Here be Dragons...

Today we varied our usual fare of dinosaur documentaries by watching a work of docufiction:

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This very entertaining presentation used the same CGI and animatronic techniques which are used to bring dinosaurs to life on the big screen to give the same credibility to dragons. This sparked a lot of interesting questions about how difficult it is to know if what we are watching onscreen is real, the way in which fictional stories can be presented as non-fiction, and the difficulty of knowing what is "truth" when we are thinking about things that happened millions of years ago. (We concluded that only God knows what actually happened, but that it is fun to speculate!)

Mt Annan Sustainability Centre

Mulga making a "cuppa" in the kitchen...

and offering it to Fiona, who graciously accepts.

Waratah interacting with his friends.

Boronia exploring.

Dragon city

This is another popular game which the boys have and are enjoying. It provides them with maths practice (reading numbers and time), reading practice, and they need to consider that different kinds of dragons require different environments and plan their world accordingly.

More heroes

Mulga wanted to expand on the superhero dramatic play set he received for his birthday, so he asked for printouts of some more characters. (There were no villains. How can you have dramatic superhero play without villians?) Some good fine motor skills practice for him as he coloured them in.

The boys discovered this cool mole cricket and spent some time observing it 

before releasing it back into the garden.

S1 Science: INVS1.7 Conducts guided investigations by observing, questioning, predicting, collecting and recording data, and suggesting possible explanations.

Boronia helped Waratah and Daddy plant the succulents we brought home from our dinosaur garden day at Mt Annan Sustainability Centre.

S1 Science: PSS1.5 Grows, makes or processes some products using a range of techniques and materials.

S1 Science: ESS1.6 Identifies and describes ways in which people and other living things depend upon the earth and its environments.

S1 Science: DMS1.8 Develops and implements own design ideas in response to an investigation of needs and wants.

Waratah also put together an electricity design project -which required a lot of reading instructions

.

S1 English: RS1.5 Reads a wider range of texts on less familiar topics with increasing independence and understanding, making connections between own knowledge and experience and information in texts.

S1 English: RS1.6 Draws on an increasing range of skills and strategies when reading and comprehending texts.

S1 Science: PPS1.4 Identifies and describes different ways some forms of energy are used in the community.

S1 Science: UTS1.9 Selects and uses a range of equipment, computer-based technology, materials and other resources to undertake an investigation or design task.

Gundungurra geocache and a Dino garden

First, some reading in bed.

S1 English: RS1.5 Reads a wider range of texts on less familiar topics with increasing independence and understanding, making connections between own knowledge and experience and information in texts.

S1 English: RS1.6 Draws on an increasing range of skills and strategies when reading and comprehending texts.

S1 English: RS1.5 Reads a wider range of texts on less familiar topics with increasing independence and understanding, making connections between own knowledge and experience and information in texts.

S1 English: RS1.6 Draws on an increasing range of skills and strategies when reading and comprehending texts.

 These are the superhero books that Mulga got for his birthday. Very popular with the boys.

Off for a quick spot of geocaching: this cache was called Gundungurra in honour of the local Aboriginal tribe. "The territory of the Gundungurra tribe includes Burragorang, Katoomba, Picton, Berrima, Taralga and Goulburn, with the intervening country." 

S1 Maths: MS1.1 Estimates, measures, compares and records lengths and distances using informal units, metres and centimetres.

S1 Maths: WMS1.2 Uses objects, diagrams, imagery and technology to explore mathematical problems.

S1 Maths: WMS1.5 Links mathematical ideas and makes connections with, and generalisations about, existing knowledge and understanding in relation to Stage 1 content.

S1 HSIE: CCS1.2 Identifies changes and continuities in their own life and in the local community.

S1 HSIE: ENS1.5 Compares and contrasts natural and built features in their local area and the ways in which people interact with these features.

S1 PDHPE: ALS1.6 Participates in physical activity, recognising that it can be both enjoyable and important for health.

Then off to the Mt Annan Sustainability Centre to plant a dinosaur garden.

Waratah enjoyed learning about the succulent plant varieties and drew diagrams of them on the blackboard. The top one is Mother-in-Law's tongue, and the bottom one is the Jellybean plant.

S1 HSIE: ENS1.6 Demonstrates an understanding of the relationship between environments and people.

S1 Science: ICS1.2 Creates a range of information products and communicates using a variety of media.

S1 Science: LTS1.3 Identifies and describes ways in which living things grow and change.

S1 Science: ESS1.6 Identifies and describes ways in which people and other living things depend upon the earth and its environments.

S1 Science: INVS1.7 Conducts guided investigations by observing, questioning, predicting, collecting and recording data, and suggesting possible explanations.

