our patch

READING GROUPS

CONGRATULATIONS!  We are finished NAPLAN tests! (Only two people who were absent will need to complete their catch-up tests later this week). 🙂  😎

On Thursday mornings we will be doing ROTATING READING GROUPS and today (Thursday) we are going to try out in these groups:

GROUP A: Archer, Nicholas, Laila, Tilly, Lewis and Tyla

GROUP B: Billy, Maddi, Kiana, Molly and Abigail

GROUP C: Gradyn, Angus, Josh, Flow, Mya and Jessica

GROUP D: Leroy, Keean, Jack, Benji, Luke (and Leland)

Your activities for the rotations are:

Teacher – Book Club      Independent: Blue Box          Computer: Watch the Logging Video and write notes and wonderings on your sheet to discuss later     Desk: Finish your Present Land Uses in Margaret Sheet – History Sheet

REMEMBER: OUR INQUIRY KEY IS PAST, PRESENT and FUTURE for OUR PATCH so we want to learn more about what it was like for the early settlers who came to our patch.

LOGGING VIDEO LINK – see previous post below and make sure you write some ideas and/or wonderings on your sheet to share later on.

Science – Strong Structures

Today we learned about shapes which make structures strong.  This is important SCIENCE and we will be talking about what made it a “Fair Test” tomorrow.  Great teamwork today and we certainly proved that triangles are much stronger than squares – even when they are 3D cubes!

All those bits of pasta and marshmellows!

First we tested how strong the triangle and square shapes were.

Then we built the 3D cube and triangular pyramid.  We tested how strong they were and found that the pyramid stood strong but the cube twisted and collapsed!

 

Then we made them stronger but adding more pasta to create more triangles!

What Does Our Patch Look Like?

Today we are going to be looking at Our Patch – here in Margaret River.

We live in the south-west of Western Australia.

  1. Can you find where we are on this map?

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAP – you need to zoom in to find us

2.  What kinds of activities do people do in Our Patch – as a business which affects the environment?  (Think of the things you see around you when you drive around – between Busselton and Augusta)  Some of them are natural and some of them are man-made.

Today you will be writing about and drawing your favourite two places in Our Patch: one will be a NATURAL PLACE and one will be a MAN-MADE PLACE.  I can’t wait to see what places you will choose.

Timeline to do our Finding Out

Everybody deserves a huge pat on the back for your hard work today.  🙂   It was a challenging task but you worked together well in your teams to sort dates and facts, then match them to actual pictures of our school.

IMG_6480 (Small)I hope you have learnt a lot of new facts about how our school structure has grown and the materials used over the years….since 1927!   Now we can answer quite a few of your Wonderings on our Wonderings Wall.  Great work!  😎

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How Healthy is our Margaret River?

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Tracey Muir works for the Cape to Cape Catchment Group.  (We are working out what ‘catchments’ are.)

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When Tracey Muir visited our class she talked about the things that make a river  ‘catchment’ healthy or unhealthy.  She showed us just how many things can end up in the river – making it sick or unhealthy for all the fish and creatures who live in it.

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We saw just how important it is to do things like

  • wash the car on grass so the detergent is absorbed into the ground, not into the stormwater drain

  • put rubbish into the bin so it doesn’t wash down the drains and into the river

  • use less fertiliser on the garden (chemicals) so it doesn’t get into the river water

  • appreciate and enjoy the beautiful river we have in Margaret River so that we can keep it that way!

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Thanks, Tracey!  🙂

Zac Shares his Knowledge of the Land

Our journalist Sasha has done it again!  She has written a lovely piece about Zac’s visit to us last week.  Well done, Sasha!  😆

Today Tracy came to our class with an Aboriginal man called Zac Webb.  Zac is a Wardandi aboriginal, the tribe of the Margaret River area. They are the indigenous custodians of the land in the area. He told us many interesting things about the trees in Margaret River.

