More Beautiful Birds' Nests

Moya's grade were the last class to visit during science rotations to make gorgeous nests. They worked beautifully, collecting materials for their nests, putting their nests together and writing wonderful specimen tags. On their tags they wrote.... the name of the bird species who the nest belonged to, where the nest was found, the collector's name, and the date it was collected.

Today in 1/2 L we were with Lauren. We made bird nests and I had lots of fun. Sophia

My bird was called the Amekian Falcon. It has purple feathers and it lives in a very fluffy nest in the tropics. Riley

My bird was called the Giraffe Flamingo, it has a Flamingo beak and body but a giraffe head. Sarah

My nest looked camouflaged, I used sticks. Damon

My bird’s name is the hot breath bird. I had lots of fun because I liked picking up things from outside. Vasco

My bird lives near waterfalls and it’s called a water wing. Lydia 

My nest is shiny, my bird is called crazy bird and the nest is a weird shape. Max

I had lots of fun designing my bird nest and thinking about my bird’s name. My bird is called the fashion fairy bird, it’s very colourful and its nest looks sort of like a cradle. Mariana

I had fun designing my nest. I used pieces of grass and plants. Chloe

My bird was called the yellow dragon and I had fun making my nest. Imogen

Spring blossoms and Sad Goodbyes

We made Mexican paper flowers to decorate our seasons tree. Wally the winter woolly fairy gave us the instructions in a letter. It's a while since the start of spring but the weather's only just started warming up. It was easier than we thought it would be but they looked goregous. Then we had a farewell party for Vivian who is going back to Vietnam, which is sad. It was a lovely party though. Gee we'll miss her!

 

Bird Nests

Our 1/2 integrated topic this term is animals with backbones. Each class is learning about a different group of animals. Betty’s class are the fish experts (ichthyologists), Jared’s class are looking at amphibians (herpetologists), Mr Griffin’s grade are learning all about mammals (mammologists), Moya’s class are the reptile people (also herpetologists) and we here in 1/2 K are the ornithologists (that’s bird experts). On Fridays, after morning tea we do science for 2 hours!! Every week. This week we stayed in our own classes, next week we visit a different teacher.

So this week we stayed with Lauren and made bird nests. First of all we looked at beautiful bird nest photos (http://twistedsifter.com/2011/05/25-photos-of-birds-nests-sharon-beals/). They were cool! Then we went outside and collected some stuff (plants, sticks, leaves, straw and other bits and bobs). After that we came back to class and used a paper plate and started sticking, cutting and gluing. Every now and then, we did a sticky test to check that it wouldn’t fall off our plate. Some of us did it and found that everything fell off but we got there in the end.

We made our classroom into an amazing mess! A garbage bin, a pig sty, our bedrooms, a dog’s dinner, a war zone and a bomb site. We had to clean and clean and clean and clean. We had to be cleaners. 

Here are some words to describe our nests: wonderful, sensational, beautiful, fantastic, tangled, feathery, fabulous, soft, garden-filled, twiggy and sticky (in every sense of the word).

Rainy Days Rule!

It looked like it was hailing outside at morning tea last Friday. We had to stay in our classroom and another class (Mr Griffin’s class) came in. At the end of wet day time table we had to pack up. But we didn't mind too much, we'd had such a lovely time!

These are some of the things we did:

We got out the lego and worked on the grey carpet next to the nature table. We made lego minecraft characters, one of them was a super panda.

I enjoyed winning a game against Dan and Dean. I pretty much always play snakes and ladders and I love packing it up. Lewis

I enjoyed making my minecraft lego person. Allister

I made a lego temple. Jordie

I was drawing on the mini whiteboards. I drew a pretzel bunny and a pretzel puppy. Evie

I loved wrapping things up and making presents. We made presents for Lauren and Lewis and Dan. Charlotte and Milly

I enjoyed making lego with Allister, we finished them. Jamil

I drew a werewolf girl and a cat girl. Alisha

I did two different things – I played skittles and made a forest habitat. Clarrie

Broccoli Pasta Primavera, a la Rocco

Today we had a big Italian lesson.We learnt how to cook Broccoli Pasta Primavera. Broccoli is an Italian word and Primavera means spring in Italian. It's a very simple recipe, it's from an Italian man called Rocco. Lots of us thought we wouldn't like it but we were brave and tried it and... we LOVED it!!

The ingredients were: 

broccoli, 

pasta (we used spaghetti), 

parmesan, 

salt, 

pepper and 

olive oil. 

That's all! We added a secret ingredient... broccoli flowers from the school garden. We sprinkled them on top at the end with the parmesan and we used up all the parmesan and the flowers. It was so delicious!! We've put up the recipe in case you want to try it yourself.

English

Boil some water with a pinch of salt, put the chopped broccoli in, wait till they're half to way to tender (~5min), then pour the pasta straight into the same boiling water.

Keep boiling pasta and broccoli till pasta is ready (and broccoli hopefully are just soft without having fallen apart).

Then get the water out (strain it) and add olive oil, parmesan and pepper.

Italian

 Bolli l'acqua per la pasta in una pentola. Taglia i broccoli a dadetti, mettili nell'acqua e lascia bolllire finche i broccoli incominciano a bollire.

Butta la pasta (preferibilmente orecchiette) nell'acqua bollente co0n i broccoli e lascia bollire finche la pasta ne' al dente e i broccoli appena teneri.

Scola aggiungi olio d'oliva generosamente, parmigiano e pepe.

We had a lovely last day. It's been a busy but really successful term and we've certainly earned our holidays. We spent a couple of minutes reflecting on the things we really enjoyed this term:

I enjoyed the taste of the broccoli pasta, it was very nice. Broccoli mixed with pasta equals yum! Romy

I enjoyed getting my prize from the prize box. Evie

I liked getting something from the prize box today and I also liked the pepper and the pasta together. 

I also liked the presentations. Lizzie

I learnt how to make broccoli pasta and I was in the tidy up group. Lola

I enjoyed assembly. I enjoyed the music and the dancing. Dean

I enjoyed tasting the broccoli pasta. I also enjoyed getting prizes and watching the people dance. Selvi

I thought the toppings made the broccoli pasta great. The toppings were broccoli flowers and parmesan. I thought it is sad the Gabi is moving from 1/2 to 3/4, we’ll miss her. Aimee

On Roald Dahl day I liked singing the Oompa Loompa song with Betty. Goldie

I thought that I wouldn’t like the broccoli pasta because I don’t like broccoli but when I tried it I couldn’t get enough. Lewis

I liked assembly because of the dancing and music. Allister

I liked assembly because my sister was in the dance show. Lola

I liked watching Baby’s Day Out during wet day timetable. Clarrie

I learnt how to make broccoli pasta and it was delicious. Audrey

I enjoyed Roald Dahl day, watching Fantastic Mr Fox. Dan

I enjoyed having the pasta. I helped test when the pasta was ready. When it’s ready it’s al dente. Jordie

I enjoyed cutting up the broccoli. Leila

I enjoyed seeing the blackbirds in our new room. Aidan

Have a lovely holiday!!