Lego News from Fynn!

Fynn has shown his special talent and enthusiasm for building stunning Lego models, all on his own, following complicated plans and step-by-step instructions.  I have appointed him our Room 6 Lego Expert and he is going to share with us on Dolphinkids, some of his favourite Lego builds.  This is Fynn’s first Lego Expert Report.

This is the Land Bounty.  It has taken me two days to complete.  I love making Lego because it makes me happy.  I like putting all the pieces together, playing with it and looking at it when it’s on my shelf.

Written by Fynn W.

ALL ABOUT THE MOON

This week we will be learning all about the moon.  We’ll look at what the Moon looks like from the Earth and then what it is like to actually visit the Moon too.  Mankind first stepped onto the Moon in 1969 and it was the first time humans had stood on another body in space that was not Earth!  This year in July it was 50 years since man first walked on the moon 🙂

For Inquiry we will be watching some of these websites and videos together, but you can visit the websites below (in red) and watch the video if you need to, to complete your worksheet on PHASES OF THE MOON.

THE EARTH AND BEYOND is a site where you can read all about the different shaped moons we see in the night sky at different times.  You can also read lots more moon facts there (and look around using the links).  There is an excellent animation of the PHASES OF THE MOON there.

COOL FACTS ABOUT THE MOON – is a kid-friendly site with interesting facts and phases of the moon explained.

and the original NASA footage of the actual landing!

LOOKING ON THE BRIGHT SIDE OF LIFE

This story is about all the terrible, horrible, no good things that happen to this boy. As you listen (sorry about the American accent), think about what kind of problems he is having. How could we categorise them (put them into groups of similar kinds of problems) from Alexander’s point of view.

After listening and thinking about the kinds of problems he has, let’s try to work out what Alexander COULD HAVE DONE or how he COULD HAVE ACTED in each situation if he had looked for the good bit each time something bad happened. For example: When he didn’t get a toy in his cereal pack, he could have said, “Maybe I’ll get one next time.” When he mucked up his father’s office he could have said, “I’ll remember next time to be more careful”.

Being a POSITIVE TRACKER or LOOKING ON THE BRIGHT SIDE helps us to remember that bad times don’t last. Things can change and eventually will get better.

REMEMBER,

even if you can’t change what has happened, you CAN change how you feel about it.

MY ALIEN FRIEND

In Writing today we are going to be looking at descriptive writing.

This means writing in a way that allows the reader to picture exactly what you are describing.  You will be using words to paint a picture for your reader.  This means that you need to choose your words carefully and use lots of really good adjectives (describing words).

WHAT WILL YOU BE WRITING ABOUT?  You will be describing your alien friend.  Give your alien a name and decide which planet your alien comes from and how he or she got to Earth.  You have already created your alien and now you will have to describe him or her. 🙂

Describe different characteristics of your alien:
• Size
• Shape of parts of body
• How many heads, eyes etc. (make it interesting)
• Skin (colour, texture, made from…)
• Special features or extra body parts (like the Purple People Eater’s horn…)
• Personality
• Any special powers

To create a really good picture for your reader, you will also need to use some similes in your description.  A simile compares your alien to something that we can all picture.  It uses the words like….. or as…..as.

Eg. “My alien has scarlet eyes as hot as the furnace of the sun.”  It’s eyes are as bright as a car’s headlights shining through the dark.

Here are some posters about similes to get your imagination going.  🙂

poster

dog simile

 

frog simile

definition

You all have such good imaginations that I’m sure you are going to invent really different aliens and write amazing descriptions today!

Click here for a PDF of the Description Rubric we are going to use to mark our work to see what your MUST DOs are.   Description Rubric for alien

 Mrs Veary 🙂

PURPLE PEOPLE-EATER SONG

For Writing this week we will be writing a description of our own little Alien.  We will need to use lots of adjectives (describing words).

Listen to this song.  Here are the lyrics.  Listen for all the adjectives describing the Purple People Eater.  😎

The Purple People Eater – Lyrics

Well I saw the thing comin’ out of the sky
It had the one long horn, one big eye
I commenced to shakin’ and I said “ooh-eee”
It looks like a purple people eater to me

It was a one-eyed, one-horned, flyin’ purple people eater
(One-eyed, one-horned, flyin’ purple people eater)
A one-eyed, one-horned, flyin’ purple people eater
Sure looks strange to me (One eye?)

Well he came down to earth and he lit in a tree
I said Mr. Purple People Eater, don’t eat me
I heard him say in a voice so gruff
I wouldn’t eat you cuz you’re so tough

It was a one-eyed, one-horned, flyin’ purple people eater
One-eyed, one-horned flyin’ purple people eater
One-eyed, one-horned, flyin’ purple people eater
Sure looks strange to me (One horn?)

I said Mr. Purple People Eater, what’s your line
He said it’s eatin’ purple people and it sure is fine
But that’s not the reason that I came to land
I wanna get a job in a rock and roll band

Well bless my soul, rock and roll, flyin’ purple people eater
Pigeon-toed, undergrowed, flyin’ purple people eater
(We wear short shorts)
Flyin’ purple people eater
Sure looks strange to me

And then he swung from the tree and he lit on the ground
He started to rock, really rockin’ around
It was a crazy ditty with a swingin’ tune
Sing a boop boop aboopa lopa lum bam boom

Well bless my soul, rock and roll, flyin’ purple people eater
Pigeon-toed, undergrowed, flyin’ purple people eater
I like short shorts
Flyin’ little people eater
Sure looks strange to me (Purple People?)

And then he went on his way, and then what do ya know
I saw him last night on a TV show
He was blowing it out, a’really knockin’ em dead
Playin’ rock and roll music through the horn in his head

by Sheb Wooley

We are going to be drawing Purple People-Eaters using the characteristics in this song.

Now you can watch the animation with the song

Looking into Space!

Here are a couple of photo slides explaining how we can look back in time, when we look up at the stars through a telescope.

Light takes time to travel to Earth, and we measure it in Light Years.  So, when we look up at the object – we are actually looking back to when it first started to send its light image towards us – back in time.  Crazy concept, isn’t it!  😎

 

travels at 300,000 km/s. So we see things as they were some time ago. The farther away, the further back in time we are looking. 1 billion LY means looking 1 billion years back in time. So, when we see the stars, we are actually looking at light which was emitted long ago.