Book Week - Favourite Book Character Dress-up

This week is National Book Week. We had a whole school dress-up today, with everyone dressing up as their favourite book character.




Here is our class, Te Kauru. We had everything from Demon Dentist to Harry Potter. So many creative costumes.



Then we went to our school book fair. The students created wish lists of books that they would LOVE their whanau to buy for them.

Squawk Squad Week 2: NZ Birds of Prey

This week we are focusing on New Zealand's birds of prey.

The core adjectives for the week is:

• Learning about the kārearea and the ruru – being able to identify them and why they are significant to Aotearoa.
• Learning about the sustainable forestry industry in Aotearoa - and how responsibly-managed exotic forests can support a range of native biodiversity.
• Understanding that these birds are predators too - however, have evolved naturally with the other flora and fauna of Aotearoa and thus form an important part of our unique ecosystem.

This week our Call to Action involves creating a nesting box for Ruru. The students thoroughly enjoyed completing this hands-on activity.

Finished boxes to come...

Ka Pai Kai - Group 1

Each week Anna comes into our classroom to work with a group of students to teach them about nutrition and healthy eating.

Today she came in to work with Caedance, Iris, Harlen and Calais.  This group chose to make smoothies for the class.

The ingredients used were: milk, water, mixed berries and banana. They made some without milk because we have a student that is lactose intolerant.  All the ingredients were placed in a blender and mixed until smooth.

They were YUM! Thank you Caedance, Iris, Harlen, Calais and Anna!

Squawk Squad Week 1

This term we are participating in the National Squawk Squad learning journey.

Squawk Squad is running a free 7-week, nation-wide programme starting August 5th, teaching your tamariki to become kaitiaki for Aotearoa. Through fun activities, interactive videos, virtual reality and prizes, you’ll cover exciting topics ranging from Predator Free 2050 to Kaitiakitanga to Climate Change.

Week 1 is looking at predators in New Zealand that are causing a decline in our native bird species.  As a class we looked at which bird species we could name, and seeing if we knew whether they were native to New Zealand or not.

We discussed what might be causing the decline of our native species, and wanted to know which of these predators could be found at our school.  We created our own tracking tunnels to see which predators we could identify.




We used two old milk bottles, removing both ends, and sliding them together to create a longer tunnel. We placed peanut butter inside the tunnel to attract any predators in the area.  The predator had to walk through a small tray of dye before they could get to the peanut butter. Upon exit, they would have to cross a white bit of paper. This is where we would look to see what footprints we would get, and try to identify the predator they would belong to.



We left our tracking tunnels around the school in areas where we thought their might be predators.  We set them on Friday, and looked what we found again on Monday morning. We were very excited to find some foot prints on our papers. The only tracking tunnels that had footprints were located in the front garden by the hall's parking, and under Te Puawai's deck.

Here are some of our papers. It is hard to see the foot prints, but upon close examination, they are clearly there. We suspect mice and rats.

All Blacks Dress Up Day

To show our support to the All Blacks playing against Australia this weekend, the whole school dressed up in black clothing.

 

Movie Making

Today we learnt about movie making with Harley Alexander. Harley is a director and producer and has created many short films.

This is one of his films, which he shared with our class.

Harley taught us about the equipment we would need to make our own short films and demonstrated how to use the equipment. 

We learnt about the different shots that would be required:

1. Establishing shot - setting the scene for the film

2. Wide shot - this is where you introduce your characters in the background.

3. Medium close up - from the waist up.

4. Close up - Shoulders up. This is where the students realise their classroom was overrun by rats.

5. Extreme close up - chin up. Looking mainly at the eyes. 

Here are some of the students' shots.

Matariki Art

At the of Term 2, we learnt about Matariki. Here are the students Matariki Pou.