Science & The 5 Es

We used the  5 E's as our inquiry model, to guide our planning and teaching of the last two science topics (Material World/Bread and Physical World/Bridges).  This helped our students build their own understandings from hands-on experiences and new ideas.  We are trying to develop a love for science through an inquiry approach.  We want the students in our care to be curious and motivated and connected to their world.  We believe that this way of teaching and learning will give our children a deeper understanding of science, where they can create new scientific discoveries.  Check out photos and work below!

The 5 E's are...
Engage - where we use an activity which will focus the children's  attention, stimulate their thinking, and access prior knowledge
Explore - activities which gives students time to think and investigate/test/make decisions/problem solve, and collect information
Explain - activities which allows students to analyse their exploration. This is where they clarify their  understanding  and modify it  through a reflective activity

Elaborate - expands and solidifies the children's thinking and it helps them apply it to a real-world situation
Evaluate - assess student performance and/or understandings of concepts, skills, processes, and applications ( can be during and at the end of inquiry)

Bread Recipe (by popular request)

Easy Bread Recipe For Kids 

 To make one large loaf of bread you will need: 
4 cups / 500g strong white bread flour
1 1/2 cups /300ml warm water
1 sachet (8g or 1 1/2 teaspoons) fast action dried yeast
2 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon olive oil

To make your loaf:
1. Pre-heat the oven to 225 degrees Celsius.
2.  Measure out all the ingredients into a large bowl and combine them together using 30 kneading movements.
3. Leave for 10 minutes then knead again using 30 movements.
4. Leave for another 10 minutes then knead again using 30 movements.
5. Leave the dough in a warm place for 30 minutes, with a clean cloth covering the top of the bowl.
6. Knead lightly and shape the dough into a round.
7. Place it on a greased baking tray.
8. Leave for another 30 minutes in a warm place
9. Bake the bread for 20-25 minutes.

Baking Our Bread (Food Technology & Science)

Baking Bread on PhotoPeach

Our Balloon Experiment

To try and see the carbon dioxide that is created when sugar is added to yeast we completed the following experiment. We got a small bottle and added a sachet of yeast, one teaspoon of sugar and 3cm of warm water. We then put the balloon over the top of the bottle to see what would happen.We drew our observations and labelled and annotated them.  We also filled in a cloze activity about what had happened.

Eve's Homefun

Queen Victoria

“Quick, run into that alley-way!”

It was midday and me, Niamh and my brother Max were playing a game of hide and seek. My brother was 'in' and me and my friend Niamh, were desperate for a place to hide. Finally we spotted an alley-way. We dodged down it just as I heard my brother call “...28, 29, 30”. When we reached the end of the alley-way, there was this sort of triangular box. We decided this was the perfect place to hide.

The strange “box” had a stop/go button and a clock on the outside and the door was like the door of an elevator or lift. Inside it was even more strange - it was square, unlike the triangular outside. The room had a strange menu on the wall, like you might see on a tablet. There was also a t.v. screen that said “camera” and “to seats”. After a couple of minutes Niamh and I started taking risks by pressing buttons randomly. I accidentally (not!) pressed a button that said “1837”. Immediately there were strange noises “whir, whir, buzz”, and we started going into this sort of trance and felt delirious. All of a sudden we stopped so suddenly that we touched the roof. Then we heard a voice say “out please”. The door opened and we stepped outside.

When the door opened we were greeted by some strange looking men strolling in a park. Suddenly a man came up to us, looked at our clothes and said in a funny accent “My, what unusual garments you have on, you must change at once!” He handed us some frilly dresses. We both groaned. Niamh and I are both tomboys, but we saw that the man looked fierce, so we reluctantly put on the dress. I chose blue and Niamh chose pink. When we had finished, we started to walk down the road. As we walked onwards we couldn’t believe our eyes. We saw dirty canals filled up with thick dirty liquid, but also lovely looking ladies wore lace dresses puffed up at the back. Suddenly we heard someone crying. In the distance we saw a group of ladies crying. We ran up and asked what was wrong. They were so upset we couldn’t get much out of them, but then finally one said, “Why my child, Queen Victoria’s Crown Jewels have been stolen”. Me and Niamh looked at each other and at the same time said “Take us to the Queen”.

