Ruapotaka Powhiri

Powhiri is a process of welcoming visitors to the marae.  We had a powhiri at our school where the students and the prefects were the host and the teachers were the visitors.

The prefects talked about our school values, Mr Reid spoke for the visitors and then we did the hongi.  It was a great way to end our Maori Culture inquiry learning unit.

Matariki Celebration

Matariki is the Maori name for the group of 7 stars. It rises in mid-winter and is the start of the Maori new year. This year to celebrate Matariki, we made and flew kites, we practised using poi and we made matariki stars and lanterns.

Flying the kite (manu tukutuku) was one of our favourite activities.  

Day 3 of Road Safety

Today was the day we got to practise what we had learned from Constable Taina.  She took us for a hikoi so we could cross the road, look out for traffic and notice the sneaky driveways.

It was a bit challenging crossing the road by ourselves with the traffic coming down the road.  There were cars parked on the road which made it even harder for us to look out for the traffic.

We also noticed the zebra crossing on the road at the pedestrian crossing with the orange signs.

Road Safety Prize Winners

As part of the Road Safety week, our class had been given 2 water bottles and 5 bags.  The students were put in a draw and the winners got to select their own prizes.

Sapapalii, Helen, George, Kiana, I'Ola, Paea, Eco

Road Safety Week Day 2

Sneaky Driveways, Car Parks, Car seats and Seatbelts

Constable Taina explained to us that sneaky driveways are driveways where we can't see up the driveway.  This could be because of the high solid fence or hedges.  If we are walking along the footpath, she told us to slow down and look at the driveway for cars that might be reversing.

Car parks are another dangerous place with cars and people walking, sharing the car park.  She told us to watch out for cars that might be reversing or driving in the car park.  We have to look for the white lights at the back of the car to check if it is reversing.  We should only walk past a reversing car if the driver says so.

To keep safe in the car, we should always put our seatbelts on and make it 'click'.  The law says that children who are 7 years old or younger should always sit in a car seat.

Belts On,

Phones Off,

Make it a habit.

Road Safety Week with Constable Taina

Day 1

Constable Taina visited our class this week to teach us about road safety.

She taught us some road rules:

-we should be over 8 years old to cross the road by ourselves.
-the road is for the traffic and the footpath is for the pedstrians
-if we are walking on the footpath, we should keep our eyes to the front, keep our hand to ourselves and walk on the footpath close to the houses.
-we should never play on the road.

We then went to the netball court to practise our walking.  We had to look right first then left then right again and we also had to listen for the traffic before stepping out.

She also told us to stay away from the kerb.

Practising our crossing

Water Experiments with Sally from Watercare

Water is one of the most precious resources on earth and we have been learning about water so Sally, from Watercare came to visit us on Thursday and share some experiments with water.

She talked about different states of water- solid, liquid, gas.  Ice is solid because it doesn't change shape, water is liquid because it can change shape and moves freely while steam is gas and is free to move around in the air.  We pretended we were water molecules in different states.

In our first experiment, we had to put our finger a jar of water.  Our finger looked bigger in the water than out of the water. Sally told us that this is called 'refraction'.  Refraction is the change in direction of a wave caused by the change in the wave's speed, in this case water.

In our next experiment we wrote 'x' on a piece of paper and put it under a jar full of water.  When we looked at the jar from the side, 'x' had 'disappeared' like magic.  Water can play a lot of trick on us!

Saphire looking for her 'x'.

Another experiment involved some pepper.  Sally sprinkled some pepper on the water and she told us that water can have 'skin' on top.  The pepper floated on the top then she added some soap.  The soap was heavier so it sank to the bottom creating a white surface.  Sally then added some water and as if by magic, the 'hole' was filled up.

We also had a boat race with soap chasing the boat.

We had a challenge too!  Our challenge was to add as many popping corn as we could to a jar full of water and count each time we put a corn in.  We were able to put 56 corn without the water spilling out!  We could see that the water was higher than the brim but it hadn't spilled, we wondered how many more could it take?

Fruit in Autumn

There are avocado and peach trees in our neighbours backyard, so we went to investigate what was happening with those trees.  We noticed that they are laden with fruit and some of the peaches are turning yellow, so they will be ready to harvest in autumn.  

The investigators

We wonder if the peaches are going to be juicy and if the avocado will taste delicious in our sandwiches!

Lungs and Breathing

We learned that our left lung is smaller than the right lung.  It breathes in oxygen and breathes out carbon dioxide.  We drew the lungs and used 2 balloons to show how the lungs work.

Our Brain, Our Boss

Our brain is our boss because it controls all our body functions. We drew the brains as a headband and used it show some of the things we can do like reading and writing.

