Plants & Growth

The past few weeks have been great! I cannot believe it is the end of week 7!

I have been settling into my new role as CPAC - which has been busy! Had a pupil free day at one of the schools about moderation & the english curriculum - very interesting! We also had our whole partnership staff meeting which was a great chance to meet & network with a variety of teachers from our local schools. I met with all the year 1 teachers, where we shared some ideas and thought about what we could do next time we meet. I think most of us were happy just sharing ideas and learning together. Next term there is a partnership pupil free day - hopefully another good chance to further build these relationships. 

This last week at school has been fun! I love going back into the classroom after being out for a week. The kids are so amazing, and it's great to see their growth even after a week! I'm super lucky with the amazing team of teachers I work with in my classroom!!

This term, as part of science, we have been learning about plants and growth. 

Science Understanding
Biological Sciences 

• Living things have a variety of external features
• Living things live in different places where their needs are met

Science as Human Endeavour 

• Science involves asking questions about, and describing changes in, objects and events

Science Inquiry Skills

• Respond to and pose questions, and make predictions about familiar objects and events
• Participate in different types of guided investigations to explore and answer questions, such as manipulating materials, testing ideas, and accessing information sources 

This is one of our favourite experiments. We have 3 different plant groups - one on the shelf by the window, one under the sink in a cupboard, and one on the shelf in the classroom. We predict what might happen to each group, then are responsible for a couple of seeds. We then observe and record the changes over a few weeks, and finally summarise the experiment. The kids are loving coming in each morning to see how their plant has changed. 

During this plant unit, we also make and label our own plants. We gave the class instructions that they were to make and label a plant, we also looked at some plants online and around the school. It was interesting to see the different ideas - especially those who added rain, suns, etc. Very cute & a good way to show their learning & prior knowledge! 

As part of Science / Art, we read Eric Carle's 'The Tiny Seed and the Giant Flower'. This book explains the life cycle of a seed and the changes over the seasons. We designed and made 8 petals, then put them all in a box. Then we were given 8 random different petals to make our flower. They turned out really cute don't you think? 

  
That's all I've got today - I plan on taking some photos of our maths we've been doing and posting it. We've just changed our task cards to include more information from the Australian Curriculum so I'll talk about that next time!