These are some of the facts we learnt from him:
•    If you chew Peppermint leaves it will take horrible flavours out of your mouth.
•    You can make brooms out of Peppermint leaves.
•    You can twist bark or use twisted vines to make rope.


•    You can use the leaves of the Karri Hazel tree to make soap.
•    You can make rugs to sit on and hats to wear with Zamia branches.
•    Kangaroos used to eat meat and were about 6-8 feet tall.
•    The red fruit of the Zamia palm is very poisonous.
•    When you have a sore tummy you can use the sap of the Marri tree as a medicine.


•    You can use paperbark for toilet paper and for covering food that you cook.
•    You can make bird sounds with the leaves of Peppermint and Marri trees.
•    You can use Karri tree branches to make boomerangs.
•    The green fruit of the Snotty Gobble turns white when it is ready to eat.
•    The bark of the Snotty Gobble is medicine for healing your skin.
•    You can eat the Tassel flower fruits.
•    The root of the Christmas tree is yummy like honey.

We also learnt that in Aboriginal language you say Peppermint tree as Wannang and Wanna means woman’s digging stick. Aboriginal people also know the Karri Hazel tree as the soap bush.

I hope every one liked Zac Webb’s visit?    🙂

Thank you Tracy and Zac Webb  for coming to talk to us!

Written by Sasha

TRACEY’S VISIT by Sofia

While Mitchell is away, Sofia has agreed to be our Dolphinkids journalist.  She has done an amazing job with her first report, on Tracey’s visit!  Fabulous work, Sofia.   😎

On Tuesday the 30th of August our class had a visit from Tracey who is from the Cape to Cape Catchment Group. Tracey told us about some of the things that can pollute rivers like the Margaret River. I would like to list some of the things that can pollute the river. Here they are:
• Fertilizer (makes algae grow)
• Rubbish (can kill the Fish and Marron )
• Manure ( can change the colour  of the river )
Each student came and each poured a bit of their things that pollute the river into the tub with water in it. Each time the water changed, whether its colour changed or it just got more disgusting.

We can make the river clean and healthy. Even if you do something very small you could make a big difference. Here I will tell you how you can do it.

HOW WE CAN STOP THE ALGAE FROM GROWING:

The thing that causes algae to grow is fertilizer. People use fertilizer for plants. You should never put it down the drain because anything you put down the drain will go down and into the river. So for your plants, instead of using fertilizer you could use manure. There are lots more ways but they are very different to this way. Most farmers use fertilizer for their plants but now they are starting to be organic. Lots of the pollutions that can happen are caused by farmers.

HOW WE CAN STOP THE COLOUR OF THE WATER CHANGING:

The thing that causes the water to change colour is the manure. Farmers have cows that poo in the river, however they can build fences around their properties so then there cows can’t escape and go and poo in the river. The poo is bad for the river and makes it somehow change colour. The colour it changes to is like a light brown kind of mixed with white. The colour of the river when its light brown makes people think that the river is disgusting and then they don’t want to go in it. So all farmers have to do is build fences around their properties and make sure their animals don’t escape, especially the cows.

HOW WE CAN STOP THE ANIMALS FROM DYING:

The thing that that causes most fish and jellyfish to die is the rubbish. Lots of people litter, when the rubbish goes down the drain it goes through a water cycle and ends up in the river. Lots of people don’t realize where their rubbish ends up, they just litter and don’t care. They never realize what they are doing. So all they do is litter. You can help by picking up bits of rubbish that you see lying around on the beach or in town. You can also help by doing your part on Clean Up Australia Day. Fish could get stuck in the plastic bag, which they can’t breathe in and then they die. Turtles could eat a plastic bag, which they can’t breathe in and then they die.

So those ways are just are a few ways of how you can keep our river healthy. Even though Tracey gave us things that are just examples of pollution, they still reacted like the real pollution. Our class had lots of fun learning about river pollution.

By Sofia Gaul