JC loves nature.
In particular he is interested in sea life.
He knows a lot about sea creatures.
He really enjoyed creating this food web.
We think he did an excellent job.
We are working towards earning
a Green Schools flag for Biodiversity.
We learnt about food chains
using the games on this link.
We saw how food chains became food webs.
We looked at food webs in different habitats.
Some of the boys drew prehistoric food chains.
We learned how the balance in nature is upset
if a plant or animal is removed from the food chain.
Photo Credit: woodleywonderworks via Compfight
We are working on earning our Biodiversity Flag for Green Schools.
We used this great game today to learn about Food Chains.
Sheppard Software Food Chain Game
We also learned about herbivores, omnivores and carnivores
There are even more educational and interesting games here:
Sheppard Software Games for Kids
We like working up the levels on this one:
Build a Food Chain from Cserc.org
As usual BBC Bitesize has an excellent activity
to help us understand food chains.
Just remember that the video at the end
is only available in the UK.
Also from the BBC is this one:
BBC Science Clips on Interdependence Game
This one is also very interesting.
We scored 30.
Could you do better?
How could we improve?
Puzzling Caret – Balance the Food Chain
The above one is set in Sunny Meadows.
This one is set in the Rainforest
Revolution Caret – Rainforest Ecosystem
The following is a clever game
because you can see what happens
if an animal is taken out of the food chain.
This one is much more challenging (for Senior Classes really)
but it shows you how complicated a food chain is.
No need to log in. Just click ‘skip’.
We are proud and happy to have
a Green Schools Blog.
Here is the link:
Our School’s Green School Blog
Thank you to Fiona for all her work.
It looks great
and is very interesting.
Photo Credit: Valter Jacinto | Portugal via Compfight
We are doing the Student Blogging Challenge 2013
This is the third week and
We found this week’s Blogging Challenge ‘challenging’ 😉
We were asked to think of ten ways of recycling socks.
You can read about the 3rd Challenge here.
First some maths!
How many socks do you use in a year?
Over a lifetime how many is that?
In a family of four how many would that be?
How about in a neighbourhood
In a school of five hundred?
In a country?
In the world?
So we are sure you would agree
we need to do more with our old socks
rather than putting them in the bin.
We think that there must be
at least three types of odd sock.
The Oldies but Goodies
There is the very old and threadbare
It deserves to be treated with respect.
It has done its job well.
They are used to hard work
and won’t mind working some more.
The Lovelies
They are the very new, fashionable ones
that we love and then disaster we lose one.
The new job we can give these ones
can be a lot more glamorous
The Cuties
They are the really cute ones
that perhaps look almost new.
that Baby has grown out of them.
Wash very very well and then…
Wash them again.
That the socks are clean
and that they don’t smell is
really
REALLY important
for the success of these recycling ideas.
So what to do to recycle socks?
You could use them to:
1. dust and polish
2. clean blackboards or white boards
3. protect shoes when we do painting and decorating
4. You have heard about a soap on a rope. How about a soap in a sock?
Put a bar of soap into a long sock rub it and it will lather up.
5. The feet can be cut off the sock and they can be used as leg warmers
6. Tie a few together to use as a toy for your dog or your cat.
7. Stuffing: Cut old socks up into small pieces and use to stuff toys or pillows.
8. Make sock hand puppet
9. If you have babies just learning to crawl, take a long sock, cut the feet off and put the
footless sock over baby’s knees to help protect them and the clothes they are wearing.
It’s well known that washing machines and driers steal them.
Buy identical pairs of socks
and then you will be able to make a new pair with the odd ones.
We made a short comic using
We called it:
Where do all the odd socks go?
Answer:
As you know Commander Chris Hadfield
is aboard the International Space Centre.
He is orbiting the Earth.
…in 1999 we four fine ladybirds were sent
into space in NASA’s space shuttle.
We were sent out there with a picnic of our favourite food.
Do you know what that is?
Yes you are correct,
it is greenfly otherwise known as aphids.
