Reading and viewing

Subject: Changes to Friday's garden visit Hello Year 4, Our visit to the community garden will still take place on Friday. However, we will leave school at 10:00 am instead of 9:30 am because the gardener has a morning delivery. Bring a hat, a water bottle and a packed lunch. You will not need a gardening tool; the garden will supply tools for our activity. Wear closed shoes. If heavy rain is forecast on Thursday afternoon, we will send another message to families and hold the planting activity in our classroom instead. Please do not assume the visit is cancelled just because it is cloudy. We expect to return to school by 1:30 pm. Ms Tran

An observation, not a race During a class observation, six garden snails were placed on a damp mat beside a shelter. The children watched quietly for ten minutes. Four snails moved under the shelter. Two stayed on the mat. The class did not know whether those two moved later because the observation had ended. A student wrote, “Most of our six snails moved under the shelter during the observation.” Another wrote, “All snails always choose shelter.” Their teacher asked them to compare the claims. A small observation tells us about what happened in that place and time. It cannot show what every snail will do. The children returned the snails to the garden where they had found them.

After the shower A gutter gurgles, full of sky; A silver bead slips slowly by. My boots make islands in the lane, Then small round worlds of mud again. The clouds unzip a strip of blue. A sparrow shakes; the rain is through.