This term we have had some great activities. Here are photos of a few of them.
We went to Whenua Iti to explore the environment. We planted trees, which we hope to go back to see in a few years, and we played awesome games.
We also sang our Solar System song at Assembly.
Then we won a silver medal at the Nelson Cawthron Science Fair

Super computer BLOG

Here we are on the computers and we are playing Clue Finders. The rings of fire and goo falls are the hardest bits. It's all about getting beetle bags and Sneezeberries. You get 2 keys for crossing the rings of fire and goo falls parts. We like it because you get a key at the end. You get to a lost city if you collect 2 keys. On clue finders you go on to goo falls.

Frogs on the Blog

Frogs on the Blog !

Room 3 have been making these fabulous frogs as part of our "Clay Sculpture" Visual Arts Topic.

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We have been exploring different ways of conveying form and texture in clay sculptures.

We experimented with the techniques of rolling, pushing, pulling, joining and creating textures while making shapes and forms.

We then created these 3-dimensional clay frogs using our imagination to represent form, texture and detail in our clay sculptures.

Some of the children are sticking out their tongues like their frogs !

Aren't they cool ?

Boat making and floating

We have been studying safety, technology and sculpture with clay so we decided to make boats to float at the Mapua Estuary. One of the criteria was that the boats were made from sustainable materials and another criteria was that they had to be able to float so when we built them, we tested them before making modifications. The photos show the steps we took.




We walked to the Mapua Wharf on Thursday 7 April with our teachers and lots of parents. First, we gathered around the big tree and Ms Dawkins talked to us all about why we were going to the wharf and what we were going to do.
We walked the 2 kilometres, then we sat on the grass and had lunch. After lunch, we played games because we weren't going to be at school for sport.
The tide was still in so Room 2 floated their boats first. Then it was our turn.
We collected our boats and our clay people and walked down to the water.
Then we put our clay person on our boat and pushed the boat out into the water. It was lots of fun and all our boats floated but not all out clay people stayed on their boat.
That was one of the criteria for this study - we had to try to keep our clay person safe.
After we had floated our boats, Room 4 had their turn.
We all went to Hamish's cafe on the wharf and had an ice cream, then we collected our bags and walked to the Domain for a play on the playground and the skate park.
We were very tired as we walked back to school but it was "The best day ever!" said Oliver C.

Monarch Butterflies

We have been watching the life cycle of the Monarch Butterfly all this term. We started off with tiny eggs, some small caterpillars and two chrysalises. So far, we have hatched more than 12 butterflies and we even saw two caterpillars go into their chrysalis.
We are keeping a diary of it which we might enter into the Science Show later this year.
Now, we also have tadpoles and so far, we have had six frogs which have gone back to their pond (except for those which,unfortunately, died.) Watch this space for pictures of our tadpoles.