We were sent to outer space
because there is zero-gravity there
Scientists wanted to study how to aphids
could escape from their predators
without being able to jump using gravity.
On Earth we climb up a stalk to capture greenfly.
The greenfly fall off of the plant using gravity to escape.
With zero gravity, the greenfly couldn’t escape.
We had a good trip.
We feasted on greenfly in the zero gravity.
So in answer to the question, both Chris Hadfield
and ladybirds have been in space.
We got this information about
ladybirds in space from
in Greystones so far this Spring
and we haven’t seen any ladybirds yet.
Next week we are going to learn what
Chris Hadfield and ladybirds have in common.
Can you guess?
We wondered what flowers would say if they could talk.
We talked about this in class,
and this is what we came up with:
We are having fun and learning lots
doing the Signs of Spring Twitter Project
Following the fun we had during the first week of October
when we took part in a Signs of Autumn Twitter Project
Click here to read about Signs of Autumn Twitter Project
this week we are taking part in a collaborative project about
the Signs of Spring on Twitter.
Read about it here on Seomra Ranga.com
We are tweeting photos and comments
about the signs of Spring that we see
using the hashtag #antearrach
Teacher looks forward to this opportunity
to continue using Twitter with 2nd Class, Room 6.
Click here for the link to our Twitter feed.
Boys and girls in 2nd Class Room 6
Can you see the Spring photo you took today?
Would you like to vote for your favourite season?
Click on the page below to vote!
Update 8th March 2013
These are some of our pictures of trees.
Before we did our project we often drew trees
that looked like lollipops 😉
We learnt about colour, shape and angle,
looking at masterpieces by a variety of artists.
These included Vincent Van Gogh
and Georgia O’Keeffe .
These are some of the trees we drew today
at the end of our project on the theme of trees.
‘I found I could say things with color and shapes
that I couldn’t say any other way
– things I had no words for’.
Georgia O’Keeffe
Thanks again to Junior Art Gallery
whose link suggested this project to us.
We always appreciate feedback on our work 🙂
We would love you to comment!
We spent the past few weeks looking at masterpieces of trees:
Van Gogh’s ‘The Mulberry Tree’
Mondrian’s ‘Gray Tree’
and Emily Carr’s ‘Forest’
Georgia O’Keeffe’s ‘The Lawrence Tree’
and Klimt’s ‘Tree of Life’.
You can see more of this work on other posts
Now having studied these works of art and trees ‘in real life’,
we will draw our own trees.
Before this project the most popular way
of drawing trees in the class was often like this:
However take a look at this slideshow
of the trees we drew since:
Perhaps after looking at our trees you might guess
which artist’s work we liked the best.
Was it Van Gogh’s colourful ‘Mulberry Tree?’
or Emily Carr’s ‘Forest’.
In fact as you can see from the graph below,
one artist’s work was a runaway success.
The children explained their choice by saying that
there seemed to be something ‘magical’
about Klimt’s ‘Tree of Life’
2nd Class Room 6 are continuing with
their art project on tree paintings.
Follow this link to see the first part of our project on trees.
We looked at some other famous pictures of trees.
We loved Georgia O’Keeffe’s ‘The Lawrence Tree’
We loved the strong colour of the trunk,
the unusual angle of the painting
and the tiny stars in the sky.
We admired Emily Carr’s ‘Forest’
We were fascinated by
all the different colours of Emily Carr’s Forest.
We expected there might be green and brown.
But when we enlarged the painting on the whiteboard,
we could see blues, purples, yellows and lots of other colours.
Painting the sky and the grass is not like
painting a wall of our house or the kitchen door.
They are not all one colour blue or green.
Then we looked at Klimt’s wonderful ‘Tree of Life’.
We loved the bright colours, the branches
that curled round and round
and the little details among the branches.
To complete our project we are going to think about
colour, angle and shapes
and then draw our own trees.