We were led to the palace by the Queen’s soldiers, in red velvet uniforms and black top hats. As we went through the palace gates we saw the gardens. They were absolutely beautiful. There were little patches of blue bells and tulips and rose vines that climbed up gates. There were fountains that either had a face that looked like a pig or a big crown. It was so clean and beautiful - completely different to the grey and dirty streets we had walked through outside the gates.

When we got inside we went up hundreds of stairs. At last we were presented to a woman, who looked all the world like a pig in a bonnet!! She was crying bitterly over a glass cabinet. This must be the cabinet where the crown jewels were kept.  

“Why are you crying?” asked Niamh. This was a daft question and I rolled my eyes.

“The crown jewels have been stolen and they have been in the Royal family for generations”, the Queen answered in a snivelly voice.

“Do you know who stole them?”I said gently.

“Yes, Colonel Blood stole them. He had his first attempt in 1836, but my guards seized him and they took him to the Gulag in Russia. But in the early days of this year he escaped and has never been seen since. Last night he struck again and got away with it….”. She didn’t finish her sentence because she burst into tears.

“Let’s go find this thief” I said to Niamh.

“Where might we find him?” I asked Queen Victoria.

“I’ll make a list,” she said. Then handed us a piece of paper with 4 places on it:

*St Paul's Cathedral

*Nelson’s Column

*London Bridge

*The Tower of London

“Okay Niamh, let’s go to St Paul's Cathedral”, I say. 
When we got there, we had  a good look around, but we didn’t see anything suspicious. We found some hiding places, but no-one was there, so we went to Nelson’s column. Niamh just about got run over by a crazy man in a cart pulled by horses! There were lots of people in Trafalgar square, including lots of filthy children asking for food. But still no sign of Colonel Blood.

Next we went to Tower Bridge and paid for a tour. We went up the stairs and had a good look around the tower, but there was not a person in sight (apart from our tour group).

Finally, we went to the Tower of London. As we went down to the dungeons, I saw dangerous eyes lurking in the shadows. I told Niamh to go fetch the guards. 
“I’ll stay on watch” I said. 
Five minutes later the guards were here. Relief filled my body. They came out struggling with a short man wearing a red waist coat and black pants. He was carrying the Crown Jewels. They were a beautiful sea of shininess. Diamonds claimed a tiara while emeralds and sapphires over took a bracelet. We ran back to the Queen, giving her the Jewels and then raced to the time machine - time to go home!! We pressed the button saying “2014” and suddenly we were back in the alleyway with my brother Max saying “FOUND YOU!!”

By Eve Bretherton!

Yeast Cell Diagram

Grayson

Isabella S

Breanna

Taku Family: My Family

Click on the picture to practise  the skills and te reo we learnt in class today.

Flow Charts: From Wheat to Bread

Flow Chart - From Wheat to Bread

Today we selected the best thinking tool to show the process of making bread from wheat.  We decided on a flow chart because it will show the steps of a process in sequence.  We watched a short video about this process then discussed what picture and caption we will put in each box tomorrow.
Here are the stages in the process from wheat to bread ...


1. The wheat is carefully grown in a field.
2.  It is harvested so it can be milled.  using a combine harvester.
3. The harvested grains are stored in good safe conditions until they are needed.  These are called silos.
4.  The harvested wheat is sent to the mill and is washed, ground and gristed until flour is made.
5.  The flour is used  by bakeries in NZ to make bread.
6.  The bread is sold in shops and supermarkets.

Watch this Dough Rising at High Speed

Watch this video. By the end of our inquiry into bread we would like to explain how dough rises and why.

The bread stories

The Grain Chain: An introduction

Does Sugar Affect the Growth of Yeast?

