Tui and Wheke Room’s (YR1)

Challenge 1

Use recycled materials to build a car

Challenge 2

Build a nest of sticks for a small animal

Challenge 3

Make a boat out of anything plastic- see if you can make your boat float.

Challenge 4

Build an aircraft that will fly as far as possible, using materials from around the house e.g. straws, paper, sellotape, blu-tack, paper clips, recycling...etc. Start by drawing a plan/sketch of your design with labels.

Challenge 5

Imagine you are in the jungle and you come to a raging river. The only bridge across the river is broken. Can you build a bridge from recycled materials/things you have in your house to take you across the river. The bridge must sit on the back of two chairs facing outwards. The bridge must be as long as possible but strong enough to support a weight. How much weight can your bridge hold?

Challenge 6

Balloon Powered Vehicle - Can you make a vehicle that is powered by nothing more than the air from a blown up balloon. How far can your vehicle go? Extension: Use 2 or 3 balloons.

Challenge 7: Shadows - The Earth & The Sun

Take a break from looking at a screen and go outside to look at the sky instead. It’s dangerous to look at the Sun, but we can observe the apparent movement of the Sun across the sky by looking at shadows. Activity: 1. At the beginning the day, locate the position of the Sun in the sky. Important: Remind children that looking at the Sun is very dangerous. They can glance at the sky, but they should not look directly at the Sun. 2. Use chalk to draw around the feet of another person in your bubble, then trace around the person’s shadow. 3. Discuss/make predictions about potential changes to the shadows during the day. 4. Return twice during the day. Students stand in the outline of their feet while a partner traces around the new shadow. Note the position of the Sun in the sky. Photograph the outlines for future discussions. 5. Discuss the relationship between the Sun’s position in the sky to the size and shape of the shadows. 6. If time allows, repeat the experience at the same times the following day. Make observations and discuss the results.

Challenge 8: Cloud in a Bottle

1. Give children a soda bottle, some hot water and an ice cube.

2. Pour the hot water into the bottle. Ask the students what is happening to the air in your bottle? How could you use the ice cubes to cool the air in the bottle? What do you think will happen when you open the bottle and put an ice cube at the mouth of the bottle?

3. After 2–3, minutes students remove the cap and put an ice cube over the mouth of the bottle. A cloud should form just below the ice cube. Ask the students to describe their observations. Ask what happens to air filled with water vapour when it is cooled? What two things must be present for a cloud to form? (Water vapour, cooling air.)

Challenge 9: Candle in a Jar

1. Secure a candle to a saucer with modelling clay/plasticine/blu tac. The candle should be about half as tall as the jar or bottle you are using.

2. Pour water into the plate and add a few drops of food colouring if you want to (it might make observations easier).

3. Light the candle.

4. Cover the candle with an upside down jar or bottle and watch carefully.

5. When you are ready to start again, carefully tilt the jar or bottle to slowly empty it back into the plate. Aerate the jar again or bottle by filling it with water and emptying it again. This removes all the gases in the bottle and replaces it with fresh air.

6. Try experimenting with different candles, bottles and jars. Record what happens with each and jot down your ideas on what you think is happening.

https://www.sciencelearn.org.nz/resources/776-the-great-candle-experiment

Ruru and Te Kahu Room’s (yr3&4)

New Challenges Week 4/5

1)Make a cup tower using plastic cups. How tall can you make it with the least amount of cups?

2)Make Your Own Fake Snot

As disgusting as it might sound to some people, let's make some fake snot! Snot actually serves an important purpose in our body so this experiment is not all about grossing out our friends, although that's certainly part of the fun.

What you'll need:

• Boiling water (be careful with this)

• A cup

• Gelatin

• Corn syrup

• A teaspoon

• A fork

Instructions:

1. Fill half a cup with boiling water.

2. Add three teaspoons of gelatin to the boiling water.

3. Let it soften before stirring with a fork.

4. Add a quarter of a cup of corn syrup.

5. Stir the mixture again with your fork and look at the long strands of gunk that have formed.

6. As the mixture cools slowly add more water, small amounts at a time.

What's happening?

Mucus is made mostly of sugars and protein. Although different than the ones found in the real thing, this is exactly what you used to make your fake snot. The long, fine strings you could see inside your fake snot when you moved it around are protein strands. These protein strands make snot sticky and capable of stretching.

3)Make a mini seesaw scale using things around the house. What could you use as the different weights to compare different objects weight?

New Challenges Week 3

Challenge 1

Make a marble run maze. You could use toilet rolls or a Lego board as your base to create a maze. Challenge the people in your bubble to complete the maze the quickest.