“i thank You God for most this amazing day:
for the leaping greenly spirits of trees
and a blue true dream of sky;”
from a poem by ee cummings
When our friend at Junior Art Gallery posted this link on their blog…
encouraging us to do the interesting art, that is on this link in turn
2nd Class, Room 6 didn’t need to be asked twice.
We chose to begin with
Van Gogh’s ‘The Mulberry Tree’
and the very different ‘Gray Tree’ by Mondrian
and tried to create our own versions.
The Mulberry Tree is colourful
and not surprisingly The Gray Tree is very grey.
Over the next few weeks
we will take a look at the other trees on this link:
‘Lawrence Tree’ by Georgia O’Keeffe,
‘Forest’ by Emily Carr,
‘Pine Tree Screen’ by Hasegawa Tohaku
and ‘The Tree of Life’ by Gustav Klimt.
We are working towards then, drawing
our own trees experimenting with
colour, shape, and angle as these
artists have done.
‘Trees’ by 2nd Class Room 6 on PhotoPeach
Many thanks to Junior Art Gallery for pointing us in the direction of this great idea.
DLTK Kids Artwork Ideas (Arbor Day)
This is the link to the 2nd part of this project 🙂
Click on ‘Continue Reading’ below to comment.
We are doing a project on the Sun, and the planets in our solar system.
We thought it would be fun to do our project using avatars.
First we wrote down what we were going to say.
First Avatar Abi will tell us about the Sun.
Avatar Alice talks to us about Mercury
Avatar Amy tells us
some interesting facts about Venus
Avatar Calum talks
about his home planet, Earth.
Avatar JC gives us
some information about the Moon.
Avatar Cian has some information about
The Red Planet, Mars.
Guess how many moons Jupiter has?
Avatar Clara will tell you the answer and more!
Breaking News!
Saturn has even more moons than Jupiter.
Our reporter Avatar Fiona will tell you about it 🙂
A report from the very special
and unusual Avatar Jack.
He is truly out of this world!
This is Isabella’s report on the planet Neptune.
Well done to all.
The experts tell us that Pluto is a dwarf planet
but we are fond of it and wouldn’t like
to see it disappear from school books
Finally Avatar Jake is going to tell us
about the early days of the Planet Earth.
We think we would have a lot more fun
if only we could get our own voices recorded properly on Voki.
At the moment we have to change ‘text’ into words instead.
It is fun, but we really don’t sound like this!
We are working on trying to solve this problem
and are going to try a different microphone.
Has anyone any advice?
We enjoy learning about the planets.
Can you see the planets hanging from our classroom ceiling?
Living things
Recently we did some experiments
about growing living things!
We put pea seeds in three separate jars.
To one we gave no water.
Another we gave water
but then put the jar in a dark cupboard.
The last jar got water and light.
Teacher asked us what
we thought might happen.
We guessed the jar with no water
would have seeds that didn’t grow at all.
We thought the ones in the dark
wouldn’t grow either.
We thought that the jar
with light and water would grow well.
We were surprised when
the pea seeds kept in the dark grew so much.
We were surprised that the plants were pale yellow.
Now that plant is on the window sill
and we move it round to see it grow towards the light.
Teacher said that this experiment reminded her of a poem
“Experiment by Danielle Sensier
At school we’re doing growing things
with cress.
Sprinkly seeds in plastic pots
of cotton wool.
Kate’s cress sits up on the sill
she gives it water.
Mine is shut inside the cupboard
dark and dry.
Now her pot has great big clumps
of green
mine hasn’t
Teacher calls it Science
I call it mean!
We also saw how water travels up to the leaves of a plant.
We did this using food colouring.
After two hours traces of the blue food dye
that the celery sticks were in
started to show on the leaves of the plant.
After two days this was the result:
Blue Celery !
We think that is probably mean too!
If you would like to tell us what you think,
double click ‘Continue Reading’ below
and a comment box will appear.
We are taking part in a collaborative project about
the signs of Autumn
on Twitter
during this first week of October.
