Street Litter Clean Up

Room 2 went off in search of litter to clean up our village. We were pleased to discover that there was not much litter to be found on our streets. We hope it stays that way so we can all be proud of the beautiful place where we are so lucky to live.

Springtime Sunflower Seeds

 Room 2 worked with their buddy class, Room 5, to plant a sunflower seed each. After one week we have two seeds that have sprouted and we can't wait to see what happens over the long weekend.

Magic Milk

Another fun experiment! We poured milk into a petri dish and then used a pipette to add a few drops of food colouring. It was amazing to see the milk start to move around and create interesting colourful patterns when we added just one drop of dish washing liquid.

Lunch Box Litter

We decided to see just how much litter our class left at school after lunch each day. We collected the litter from our lunch boxes and separated it into compost and plastic rubbish. We were very surprised to see just how much good food was wasted each day (it weighed 4 kilos!). When we examined the food that was wasted we decided one reason was that big pieces of fruit were difficult to eat and took a long time when we were keen to join our friends on the playground. We decided to ask our parents to cut up our fruit to make it easier to eat. We also thought we could bring food to school in small washable containers instead of wrapping it in plastic to save creating lots of litter.

Looking Back- Gymnastics

 

Coach Brian was very impressed with the improved confidence of everyone over the four weeks of gymnastics lessons last term. We worked on improving our agility, strength, co-ordination and balance. We all loved using the equipment to swing, climb, balance, jump and roll.

Looking Back- Lava Lamps

Room 2 children love science experiments. Last term we put some water in a beaker and added coloured dye. We poured cooking oil in and it floated on top of the water. When we dropped in a Vitamin C tablet coloured bubbles began to float to the top. When they reached the surface they began to fall down again like the bubbles in a lava lamp.

Looking Back - The School Production

We haven't stopped since our last blog. There have been numerous events that have kept us busy. Its time to catch you all up to speed.
Last term we were proud to perform in our school biennial production.
This year the show called "Over the Rainbow" was written, produced and choreographed by Raeleen Luckin. Each class took a different scene from the show and every single child at our school had their moment on stage singing and dancing for a packed audience. Our boys wore red and represented fire, and "hot stuff". The girls were fireflies and they danced beautifully in their golden costumes.

Science Week

This week is Science Week and we have been busy learning to be scientists at school.

We are learning to observe carefully using our five senses - looking, listening, smelling, tasting and feeling.
We are beginning to use drawing and writing to record our observations.
We are learning to measure carefully.
We are thinking deeply about what we have observed.
We are wondering and asking questions about what we have observed.

Our school was very lucky to have several adult scientists volunteer to take workshops for students in their areas of expertise.

We buddied up with children from other classrooms and chose two workshops of interest.
The junior children studied:

• Observation Skills
• NZ Birds
• Anatomy
• Astronomy
• Chemistry
• Environmental Science
• Experiments.

We all had an exciting day and learned lots of skills!

 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Magic Science Show Comes To Oakura

Elephant Toothpaste

I loved the Science Show because the elephant toothpaste burst out of the bottle.                                Jonty



It was cool because he stuck a pencil on his hand and he made elephant toothpaste and it boomed up on to the table. Then he made rockets. They boomed up on to the roof. There were three rockets. Then he made toilet paper fly. Then he gave Mrs McKay some frozen pretend baby wee.                           William C

The magic that happens in a babies nappy.

 Catching your breath.

 


We went to a Magic Show in the Pohutukawa Centre .The whole class was there.The toilet paper burst up to the roof. It was fun in the P.C. The scientist swallowed a red ball.       
                                                        Regan

Wowee! The man made a rocket burst on the roof. I was excited.                         Bella

It was exciting because the scientist swallowed a ball.                                                 Brody
                                                          

Te Aroha

Waiata Tamariki - Papaki Mai

Sing along with the waiata we are learning in Kapahaka

A special song for learning!

Beach Education

 

 

We walked to the Surf Club and met the lifeguards.

They showed us the first aid room, the lookout tower and the rescue craft.

We learned how to keep safe in the sun by wearing long sleeves, a wide brimmed hat and sun glasses, drinking water, staying in the shade and using sun screen.

The life guards showed us how to see a rip in the sea. We learned how to keep safe in the water by swimming between the flags and having an adult watching us.

At the end of the day we all had fun running through the water, jumping waves and playing beach games.

 



How we made our calendar art

First we made our own paper by crayon rubbing. Then we dyed our paper. We ripped up some tissue paper and glued it on to make a background. We did some sketching of birds. Then we cut up our own patterned paper to make it look like birds. We glued our birds onto a piece of black paper. Afterwards, we cut around our birds leaving a black line around them. Finally we glued our birds onto the tissue backgrounds.

Cerys Had A Little Lamb

Cerys had a little lamb, little lamb, little lamb. It's fleece was white as snow. It followed her to school one day, school one day, school one day. AND CAME TO SEE US IN THE PLAY GROUND!!

Dinosaur Sculptures

Last term we learned about extinct species and then we made dinosaur sculptures. We used wire nailed onto a block of wood to bend into the shape of a dinosaur. We stuffed the bodies with newspaper and then wrapped them in strips of cloth that had been dipped in plaster of paris. Finally we painted our sculptures and gave them a coat of P.V.A. glue to make them shiny. They make a great display in our school foyer.

Be a Tidy KIwi

Room 2 and Room 3 were looking for rubbish in the village. We wanted to tidy up the streets for 'Keep N.Z. Beautiful' week. We searched for rubbish along Dixon St, Mace Tce, Hau Lane, Main South Rd and Donnelly St. We found three big bags of rubbish. We felt very sad because people are not looking after our village. Please do not leave litter in Oakura. Look after our beautiful environment.

Descriptive Writing

We have been learning to use lots of interesting words to describe things in our writing. Listen as Stone describes lighting a candle.
Record audio or upload mp3 >>

Our Treemendous Tree Study

Last term we studied three New Zealand native trees found in our school grounds.
Here's what we found out!

The Pohutakawa Tree.

 

Pohutakawa trees live by the water. They grow in the north of New Zealand. Pohutakawa trees are extremely big. If you cut a branch off a Pohutakawa tree and it still survives. New Zealand's biggest Pohutakawa tree has 22 trunks. The Maori people used to use the Pohutakawa trees for medicine to help them with diarrhoea. You could chew the inside of the bark to help with toothache Pohutakawa trees can have red or yellow flowers. It is often called the New Zealand Christmas Tree because it has red flowers at Christmas time. Some Pohutakawa trees are protected and no-one can chop them down.

                                          The Kowhai Tree
                          
The Kowhai tree stays green all year round. It has yellow flowers that are about 3cms long. The scientific name of the Kowhai tree is Sophora tetraptera. The Kowhai flowers from July to November. Tui, Wood Pigeon and Bell Birds love to sip the nectar from Kowhai flowers. There are eight different kinds of Kowhai trees.               

                                               The Nikau Palm.

The Nikau Palm is the only native palm in New Zealand. The Nikau can live for up to 100 years. The Nikau Palm grows to between 10 and 15 metres tall. The rings on the trunk of the tree are marks left when the leaves(fronds) have fallen off. The fronds of the Nikau Palm can grow up to 3 metres long. The flowers of the Nikau are sticky and sweet. It has round, red fruit which takes a whole year to ripen. In the past the Maori people used the leaves for making mats and wrapping food. They liked to eat the flowers and the inside of the pointy leaves. The Kereru's favourite berries are the Nikau Palm berries.