I had a very exciting start to the week this week, with a
notification that somebody had posted a comment on the blog! Not only did Lottie in Grade 1 post a comment, but she wrote
it in Italian too! Congratulations on your effort Lottie, and thank you for
being the first person to comment! (You can view the comment at the bottom of
the blog post from Wednesday 27th February)
It would be wonderful if we got some more comments, from
students or other family members! You might like to write about something
interesting that you have learnt in Italian, a question that you have, or to
share a good online resource or interesting fact about i cinque sensi (the five senses) or fun Italian activities.
To write a comment, just follow these simple steps:
1.
Click on the blue/purple “comments” at the
bottom of a post.
2.
Write your comment/question in the box that
appears.
3.
Select “Name/URL” in the drop-down box menu next
to “Comment as:”
4.
Type your name then click “continue”.
5.
Click “publish”.
I look forward to reading your comments!
This week was our final week of learning about la vista (sight), before we move on to il tatto (touch) next week. I was very
impressed with how much the Grade 3-6 students remembered about parts of the
eye and how sight works. They tested their knowledge with a giant ‘parts of the
eye’ memory game, in which they matched the English and Italian words then used
them to label a diagram of an eye. They also did a “hole in the hand”
experiment to investigate our binocular vision and how our brain merges the two
slightly different views from each eye to create one 3D image.
Try it at home!
1.
Roll a piece of paper into a tube and hold it up
to your left eye as if you are looking through a telescope.
2.
Keep both eyes open and look at an object in the
distance.
3.
Hold your right hand in front of your face with
your palm facing you.
4.
Put the edge of your right hand next to or
touching the tube.
5.
Do you see a hole in your hand?
 |
Image from: http://www.aaofoundation.org/what/heritage/upload/Eye%20Openers.pdf
|
The Prep-Grade 2 students revised the five senses and the
parts of the body that we use for the senses by playing La Tombola dei Cinque Sensi (Five Senses Bingo). They then put on
their science hats and did an experiment to investigate how our pupils change
size to control the amount of light that enters our eye.
Try it at home!
1.
You can do this experiment with a partner or on
your own in front of a mirror.
2.
One person closes and covers their eyes with
their hands for 20 seconds. (Try to count in Italian!)
3.
After 20 seconds open your eyes and have your partner
observe how your pupils change, or look in the mirror to watch them change size
yourself.
Your pupil (la pupilla)
is the black hole in your eyes that lets the light into your eyeball. When
there is not much light it dilates (opens up wide) to let more light into your
eye. When there is lots of light it gets smaller so that not so much light
enters your eye. That is why your pupil shrinks when you take away your hands
and open your eyes!
Try out these experiments at home with your family! You
could try to teach your family about how our eyes work, as well as some Italian
words that you have learnt like gli occhi
(eyes), la vista (sight), la pupilla (pupil), grande (big) and piccola (small).
Stephanie.