We are tweeting photos and comments
about signs of Autumn that we see #anfomhar.
You can see more details about this project
on the following link:
All about the Signs of Autumn Twitter Project on Seomra Ranga.com
Teacher looks forward to this great opportunity to introduce the class to the uses of Twitter.
As always I am very conscious of online safety.
No photographs of the children will be used
and I will only use the children’s first names.
This is the project so far, at the half way point:
Can you see the Autumn photo you took today? (PhotoPeach)
Please supervise your child when they are online.
Do you remember our students from earlier in the year gave us a tomato plant? Well look at the great results we got. If you look closely on the left you will see little green tomatoes. Give them time and sunshine and they will turn red.
Teacher brought in some delicious cherry tomatoes today. They were sweet and juicy.
Today we went on a Seaside Scavenger Hunt.
This is what we collected:
New And Improved Seaside Scavenger Hunt
Choose only things that you can collect
and return safely and without damage
1. A small black pebble
2. A feather
3. A pebble with a hole in it
4. A mermaid’s purse
(dog fish egg case or whelk egg case)
5. A limpet (or part of)
6. A mussel (or part of)
7. A whelk (or part of)
8. Something beautiful
9. Some sea lettuce
10. A sea belt
11. Some bladder wrack
12. Something that makes a noise
13. A small white pebble
14. A pink flower
15. Something soft
16. A yellow flower
17. Something important in nature
(Everything in nature is important!)
18. A small grey pebble
19. Any part of a crab
20. Something that reminds you of yourself
21. A white flower
22. A sun trap (This is anything that captures the sun’s heat)
23. More than 100 of something!
24. Something that the sea has changed
25. A creature’s home
26. Something round
27. A big smile
At the very end, after we have showed each other what we found ,
we left what we found on the beach.
Leave only footprints.
Take away only memories!
Taya found a cowrie 🙂
which is a very unusual find on our local beach.
Well done Taya.
We sent away a ‘message in a bottle’. Maks threw it into the sea and we waved it goodbye.
“For whatever we lose (like a you or a me)
it’s always ourselves we find in the sea”
ee cummings
We were learning about good Dads in the Animal Kingdom. Here are some we found out about:
Dinosaur
The experts say that there is evidence
that dinosaur dads minded their children
and protected the nest.
Marmoset
The marmoset grooms the baby monkeys,
feeds them and carries them round on his back.
Seahorse
The seahorse is the only male creature that gives birth
Darwin frog
Carries the eggs in a special pocket
in his throat until they hatch into tadpoles.
Siamese fighting fish
Protects the eggs until they hatch.
Emperor penguin
The Emperor penguin keeps his egg warm under his feathers, balanced on his toes. He doesn’t eat for two months while he is waiting for the egg to hatch.
Silverback gorilla
The silverback gorilla protects his children and plays with them.
Kate
I see the misty mountains, I spoke
I hear the tall trees blowing, I listened
I smell a flickering fire cooking something tasty
I touch the pointed rocks that annoy my hooves
I taste the breezy air that’s very good for me and that I hope I never leave here.
Micaela
I would see fish in the sea, the bird said.
I would hear the other birds, the bird said
I would smell saltiness, the bird said
I would hear wild waves, the bird said
I would taste the salty sea, the bird said.
Sinead
I see flocks of birds flying over the mountain,
I hear the wild wind,
I smell the misty mountain,
I touch the silver stones,
I taste the fresh air.
Jack
The waves splashed, dolphins play,
The waves splashed, I hear the waves crashing,
The waves splashed, I smell the sea water,
The waves splashed, I touched the silent rocks,
The waves splashed, I taste salt on my tongue.
Ryan
I see the cotton clouds floating past,
I hear a giant roar,
I smell the perfume of flowers,
I touch the grassy grass,
I taste snow on my tongue.
Noah
I touch the autumn leaves, said the precious sun,
I see drowsy donkey, said the precious sun,
I hear lively birds, said the precious sun,
I smell floating flowers, said the precious sun,
I taste the stony rain, said the precious sun.
