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.

Where is Egypt?

The earth is divided into 2 halves by the equator(Jessie and Samuel).

The earth is also divided into continents (Seb), like Asia(Melyssa) which are made up of lots of countries(Jessie).

Here are the names of the continents:

Asia, Europe, North America, South America, Australia (Mr Ben thought this continent had other names too), Africa, Antarctica.

Egypt is in Africa.

Here are 2 google earth pictures from the lesson today:

Here is a cool continent game to help you learn the names of the continents and where they are.

Writing about the beach - setting

I heard my friend Billy talking to a tall boy.  They were trying to make friends, saying things like "What is your name?  What are you doing today?  What date is your birthday?  How old are you?"  I heard the seagulls squarking loudly.  The wind blew very hard and very loud.
The coconut trees were leaning from the power of the wind.  I saw light sand and it was extremely hot and it looked very red.

Toby

Waves hitting shore, seagulls calling , it's a wonderful day to be at the beach. Suddenly I heard a screaming sound.  Oh, it was just a boy laughing about his video game.  So I just carried on sunbathing.  I heard a dog barking.  At  the sea a boy was just about to get the ball when suddenlyu he fell down a hole.  His parents raced to the hole, but the boy was already gone and there were some strange footprints which looked like hands.
Haley had silky brown hair and a pink swimming costume.  She was so shocked by the handprints...

Jessie

Tom was strolling along the beach when he saw something but he could not tell what it was because it was night.  Tom came back the next night.  It was still there so he made a plan to come back the next night.

Seb

Student Council Reps and...It's not part of the topic but...

Well done to Joe and Punn, the brand new, sparkling and enthusiastic 3W Student Council Reps for Term 1 . We had our class election today and children voted anonymously for their choice.

A big thankyou to ALL of the children who PARTICIPATED in the election but were not the overall winners. These were:
Seb, Anika, Richie and Ali. Everyone took a RISK and stood up in front of the rest of the class and said why they thought they would be a good Rep and also told us a little about their ideas for what could be changed.

I'd like to say a huge well done to Seb, who took this risk AND has only just started at Patana this term.

...have a look at this site. Move your cursor across the river and see what happens...amazing!

Plants....

Who...?
What...?
Where...?
When...?
Why...?
Which...?
How...?

Today we drew labelled diagrams of the parts of plants. See here for the one I drew in class.
Here are some questions which we want to find out about.
How did we get the first plants? (Poon)
Where do we get seeds from? (Jessie)
How do flowers grow? (Seb)
How does a flower gets its colour? (Cane)
Do plants or flowers eat? (Rita)
Why do we need plants? (Ali)
How do flowers get energy? (Anika)
How do plants breathe? (Toby)
Does cotton grow on plants? (Richie)
What is a plant? (Joe)