Our+Inquiry+Topics

** Enjoy our pag ****e of INQUIRY TOPICS**

We like finding out new things. Our teachers expect us to ask plenty of questions. Questions help our clever brains to make us into good THINKERS! There are many ways to find answers to questions (if you are a lazy thinker, you just ask someone who knows the answer ... but we are NOT lazy thinkers in Room 8!)

- During Term 1 we are working on topics about // Summer, Sunflowers, Responsibility, Caring and Sharing, // //...// and other topics which just 'turn up'. We now know that sunflowers make 100's of seeds! Some of us liked eating the sunflower seeds. They are good in salads. Here is some of our summer-art ..... what do you think? We talked and wrote about SHARING. Our special **Room 8 song** reminds us about caring and sharing.

Click on the //Room8Song.pdf (this is the 3rd verse)//

It is helpful to everyone if we are all RESPONSIBLE and make good choices.

LOOK AT OUR COOL **BUTTERFLY** ART Click on the pdf file to see our book that is in the school Library - YAY!

It is Autumn. The leaves are falling - what interesting colours! At school we are measuring the // temperature // each day. It has been ranging from 10 degrees to 18 degrees lately. We have learnt that a // thermometer // measures the temperature. We have been making Hot-air Snakes. The snake starts to spin when hanging over warm air. Click on the __**movie**__ to see the snake spin. media type="file" key="Hot Air Snake.mov" width="252" height="252"
 * HOT AND COLD - Brrrrrr... **

We talked about how we could make a big plastic bag fly. We know that hot air is light  - it rises up above cold air. But how could we make a hot-air balloon. We had some good ideas, then Mr Beggs showed us a balloon that can fly. Here is a hot-air balloon which Mr Beggs made. We are going to make our own and see which ones fly the highest! We need to find: a big, light plastic bag, some straws, a cotton ball, thin wire, sellotape and methylated spirits. media type="file" key="Hot-Air Balloon 2012.mov" width="272" height="272" Isaac, Jackson and Damien launched their balloon on 13 June. It was a cold, calm morning, good for launching the balloon. We invited our friends from Rooms 1 and 3 to watch. All went well! Up, up and away. We didn't know where it landed! Later, we found out that it drifted all the way over Mrs Blenkhorn's farm. A kind man found it near a cemetery and brought it back to school for us. How cool! Here is a picture of the balloon after it's long flight. media type="file" key="Flying Balloon June 2012.mov" width="216" height="216" This is a map showing where the balloon flew.Click on the pdf  file.
 * <span style="color: #ff001e; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 130%;">OUR HOT-AIR BALLOONS **

//** WEARABLE ARTS **// - July 2012 The Junior classes are planning a Wearable Arts day, later in the term. We will be bringing all sorts of materials to school to help us design costumes. Room 8 costumes will be based on **gardens**. So we will be thinking about how to make ourselves look like butterflies or insects, or maybe flowers, trees or vegetables. Or perhaps we could be fruits like lemons or kiwifruit. We started our topic by making **masks** and having a mask parade. Here are some of the masks that we made in Room 8.



<span style="color: #ff00a4; font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">OLYMPIC GAMES <span style="font-family: 'Lucida Console',Monaco,monospace; font-size: 120%;">The Olympic Games will be something special this term. Of course we want the NZ sports people to do really well. They all try their best to win, but they can't all be winners. <span style="font-family: 'Lucida Console',Monaco,monospace; font-size: 120%;">We found that the Olympic **<span style="color: #ff00a4; font-family: 'Lucida Console',Monaco,monospace; font-size: 120%;">MOTTO **<span style="font-family: 'Lucida Console',Monaco,monospace; font-size: 120%;"> is: faster, higher, stronger. <span style="font-family: 'Lucida Console',Monaco,monospace; font-size: 120%;">And the Olympic **<span style="color: #ff00a4; font-family: 'Lucida Console',Monaco,monospace; font-size: 120%;">CREED **<span style="font-family: 'Lucida Console',Monaco,monospace; font-size: 120%;"> is: //<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 120%;">"The most important thing in the Olympic Games is not to win but to take part, just as the most important thing in life is not the triumph but the struggle. The essential thing is not to have conquered but to have fought well." // <span style="font-family: 'Lucida Console',Monaco,monospace; font-size: 120%;">Here is Isaac with the **<span style="color: #ff00a4; font-family: 'Lucida Console',Monaco,monospace; font-size: 120%;">SYMBOL **<span style="font-family: 'Lucida Console',Monaco,monospace; font-size: 120%;"> for the Olympic Games on his T-shirt - Good job, Isaac! <span style="font-family: 'Lucida Console',Monaco,monospace; font-size: 120%;">Can you find out what the symbol means? <span style="font-family: 'Lucida Console',Monaco,monospace; font-size: 120%;">We wondered why there are 5 coloured rings on the olympic flag. Our research tells us that the 5 rings stand for the 5 main continents (land areas) of the world. Did you know that every country flag in the world has at least 1 of the 5 colours on it. <span style="font-family: 'Lucida Console',Monaco,monospace; font-size: 120%;"> <span style="font-family: 'Lucida Console',Monaco,monospace; font-size: 120%;">Click on the pdf file to find out about the Olympic flame. <span style="font-family: 'Lucida Console',Monaco,monospace; font-size: 120%;">
 * <span style="color: #ff00a4; font-family: 'Lucida Console',Monaco,monospace; font-size: 120%;">THE OLYMPIC FLAME **

<span style="font-family: 'Lucida Console',Monaco,monospace; font-size: 120%;">What fun we had making our costumes. We became sunflowers, ladybirds, garden pots, bean plants, raindrops, caterpillars, roosters and more! We used paper bags, lots of glitter and glue, heaps of paint and coloured paper, metres of material, needle and thread. The final show had cool music and slide shows as we walked down the catwalk. The hall looked really wonderful as lots of sea creatures, forest creatures and garden characters walked the catwalk.
 * <span style="color: #0094ff; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 160%;">Back to <span style="color: #b000ff; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 160%;">WOW <span style="color: #0094ff; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 160%;"> - The Juniors' Wearable Arts! **



<span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 140%;">FIREWISE !! <span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 140%;">We are learning all about FIRE safety. We have a book to take home with a DVD in it - that's cool! <span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 140%;">Have we been talking about our safety plan at home? Do we all have smoke alarms in our home - and do they all work? <span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 140%;">SMOKE IS DEADLY! Often people die of smoke before they get burnt by flames. Smoke is poisonous! <span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 140%;">We know that when there is a fire inside we... <span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 140%;"> <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 140%;">GET DOWN - GET LOW - GET OUT <span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 140%;"> (and fast! - don't try and save the cat!) <span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 140%;">Here is Isaac's picture about getting out quickly.

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