We wanted to see whether the amount of sugar added affected the growth of the yeast.  To do this we made up 3 different mixtures

Bowl 1:   Yeast and water only - some small amounts of the yeast tried to foam up but not much                          happened

Bowl 2:   Yeast, water and 1 teaspoon sugar - the mixture foamed up and rose quite quickly and held                  its shape

Bowl 3:   Yeast, water and 5 teaspoons sugar - did foam up and rise but at a much slower rate, but after a while it began to slowly callapse.

So yes, sugar does affect the growth of yeast.

Because yeast is only one cell it can't make its own food, so we need to give it food (sugar).  The yeast eats the sugar and makes carbon dioxide.

We then added flour to each of the mixtures and made them into a dough and baked each one to see whether there would be any difference in taste.  Below are some comments.

Bowl 1 (No sugar)                       Most didn't like this one
The yeast taste was stronger because there was no sugar to balance it
There was nothing to cover the taste of the yeast
Was a bit dry

Bowl 2 (1 teaspoon sugar)          Majority liked this one
Tasted more like bread
Was softer

Bowl 3 (5 teaspoons sugar)         2 or 3 really liked this one
Very sweet
Cake like flavour
Had a stronger flavour/taste

A Wheat Grain

We looked at the grain of wheat and how it has three main parts.
The Bran Layer - Hard covering
The Wheat Germ - The seed
The Endosperm - Inside the grain

We then sketched and labelled a grain of wheat

ELOTC on the Ski Field - Cardrona

Lots of learning and fun was had by all up the mountain.

How to Make a Jam Sandwich

What you will need :

. 2 slices of bread

.butter

. plate

. knife

What to do

1. Place two slices of bread onto the plate.

2. Spread butter onto one slice of the bread.

3. Spread some jam on the piece of bread with nothing on it

4. Place the two slices together.

5. Enjoy your sandwich while its fresh

Nadia's Recipe for Pizza

After making the pizza I wrote my recipe.  Here it is

Making A Pizza

What You Need:

Pizza base

Tomato paste

Ham

Pineapple

Spoon

Knife

Cheese

Oven

Baking tray

What To Do:

1.  Pre-heat the oven to 200*c

2.  Spread the tomato paste onto the pizza base with a knife.

3. Place the ham on top of the tomato paste.

4.  Put the pineapple on top of the ham.

5.  Sprinkle the cheese on top of the pizza.

6.  Place the pizza in the oven on a baking tray.

7.  Once cooked enjoy while fresh.

Instructions Success Criteria

Writing Instructions Success Criteria

L2

•     Write a title 
•      List the instructions in order /sequence
•       Number instructions e.g. 1.  2.  3. 
•       List the materials needed  
•       Use an action word / doing word at the start of each instruction 
•       Use pictures to show the steps to make it clearer to the reader (optional)
•      Use topic words 
•      Sample words in the margin
•      Proof read my work and correct 2 words

L3

All of level 2 criteria

Plus…

•       Write 2 sentences after the title to explain more about the task
•       Start with a verb or an adverb (use adverbial phrases e.g. place the pineapple on top of the ham 
•       Conduct words when trying unknown words   
•       Proof- read and edit

Procedural Writing - Writing Recipes

Today we made pizzas so that we had the experience and knowledge needed to write a recipe. We began our planning ready to write our draft recipes tomorrow.   Here are our photos ...

Equipment & Ingredients

Spreading the tomato paste on the base.

That spicy tomato pizza base looks yummy. 

The works - ham, pineapple, cheese and tomato.

Just the cheese to go on this Hawaiian pizza.

Ready for the oven.

Sam and Grayson on dishes duty.

Cooking in the oven at 200 degrees celsius.

Some had salami rather than ham.

Too many tomatoes.  Not many of us liked them.

Cooked and ready to eat!

Yummy!

We ate these for morning tea.  They taste better when you make them yourself!

Bridges

LEOTC Day at the Clip & Climb