What Beautiful Birds!

We made beautiful Christmas birds out of recycled paper. We chose our birds from the drawings on the National Library of Australia website. We cut and pasted the pictures into a word document then wrote their species name before printing them out. 

The next step was to sketch the shape of their bodies. Some birds were a circle and a circle (body and a head), others were like a tear drop. Once we had the shapes we wanted, we made their body out of scrunchy newspaper and masking tape. We painted sheets of newspaper in the right colours and tore it up into little strips for feathers. We used PVA (watered down) to glue the paper feathers onto our birds. This part took a long time but we didn’t give up!

Finally we added eyes and a cardboard beak to our birds (some of us added feet too) and all of a sudden they came to life! Even though we made them we were surprised by how wonderful they were….

My bird is a lyre-bird. It is called Max and his favourite food is chocolate with strawberries and maple syrup on top. He is brown, white, black and a teeny bit red. His best friend is called Tom Tom (Max’s dodo) and its mum is Poppy (Olivia’s bird). My bird is cheeky. Nina

My bird is a white-tailed black cockatoo. The best bit was making the tail. Teagan

In the 4^th term we made birds. My bird is a parrot with red wings and a blue body. Felix

 

My bird’s food is biscuits. Aidan

Poopy and I are the best of friends. She is 2 days old, her favourite colour is blue. Her favourite food is sunflower seeds and soy milk. She would peck at some bread. Did you know they make nests? I enjoyed making my bird alive because when you finish your bird is born. Olivia

My bird’s name is Poppy. Poppy is a nutmeg pigeon. She is white. Her favourite colour is pink. She eats bird seed. She drinks water. I love Poppy! Mia

My bird took ages ages to make and is multi-coloured. Isaac

Hi, my name is Ponky Mack Nina. I am a black swan but my friends say I am so brave. Well, they say so. I was born in India, I love the colour red. It’s like I’m evil but I’m not evil. My friends are Fredric, Lisa, Sammy, Lucy and Isabel. Sunita

My bird is red and blue. Its name is Lola. Her favourite colour is blue. Lola’s favourite food is bird feed, she drinks water. I love Lola! Isabel

My bird is very fat. He is not very fast. His name is Tom Tom. Max H

I made my bird. On my bird there are lots of colours. It took a long time. He has a collar. Clarrie

My Bird’s Profile 

(by Sam)

Name: Toppy

Fav. Food: Hot Dog’s (with mustard)

Fav. Colour: Blue

Best Friend: Black Swan Dude (Ilya’s bird)

Made out of: Paper

Favourite country: Germany

Type of bird: Top-knot Pigeon

Fav. Animal: Penguin

My Bird’s Profile 

(by Ilya)

Name: Black Swan Dude

Fav. Food: Coffee Beans

Fav. Colour: Black

Best Friend: Toppy (Sam’s bird)

Made out of: Paper

Favourite country: On the Wall

Type of bird: Black Swan

Fav. Animal: Black swans!

Distinguishing features: Black

My bird is multi-coloured. Josh

Hi, Hiccup speaking. My name is Hiccup because…. It was the first word I said when I was a baby. I am a white tailed cockatoo. My personality is cheeky. Lulu

My bird’s name is Peep. It is a nutmeg pigeon. It has white feathers and a black tail and an orange beak. It has eyes made out of confetti. The feathers are strips of painted newspaper and magazines too and it has a loop on top of it. The loop is for holding it so you can hang it on top of your bed. Peep likes coloured bird seed and she likes plenty of water every day. Her favourite thing to do is play on the trampoline. Lucy

*Special Note: Evie's bird writing is missing because Lauren forgot to get it off her computer before she went away for Christmas. It will feature in a special blog post after Lauren returns from her holiday.* 

Daniel's bird was finished but he went on holiday before he could write about it and he didn't get to take it home. It is waiting for him in the classroom and it looks forward to seeing him next year.

School-Made Icecream (The Best Ever!)

Today and last Thursday we did end of year cooking rotations. Two groups of us made ice-cream but... Lauren forgot her icecream maker! So instead we used plastic bags! 

We needed ice, vanilla essence, cream, two sizes of ziploc bags, sugar and... salt! First we filled a bag with ice and we added salt. In the little bag we mixed cream, sugar and vanilla essence. (We didn't worry too much about measuring and it worked out fine). We put the little bag inside the big bag and we checked that they were sealed properly. Then we shook, shook, shook!

