Year Four Manu Moana

Today Year Four used our literacy skills to find out more about the sea birds that like in Tikapa Moana / The Hauraki Gulf.

How do we know an animal is a bird?

 "Wings and feathers" Noah

"Different beaks" Kaiya

Kanuka "Different kinds of feathers"

"Hollow skeleton" Andrew

"They are close relatives to dinosaurs" Zimon

"They lay eggs" Juliet

We split into groups and researched sea birds in general from four articles.  Each group of four presented four facts to the class.

Afterwards, we narrowed our research to focus specifically on one sea bird.  We needed to create a  fact file with their name, habitat, diet, photo and  how we can help them.

See our fact files here

Year 2's Penguin Party

Today Year 2 continued their close look at the native manu of Aotearoa by focussing on korora / penguins.

What do you already know?

"They are in the south pole mainly" Ibaad

"They like being in the water and diving in" William

"They lay eggs" Alice

"They have a orangish yellowish beak" Miabella

"Some live in dry places like sand and some live in the snow" Ethan

Juan "Blue penguins live in NZ"

"There's lots of different types" Lilly

"Penguins catch fish" Maneesha

"They live in the Antarctic" Eric

"They are rare" Kellam

"They swim" Emmelia

"It looks like they are flying in the water" Logan

"They can slide on ice on their tummy" Emile

What did you learn?

"They protect their babies"

Juan "They live to 8 years"

"They are good swimmers" Syzel

Logan "They change colours when they are moulting and all the feathers change"

"They spend most of the time in the water and come up on the land at night"

MANGO - SHARKS

Mango - Sharks in the Hauraki Gulf

Year 2 - Pukeko vs Takahe

 Today Year 2 investigated the similarities and differences between our local pukeko and the highly endangered takahe.

We researched, wrote notes, sketched, read and compared in a diagram.

Year 4 - Wheke/ Octopus and Guerilla Art

 Today in EFS we learned all about a special & very unique cephalopod - WHEKE! (OCTOPUS!)

Wheke are very interesting. They have:

E waru nga weri - eight tentacles
E toru nga manawa - three hearts
E iwa nga roro - nine brains!

Wheke also has an important holistic Maori health model, where all parts represent an interconnectedness and interdependent relationship between all aspects of health.

Spiritual
Mental
Physcial
Family
Life force
Identity
Past
Emotions

We drew octopus and wrote some interesting facts, such as:

Octopus have blue blood
Octopus can play with other animals
They can camouflage 
They have no bones

Guerilla Art

We wanted to send important messages to each other and the adults about keeping our school litter-free and protecting the Hauraki Gulf.

We designed and made some guerilla art on the pavements!

Have you seen our special sidewalk art to inform others about looking after our Hauraki Gulf?

Next week it's all about misunderstood sharks.