Freaky Apple

Check out this freaky apple Karen found in her lunch! It's half and half! 

A Theme Park on the Moon?

This week for Maths we are making a lunar theme park.  We only have 500,000 to spend. We have to decide what rides we can put in are park that will fit into the budget.  There is a twist... we have to pay electricity and staff costs etc. so we need to work out our profits and loss. It's a heap of work but heaps of fun. I hope we can open a Theme Park on the moon one day!   By Claire. 

Fraction Math

Learning all about fractions with chocolate! Mmmmmm

Mrs Lemi's class...

Visit the Phoenix class at Riverhills' blog - the teacher of which is our friend - Mrs Lemi.

http://phoenix12riverhills.blogspot.co.nz/

Should students be allowed to miss school to go on holiday?

This week the Captain Underpants reading group were thinking critically about a current event and coming up with their own personal responses.

They weighed up the positives and negatives to the new law change in the UK which bans students from being taken out of school for holidays during the school term.
http://www.kiwikidsnews.co.nz/students-allowed-miss-school-go-holiday#comment-24384

Every group member sided with the 125,000 people who had signed a petition against this change.

Here is Yuan's response:
"Students should be allowed to miss school so that they can visit their friends or family and explore some interesting places. Also they could learn more about incredible things and write about these in their diary or journal."

What do you think about this new law?

Whatuwhiwhi by Georgia

“Are we nearly their yet?” I ask my parents, we were heading to my grandparents bach at Whatuwhiwhi. “About half an hour” Dad replies. “Finally” I say, “It’s nice to get some fresh air”. "YEAH" my little brother shouts. As soon as we’d unpacked Baxter my other brother, Grandwink and Grandad arrived. It was late so we had dinner and went to bed.

I lay awake thinking about what I’d do tomorrow. It felt like forever during the night but when it was morning I ran down the mossy creaky steps towards the beach, how lovely it was to get out of bed. The day flew past so quickly. What a day it had been. I hopped into my comfortable bed and fell fast asleep. We stayed at Whatuwhiwhi for another two more days with Baxter and Reagan being totally annoying, and Grandwink making lunches.

When I woke up for the last day I realized "Oh no, pack up time", I sprinted down to the beach and played there until we had to go. “Time to go” yells my dad from the bach. Grandwink, Grandad, Mum and I have finished tidying.

I bet I’ll never have a holiday like that again.

By Georgia 

Sinking Ships Maths Experiment

Room 5 Maths are learning about mass.

We weighed marbles (approx. 1g each), estimated, and then measured; how many marbles it took to sink our paper boats.

Control: We all made the same style paper boats

We found out the following:

• Paper boats don't have a very long life once they touch the water!
• If you put a whole lot of marbles in your boat and cause an edge to take on water it'll VERY quickly sink your boat
• How many marbles depended on how you put them in your boat and also how balanced your boat 

Extreme Trampoline - by Alice

I was riding in the car waiting excitedly for us to get to the Extreme Trampoline building.

Finally, after a long bumpy ride we got there. 

When I walked in the doorway I could hear kids screaming and running excitedly.

When I came in, straight away we went to warm up on the nine Olympic sized trampolines. 

What I liked most about it was the huge climbing wall. You climbed up and then jumped into a big foam pit. I had the most amazing time and I’ll definitely go there again!

By Alice

Hard at Work

Working hard to complete our Inquiry for the term!

Not your ordinary class...

Look at the crazy bunch of kids Mrs G and Mrs T have to teach! 
Room 5, you are hilarious! 

Room 5 are Twittering about...

Room 5 are getting ready to connect to other students around New Zealand in a weekly Twitter chat called #kidsedchatnz.

Check out their blog  
http://www.kidsedchatnz.blogspot.co.nz/

Next week's Twitter conversation is: What makes a good teacher? 

Mrs Goodwin and Mrs Turner are very nervous about what Room 5 are going to say, but we know we are going to be respectful digital citizens and that what we publish in the digital world is there forever.

What are some of your ideas of what makes a good teacher?

Blue Penguins presented by Luke, Axel, Jaimie and Gina

After Tiritiri Matangi the children researched a bird of their choice and decided to present their findings in the form of a poster.  The children then created a piece of persuasive writing, convincing people to visit Tiriri through the eyes of their bird.

Poster

Presenting findings.

North Island Robins presented by Sam, Joe, Lara and Jasmine

Room 5 children formed groups to put together a presentation on a bird of their choice from Tiritiri Matangi island.  I like how this group did a question and answer part to their poster.  Well done.