S1 PDHPE: COS1.1 Communicates appropriately in a variety of ways.

S1 PDHPE: INS1.3 Develops positive relationships with peers and other people.

S1 Creative Arts: VAS1.1 Makes artworks in a particular way about experiences of real and imaginary things.

Boronia enjoys a spot of gardening too.

Mulga engaged in some imaginative play with the little kitchen, and took a turn at the chalkboard - this was a picture of a journey accompanied by a complicated superhero narrative.

Green eggs and ham

The boys love me to read Dr Seuss's Green Eggs and Ham, but Boronia and I are the only ones who love to eat it for breakfast: scrambled eggs with spinach and bacon bits (with homemade cheese and carrot scones on the side!) YUM!

Sugar, scones and snowflakes

And now for an update on our sugar crystal growing experiment. This is the white sugar crystal we produced.

This is the white crystal again, with the raw sugar crystal next to it. We observed and discussed why there might be differences. We thought the more refined white sugar produced a more even textured crystal and there was far more crystallisation in the cup of the raw sugar, it wasn't just on the stick.

This is the raw sugar's cup (our experiment continued as we spent another few days after this trying out ways to get the crystalised sugar out of the cup...)

Here are Mulga and Waratah making cheese and carrot scones for lunch...

Waratah likes to measure the ingredients for us.

The delicious finished product.

Another of Waratah's snowflakes, this time the picture was a stained glass window.

Puppet shows

The boys have been crafting puppets and putting on shows for Boronia and me. Here is Mulga in our home-made puppet theatre, presenting a tale about a panda and a snake.

This is Waratah's latest sock puppet creation.

Soccer

Winter is soccer season for us. Here I model perfect soccer mum attire LOL

Boronia is snug and keeping out of the wind on the sidelines.

Mulga with his adored coach.

Waratah, "eagle-screeching" at the opposition as he prepares to attack the ball. 

The boys' enthusiasm for lego has waned somewhat lately, which has allowed Boronia to step in and explore - literally. Her favourite position is inside the lego box.

I made one final effort to interest the boys in the 2D lego challenge - here I have made a picture of Gollum to illustrate The Hobbit, which we are currently reading. He is lying on his rock in the lake, with his precious and a fish to eat.

Snowflakes

We love using the free brochures you find outside travel agents for our craft and geography explorations. Here Waratah has created a collage showing some of the travel adventures he would like to experience some day.

We have also been using the travel brochures to make "snowflake pictures". Here is one of Waratah's, made from a picture of Chinese lanterns.

One of mine made a church on the Adriatic sea.

Another of Waratah's from a picture of a Thai temple.

Boronia, meanwhile, has been enjoying discovering the Boynton books she received for her birthday.

Flat out!

A miscellaneous collection of photo records of learning today :)

This is a close up of the raw sugar solution. We have been discussing what makes the brown colour, how it is less refined that white sugar, and how as a result it contains impurities which are really left over bits of the sugar cane. This has been graphically illustrated with our raw sugar solution where we can clearly see the "impurities" and how they could be refined out through filtering processes. 

Boronia is recovering very well from her operation to remove the pyogenic granuloma on her forehead. No ill effects from the anaesthetic, thank goodness, and the wound (which we have been asked to leave open to the air) is very clean - not bothering her at all.

This week's lego challenge was to build a flat (2 dimensional) image. The boys were not sure how to go about that, so I made some demonstrations and we discussed the differences in their construction and the effects produced - using lego to make a top down view...

and a to make a side-view picture.

Sugar!

We have been listening to The Swiss Family Robinson as an audiobook. 

Waratah wanted to know: "What is sugar cane?"

This led us to research how sugar is grown, refined and marketed, and the history of sugar over the years.

We then decided to perform some experiments of our own.

Here, Waratah is observing and comparing six different types of sugar. We had white sugar, brown sugar, castor sugar, fructose sugar, icing sugar and raw sugar. He investigated the differences in their colour, texture and taste.

Next, we set up two experiments. 

The first was to see whether raw, white and icing sugar react differently when exposed to air over time.

The second was to create a super saturated sugar solution for each of those three types of sugar. We dissolved sugar in cold water, in room temperature water, in hot water, and in boiling water on the stove,

comparing how much sugar we could add before reaching saturation point, and how long it took for that sugar to dissolve. We discussed our results and drew hypothesis from them.

We put the super saturated sugar solution (produced on the stove) into glasses with a toothpick anchored in some cardboard. Our aim was to observe the formation of sugar crystals over time.

This is the white sugar glass. It showed the most immediate effect, as we could see nucleation points on the toothpick right from the start. This will be an ongoing experiment as it will take some time for the crystals to grow.