Saturday, 14 July 2012

Highlights of Term 3, Week 2 & 3

Dear 3B,
the past two weeks were filled with interesting activities and incidents in our class- here's a quick look at what has been done!

Maths: Money
Ms Priya's Salary *shhhh*

We continued to explore the topic of money and how we go about adding and subtracting money.
We tried to figure out Ms Priya's salary and where her money goes every month! All of you were excellent accountants, providing me with accurate calculations and even sage advice - thank you!
I hope you had fun being accountants and helping me to keep track of my money. I sure enjoyed it!


Science: Magnets
The floating bed
We looked at Dutch architect Janjaap Ruijssenaars' invention : The Floating Bed and discussed about what could be causing the bed to "float".
When everyone smartly guessed "Magnets", they were then asked to wear a designer's hat and each group discussed how exactly could magnets be used to make the bed float.
I was very impressed with the detailed drawings groups came up with and the amount of thought and effort put into the discussion - keep it up guys!

Designs as to how the floating bed would work

Sharing by Designers

Some of the ideas suggested by You!

Here's some food for thought for you to think about:
1) Most of you suggested magnetic floors, magnetic ceilings and magnetic walls to control the magnetic field of the bed. Is this a wise idea? Will the bed be the ONLY object in the room affected by the field?

2) Like most adults, I usually place my phone right next to me when i sleep. If I were to do that on a magnetic bed, would there be any problems? Why?

English: Report Card Days
After the exciting "Blink-Off", we started on our next text : Report Card Days!

First, we sketched images that came to our mind when the phrase "report card" was mentioned.
We then predicted what the text would be like before reading it and discussed it!

And to follow up, you were given a task for this weekend :
An Interview with Parents/Grandparents about their Report Card Days!!



*Dear parents, this activity is just meant to be an interesting discussion for the children to know more about you and your schooling life! The pupils will share their interviews with the class - I hope you don't mind and have fun!


Surprise Visitor in the Class...
On the first day of Week 3, we found a surprise visitor in our class - a bird! Although it rammed into the light and fan, it still remained strong and unhurt.
But the shock of the collision seemed to have stunned it, so 3B decided to let it recover on top of our class cupboard until it was calm. Later during recess, Mr Amran popped by to bring the bird out of the classroom and free it - thank you Mr Amran!



Once again, it has been a great two weeks of fun and learning!

Post your thoughts about these two weeks!

Love,
Ms Priya :)

http://www.gizmag.com/go/5824/ (this article discusses the invention as well as provides us with more pictures - the one with the puppy on the bed is really cute!)