Poster

Presenting poster to class

Wizard Writing

Over the last few weeks we have been trying out Wizard Writing to improve our fluency in writing.  This is where you write inspired from a photo.  One time Mrs Prescott showed us a story starter from a video and we had to continue the story.  A mother and daughter went into an antiques shop and whilst the mother was busy at the counter, the daughter, Elizabeth, explored the shop.   Elizabeth heard her name being called from a jewellery box and opened the box...  The video stops there.

Here are three stories that were selected by the children to share with the class.

Nick's Story


Claire's story - Do you get the twist at the end?


Maddison's Story

Saddleback presented by Alex-David, Maddison, Aodhan, Alice, Fisher and Rose

We researched information about the Saddleback and created a poster to show our findings.  We presented our poster to the class and then  practised our persuasive writing to convince everyone to come to Tiritiri through the eyes of the Saddleback.  We hope you enjoy!

Our poster.

Presenting our poster.

Can we convince you to come to Tiritiri to visit me, the awesome Saddleback?

Little Spotted Kiwi presented by Vanessa, Isabelle, Helena and EJ

We researched information about the Little Spotted Kiwi and created a poster to show our findings.  We presented our poster to the class and then practised our persuasive writing to convince everyone to come to Tiritiri through the eyes of the The Little Spotted Kiwi.  We hope you enjoy!

Poster

Presenting our poster to the class.

Can we convince you to go to Tiritiri to visit me, the awesome The Little Spotted Kiwi?

NZ Wood Pigeon by Thomas, Nick, Maggie, Karen J

We researched information about the NZ Wood Pigeon and created a poster to show our findings.  We presented our poster to the class and then practised our persuasive writing to convince everyone to come to Tiritiri through the eyes of the NZ Wood Pigeon.  We hope you enjoy!

Poster

Presenting our poster to the class.

Can we convince you to go to Tiritiri to visit me, the awesome NZ Wood Pigeon?

Team Work

Team Work on PhotoPeach

 

Tiritiri Matangi School Trip

After bad weather preventing our class going to Tiritiri Matangi in the first week of school, the second week brought about the most amazing weather.  Enjoy the following photos.

The first photo is the blue penguin nesting boxes and then we followed the Wattle Track up to the lighthouse where we ate lunch and looked at the visitor centre, lighthouse etc.  Then we made our way down to where the ferry was to explore the beach before departing the island.



 Tiritiri Matangi School Trip on PhotoPeach

My Inquiry Project By Isabelle

My Inquiry Project

  

Room 5 did Inquiry Projects. We could do what ever we pleased to show what we learned from our Umbrella question and Subsindary questions.

 

I did a poster with model showing a boat and dolphin. My poster answered 6 questions they were: How they die, What they eat, where they live,How many left and How to help , with the Umbrella question is 6 questions.

 

My Umbrella question is: How can we stop the endangered hector dolphins from dying. And the other 5 questions above.

 

I learned that hector dolphins die because they get stuck on set nets and they drown. I learned how many are left  and their big drop.

 

I could do better by: doing my work quicker and not only on weekends, get all my stuff so if I need some things I don’t need to go all the way to the shop.

 

                                                          By Isabelle

 

inquiry presentation

Rm5 had an inquiry project and we had 2 weeks to finish it . we made a question with 4 or 5 little questions we could present it however we liked.

 

I presented mine on a poster with words pictures and a chart.

 

My umbrella question was how can we stop global warming and my subsidiary questions were. How can we stop the hole in the ozone layer from getting bigger,what are CFCs,what different powers can we use and, how has the ozone layer changed over years.

 

I learned what CFCs are and where they come from, a different power, that cfcs are bad for the environment

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My FIRST Inquiry Project! By Karen L

What we did was a BIG project about our BIG umbrella question and about our subsidiary questions (we had 4-5 questions) about the ocean because our topic was about the ocean this term. Miss Williams told us that we could do anything even baking cakes or making a song. I decided that I could use a shoe box to make a ocean scene and put the information inside it.

 

My big umbrella question was “What type of rubbish are the sea animals eating and why would they want to eat it?”

 

Here is what my inquiry project looked like:

 

 

My 1# subsidiary question was “How does the litter get to sea animals?”

The answer was the litter gets to the sea animals by drain or the wind into the sea or ocean.

 

My 2# subsidiary question was” How much sea animals die from litter in a year?

The answer was 1,000,000 marine animals die from litter in a year.

 

My 3# subsidiary question was “Why do people pollute when they know they’re hurting the environment?”