We shook like crazy. Tai

We shook like a bulldog. Isaac

We shook like we had fevers! Evie

We shook like mad. Edward

We shook like an angry rhinoceros. Maisie

We shook like a mad reindeer. Connor

We shook like a happy monkey. Teagan

We shook like a shaker-mobile. William

We shook like a dog that's been for a swim. Michaela

We shook like a car that's broken down. Dion

We shook like an angry lion. Ilya

We shook like a monkey in a cage. Sean

We shook like a scared elf. Natalie

We shook like we were really angry. Alexander

We shook like a fish flip flopping out of water. Selvi

But we were very careful not to shake too hard or our bags would get holes. That would have ruined everything.

The first group made some predictions before we started:

We might forget an ingredient. Alex

The cream will freeze with the ice and salt.

The cream might freeze with the salt but it might not.

The cream without the salt will get warmer. Ollie

The cream with the ice and no salt will stay the same. Phoebe

The cream without the salt will get colder. Jon

When we finished shaking we got busy eating! We had a lot of fun. It was so easy we're all going to try it at home. Here is what the first group had to say:

It tasted the best. Clarrie

Yumtastic! Josh

I never knew that icecrem was much much better made than bought. Albert

I think that when you have a first go you don't know what's going to happen. Lots of people got holes in their bags. Alex

The second group said:

The ice-cream tasted a bit more like cream but it was still yum. Oliver

The ice-cream tasted a bit weird but I liked it anyway. The sugar was at the bottom and the cream was at the top. Phoebe

I think we should have done one without salt. We forgot. Felix

When you mixed the stuff, if you tasted the water, it was really salty. Riley

It looked like melted pancakes. Jordie

This week we remembered to test one without salt. We discovered all the ice melted and the cream didn't freeze. You need salt. Tai and Olivia.

After all of the shaking it tasted like frozen cream. Edward

It tasted like ice and cream, that's probably why they call it icecream. Michaela

It looked like a big blob when it was frozen. William

It was fun because after it you tasted salt on your fingers. Maisie

It was really scrumtious. It was better than normal icecream because it was more creative. Dion

It was good! Louise

 We didn't take any photos of the ice-cream. It was eaten too quickly - sorry!

After the icecream we watched a video. It was from David Attenborough's Frozen Plant. There were sea animals and they were frozen by a brinicle (a brine - icicle). It was made out of salty sea water. The melting salty water from the icebergs sank rapidly and it created an icicle. It looked like a giant ice finger. We want to know... does it ever melt?

You can check out the brinicle video here:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/15835014

And if you want more detail on making ice-cream in a bag. There are lots of videos on youtube, including this one:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M3-OAwhIvU0

Have fun trying it at home!

Meet our Trees!

Here in 1/2B we've been running a competition to name our two new trees. We collected the suggestions and voted for our favourite names. We tallied the votes and the winning names are….

‘Rosetta’ for the Lilly Pilly and, 

‘Scooter, Richards’ for the Lemon Tree!

Why don’t you drop past and say hi (our plants love a little chat)!

Thanks to everyone who entered the naming competition. And thanks again to all those people who bought sunflowers and made our tree planting possible!

Our P.W.T. Project rubbish sorter



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In P.W.T. we made a recycleing game. It is called "rubbish sorter". It's when players sort rubbish into a recycling box, a compost box and a rubbish box. Lots of people like it because it helps people know where to put rubbish. We hope more people come to play it would be great! Hope you liked our blog post hopefully we will write some more later. BYE!!!! Here are some photos.

(written by Sam and Ilya)

Lemonade and Rice Paper Rolls!

Here are the recipes we made on Friday for our class party.

 

Fresh Lemonade

Ingredients

• 4 cups fresh lemon juice (about 24 lemons)
• 7 cups soda water
• 1 cup sugar
• Ice, for serving
• Chopped mint

Preparation

·      Pour the lemon juice into a large container.

·      Add the sugar, then stir until it all dissolves.

·      Add chopped mint

·      Now add the water (or soda water).

·      Just before you are read to serve, add some ice to keep it cool.

·      Stir well then pour into cups and drink it up!

 

Rice paper rolls

Ingredients:

Common mint

Vietnamese mint

Tofu

Rice noodles

Rice paper

Carrot

Cucumber

Sprouts

Method:

·      Chop your tofu into long thin finger-sized slices.

