Year Six Pekapeka

 Today Year Six started a new mystery topic.  We learnt that when scientists classify animals it is called taxonomy. We began by sutdying the similarities between a mystery skeleton and a human skeleton.

Did you know that all animals can be seperated into two groups - vertebrates and invertebrates?

We could see a backbone so the mystery animals was a vertebrate.

We discovered the mystery skeleton was a bat.  We're going to study them because Peter and Zahara from Pestfree Howick said they live close by. We want to know how to protect this unique species.

"A species is a group of organisms that can reproduce and have off spring that can reproduce" Richie

What did we find out?

"Bats are the only mamals that can fly" Lose

"They use echo location to hunt" Aelene - we played a game to show how this works.

"Bats have similar bones to humans" Jason

Paris "All species have latin names."

What do we want to find out?

"Bats aren't blind.  They have good eye sight" Mila

Luca "When did people first discover them?"

"Has anyone eaten them?" Salar

"How long have they existed?"Mila

Maya "What is their life span?"

"Where they here before people?" Emma

"What do they eat?" Alysia

"Do they bite?" Lacey

"How do they mate?" Caleb

Year Three Investigate our Changing Mara

Today, Year Three talked about our changing garden now that takarua has turned to koanga. We wondered what happened to all the leaves that fell off the trees ...

“They blew away” Milan

“They went into the environment” Abby

Rhyden "The snow picked them up"

Zoey "I think that the wind blows them away and takes them to a forest"

Ibrahim "When it was autumn there was no sun just water and soil not the sun, so the leaves fell down and they die"

We took part in a Mystery Science lesson and created a paper model to investigate how the leaves seem to disappear over time.

What did we discover?

Colt "Fungus and worms and bacteria are super heroes"

"The animals broke up the leaves and the worms, bacteria and fungi ate them"

Next time we are going to learn about how scientists put animals into groups.

Year 4 Aihe Mathematicians

 Today Year 4 are taking a mathematical look at dolphins/aihe.

What do we already know about our Hauraki Gulf neighbours the dolphins?

"They have a hole to breathe and they can jump high" Valentin

"They breathe air but they have to stay in water" David

Joshua "They use echo location"

Lucy "They communicate with whistles and clicks."

Hirva "There's lots of different types of dolphins."

Logan "Their forehead is called melon."
"They are a type of whale" Logan R

"A group is called a pod." Archer

We watched a video of dolphins in our Gulf. 

What did we learn?

"A dolphin group is called a pod" Roy

Edison "The Maui dolphin is one of the smallest in the world"

Ken "The Maui dolphin was named the Maori God Maui"

Next we got into groups and ordered different types of dolphins from biggest to smallest based on our prior knowledge.  Then we check against information. Afterwards we went outside and estimated how big the dolphins were, then we measured exactly.

Next, we drew a dolphin in our book and added facts we had learnt.  Lastly, we had just enough time to review with a Kahoot

Please pack a litter free lunch to help protect our dolphins.

Trees for Survival 10th Anniversary - 907 planted!

 

Eco Group Pestfree Cadetship

 Thank you to Peter and Zahara for taking our Eco Group through the Howick Pestfree Cadetship! We loved learning about our local ecosystems and how we can protect them by trapping pests. Did you know there might be native bats living in Howick?  We are going to find out more in our Enviro lessons.

Year Four Sea Protectors

 Today Room 4 started the morning by moving our 800 Trees for Survival seedlings. They’ve been picked up to get planted by our Eco Group in Clevedon next week. Thank you Room 4!

All our Year 4 classes finished their letters to the Prime Minister today asking for more Marine Reserves. We also got to try the kūmara we dug last time.

Introducing our Greenfingers Gang Captain

 Congratulation to Theo, our new Greenfingers Gang Captain.  For years now Theo has shown dedication and leadership in our weekly lunchtime gardening group.  He hopes to be an Eco Leader in Year Six.  Well done Theo! All Koru and Kowhai kids are welcome to join the Greenfingers Gang on Thursdays.