Today, it was the turn on Year 5 to work on their readiness for Natural Disasters. We're hoping to be one of the lucky schools selected for a special assembly and ipad prize draw. We took part in Civil Defense's Get Ready School Challenge: Look out for more information coming home with your tamariiki. Does your family have a fire evacuation plan? Do your tamariki know one parent's phone number and their address?
https://getready.govt.nz/involved/schools-challenge Get Ready School Competition
If you have bikes at home that need work or want advice on riding in our area visit Kelvin at the Pakuranga Bike Hub.
Thanks again to Kelvin for taking the time to share your knowledge. We look forward to seeing you next week!
Kai, Damian and Brandii visited our Eco Group today to describe what they do and gather our feedback on what we'd like to see in our community.
Kai explained that the local board is in charge of libraries, parks, playgrounds, pools, transport, walkways and activities like weed busting competitions, pest control initiatives, career expos and the Bike Hub.
Did you know there are 70 playgrounds in our area?
Kai asked for our feedback on the local playgrounds and parks.
Here's what our Eco Group thought:
Matting on the playgrounds not bark please.
Traps on the drains to catch the rubbish
A merry go round on the playground that spins.
Can we get the trampolines that are in the ground?
Covers for the rubbish bins
Drawings in the parks to show how to take care of the environment.
Less concrete paths and more grass patches in the paths so the water drains away.
Paint murals with rubbish on the blank walls
3D pictures along the walkway like in Rotorua
Visual displays telling people about the local birds.
A dog park with different areas for different sized dogs near the beach. Add toys, a stick library and lights.
More copies of popular books in the libraries
Tic, tac toe games in the playgrounds
More climbing walls please
Paintings around the Farm Cove Shops and walkways.
Clear broken glass from the walkways.
Make the alleyways safer.
Lights at Sunnyhills Tennis Club
More gardens for the new builds
More hotels near Pakuranga for family to stay in
Exercise equipment that generates power.
Solar powered / movement activated lighting
String telephone in the playground.
Shorter monkey bars for short people please
Damian told the group about the Youth Council they can join when they're aged 15 -24 years. Everyone has bright ideas so let's make sure young people's voices are represented.
Kai reminded us that just like with our own pocket money, the local board has to make choices about how to spend limited money, so we need to make careful choices. We need to find balance with time, money, resources and what we value.
Thanks so much to Damian, Kai and Brandii for visiting today!
Today, Year Three were thinking about how eating a wide variety of food helps our bodies grow and learn. We began by talking about our favourite meals. Then we got into groups to sort picture cards into protein, grains, milk and milk products and fruit and vegetables.
Different kai is good for different parts of our body. We had a magnetic board and labels to help us sort this idea out.
Lastly we completed a cut and paste activity and fill in the blanks sheet to consolidate our learning.
Next time you have a meal, can you check if it contains different food groups?
Last weekend Ms Daniel went on a foraging expedition in Murphy's Bush. She learnt about edible and medicinal plants and fungus.
Ms Daniel was able to bring back a log covered in medicinal turkey tail fungus. Today the Eco Group looked at the fungi and wetted down the pile of rotting wood that it has been placed on.
Turkey Tail is a woody funghi and when it's boiled for an hour creates an immune boosting tea.
Today, Jess from the Young Ocean Explorers visited Year Four. We were amazed to learn about Jess' career as a marine biologist working with Kelly Tarltons. One career highlight was helping to save a three flippered turtle called Waiwai Toru. Jess also worked with NanoGirl and now is continuing her science education pathway with the Young Ocean Explorers.
Jess gave a fascinating presentation that included a quiz, videos, a smoke machine and even giant bubbles. We were able to explore how animals communicate with sound under the sea and hunt with air.
What did you find out Year 4?
Jaxon "Whales breathe air and they sing by humming"
Leo "I liked hearing all the animal sounds"
David "Whales use sounds to find their friends and family"
Ken "I enjoyed when Jess put smoke into the giant bubbles"
Valentin "I found out seaweed can grow 70cm per day"
Lucy "Jess made a smoke ring push a cup off my hand. She gave me a poster"
We were sad to hear that while 30% of land is protected in NZ, only 0.38% of the sea is protected. What could we do to protect more of the sea?
"Build a robot to clean up rubbish. We've been working on that in digi.
Special drains that can't let rubbish out or in
Use a magnet that attracts the rubbish
Make more marine reserves
Put posters up that we make
Write letters to the Prime Minister
Call DOC 0800 DOCHOT if you find a sick animal on the beach."
Next time, we're going to write letters to the Prime Minister, toconvince him to protect more of the moana.
Today Year Five thought about how we can independent active travelers. We want to be able to walk, bike and scooter more, because it's good for our bodies and good for the environment, but we need to be safe too.
We began our lesson by checking our class rankings for The Wednesday Challenge. Every Wednesday we try to use active travel more and log our results in an inter school and inter class competition. WELL DONE to Room 1 who are currently in second place.
Next we created a giant jigsaw puzzle. It was great fun to work as a whole class team. We timed it to make an interclass competition:
Room 2 - 5 minutes 41 seconds
Room 1 - 7 minutes 23 seconds
Room 3 - 6 minutes 38 seconds
Then we looked carefully at the picture we had created and identified children who we being unsafe. We marked them with red flags. Lastly we labelled the children with flags to describe what they should be doing.
To review we completed questions in our digital workbook.
Next time we're looking forward to taking part in Civil Defense's "Disaster Readiness" Competition.
