Today we kept reading and learning about the human body.
Some of the kids were begging to learn about kidneys yesterday (I know right?!), we started with kidneys and the bladder.
Mrs Sharma and Miss Ashley took us in small groups to read with us about the kidneys and the bladder.
Again, we went away and documented the new words and the function of each organ.
Over the next couple hours, both Mrs Sharma and miss Ashley took small groups and taught us about the lungs and the liver as well. We worked throughout the day to record their learning.
We learnt soooo many new words again today - check out our running total!
The other thing we did today was begin colouring in our organs. Our last two goals for the week were to build a model of the body, and use it to explain the organs' functions. To do this, we needed to colour in organs, laminate them, cut them, write the organs function on them and then arrange them on a body. Lots of work to do!
Today we began digging deep into our scientific information!
We read a text about the brain - e.g.
Then we discussed the new words we learnt, and used the text to help us figure out what those words meant. Next, Miss Ashley recorded these 'new words' on the whiteboard but did not record their meaning. We had to find that for ourselves by looking back at the tet.
Next, Miss Ashley showed us how to record our thinking in the template she had given them. A few students helped her write this.
Then, students went off and recorded their own thinking in their own words...
Miss Ashley loved that we started to put pictures in our presentations to help explain what we were talking about. She didn't tell us to do this, we just did it on their own! As we finished with their recording, we started reading about the next organ in small groups. This was about the stomach. We followed the same model - read, discuss, record new words, students independently record thinking in their own words.
After lunch, we wanted to keep going, with some students requesting 'can we do kidneys next?', 'can we do lungs?'. After lunch, we read about the heart.
While we were learning about the heart, Miss Ashley showed the students (in small groups) what the heart looks like when it really beats.
This is an app called Anatomy 4D which I downloaded onto her phone. The app allows you to scan the picture of a heart and it brings up an animation on your screen (in a similar style to Snapchat filters or Pokemon Go). It shows the different parts of the heart, and you can turn on/off different parts (that blue circle in the corner of the screen) to highlight a particular feature.
These are some screenshots Miss Ashley took off her phone - she emphasised the blue and red arteries, which indicate which way the blood is flowing (into or out of the heart) which was something our reading taught us about.
We LOVED being able to really see it beat in real life (well, almost). Some of them even counted their pulse on their wrists (something I taught them to do yesterday) and said if their heartbeat was faster or slower than the one on the screen. Amazing!
We had such RICH CONVERSATIONS about the three body parts we had learnt about, and made so many connections to the systems we talked about yesterday as well. It was an amazing day!
AND LOOK AT ALL THE WORDS WE LEARNT IN ONE DAY!
When Mrs Sharma came in during lunch, some kids were almost fighting to explain to her what borborygmi was!
It was an awesome second day of our human body unit. It is so encouraging to see all the students so engaged with their learning and so eager to share it and learn even more!
This week we are doing a science unit focus on the human body.
Firstly, we discussed our goals
We talked a lot about how we are not going to use words like "tummy", we are going to challenge ourselves to use the proper scientific words. If we don't know them, we are going to learn them!
Then we watched this video...
As we watched, Miss Ashley would pause the video and ask questions to clarify understandings and check for connections made. It was awesome! For example, she paused at 1.00, and asked students what were some bones in their body? We all said and pointed to their spine, anklebone, skull, shoulder blade etc.
As our first goal was to 'name at least 3 systems of the body', we aimed to complete this goal after watching this video. Here are some student blog posts explaining 3 systems of the body in their own words. Hiria - Digestive system-when you eat it go down your body and the nutrients go away and the one you don't need you poop it out. muscular system-the function is that the muscular make you talk,run,walk,move and everything. nervous system- your bairn make you stand up and it send you a messege to make you move. Isaia - digestive systems function the food takes out the nutrients go to the blood then the rest that the food tears into poop. muscular systems is your muscles one of your muscle is your bicep brachii.
Dziah -
the function is your stomach and your intestines
the function is your muscles and where you get strong
the function is your lungs and where your heart is on the other side on your left.
Even though some of us didn't really get it, most of us did and that is awesome! We will get the chance to revisit this learning throughout the week and make connections as learn about the various organs which are involved with different bodily systems.
I love how you have tried to add detail here Stanley - like 'she closed her eyes as tight as she could'. You have also included Dialogue in your story which is amazing! Kia kaha Stanley!
Today we were leaning to look and talk about what you should not do and something you should do and today we had to talk about it with a class first then we can go on our netbooks to do it so we know how to
do it that is why we have to talk about it first before you do it.
Last Friday was 'World Dog day'. One of the teachers and our Principal both had their dogs at school. This Term we have learnt about how to keep ourselves safe around dogs. It was a great chance to see if students remembered it. As soon a King ( Dog's name) came to our class, some of the students stood in a tree position. They also remembered to pat the dog under the chin and on the chest and to do a ball sign to ask if it wanted them to stoke it.
This week Harold talked about making good choices. We learnt about how to make new students feel at home during their first few weeks. We talked about the lesson yesterday and recapped what Harold had told us. The lesson blended in very well with our school values and this is what some of our new kids had to say...
" I was nervous but Grace helped me with English because I speak samoan" said Mary Jane.
" I was confused because this was different to my school in Parmeston" said Mojtaba.
" I was scared because I did not know anyone at school, when I first came" said Rawiri.
" I was happy because Lia became my friend" said Grace.
Last week was our Fire Safety week. The best bit was when the firemen visited our school to talk about how we can keep ourselves safe from fire. Students understood how hard it was for firemen to save people in case of fire. They recognised them as heroes and some students got so inspired that they wanted to be the firemen when they grow up!
Today we had our syndicate Olympics. We have all been studying the Olympics all term and so we focused on the Olympic Values of Respect, Excellence and Friendship.
We moved from teacher to teacher, each who ran a different sports (Shot put, long jump, relays) and gave it all a go! The teachers decided not to award us first, second and third places, but to instead award students who showed the Olympic Values.
Check us out!
We had soo much fun at the syndicate Olympics and can't wait to do it all again for athletics next term!
