a lot of learning around length. Today was different. Today we explored what area was. Firstly we created pictures or short captions to show what we knew about area. Then we rotated around three different stations to explore area. By the end of the lesson we all had a pretty good idea of what area is. Here are some photos of us exploring:

After we finished exploring some of us shared our discoveries. Here they are: 

When I was on the block one over there, I found out the area of a big T is 14 blocks – Carlos

On that table it’s 18 papers on the table – Kaylee

I discovered that on the wrapping table when you wrap all the different sized books the wrapping goes different sizes too – Lucas N

I learned that on the block table when I made an M for Micaiah it was 15 blocks – Korbin.

When I did a capital T on the block table it was 10 blocks – Mackenzie

When I was on the block table I knew how much is an S, it is 14 – Seth

I discovered that an E is 16 blocks – Eli

I discovered at the making letters with the blocks table I made a 'm', lower case and I found out that it was 17 blocks for the area – Mana

At the block table I found out the area of two mini pistols is 12 because  there was 6 on each one and I know 6+6 is 12 like basic facts - Sheldon