People pollute when they know they are hurting the environment because of lazyness and excuses.

One excuse is “The bins are in the wrong place .”

Another excuse is If that place is dirty why bother to look for the bin?”

My Inquiry Project

My Inquiry Project

 

Room 5 did inquiry projects we could choose any type of way to present it. I presented mine as a power point with lots of information. My umbrella question was how can I save dolphins. I learnt that dolphins sleep with one eye open and they use echolocation to communicate. I also learnt that dolphins eat a variety of prey like fish, squid, shrimp and small rays. I learnt that dolphins swim in groups called pods and there are about five to several hundred in a pod.

I could improve next time by making a poster if my question is smaller or maybe presenting it some other way on a piece of paper, because then I can hang it up and others can see it and learn from it while if I do a power point others can’t learn from it because they can’t access it.

By Georgia                                                                                                                                                                         

Inquiry project

What we did (Inquiry)

Room 5 were learning about oceans so we had to do a project about oceans, this is my question how can we save the turtles from pollution. I did a poster with a big turtle in the middle eating a plastic bag  it’s pretty sad.

 

How I presented it

I did a big poster with a  turtle eating a plastic bag and thinking it’s a jellyfish. I drew it out on a piece of paper first so I didn’t do a mistake on the proper thing then I drew It out on a big board

inquiry project

In room 5 we made inquiry projects about are umbrella question  my question was how can we save leatherback turtles and my subsidiary questions are where do they live ,why are they dying, ,why are they engaged and what’s happening to their habitat. I learned that fishing lines and nets are killing leatherback turtles and go much more north than other sea turtles .next time I will add more information. I presented it by using a fish tank and using origami to make my project. Here is a pitcher  of it

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Inquiry Project by Claire

What room 5 did is an Inquiry Project on our BIG Umbrella question and are small subsidiary questions we chose 4-5, I presented it on wood and cork board my granddad helped me do that.

My big subsidiary question was “ What Rubbish is Killing sea animals?”

I learnt about Marine Protected Areas also known as MPA’S and what the council can do.

What I do better next time is have more details and don’t look away from the audience and have louder voice

What I did well is I put a lot of thought into my FIRST project and got it finished on time, I would like more projects so it challenges me and gives me something to do and think about

I enjoyed doing this and I wish we could do it again.

Here is my Inquiry Project  

 

 

 

Michael's Oil Spill Project

 

Last week Room 5 made inquiry projects. We could do anything we wanted. I did a big model of an oil spill.  My big question was how to reduce oil spills and the answer is to not use boats as much and use other transport or only use resources from your country. I learnt that birds can be blinded by the oil and get eaten by predators because the bird is blind. I also learnt that marine life eats their prey and in an oil spill, the prey might of injected the oil and the predator can eat the oil as well as their prey. I could improve by putting animals on the ship that have died by the oil spill. I could also do a smaller project that is easier to carry because it got broken when I was going in and out of school.    

Inquiry project

Last week in room 5 we were making inquiry projects that explained our umbrella question. I presented it like it was in real life so a little kid throw rubbish in the sea and a fisherman quartet in his lin. My umbrella question was how can we save sharks. I learnt how to keep sharks save like don’t throw rubbish in the sea teach kids not to throw  rubbish in the water    

Inquiry Project By Aohdan

This was an inquiry project made out of Lego. I presented it by having a model of a underwater tail Shark. I had some information about the model. My umbrella question was about saving sharks. I leant that 100 million sharks die a year. I could of tried to make my model bigger. I could improve by just saying what I learnt and summarized it so the class could have all understand it better than just reading it.

A fun day in the sun!

Today, Friday 5th July, Room 5 used the netball courts as our classroom and the asphalt as our paper! It was Crazy Hair Day (and Mufti day), so we made it Crazy Class Day too! We did all of our work, from Maths to Reading on the asphalt. Here are some photos:

 We have been reading the New Zealand novel 'The Halfmen of O' by Maurice Gee as a class, so we created timelines to show all of the events that have happened in the story so far.

We had to think back a long time to remember what happened at the beginning of the book, because we started reading it at the beginning of the term! Eight weeks of exciting adventures in the land of O was a bit hard to remember, but we worked as a team and got all of the main plot points down.

Once we had finished writing down everything that had happened in the book so far, we had to write what we thought the ending would be. We have got two chapters left, so we had to use our prediction skills to figure out what the most likely ending would be. We are finishing the book next week, so we will be able to check if our predictions were accurate or not very soon!

