How hard is rock?

Seb and Joe found out that a man called Mr Moh invented a scale of hardness, which we call the Moh scale.
Samuel reminded us that diamond is the hardest rock.
Seb and Joe also discovered that talc is the softest rock.

Due to the different properties of rocks and minerals, we use different rocks for different purposes.

Would you make a floor tile out of chalk? Why?
Would you make a roof tile out of diamond? Why?
Would you use granite for a wind screen (windshield)? Why

We use rocks for different purposes, because of their properties.

Here are some other interesting rock facts and questions which really make you think about how often we use rocks and minerals.

Here is a great site which shows how rocks and minerals are used around the home.

Monday 26th Cake Homework

Your homework will involve making biscuits (cookies) using the recipe below. If you cannot do this sometime this week, then try to calculate double the quantities, for your maths homework.

Why?

1. Because we are learning about metamorphic rocks and cooking is very much like the process of making metamorphic rocks...there is pressure (mixing) and there is heat (from the oven) and the result is that the ingredients change their structure and how they look.
2. Also, you may decide to DOUBLE the ingredients because you want to bring some in to school...This is great for your maths practice.
3. Measuring will be really helpful for those of you who need some practice at accurately taking measurements.
4. Oh, it's also because they are tasty .

The recipe for Metamorphic Munchables is shown below...they will be lavaly.

WARNING FROM SEB:

The cakes were very runny with the recipe's amount of flour...you may need to add some more flour.

Ingredients:

125g caster sugar, one egg, 75g chocolate chips, 150g self raising flour, 75g soft butter, 1/2 tsp vanilla essence.

Utensils:

scales, a large bowl, a wooden spoon, a teaspoon, a dessert spoon, a greased baking sheet, a wire cooling rack, an oven and oven gloves.

What you do:

Ask an adult to turn on the oven to 190 C (375 F or Gas 5)

Cream the butter and sugar together until the mixture is light and fluffy.

Beat in the egg and vanilla essence.

Mix in the flour.

Stir in the chocolate chips.

Use a dessert spoon to drop spoonfuls of the mixture onto the greased baking sheet. Leave space for the mounds to spread as they cook.

Ask an adult to put the cookies in the oven. Bake for 10 - 15 minutes or until they are golden brown. When they are ready, ask an adult to take them out of the oven and lift them on to a wire rack to cool and harden.

Enjoy your Metamorphic Munchables.

King Tut in New York

Great pictures here from an exhibition of artefacts connected with King Tutankhamen.

Another volcano link

Animated explanation of Earth's mantle and crust

The blog looks different doesn't it!

I had a few problems yesterday, but I hope it's now back to normal.

Please let me know if:

• there are any problems,
• if any links do't work
• if you can't find something on the blog.

Thanks for reading and commenting.

What is in soil?

Choose the right words from the list below in the right sentence:
rock, four, magnifying glasses, sieves, microscope, three, organic, separated.



1. We used _________ to separate out the rocks and soil.

2. Soil is made up of _________ material (it used to be alive), as well as fragments of ________

3. We used _________ sieves and __________ the soil into _________ different piles of material.

4. Afterwards, we used __________ and a ___________ to look at the particles.

Video Book reviews

Have a look at these video book reviews.

I think you can vote on your favourite...I haven't voted yet, but if you find out how to do it please let me know.

Some of them take quite a while to load so...be patient.

Please let me know which ones you really like and we can then look at them in class together.

How can we make sand for our model of Ancient Egypt?

We are learning about Ancient Egypt and want to make a large model for the shared area. We are making it from 8 squares of corraflute (60cm x 60cm) but we need to make it more desert like.

























We have some buckets of earth, soil, and rocks.










How could we separate the sand from the soil sample?

Please send your ideas in as comments.

Volcano update

Animated map of ash fallout.

Video of helicopter flying near plume of volcanic smoke - lightning and debris are visible. See below:



These sites are from Lazzy Ferlazzo's blog.

38 is the answer...what is the question?

For your homework this week, I'd like you to make 10 facts with answers of 38!

• Aim for 10 facts.
• Try to include at least 1 question which uses each of the four operations (+ - x and divide).
• Try to have at least one fraction question.
• Try to have at least one money question.

If the calculation is complicated, show your workings (use grid method, a numberline or a compact vertical method).

This homework is due in on Monday, 26th April.

Spot the difference!

Can you find a difference between these two copies of the same page from different versions of the same book?



Maybe we should write to the publishers!

Well done to Tinn and Samuel for noticing the differences while they were researching.

The cycle of life

No...not the bicycle of life!

Today our garden monitor came into class with this!

We have successfully grown rice in our Year 3 garden!

As you can see there is not enough to make a meal but we have gone from seed to plant to seed...a complete cycle of life.



We were talking about the rock cycle earlier on as well as the water cycle.

Are there any other cycles which you can think of? (apart from the ones with wheels!)

Cool lava!...no really, it is actually cool enough to touch!

We are really lucky to have a recent visitor to Iceland in our class, who returned to Bangkok hours after the volcanic activity started.

Here are some pictures.

To be esafe, we have not included the visitors name. Remember not to include names in your comments or else they will not be passed.

Do you have any questions for our visitor?

If so, post a comment and we'll post a follow up article with some answers.

BlogThis!

Ancient Egypt Vocabulary Graphic Organiser

We used this graphic organiser to help become more familiar with words connected with Ancient Egypt.

We worked in groups and this meant that we had to listen, talk, think, cooperate, and help each other learn to say and start to understand these words.

Here is a link to the googledoc that we used in class.

You can use the hyperlinks on the document to research.

Look at some of the pictures of us working together in groups.