Ricotta

Today we turned our hand to making ricotta.

First we put milk and some extra cream in a pot and gently heated it until it was just boiling. We had to stir it so it wouldn't stick to the bottom of the pot.




Then we squeezed some lemon juice and added it to the pot along with some salt. It then had to simmer for a few minutes.

Can you see the curds that formed in the milk?

Mr Haste poured it into some cheesecloth to separate the curds from the whey. We had to lift it up so the whey could drain easily.

Here is the finished product - extra fresh ricotta cheese.

Cottage Cheese

On Tuesday we made some cottage cheese as part of our technology unit.
We mixed milk powder with some milk then heated it gently until it was just luke-warm. Then we added rennet and left it for 15 minutes to set.
After that Mr Haste cut it into 1cm cubes to let the whey separate from the curds.
Then we poured it into cheesecloth for two hours.
The next day we tried some on crackers.
We used the recipe from
http://www.nzwomansweekly.co.nz/food/nanas-pantry/homemade-ricotta-and-cottage-cheese/

Can you see the whey that has separated from the curds overnight?

A quick sample of the students:
7 really liked it
6 thought it was ok
6 didn't like it at all

Given that it was cottage cheese and children I call that a victory!

Xtramath

This term we have been trialling Xtramath - learning our 100 addition basic facts from 0+0 to 9+9 and then moving on to our subtraction facts.
Four students - Hannah, Charlie, Lidia and Emily have moved on to subtraction. Well done to them.
We have another group sitting in the 90s working on those last few addition problems - Arama, Benjamin, Izzy, May and Rachel. There is another big group just behind.

For me as a teacher, I see all the students' growing confidence in their basic facts knowledge in class at maths time. They are moving up the basic facts ladder too. I am confident that this increased knowledge  will help them learn new strategies in the future.
Thank you to all the parents who have been supporting the students to practise at home.

Viewing An Eclipse

Today we talked about viewing tomorrow's partial eclipse.
We had a long discussion about never looking directly at the sun.
We also made a pin-hole camera to use when viewing the eclipse. Here are two videos that explain how to make your own pinhole camera and some background information about eclipses.

http://www.space.com/15737-safely-sun-build-shoebox-pinhole-camera-video.html
Here is a Bill Nye version - I really like his way of teaching science.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XmfkskZfT_E

Making Butter

Today in Room 1 we made butter as part of our food science unit. 

We poured some cream into a clean jar and added a pinch of salt. Next we had turns shaking the jar like crazy, this took quite a long time. Eventually we saw the yellow blob of butter separate from the thin buttermilk. Then we gave the butter a taste test on crackers.

Our butter

The left over buttermilk.

The butter tasted delicious - Charlie

It was different from usual butter but oh so yummy - Hannah

I didn't expect it to taste like that - Lily

It tasted like a buttercup - May

It tasted milky and creamy - Christopher

It was yummy and delicious - Rachel

Ra Maths

The Ra maths group has been learning to use addition strategies for solving problems with larger numbers.
Charlie has used  Place Value partitioning - separating numbers based on place value and recombining.

 
Hannah has solved her problem by using tidy numbers. Rounding to a tidy number (that is easier to add) and then adjusting her answer (compensating) to get the correct result.



Lidia has used a similar Rounding and Compensating strategy when operating with tens (decades).


May has used the same strategy in two different ways. Great musical accompaniment as well May!

Xtramath

This week we have been trying out Xtramath.
It is a free on-line tool to help us learn our addition, subtraction, multiplication and division facts. We want to practise every day and the program targets the next facts we need to learn.

The children brought home their own passwords today on a flyer, please help them to login the first time from home. Use the Enroll tag as it will link them to their class account.
Parents please watch the videos (indicated on the flyer).
Here is the link, it is also added to the sidebar.

Xtramath

Please contact me if you have any problems.

Welcome Back

Welcome back to Term 4. Sadly we are 1 person light as Lara left us at the end of last term. She has moved house with her family and will be going to Waterloo School.
As always Term 4 is extremely busy building up to the end of our year in Room 1.
Our writing focus will be on Narrative - telling stories. We will be thinking about who will be reading our stories and exploring different ways to publish our work. What a wonderful way to start with a visit to the New Dowse to see the Lynley Dodd exhibition.
In Reading we are working hard on using our comprehension strategies to explain what we know and understand about what we have read.
For Maths we will be revisiting Addition and Subtraction and then exploring geometry in the second part of the term. We are working hard on learning our basic facts (more to come!).
We have a Technology focus in our topic work. Room 1 and 4 will be exploring milk. Where it comes from and what it is used for.

Have a great term - I'm looking forward to a lot of great learning opportunities.

Calendar Art

Orders for calendars (and cards) have to be in by Wednesday 26th September.
These will be different from last year and you will have a choice of three different backgrounds.
They make great Christmas presents for grandparents as well!

A note came home 2 weeks ago and is available on the website.

Loud Shirt Poster

Here is a Loud Shirt Day poster created by Mrs Campbell. We raised $140.90 which is pretty awesome.

Loud Shirt Day

Friday was Loud Shirt Day which raises money for The Hearing House and the Southern Cochlear Implant Programmme. They help deaf children learn to talk and hear like their friends. I think cochlear implants are amazing. 

Here is Room 1 with their loud shirts on.

Can you match the colours to the people?

 

Science Night

What a great evening we had sharing what we are learning in Science with our families. In Room 1 we have been learning about light and colour. We shared some of the experiments we have done in class. I liked hearing some of the 'science' words being used by the students explaining things to their parents.

Mixing coloured light.

Laser target - using reflection.

The disappearing coin.

Using a water prism to make the spectrum.

I liked going to Room 8 and being blindfolded to taste chocolate - Rachel
I liked the laser target but I kept getting it in the wrong place - Zoe
I liked the laser target because I kept getting it on the sides and middle -Arama
The Magnets were cool especially moving the paperclips with the magnet under the table - Izzy
I liked the electricity in room 8, Mya used 2 lemons and 2 oranges to make electricity - Lidia
Alex's big volcano was cool - Keanu
I liked the ice-cream experiment in Room 7, we got to taste it - Zoe
I made a volcano in a cup and I still have red food colouring on my hands - Maggie May

Please check out our photoblog in the meantime for some pictures from last night.

Cricket

Last week we had some cricket training with Chris from Wellington Cricket. Unfortunately the weather meant we were confined to the hall. We could only practice throwing, fielding, bowling and running (no batting).

However it was all action as the photos show. There was plenty of moving and developing our cricket skills.

Lining up a throw.

Running.

Friday's Assembly

Here are our videos from Friday's assembly. What a great job all our presenters did!
What a shame the technology was not as well behaved.

Daffodil Day

Friday was Daffodil Day and the children of Normandale School were asked to wear yellow and bring a gold coin donation. Daffodil Day raises money for the NZ Cancer Society.

Room 1 in yellow.