 We then spent some time decorating our timelines with pictures from the book. The most important symbol in the book is Susan's birthmark, which looks like a ying-yang sign, except it is different colours. 

We had a wonderful day in our outdoor classroom. We learnt a lot and we made the courts look interesting and colourful. The only problem is that if it rains over the weekend, all of our work is gone! At least we got photos to remember it by :).

What do you think of our day of outdoor learning? Do you think it sounds fun?

We had a lot of fun - maybe you should try it!

Michael's information report about Oil Spills

Oil Spills

Oil spills are a deadly mess that can kill many marine life. Oil spills are caused normally by ships crashing or breaking down.

Oil spills through a hole in the ship and floats on top of the water. This plots the water beneath. The oil can be many colors but when it comes out it is black.

Oil spills are caused in many ways. Some are caused by human mistakes or people being careless. Other ways are equipment breaking down, natural disasters such as hurricanes and storms. They can also be caused by terrorists, countries at war or illegal dumpers.

Oil Spills kill animals in many different ways. Birds get covered in oil and try to clean their feathers and die because the oil is poisonous. The oil can blind birds, which leads to them getting eaten by predators. Birds try to get food and then eats its prey with oil on it, causing the birds to be poisoned. Fish can get poisoned by the pollution that the oil spill causes.

Oil Spill affect the ocean by polluting the water, poisoning the animals that live in the water, and staining the coastline and killing the animals that live on the shore.

  

Oil Spills are awful messes I wish we could find a new way to make oil that is not poisonous.

How to make a stuffed animal By Claire

How to make a stuffed animal!

Materials:

2 Sheets of A3 Paper                                    Scrap paper

Paint                                                             Shredded paper                                                     Scissors                                                        Stapler                                                       

A LOT of staples!

Instructions:

1.     Get your scrap piece of paper and sketch your animal. Keep practising until you think it’s the best it can be

2.     Once you are completely happy with your work, get one of your good pieces of A3 paper and draw your animal on to it

3.     Cut your animal out

4.    Trace around your animal onto the second piece of paper

5.     Cut the second animal out

6.     Paint both pieces of paper one colour all over. This is your base colour

7.     Let them dry then add any features you want your animal to have

8.     Once it is dry, staple the two pieces of paper together along the bottom of the animal

9.     Get your shredded paper and stuff as much as you can into your animal

10.   Staple up the rest of your animal

11.   Now you are done!  

By Claire

Ocean Pals By Karen L

Our inquiry project right now is Oceans. I made a seal. We made these amazing pals by doing these steps.
You will need:
Shredded paper
Paint
2x A3 paper
Stapler and staples
How to make a Ocean Pal:
1.Choose an animal
2.Draw it out on an A3 piece of paper
3.Cut out your animal
4.Trace your animal on another piece of A3 paper
5.Paint your animals
6.Staple part of your animals together and leave a medium sized space
7.Stuff your animal with shredded paper
8.Staple the parts that you haven't stapled
Now you have the perfect Ocean Pal!

Stuffed Squid by Thomas

Claire was holding my 3D squid. I hope you like it?

Kiwiana Stamp by Gina

Room 5 made Kiwiana stamps. We had to find things that show New Zealand culture.

Axolotls by Alex

Axolotls are an endangered species, found in Mexico. Mexicans eat axolotls as a big treat. Axolotls were once at the top of the food chain in their habitat. Then bigger species were introduced into their habitat. Axolotls are exclusively found in the lakes of Xochimilco.  Axolotl means Mexican Walking Fish  

Diet

Axolotls are carnivores. Axolotls eat worms, insects, small fish and anything it can fit in its mouth. Axolotls have special teeth for good grip and axolotls eat their food whole. If the food is too big for the Axolotl to eat, it will give up. Some fish that axolotls eat have diseases and if the axolotl eats it the axolotl will get the disease. Axolotls will eat dead or alive food. Axolotls will even eat small dead Axolotl body pieces!         

Physical Features

Axolotl are born with a dorsal fin and gills, which they keep for their whole life. The dorsal fin runs almost the length of its body.  It is unusual for amphibian to keep their dorsal fins and their feathery gills. When Axolotls are born they look a bit like tadpoles. Axolotls mate between 5 months and several years.

Appearance

There are lots of colours for Axolotls. They can be pinky white, dark blue with spots of black, purply blue, dark green with spots of light green and lots more. Axolotls have gills on their head. Sometimes Axolotls appear to smile.

Axolotls are amazing creatures and one of the most unusual amphibians in the world.

By Alex-David