Weeding and Raft-testing

Morning Group:

We spent the morning at the Garden of Memories, helping with some weeding of Tradiscantia. 

I am SO proud of how hard all the children worked. I forgot to count all the rubbish bags we filled but it was definitely more than fifteen!

It was fun to be in the bush together, doing something helpful and enjoying each other's company. (A little piwakawaka / fantail enjoyed our company as well.)

Ideas for home:

- If you enjoyed weeding here, why not see if there is any new way you can help in your garden at home? Have you got a space where you can do your own planting?
- Why is Tradiscantia a problem? What other weeds can you identify?



Afternoon Group:

The big Raft Challenge is next week, so today we had a final test of our rafts in the water. It was great to see that all the rafts floated and we found that each raft had a few things that could be tweaked to make them more effective next week. Stability was a big factor, especially with the challenge of not making the rafts so wide that they can't fit into cars for transport to the beach and home again!

I am excited to see the finished products in action next week.

NEXT WEEK - BEACH DAY!

We will meet at the beach next week, where both groups will combine for a day of fun together on the land and water.

Remember to be sun-safe.

Along with the rafts, some people are talking about bringing boards and small boats. I will bring some personal floatation devices for kids to use with them - if you have any, feel free to bring them along. 

Let's hope the weather will be great too. If it really is horrible, we'll meet in the room instead.

How To / Rocks and Crystals

Morning Group:

Time to get our imaginations in gear again this morning. Before reading today's book, 'How To' by Julie Morstad, we played a game. It started when I asked everyone to clap - and we all clapped in the same way. The challenge was to find a way to clap that was still clapping but totally different to everyone else's way. Wow - some creative clappers in this group! 

We then drew cards from a hat and each used our imaginations to complete each 'how to' action in a unique way - making sandwiches, being mermaids, going fast or slow, washing socks and so on.

The book deals with all these things too and we talked afterwards about how special our imaginations are and how sometimes it's good to pause and think of different ways to approach things instead of doing what we always have done.

We then went down to the beach to enjoy the stunning weather and incoming tide. Remembering last week's story about building walls to stop the sea in Kiribati, some of us had a go at building one. In the end, the tide won, even though we put a lot of work into it.



The water was cool but warm enough for some to stay in for a long time!


'How to' make a luxury spa resort - complete with hot pools for feet!


For home:

- Play the 'how to' game with your family and see what people come up with.
- Is there are learning project you are working on at the moment? Think about a new way to tackle it. Try the 'how to' game with your work!


NEXT WEEK: we plan to go back to the Garden of Memories and help Whaea Taini with some weeding there.

THE WEEK AFTER THAT: Beach Day to celebrate end of term! Families welcome.


Afternoon Group:

It was great that so many of you brought rocks and crystals to show us all today. We discussed what we knew, shared ideas and spent a long time looking closely at the specimens through a portable microscope, magnifying glasses and loupes.





Then it was time to watch crystals growing.
We mixed a third of a cup of Epsom Salts with half a cup of hot water and a small squirt of dishwashing liquid, (to help me with clean up later!)



With cotton buds, we then painted some of the solution on a panel of glass, then watched carefully. Our writing and drawings crystallised before our eyes!







I had intended for us to go for a beach walk to discover different rocks, but the crystal painting was obviously too much fun, so for most of our session, that's what we did.

It was also good to see people asking questions of each other about their rocks and looking in the reference books for answers.

I will upload another experiment in the next few hours - the one that E asked for from the geode book.


Ideas for home:
- I know some of you want to make more Epsom Salts crystals! Try incorporating them with Christmas decorating.


Raft testing next week, so bring along what you have. The week after that is Beach Day!