"Filling Buckets"

We read this book on Thursday:

 

It's all about how we can take good care of each other and "fill each others buckets" with kind thoughts and actions. Here are a couple of pages from the book:

 

We decorated our own buckets, then we wrote lovely, kind words to put in everyone else's buckets. 

As you can see, we were all very happy to have our buckets filled! 

Sally and the Beans

In Emma's story today, Sally grows some beans. Look at this bean plant growing!

What's Inside Pumpkins and Pears?

 Today we looked very carefully at this pear. 

Carolyn wrote down our ideas and our curious questions.

 

 After we had a look at the pear, we had a look at a pumpkin.

It was green and yellow and had a stalk, too. It was bumpy.

We cut the pumpkin open. It was orange on the inside.

It had seeds in it, too. We wondered how many seeds are in a pumpkin.

There were a lot! We laid them all out on hundred boards so we could keep track of them. 

Our pumpkin had 172 seeds! They were slimy and stringy.

 Nicole's class did a pumpkin, too. 

Their pumpkin has 152 seeds!

 

Visiting Willard Home

Another of the lovely things about Russell Street School - our ongoing relationship with Willard Home - adjoining our school property. Today it was our turn to visit the residents. We took our poem books and our favourite reader and off we went. The Little Einsteins were just wonderful - they were sweet and polite and entertaining - you would have been very proud of them, Mums and Dads!

  That is a lot of walking frames!

 Ready to share our poems and our favourite reader.

 Waiting for the residents to arrive in the lounge.

We said all our poems and then it was off to meet everyone and read to them.

 We found a cat asleep in the corner - his name is Leo.

And the grandfather clock was HUGE! We are going to go back another day 

at "something o'clock" to hear it bong!

Life Education with Tim and Harold the giraffe...

We had two sessions in the Life Education truck, starring Tim and Harold the giraffe. We went with Nicole's class. Nicole recorded all our learning on this wonderful slide show. Thanks, Nicole!

Lizard Loses His Tail!

Emma read Lizard Loses His Tail. The lizard in her story was lucky  to get away - this lizard was EATEN by the kingfisher!

What's Inside a KETTLE?

 This is a broken kettle.

This is what we talked about:

It is broken. 

It is not at a house.

 There are adults to help us. 

So it is safe for us to pull it apart. 

We DO NOT do this at our houses - it is a special school science investigation.

 This is the button you push to make the lid pop up. (It's broken.)

 

These are the marks that tell you how much water you have in there.

  

Look what you see when you take the bottom off!

The round ridge is the element or coil that heats the water.

The circle in the middle is where it stands on the piece that the plug is on. 

The plastic arms are connected to the switch on the outside. 

 They are what turn the electricity on to heat the water.

The shiny round disc by the switch gets hot as well and when it gets too hot, 

it sends a message to the switch to turn off 

and that's what stops the jug from boiling non-stop!

 We all had a turn with the switch.

What's Inside a TOASTER?

Here is an old toaster. 

This is what we talked about:

It is broken. 

It is not at a house.

 There are adults to help us. 

So it is safe for us to pull it apart. 

We DO NOT do this at our houses - it is a special school science investigation.

 

Stephen's dad, Clint helped us take the toaster apart and we had a look at it.

 The springs help stop our toast flying into the air when it pops up.

 This is the dial that we turn to make our toast darker or lighter...

 ...and this is the circuit board it is connected to. (Is that right, Clint?!)

 Lyric and Sophie checking out the case.

 These are the little trays that catch the crumbs.

 This is where you put the bread to toast it.

 Those bits poking out are where the plastic handles slide on.

It's amazing what's going on underneath our shiny toasters!