·      Put them in a bowl and pour over a dash of soy sauce and a dash of lemon juice. Sit them aside to marinate.

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·      Chop your cucumber and carrot into skinny slices.

·      Pull the leaves off your mint and discard the stalks.

·      Wash lettuce and mint.

·      Arrange your ingredients on a plate with the noodles so you are ready to make your rolls.

 

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·      Fill a large bowl with warm water.

·      Dip a sheet of rice paper into the water for about 10 seconds, just until it starts to soften (if you leave it in too long it becomes very tricky to handle).

·      Put your sheet onto a chopping board so it is flat.

·      Put a small amount of noodles onto one end of your rice paper. Add one stick each of tofu, cucumber, carrot and couple of leaves of either type of mint.

·      Fold in the sides and roll it up tight!

·      Put it onto your platter and start again!

Super-duper Dipping Sauce

1 tablespoons of lemon juice

1 clove of crushed garlic

3 tablespoons of soy sauce

1 teaspoon of fish sauce

1 teaspoon of lilly-pilly jelly (or sweet chilli sauce)

·      Chop your garlic as finely as you can.

·      In a small bowl mix fish sauce, water, lemon juice, crushed garlic and a teaspoon of lilly pilly jelly.

·      Stir it well. Taste it to check that it tastes salty, spicy, sour and a little bit sweet.

·      If not, add more lemon juice (sour), garlic (spicy), soy sauce (salty) or jelly (sweet), until it is just right.

1/2B's Grand Planting Day!

On Friday, 1/2B planted the results of the sunflower seed sale. Using the money we raised earlier in the year, we bought two trees (a lilly pilly and a lemon, we voted) to plant in the school orchard. We had a big celebration!

In the morning we made rice paper rolls (using our own class grown sprouts, see pictures) and making home-made lemonade. The rice paper rolls had tofu in them, we thought the tofu was soft and yummy! 

Before recess we also prepared everything for the Grand Planting Ceremony. We worked in teams to get everything done. Everyone worked together. It was a morning of careful hands, careful procedure and good co-operation.

Before the planting Lauren (our teacher) said,  
“I am tired but I think it will be good."

The preps, the other 1/2s and our principal, Ms Pearce were invited to help us plant our trees. After recess we went to the orchard, planted the new trees and served lemonade to everyone. Here are some of the preps’ and 1/2s’ opinions about the lemonade.

"Great but a bit sour."

"Fizzy."

"Weird."

"Unusual."

"Sweet."

"Delicious."

"Bubbly."

"Different."

"Cooling!"

Amy said “Sweet and fizzy in my mouth.”

Lola said “Good.”

Romy thought it was, “Very, very sour lemonade.”

Maddy told us “It tasted like lemon juice.”

Alex decided it was “Fizzy and yummy.”

Matilda agreed it was “Sour.”

Hamza thought it was “Fizzy!”

Jill said it was “Cold.”

After the grand planting ceremony we went back to our class for the class party! It was super exciting!  The table setting team had set the table, put out all the food and even picked flowers and put them in vases. It looked beautiful! We all took our places and had a feast! The rice paper rolls were so delicious and the dipping sauce was sensational!

Here are some of the things that our class friends said about our party:

“I felt really happy and I really liked them.”

“It was really fun and easy.”

“I loved it but I had to do work.”

“I liked all of it.”

“It was really super fun.”

“I liked making the dip because it got my hands sticky.”

“Yummy!”

“THIS IS THE BEST DAY OF MY LIFE!!!” 

Those are the questions that Lucy, Evie and Sunita asked the crowd!

Bye.

(This blog post was compiled by the reporting team, Lucy, Sunita and Evie, with a bit of help from Lauren)

A lovely week...

This week we have been very busy. Well, not busy but having fun. Here are some things that we have done.
(Written by Sam and Ilya)

I went to Tasmania for a holiday and I went to a spa, a pool and sauna.Daniel

I like doing double P.W.T. and writers notebook.Evie

Drawing the poppies. Gareth

I liked writing my poem and drawing my poppy flower. Isaac

I liked doing silent reading and writers notebook. Felix

I enjoyed writing my poem. Romy

I enjoyed running with my friends at lunch. Aidan

I enjoyed my keyboard lesson. Nina