Discovery Days- Maori Technology

For 3 Fridays at the end of term 2, Rooms 5, 6 and 7 had Discovery Days. 

Tyler and Jacob

Joshua, Preston, Taylor

Dayton and Jayden

Sharing with team

Sharing Time

If we went to Room 6 we did koru art with Miss Farquhar. If we went to Room 7 we did flax weaving with Mrs Brooks. If we came to Room 5 we did rewena bread with Mrs Hauraki and Mrs Jackson. 
We were all mixed up into 3 groups with children from the other classes.This was good because then we got to make new friends within our groups.
We had lots of parents and family members come along and help us in each room. We really looked forward to sharing time just before morning tea each Friday.
Because the bread had to be left to ride and then cook, we had a bread feast each Friday afternoon. We put jam and margarine on our bread. Even some the teachers from the other classes came to have a look ( and followed the smell), and we let them have a taste.

Science Discovery Days

Our focus for term 3 has been science.
We have been learning to explain what has happened and why it might have happened. We have all become very good at sharing our ideas and listening to others ideas about things like floating, light, electricity and other experiments in our class.
We had discovery days again and we were in the same whanau groups as term 2. 
If we went to room 7, you explored light and how to make white light.
If we went to room 6, we explored electricity and making bulbs light.
If we went to room 5 we explored water- floating, different substances and different mixtures.
We were able to explain why some effects happened to our groups, buddies and class members. We enjoyed sharing different responses we had in each class.
We can't wait to try some of these experiments at home with our families!

Grandparents Concert

Team 1 and 2 worked together to produce a concert for our Grandparents.
Each class put together a little item like a dance, acting out a play, song and actions, kapa haka or poems with a jump jam routine.
We all wrote letters to our grandparents and invited them to come and see the concert.
Because we had so many grandparents, we had the Team 1 grandparents come on Thursday and the Team 2 grandparents come on the Friday.
We started with the National Anthem, a karakia and a waiata. Then each room presented their items.
At the end of the concert we went back to our classes to get our photos with our grandparents and as a thank you, we gave bookmarks to our grandparents.
We showed our own families the items we did during our school assembly. 

World of Maths

World of Maths set up in our school hall for a couple of days one week. our turn to go and visit was one afternoon. We had lots of games we had to solve and find the answer by weighing objects, finding patterns, following left and right instructions, making shadows of different shapes and using numbers to break a code. It was a very busy and great thinking time. we found we were very good at solving problems!

Cloak Construction

As part of our Maori technology unit, we planned and made a cloak for Mr Snell and Mrs Gyde. We read lots of myths and legends about Maui and talked about the different objects they used for cooking, eating, clothing, weapons, utensils and houses compared to what we have in our homes today.
We all had our own ideas. We planned our computers one Friday when were in the computer room. We used paint to draw the cloak. we drew on our cloaks the things we thought Maui might have like feathers, flax, plaited ties, skins form animals.
We worked in two teams to create the cloaks. The boys worked to construct a cloak for Mr Snell and the girls worked together to make a cloak for Mrs Gyde.
We presented our pieces of work to both Mr Snell and Mrs Gyde one afternoon. They were impressed with how we had worked together to make the cloaks. If you go into Mr Snell or Mrs Gyde's offices, you will see them hanging.

Have a look at this video about how to make a hangi. Look at the different ways that food is prepared, food is cut, hangi site is prepared!

Stepping Out- A Road Safety Programme
We have had Constable Lynda Kendrick come and visit us this week.
We talked about traffic- what it was? Where we find it? 
We talked about crossing the road - different places that could be safe or dangerous.
We put on hi-vis vests, shoes and polar fleeces. We walked in pairs to our school corner and looked at the safe places for us to cross with our parents when we are leaving school. Mrs Jackson had to pretend to be a warden and tell us when it was safe to cross. As we crossed the road we kept checking both ways to check no traffic was coming.
When we were walking to Rawhiti Street, we had to check for sneaky driveways. This means that we had to check no cars were coming out or into the driveways as we walked past. We were lucky, all the driveways were safe.
There is a yellow sign on Stairs Street - with a picture on it. Have you seen the picture? Can you tell us what the sign is telling people driving vehicles? Are there any words on the sign?
At the pedestrian crossing, we learnt to look both ways and walk across the crossing quickly, still checking both ways for traffic as we crossed. With our partners, we had to decide where it was now safe to cross near the train tracks. We decided to wait back by the dark line, so we don't get pushed about by the wind the train makes.
The last practice for us today was the High Street pedestrian crossing. At the island in the middle we were allowed to wait and check that the traffic had stopped, so we could continue to cross.
By the end of the time with Constable Kendrick we were checking both ways, holding hands with our partner, walking quickly across the road and waiting if we saw traffic coming towards us before we used a pedestrian crossing! Wow we are going to be safe kids!!!! 
Constable Kendrick did remind us only to cross the road with an adult.