Challenge 2

Design a bridge that is at least 30CM long out of dry spaghetti. See how stable it is by adding coins to see how many your bridge can hold.

Challenge 1

Use recycled materials to build a car

That has moving wheels and can travel more than 1 meter

Challenge 2

Build a fort using things from inside your house like blankets, sheets, chairs.

Challenge 3

Make a boat that can float out of anything plastic that can hold a $2 coin

Kikihi, Mako and Maki Pai Room’s Yr4-6)

New Challenges Week 4/5

1) Replicate the Eiffel Tower using tooth picks and marshmallows or cut up fruit. Can you design your own tower? Which shape is the strongest?

2)Make a pulley system that can hold a bucket of stuff and be lifted at least 3M.

3)Mixing Oil and Water

Some things just don't get along well with each other. Take oil and water as an example, you can mix them together and shake as hard as you like but they'll never become friends.....or will they? Take this fun experiment a step further and find out how bringing oil and water together can help you do your dishes.

What you'll need:

• Small soft drink bottle

• Water

• Food colouring

• 2 tablespoons of cooking oil

• Dish washing liquid or detergent

Instructions:

1. Add a few drops of food colouring to the water.

2. Pour about 2 tablespoons of the coloured water along with the 2 tablespoons of cooking oil into the small soft drink bottle.

3. Screw the lid on tight and shake the bottle as hard as you can.

4. Put the bottle back down and have a look, it may have seemed as though the liquids were mixing together but the oil will float back to the top.

What's happening?

While water often mixes with other liquids to form solutions, oil and water does not. Water molecules are strongly attracted to each other, this is the same for oil, because they are more attracted to their own molecules they just don't mix together. They separate and the oil floats above the water because it has a lower density.

If you really think oil and water belong together then try adding some dish washing liquid or detergent. Detergent is attracted to both water and oil helping them all join together and form something called an emulsion. This is extra handy when washing those greasy dishes, the detergent takes the oil and grime off the plates and into the water, yay!

New Challenges Week 3

Challenge 1

Build a catapult using things around the house i.e. Lego, Popsicle sticks, rubber bands, milk tops etc... It must catapult a piece of Lego at least 2M.

Challenge 2

Design and create a capsule that will safely see an egg to the ground. The egg must be dropped from at least 4M. You will need to test and change your capsule a few times so don't give up!

Use recycled materials to build a car that can be powered by the wind and travels in a straight line and goes more than 1 meter

Challenge 2

Create a shelter using materials from around the house that will keep you warm and dry if you had to stay outside overnight. (You do not have to stay overnight in the shelter)

Challenge 3

Make a boat that can float out of anything plastic that can hold a $2 coin and is self-propelled in some way. (Maybe a sail, or using rubber bands to make a motor)

‘Nature can be so soothing to the tormented mind’– Alexander von Humboldt

Kia ora koutou!

I have added a new learning resource for those learning at home.

The May 2020 – 5 Activities for Wellbeing resource pack from the latest edition of Pitopito Kōrero newsletter aims to provide you and your tamariki with simple opportunities to reconnect, de-stress and bond with your ‘place’ again: be that your school grounds or favourite outdoor spaces in your local community.

Designed to align with the NZ Mental Health Foundation’s ‘5 ways to wellbeing’ the above activities encompass easy and fun things we can all do to: Connect/Me whakawhanaunga, Give/Tukua, Take notice/Me aro tonu, Keep learning/me ako tonu and Be active/me kori tonu: with the added bonus of supporting our wellbeing and the wellbeing of those around us.

On the subject of ‘wellbeing’ the Climate Change Wellbeing Guide (available on TKI’s EEfS Resources page), came out earlier this year.

Although designed to work alongside the NZ Curriculum Climate Change teacher resource, Megan and I believe that tools in this guide such as “Understanding Emotions” and “The Feelings Map” could help teachers and whānau support learners through unpacking their responses to other potentially overwhelming contexts too – such as the COVID-19 epidemic.

As we celebrate beginning to re-connect in our schools and communities, we invite you to explore the fabulous Kids Greening Taupō Outdoor Classroom, developed by the lovely Rachel, Sian and their Central North Island KGT team. Bursting with joy and ready to use, the Nature Classroom units use hands-on activities as a springboard to support learning across the New Zealand Curriculum (NZC), linking with the NZC Values and Key Competencies. Enjoy 😊

Be kind to yourselves - and have fun outdoors!

Kia pai ō wiki,

Nā Robyn māua kō Megan