Conor
I see fish in the sea,
I smell paint,
I hear sun,
I touch the water,
I taste bird.
Cian
I see a white blanket on a mountain, said the mountain goat,
I hear snow falling, from the sky, said another mountain goat,
I smell fresh air from the sky, said a bird,
I touch the beautiful snowflake on my wing, said another bird,
I taste the cold worms, said the baby bird.
Sarah
I see the silver sea,
I hear the whispering wind,
I smell the salty sea,
I touch the crashing waves,
I taste the fierce fish.
Paris
I see the rocky mountain,
I hear the rough wind,
I smell the fresh air,
I taste the soft snow,
I touch the sharp icicles.
Vagif
I see the screeching seagulls,
I hear howling owls,
I smell the smelly sea,
I touch the slimy wet rocks,
I taste the refreshing air.
The children in 2nd Class, Room 6 wrote a song
about the disadvantages of travelling by car.
We like sun, we like buns, we have lots and lots of fun.
We have spades we have shades and rollerblades
but that’s not all…
We have friends, we have trends
We have phones with ice cream cones
We have pools cos we’re cool
But that’s not all…
We like sun, we like buns, we have lots and lots of fun.
We have spades we have shades and rollerblades
but that’s not all…
We run around scream out loud saying we are happy hounds
We have fun, lots of fun, but that’s not all…
Zooming zooming, zooming, zooming in the car x3
Ha, ha, ha, ha you can’t catch us
Zooming, zooming, zooming, zooming
Faster than a lightening bolt
Ha, ha, ha, ha you can’t catch us.
Oh no oh no we’re stuck in a traffic jam x3
Waiting waiting, waiting, in the car x3
Oh no, oh no we’re stuck in a traffic jam x2.
Yippee, yippee the traffic is moving
But oh no oh no
We’ve run out of fuel…
Advantages |
Disadvantages |
|
Walking | It stops pollution.You get fresh air.It helps to keep us fit.It doesn’t use petrol or diesel.Good for the environment.See nature all around you.It feels good.You don’t get stuck in traffic. | Your feet get tired and start to hurt.Dependant on the weather.Your bag can hurt your back.You can get thirsty and go into shops and buy stuff.It’s slow.It wears down your shoes.It uses energy that we made need.It’s not comfortable.It can be boring. |
Cycling | You get to places faster than walking.You get exercise and keeps you fit.It feels good.It’s fun.Doesn’t use petrol or gas.You can go fast or slow.Anyone can have a bike.You have a nice breeze on your face.You feel free.You get fresh air. | You could fall off and you could be injured.You could break your bike.It can be dangerous.Bikes need maintenance.Weather dependant.You need to learn to ride a bike.You could get a puncture.Takes a lot of pedaling.Your legs get sore. |
Car | You can get to places very fast.It is fun.It has heating.You can sit down.Your feet don’t hurt.Electric cars are better for the environment.Useful when it’s raining.Good for long journeys.Fit lots of people in cars.Its comfortable.
If you’re late, you can recover. Don’t get tired. |
You waste petrol.You don’t get any exercise.It can be dangerous.Bad for the environment.You could get car sick.It is boring.You don’t have fun.You could get caught in traffic.You go so fast you can’t stop and look at anything.Cost a lot of money.
Sometimes you have to squeeze in. You could be on a road with no toilets nearby. You have to wear a seatbelt. You have to follow the roads. It can get too warm. |
Advantages of Cycling
You get to places faster than walking.
You get exercise & it keeps you fit.
It feels good & it’s fun. Doesn’t use petrol or gas. You can go fast or slow.
Anyone can have a bike. You have a nice breeze on your face.
You feel free and you get fresh air.
It stops pollution and is good for the environment.
Advantages of Walking
You get fresh air.
It helps to keep us fit.
It doesn’t use petrol or diesel.
Good for the environment.
You can see nature all around you.
