We are currently doing a technology challenge on making soap. We have been researching some different ways to make and design soap. The design brief is to produce a box set of 3 soaps weighing between 100-125 grams each.
All groups will be producing a portfolio of their learning during this challenge. This will include photos, reflections, soap recipes, prototypes, research, and packaging designs. We will also produce an advertisement for our luxurious soap boxes.
The judging will be based on the following criteria... 1. Consistent weight and uniformity of soaps 2. Colour, aroma and texture 3. Ability of soap to lather in warm water. 4. Packaging and wrapping and overall presentation 5. Marketability
Make sure you come back to our Weebly page in a couple of weeks to check our progress. We are going to start experimenting with our soap recipes this week (Week 4)
Reading Learning
In Reading we are doing the Availl Progeamme. In this programme we do lots of activities with movie subtitles, including ...
(1) Recording the last subtitles we read when movie is paused. (2) Discussing and exploring the high level vocabulary used in movies. (3) Searching for specific words in subtitles over a certain timeframe. (4) Comparing the movie with the actual books. Reading both in detail. (5) Recording our voices and listening back to our reading fluency. (6) Doing lots of work on reading fluency and comprehension.
These are the movies we are using in Availl.
Writing Learning
We have been learning how to produce clear, forceful persuasive writing on a range of topics.
Firstly, we wrote a persuasive argument giving our opinions on why something is better than something else. We focused on structure.
Here are some extracts from our writing....
Why Hotwheels are better than Matchbox Cars Instead of just playing with your Hotwheels cars on the floor you can build a track of your own. You could follow the instructions. to make a raceway that you can watch your toys zoom around on at up to 13 kilometres an hour. By Ethan Scarrow
Why reading is better than sports. Just imagine a world where you can explore hidden caves and lost ruins in books. you can step into a world of imagination battling pirates and flying through the night sky. Well guess what? You could do all of that depending on what type of book you read. By Zoe Bell
Why kittens are better than puppies. Kittens have beautiful eyes and they are very cheerful but puppies may bite you and try to get lots of attention. Kittens are very responsible and they will take care of themselves when they know there is danger around. However puppies will force you to let them inside with their big eyes and their squeaky voice that would get annoying after a while. By Jessica Dunkerton.
Then we moved on to the topic of "Should Animals be kept in a zoo or not?". Students debated their points of view. We focused on the features of an argument and how to persuade our audience.
Have a look next time to see more persuasive writing, including letters to the editor, debates on school uniform and a response to the world's greatest disaster expert. (which we aim to send to him)