First we thought about all the things that can fly - there are a lot! Then we thought about how these things can fly and realised that we needed to learn a bit more about this.
We have learned about the four forces involved in flight - lift, drag, weight and thrust.
We have had fun investigating different paper plane designs and we also made paper helicopters.
Next week we'll make our own parachutes.
Our upcoming challenge is to work with our buddy class using our learning to successfully and safely land an egg dropped from a height...can it be done?
This week Hamish, a ranger at Tawharanui, came to talk to us about native New Zealand birds. He shared with us the Maori legend of how the kiwi became flightless as well as the history of Gondwanaland and New Zealand's isolation. We learned why it is we see so few of New Zealand's flightless birds on the mainland and what we can do to help.
 |
| SNAP!! Bye bye rat. |
It took a while for the weather to be suitable but we finally got to test our parachutes this week. First we tried launching them from the hall stage, then from the playground. They worked OK but we ideally needed something higher to launch them from...maybe something we need to keep in mind when designing our egg drop contraption.
Wahoo - Egg Drop Day!
Using all our knowledge about the forces involved in flight Room 4 and Room 9 got together to design and make a vehicle which would enable an egg to be safely dropped from the top of the Senior playground. One rule - the egg could not be taped in to the vehicle...
Materials available were: egg cartons, balloons, plastic roll (good for parachutes), bubble wrap, sellotape and corrugated cardboard. Amber and Madeleine in Room 4 had both already made a prototype at home and Phoebe had created a capsule for her egg... great initiative.
It was interesting seeing the range of designs created and listening to the thinking behind these designs.
Test time! Did I mention that the eggs are raw... don't worry Mr Goosen - we will clean up any mess!
Three breakages, one serious cracking, a number of ejected eggs but overall many of the designs performed well.
What a lot of fun! The children then got together to review and refine their design for next time!
Mark Jackson talked to us and demonstrated kite surfers. It sounds like a lot of fun!
Theme Week
Our integrated studies unit on flight came to a conclusion with theme week, which involved a number of events.Mark Jackson talked to us and demonstrated kite surfers. It sounds like a lot of fun!
Then David Wilmot came in with his model helicopters. We were amazed to learn that he built them himself. We also learned it will take a lot of pocket money for us to be able to get one. We enjoyed watching David fly one of his helicopters - he even did loops!
We finished the week flying the kites we had made in class. It looked really impressive with so many kites in the air...the downside was there were a lot of tangled lines!
While we didn't actually make our house or classroom fly, we did have a lot of fun learning about flight and the forces involved.
No comments:
Post a Comment