January 7th

We got our first response from our letters to the soldiers:

We also received a book, CD and signed postcard from the crumble lady - Lorraine Bowen.

Our GOTD was Chichen Itza, we watched a short video demonstrating how the architects designed the buildings to honour the feathered serpent god Quetzalcoatl. Depending on where you stand and clap, you can hear the sound of a serpent or a bird reflected back by the rebounding sound waves.

On the topic of sound, in science we discussed the Doppler effect and how we can hear it when cars pass by. We learnt that it also affects light waves and we can use it to find out if objects in space are moving away from us or towards us. We started on our project to make an object that can either quieten or amplify a sound using a cell phone alarm as our test sound. Students spent some time today designing their object, thinking about its intended purpose, how it will function to amplify or block the sound and what materials they may need. Students have been asked to look for items at home to bring in to work in class. If you want to work on it at home you may, but refinements and critical thinking are parts of this project. Is is expected that you are able to discuss your design process. For example:

" I decided to make a tube shape out of newspaper"  -  Why a tube? Why newspaper? Would another material be better or worse? Try it and then report back your results.

We will be trying to build these tomorrow in class.  While it would be ideal to get started as soon as possible, parents please do not worry if you do not have many things at home. It is not my intention to cause panic or any last minute rushing around to go to Walmart etc for science supplies.
I have a small amount of materials that we can use, but any spares will be greatly appreciated. Here are some ideas:

• Elastic bands, bottles, paper, cardboard, cotton wool, aluminium foil, wool, kitchen roll or toilet paper tubes

We will be presenting them next week in class and testing their efficacy with the phone alarm.

In art we worked on a weaving craft inspired by the Indigenous peoples of Mexico called an Eye of God. They aren't quite finished yet, so we will continue to work on them when we have some time and they will be sent home soon. Students were very excited to be working on then and although tricky to start, they proved very addictive and a hit.

We read some more of Granny and in French we wrote our Resolutions for the New Year, using our new personal dictionary books to help us with the spelling.

Madame Moreau came by to help us work on our Maths.

The clue for yesterday's GOTD proved a little tricky. Hopefully this one is easier:

What 'Elephants foot' could kill you, even though it can't move?