It feels good.
You don’t get stuck in traffic.
Disadvantages of the car
You waste petrol.
You don’t get any exercise.
It can be dangerous.
Bad for the environment.
You could get car sick.
You could get caught in traffic.
You go so fast you can’t stop and look at anything.
Costs a lot of money.
Sometimes you have to squeeze in.
You have to wear a seatbelt.
You have to follow the roads.
It can get too warm.
What gives the planet earth
its energy?
The Sun.
Plants get their energy
from the sun.
Hollie drew this!
Animals eat these plants.
I eat plant and animal food,
Like chips and chicken nuggets!
Food gives me energy to run around and play.
Some energy is renewable
The energy of the sun and the wind is renewable.
I didn’t know what this word meant when I heard it first.
Now I know that renewable energy
can be used again and again
and again and again
and again
and again …
Some energy is non-renewable
The energy from fossil fuels is non-renewable.
Coal and oil and turf burn up and cannot be used again.
The Wind is a renewable energy
Wind power can generate electricity.
Wind can dry clothes.
I can help Mum or Dad put the clothes on the line.
I can make a difference!
A windmill takes the energy from the wind.
A wind turbine will take the energy from the wind
and turns it into electricity.
Sailing boats get their energy from the wind too.
Renewable energy like the sun and the wind will last
much much much much much much much
longer than non renewable energy such as coal and oil and turf.
What uses electricity in my house?
The radio clock alarm that wakes me up.
The electric lights.
The immersion that heats the water for a shower or bath.
The kettle that heats the water for tea or coffee.
The microwave.
The cooker.
The fridge.
The heater.
The television.
The radio.
The CD player.
The washing machine.
The spin dryer.
Where would I find a lagging jacket?
On the immersion tank that heats hot water.
I can remind the grown ups in my house
to get a lagging jacket.
I can make a difference!
Where would I find insulation
in a house?
In the attic, under the roof.
I can make a difference!
I can remind the grown ups in my house
to insulate the attic.
You can buy sheeps wool to insulate the attic.
Where would I find double glazing in my house?
In the windows and doors.
When the heating is on in the house,
heat can escape through ordinary windows and doors
and through a roof with no insulation.
I can make a difference!
I can shut doors and draw the curtains early to keep the heat in.
I can check if any furniture is blocking the heaters.
Taking a shower uses less energy than taking a bath.
I can take a shower instead of a bath.
I can make a difference.
If you are using the washing machine,
it should be full of clothes.
You shouldn’t put on the washing machine
to wash one pair of socks.
I don’t do the washing yet
but I can remind the grown ups in my house
and I can make a difference!
If you are making a cup of tea
you should boil about a cup
of water instead of
a full kettle of water.
Boiling a full kettle of water wastes energy and money.
I don’t make tea yet but I can remind the grown ups
in my house
and I can make a difference!
Wasting water is wasting energy
I can make a difference!
I won’t let the tap run when I am washing my teeth.
I can remind any little people in my house about this too.
I can make a difference!
If I am a little cold in my house,
I am better to put on extra clothes
Saving energy saves money.
Saving energy in my house
will mean our
electricity bill will be lower.
I can make a difference!
We can use the money for more interesting things!
That will make a difference!
Walking to school, if I can
is better than travelling by car.
I can make a difference!
Walking to school or
cycling my bicycle
Taking the bus
is better than travelling by car.
I can make a difference!
What could I recycle that I usually throw away?
A plastic bottle –
I could use one for my drink for lunch again and again.
I could turn the plastic bottle into a musical instrument.
If I add rice or pasta to the bottle, I could turn it into a percussion shaker.
I can make a difference!
What can I put in
the compost bin?
Fruit peels,
vegetable peels,
pencil paring.
Any thing that will rot.
I can make a difference!
Reusing plastic bags
saves energy.
I can make a difference!
I can remind Mum to bring shopping bags
to the supermarket.
Let’s make the difference.
Jack drew this 🙂