Yeast Experiment (take 2) and T-Ball in the drizzle

This morning students survived the test on contractions with the average score being 8.8 out of 10. This was followed by Silent Reading time in which I marked them and gave individual feedback to students. We then did our second take on the yeast experiment. This time it worked. We will do the next practical session on the coming Thursday as I am loaning our precious bottles to a fellow staff member to use during the first half of next week. Like me, he inherited casi nada.

After lunch we did a small comprehension activities where students located the keywords in a text about yeast. and learnt to locate the key sentence (idea) in a paragraph.  We also explored some boxes and had four riddle-offs (Guess the answer to a riddle.) I also carried out the South Australian Spelling Test to pinpoint exact spelling ages as the SWST test only measures to 12.0+, this one will measure to 15.5+.  It will also give me a second set of data  just in case any student just had a bad test first time around with the standardised test administered in their first week back in February.

In the afternoon I explained the rules of t-ball and we headed out onto the oval for a game. The equipment was a little bit of a challenge but we still had fun and the students were amazing with their sportsmanship. We came back in at 2:40 as it was raining quite heavily at this stage. We ended the day with a quiz and did the seating draw for next week. I still owe each team an innings.

The stand before the top fell off

Next week there will be The Grand Microcosmos Competition where students will have to do quite a bit of concerted reading to match information panels to beautiful and fascinating images of life under the electron microscope. They will have to read the written texts and the visual texts very closely looking for the clues which will allow a correct match up. Feel free to drop in before school if you would like to give your son/daughter a hand.  Each student will be given a sheet with the letters A-Z and will write what they think is the corresponding piece of text, all of which carry a number from 1 -26. All correct entries will go into a draw for a prize which  actually haven't thought about yet. We will be looking the differences between a run-of-the mill microscope and an electron microscope.

Out-of-date Yeast!

Today we had fun and games doing the Yeast Feast experiment. The students set up their own data collection pages and generally did a great job with their observations. But, why wasn't at least one of the balloons being filled with carbon dioxide? Had we been mistaken with the water temperature? Well, I looked on the bottom of the yeast container and found our problem, out-of-date yeast. So it will be back to the supermarket!

Students had their art lesson with the specialist art teacher for forty-five minutes.

Spelling Bingo on the contractions went ahead as usual, first up. They also had a partner. test on their ISL words. Again, any testing and signing off after five ticks by parents would be greatly appreciated.

Music options was all the go  from twelve o'clock onwards with some students being out for the nearly entire afternoon.

We went through all the different kinds of graphic organisers students could use to organise their thoughts for writing tasks in their Writers' Notebooks. Ask to have a look at this book at some stage.

We also did a lesson on contractions...and play three games of Contraction Bingo.

Students have been asked to work on their handwriting tonight and also their microorganism jigsaw puzzles.

The swimming carnival photos are on display in our classroom and there was no available spaces in the library. Feel free to come and have a look. I have made a Photo Story of the day which will be shown in tomorrow's assembly.

Maths Relay Part 2 and the Swimming Carnival

This morning before the swimming carnival, the students participated in another maths relay, this time using intermediate and advanced maths problems. They stayed in the same teams they had on Friday. Students quickly realised understanding the question was as important as any maths skills they needed to apply. This time there was 40 points difference in the range, with the top score being 87. Measurement questions and fractions caused the most crumpled eyebrows.  

Sample questions

Team work helps

This week, the spelling bingo words will be words are contractions such as doesn't, didn't, o'clock etc. They will be tested on these words on Friday morning. 

We left school at 11-30 to make our way to the Hobart Aquatic Centre. The swimming carnival went off well with us just making it back to school by three o'clock. I snapped off quite a few photos whilst on crowd control (which always seems to be my job.) I had the photos developed at Big W and backed them. Hopefully they will go up in display in the library or in some central place in the school tomorrow. I've just noticed I haven't captured all swimmers and I apologize for that.

Swimming Carnival

Also, I desperately need funnels for Science tomorrow.
Thank you Andrea for the games for the classroom, greatly appreciated.