Matariki

With Matariki only days away Room 13 and 11 participated in a fun kapa haka session where we learnt the traditional Maori children's game of whai or string games. Many of the students were able to follow the complication processes to make the many different shapes possible.


Matariki (Maori New Year) is a time of celebration and many children participate in games and making activities during this time. Here are a few photos of Room 13 in action:

Keeping cool...

As an introduction to exploring insulation we did an exciting experiment today. In the morning the students had to create a container that would keep some ice from melting for at least 4 hours. After lunch the students then opened their containers up and saw the results which went into the inquiry books. We had a big discussion about why some containers worked and others didn't work as well.

How would you create an insulating box to keep ice from melting?

Uno's Garden

Uno's Garden - Homework Week 8

Understanding the need to protect and preserve our local environment

You have all read the story of Uno’s Garden.  Now use your thinking skills to answer these questions:

• Was it inevitable that the forest would change once Uno decided to live there? Do you think he knew this? How?

• How did his little cottage affect the forest?

• On the grey morning that the people of the city woke up and decided to leave, where might they have gone?

• Do you think the people of the city might have learned any lessons about taking care of the environment?

• What do you think they might do differently this time?

• What is the purpose of the 'completely ordinary Snortlepig' in the story?

• Can people live in harmony and balance with plants and other creatures?

• What are the lessons you have learned from reading this story?

Our Mark on the World!

Today as a continuation from Tuesdays introduction to Carbon Footprints the students had to identify all the things they and their family do that increase their carbon footprint. They then put all this info inside their own footprint. After this the students then thought about all the things they do or could do that decrease their carbon footprint and put it outside their footprint. Some of the ideas were collated on the board:

What do you do to increase or decrease your carbon footprint?

The incredible machine

Today in Literacy we looked at and explored how the incredible machine worked. 

"All the rubbish in the world gets sucked out and processed where all the bad stuff is cleaned away. It then goes through the pipes and it makes the slime."

"The machine sucks up stuff and it goes into the destructor and through the pipes into the big tower. All the bad stuff goes into the gooey room. The left overs shoot out the nostrils and powers the vehicle."

"I think what happens is that it sucks out all the boogers from peoples noses on Earth. It goes through the booger machine which processes it in the Tower. It then goes into the Jail for Boogers. All the good salty ones go through the nostrils and powers the booger lasers. The rabbit in the window eats all the left over boogers"

"Our explanation of this thinga ma gig is that we think that a little hole in the tower sucks up air in outerspace. It gets all the air that comes out of spaceships and goes through the chambers. Once it is used it then goes into the thingy machine and gets processed. The bad air comes out from the nostrilinator. The fans on the bottom keep it up and the laser at the back propel it."

"The Earth in the big bubble generates air and when it is used up it goes through the pipes into the bigger pipe. All the bad air gets processed out the the nostrils while the good air is reprocessed and put back into the Earth."

Whats your explanation for how this machine works?