Yr 2 Bee Mathematicians

 

Today, we started off with some wonderful Bee Yoga with Cosmic Kids Yoga to calm our minds and warm our bodies.

Next we reviewed what we've already learnt about bees before we discovered what we were up to today; finding out how bees are mathematicians.  Did you know honey bees can make perfect hexagons?  We used popsicle sticks to make our own hexagons and then joined with others to tessellate our hexagons across the floor.

Afterwards we drew a hexagon tessellation in our bee books.  Amazing maths work Year 2!!

We completed our hexagon tessellations in our bee books.

After morning tea we got into groups to brainstorm how we can help our Waka Honey Bees.

Here were some ideas:

Christopher "Give them sugar water"

Robyn "Don't pick the flowers"

Ibaad "Plant more flowers near their hives"

Imogen "Make sure they have a home"

Logan "Go to the shops and buy some flowers and then you can plant them"

William "Plant some flowers"

We decided to take seeds home to grow flowers for the bees.  Mrs Daniel had collected Purple Tansy seeds that she could share.  We carefully made our own paper origami seed packets  and labeled  them with words and a picture of the flowers.  We will wait til spring to plant them.

Year 3 Watching Wiggly Worms

Today Year Three began to focus on our compost super heroes - worms. 

First we brainstormed in groups what we already knew about worms. Next we observed our very own Tiger worms, if we were brave, we held them to see them up close. We wrote our new findings with a different pen.

Afterwards we watched a video and recorded our new knowledge.

Look at all our wonderful mahi:

Lastly, we devised our own inquiry questions so we can start to learn more:

Amber - Are they a living creature?

Hugo - Were worms around when the dinosaurs were alive?

Margoh - Do worms have a heart?

Oliver - Why are worms pink?

Naira - How do worms live?

Evelyn - Why do worms eat scraps?

Elora - Is it only tiger worms that have segments?

Isabel - How does the food break down in a worm's tummy?

Celine - Do worms have ears?

Freya - do worms have noses?

Why do worms have segments? Luke

Do worms have white babies? Acacia

Eden: "Why are worms so skinny?"

Diamond: "Why are they stick and squishy?"

Zoe: "Are all worms pink?"

Henry: "How long can worms live for?"

"Why do worms have stripes?" Torres

Archer - Do worms fart? We were so excited by this question, we Googled immediately and found ...Yes!  And one worm's farts glow!! 

Room 4 Nature Art Insects

 Room 4 has been looking at pests in our gardens. 

We collected natural materials to make our insect art. So cool!

Year 2 Being Kind with the Youth Project

 This term, Claire from the Youth Project will be working with all our tamariki to explore what kindness is and how we can be kind to our environment and the community.  Each year group will take a different action to care for our tangata.

We learnt that there are 3 aspects of kindness: 

1. Being friendly 

2. Being generous 

3. Being considerate 

All these things are FREE.

Today, Rooms 9, 10 & 11 made pillow boxes filled with a pocket hug. They are going to be distributed to our school's neighbours to brighten their day. What a wonderful random act of kindness!

Find out more about the Youth Project here and a big thank you to their sponsor Dalton Electrical

Year Four's Wonderful Whale Day with Project Jonah

 

What an incredible day Year 4 have had learning about tohura (whales). Michael visited from Project Jonah with his amazing life size blow up whale.  Our time was split between learning about the humpback whale in the hall and learning about the Bryde's whale in Piwakawaka.

What did you learn about humpback whales in the hall?

Sterling "A massive whale eats a tiny creature called krill or plankton"

Gavin "Their teeth are made of the same stuff as our fingernails"

Azariah "The whale's tails are made out of the same thing as our nose"

Muller "They eat more in a day than we eat in a year"

"They breathe through their blow hole" Het

Riana "I liked going inside the whale"

Huvishka "The females are 5m longer than the males"

Jasper "humpbacks can hold their breath for 20 - 30 minutes"

In Piwakawaka we learnt about the amazing Bryde's Whales that live in our Hauraki Gulf. We used our maths skills to measure how long they are. WOW 15 METERS We used our measurement skills to compare how long we can hold our breath compared to the. About 1 minute VS. 15 minutes!

We learnt lots of facts about these incredible tohura and recorded them under a detailed sketch.

I wonder what Hauraki Gulf animal we'll learn about next...