Five for Friday

What an incredible week!!! We celebrated both Book Week and National Science Week. Here is a snapshot of the week and my Five for Friday.

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We started off Science Week with some theme writing on Monday. During the week the preps added to a booklet that I'd made called Weather in my World to go with our current weather unit in Science.

The book had three pages (one for each of the 'normal days' of school this week). They had to write about their favourite type of weather, what they like to do on hot days and what they like to do on cold days.

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On Tuesday to celebrate Book Week we read some of our favourite shortlisted books. My kids loved the winning book in the Early Childhood category:

Tuesday was also eventful because one of my little guys was swinging on his chair, overbalanced, fell backwards and smacked his head into the window. He was fine (thank goodness) but the glass looked like a giant spider web. I have an appreciation for safety glass now!!

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On Wednesday we had a visit from the Star Dome, which is a mobile planetarium. A giant dome is filled with air, you have to crawl through a dark tunnel to get inside, and then footage is projected on to the inside ceiling of the dome. It was INCREDIBLE!!! We got to watch a video about weather (links to our unit of work) and then got to look at some of the constellations in the night sky. My kids were absolutely in awe of it - such an amazing experience. I forgot to take a photo of it...

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Thursday... what a day!! We held a Forensic Science Day to celebrate National Science Week. It was the Case of the Missing Chocolate Cake. One of my school's science coaches and our art teacher organised it. They planned out the 'crime', made a video which they showed during Junior Detective Initiation (30min assembly with the whole school), planned 7 different forensic science related activities which the kids rotated through, and then had a video ready to show the 'culprit' being apprehended. The activities were fingerprint analysis, handwriting analysis, powder analysis, cloth analysis, hair analysis, footprint analysis and money analysis - all based on 'clues' left at the 'crime scene'. The staff were the suspects and we all had a Suspect Data Record sheet showing our fingerprints, handwriting, shoe length and a suspect statement. The discussions about evidence and innocent until proven guilty were fantastic. The students ended up solving the crime and the 'culprit' was brought out in handcuffs (he is an awesome teacher and was a great sport on the day with all the finger pointing...). It was a phenomenal day. Absolutely amazing.

To top it off, we then had our first Science Fair and Art Show accompanied by hands-on Science and Art activities. We had great support from our school community, and the displays were awesome. I took some pics of the art work, but forgot to photograph the science stuff.

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Friday was our Book Week celebration day. It was a dress-up day, and we had a parade in the morning. I was a pirate:

Every child in my class dressed up! The standout costume for the day was a grade 6 boy who dressed as a pink flamingo princess - such confidence, and he looked amazing!! We also had activities that the kids did. We had three activities for the prep-2s and three for the 3-6s. The prep-2s got to make some Dirty Dinosaurs, some Windy Windmills and some Cute Chickens. At the end of the day with had a Book Swap. Children had to bring in books they were finished with, and for each book they got a token. They could exchange their tokens for new books that had been donated by other students. I always make sure I donate a few extras so that I can hand out a couple of extra tokens to my students who can't/didn't bring their own in - it's always nice to participate!

It was a super amazing week!!! I do have some photos of the Forensic Science Day but I left my camera at school. I might write another post when I have the photos and explain a bit more about the activities. It was just awesome.

Personal goal - take more photos!!!