Some facts about our brain:

• The left side of our brain controls the right side of our body and the right side of the brain controls the left side of our body.
• Faster than the fastest computer, our amazing brain controls every move we make. It lets us laugh and cry.  It allows us to learn new things and get out of the way of danger.
• Our brain keeps working even when we are asleep.  It sends the signals that make our heart beat, our lungs breathe and our eyelids to blink.

How Does Bile Work?

Liver produces bile which helps to break down fat so we did an experiment with milk and dishwashing liquid to see how it works. The chemical in the dishwashing liquid helps to breakdown the fat in milk.  We were so excited to see this reaction.

Studying Heart and Liver

We have been learning about our heart and liver and decided to look at a sheep heart and chicken liver.  We found the heart quite muscular and the liver was very squishy.

Some facts about a heart:

• The heart beats all the time.
• It pumps the blood around our body.
• Our heart is on the left side of our chest.
• It is about the same size as our fist.

Some facts about a liver:

• Our liver is the largest organ.
• It produces bile.
• It can regrow when a part of it has been chopped off.

The 'Jaffa' Race

As part of our Kiwiana study, we decided to build a steep path like Baldwin Street in Dunedin.  We learned that Baldwin Street is the steepest street in the world and every year millions of jaffas are rolled down.

We worked in groups to build our steep 'street'.  We used chairs, books, gutter boards and rulers and used marbles as jaffas.  It was fun to roll the 'jaffas' down our 'streets'.

Zoo Trip

What a lot of excitement we have had this Friday because we had a zoo trip!  We have been learning a lot about the zoo animals and were really keen to see them.  Most of us had never been to the zoo so it was very exciting.  Our favourites were red pandas, giraffes, rhinos, tigers and orangutans.

We were amazed to see how big the tigers teeth were and we couldn't believe how noisy the gibbons could be.

The prancing tiger, the  fast seal and the big elephants.

The baboons, the pink flamingos, in the Pridelands with zebras, giraffes and ostrich.

With our zoo educator, Fraser showing us the skin and the teeth of the giraffe.

The Tasmanian Devil, inside the Aussie walkabout and the orangutans. 

The meerkats, leopards tortoises and lovebirds

Learning about the Zoo

This term we have been learning about the zoo and the animals at the zoo.  We have been looking at some of the mammals at the zoo, reptiles and birds.

We now know that zoos help us to learn about animals so we can help to save their habitats.  We learned about  their diet and if they were predators or prey.

Modelling in Our Samoan and Tongan Costumes

As part of our Samoan and Tongan study, we had to present an item to the whole school so we decided to do modelling.  We had to practise walking to the music, posing and working with partners and as a class. 

On the day, we had to come back early from our morning tea break so we could change into our costumes.  We had to help each other and the ones who didn't have a costume shared with others. DJ introduced us to the school and our modelling began.  We walked with confidence and enjoyed showing off!

Watch Our Modelling Video Here

Parents Visiting Us and Our Displays in Room 3

Wow! We have had 6 parents visiting our classroom and going to room 3 to see our Samoan and Tongan display.  They said that they enjoyed looking at our work.  Thank you for supporting our learning.

We also went to look at other classes displays.  We learned some new information and enjoyed looking at what they had done.

Matariki Kites and Stars

As part of celebrating Matariki, we made Matariki stars using 4 stars in different sizes.  We used pastels to colour them then we placed them on top of each other and glued them.

We also made kites which we flew on the field.  We had to wait for the wind to blow first!!  It was very exciting to watch our kites fly.

Our video shows how much fun we had with our kites.

Celebrating Matariki with ti rakau, the Maori stick game

We joined with room 9 and Ms Riley on Thursday to learn how to play ti rakau sticks while singing  tītī tōrea.  We had to concentrate really hard so we could catch each others stick.

Lyrics for "E Papa Waiari"

E hine, hoki mai ra. 

1. E pāpā Waiari, 

Taku nei mahi 

Taku nei mahi,

He tuku roimata

Chorus: 

Ē aue, ka mate au;

E hine hoki mai rā 

Ē aue, ka mate au;

E hine hoki mai rā 

2. Māku e kaute

Ō hīkoitanga 

Māku e kaute 

Ō hīkoitanga

We practised playing the ti rakau sticks before meeting room 9.

How to Float a Paperclip

What would happen if you try to float a paperclip in the water? It would sink of course but we managed to float it.

How did we do it?

Well, we needed a paperclip, a piece of tissue and a pencil.
We floated the tissue on the water then we very carefully placed the paperclip on it.  We got a pencil (the back end) and gently pushed the tissue paper so it sank, leaving the paperclip floating.  Magical!!