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

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.

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.

Light and Colour

We have started looking at Light and Colour in Room 1 as part of our Science topic. Here is a selection from the things the students want to know;

How do we see light?
How is light different colours?
Why does light shine from the sun?
How is it made?
Why does light travel so fast?
Why do shadows make a picture of you?
How does light stay being light? What happens when it stops?
Why is this crayon brown when I look at it and not blue?

I think I have my work cut out and 'because' probably won't cut it.

Here is a collage of the spectrum that we have made in class. Special thanks to the main gluers - Olivia, Liam and Maggie May as well as all the colour finders.

Pizza Fractions

On Friday we had pizzas for lunch.
Here are some fraction photos.

Half a Pizza

Whole pizza

One quarter of
a pizza 

3 quarters of
a pizza

What fraction is this?

I was so pleased to hear the children say that these are not quarters because they are not equal sizes.

Normandale Olympics

Last week we had our Normandale Olympics with relays, mini-javelin and many other sports. Mr Haste took white water kayaking.
We used cones for gates, hurdles for rapids, and hoops for spin round zones. The kayaks were pretty tired looking after everyone had had a couple of turns in them!

Swimming

We had our own little Busby Berkeley moment at swimming today.

Our classes have a photo exhibition "Normandale - Through The Lens". The photos are on display in the hall. There are a few more to go up but they will all be there by the end of the week. Here is a sneak preview of Room 1's photographs.

Swimming

Yesterday we had our first day swimming. Some of us were in the main pool. We watched as they made the pool shallower so that we could all touch the bottom of the pool.

Warm up games.

Practising kicking.

Telling Time

Last week we were telling the time. We used the whiteboard to show o'clock, half past, quarter past and quarter to. Here are some of our students using the board.

Here is the link to the clock so you can have a go at home.

http://www.teacherled.com/resources/clockspin/clockspinload.html

Spinning

  On Tuesday we had a visit from Mrs Ross who showed us all about how you turn wool from a sheep into wool that you can use to knit or weave.

 

 First we looked at some wool that had been shorn from a sheep and washed. Liam said it was really soft. Ben said some of the wool was a bit stinky.

First she had to card the wool, which takes the knots out of the wool and helps get rid of any twigs and grass in the wool (Rachel).  The picture shows her using a hand carder.

Next Mrs Ross Spun the wool. She showed us two ways  of spinning. The first was a spindle where you spin the wool by hand. Then she showed us how to use a spinning wheel.

We all had a turn on the spinning wheel but it was a bit harder than it looked.

Visitors

I was just looking at 'Who is watching us and we reached a couple of milestones last week.
We had our 2000th visitor to our blog!
Among those we had our 100th visitor from the USA (from 26 of 50 states).
We had visitors from Portugal, Ireland and Switzerland which brings the number of different countries to 30.

It always amazes me how so many people from so many different countries visit our class blog and see what we are doing.

Holiday Quake

Who felt that earthquake last night? At our house it was very noisy (bit like a big train going past) and went on for a long time but the shaking wasn't very strong. It was more of a gentle rocking with a couple of small judders mixed in. It didn't wake up my boys.
Tell me what you felt or if you slept through it as well.

It is great seeing that there are so many having a go on Superclubs Plus. Every time I log on there is always at least 1 person logged on from Room 1.
I like your home page Lara.

eLearning Conference

Today we had an in school eLearning conference where our senior students from room 7 and 8 taught our junior students some new skills. The students got to try four different activities.
They learnt about making music on the iPads, using iMovie, taking photographs and using programs like Comic Life, Kidspiration, and Kidpix.

 Working on Kidspiration

 

The Seniors were our  Teachers 

 

We worked with buddies from Room 2, 3 or 4.

 

We Made movies using iMovie

 

The 'doco' team recorded it all.

We all had a great time.