Year 6 Wrap up Estuaries

 Today, Year 6 concluded their estuaries topic.  We were learning to summarise and review a topic.  

We began by pair-sharing an article that reviewed estuaries and how people value them.  We discussed the difference between values and points of view.  As an Enviroschool, we value sustainability, but our point of view about our estuary may change over time.  

As we've learnt more about our estuary, our point of view about how important it is has changed.  We 'Hand up pair shared' our points of view. It was great to see we've developed an understanding of the importance of estuaries, but sad we didn't feel like the estuary was clean enough to provide kai.

Next, we listened to an RNZ interview about mangroves and did a Kahoot to assess our comprehension.

 Then we discussed all the aspects of the estuary we've learnt about and listed them.  

It was time for the students to be the teacher! We wanted to create our own Kahoot to test how much we have learnt about estuaries and people's view of them.  We co-created success criteria for our Kahoots, which included:

- At least 10 accurate questions that make sense and have capital letters and full stops.

- Cover these topics:

What is an estuary

Our local estuary

Habitats in estuaries

NZ estuary animals

Maori and estuaries

The importance of estuaries

We used our inquiry books, posters, the internet and the EnviroBlog to help inform our work.

Lastly, we randomly selected class members Kahoot's to play.

We're looking forward to our brand new mystery topic next time.

Estuaries are Habitats

 Today Year Six explored how our local estuary offers lots of habitats for plants and animals.  We reviewed our prior knowledge with a fun Kahoot, before reading about different estuary habitats in depth.  Afterwards we created our own online mangrove habitat using this website:

Ethan "birds live in the estuaries"

"Mangrove grow in estuaries"

Tiaan "Mangrove forests are highly productive busy zones"

Ethan "There are tides in estuaries"

Olivia "Some fish spend important parts of their lives among mangroves"

"Wakaaranga Creek is a mangrove forest"

Holiday homework - visit the Wakaaranga Creek or Rotary Walkway.  

Year Six Estuary Inquiry

Year Six began an inquiry into estuaries today. 

What do we know about estuaries?

Ethan M-C "There are lots of mangroves"

Izzabella "Fish hide in mangroves from the birds"

Harvey "The mangroves act as a nursery for baby fish"

Jaden "A small body of water"

Hannah "Eels can live in estuaries"

Harrison "Sort of like a river"

We found out what an Estuary is and began to think about our local Tamaki Estuary.

What do we want to find out?

What type of estuary is the Tamaki Estuary?

What animals live there?

Can we eat shellfish from there?

Why are there mangroves there now?

Next time we're looking forward to finding out why estuaries are important in the past and in the future.  

In the meantime, for homework, we can visit the estuary and enter the estuary photo: competition: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1aCjzqhyEgcIjnjbta_eo7o1ToVceqYJGS8E-y6zc2xg/edit?usp=sharing 

Yr 6 Sponge cities

 

Our Year 6's continue to look at the importance of our local estuaries with a lesson borrowed from Sustainable Schools

Our last lesson focussed on how estuaries are habitats for animals.  This time we were thinking about how our estuaries are important for humans living in cities.

We began by discovering how Matauranga Maori weaved an understanding of the water cycle into the stories of Atua.  Next we reviewed the water cycle.

Afterwards we experimented to see how water travels in cities.  We compared grey infrastructure like gutters, concreate and drain with green infrastructure like lawns, parks and wetlands.  We discovered green soaks up water and grey lets water flow fast.  So parks, wetlands and lawns are important acting like a sponge and preventing floods. We need sponge cities!

Year 6 Estuaries and Te Ao Maori

 Today, Year 6 learnt about why estuaries are important to Māori and how Māori view their relationship to estuaries.  

Year Six Explore Why Estuaries & Wetlands are Important

 

Today, Year Six learnt about how our local estuary and wetlands protect us from flooding. First we discussed our experiences of heavy rain and flooding and read a slide show from DOC.

We conducted an experiment outside, which showed how much faster rain water flows over concrete than natural surfaces.  

The second group measured the distance the water flowed on the concrete 

and compared it to on the grass.

MASSIVE difference we found out!

Then, we  watched a video about how cities around the world, that drained their wetlands, are now spending billions to put them back in.  Lucky we never drained the Wakaaranga Creek!

Lastly we played Niwa Flood Challenge Game to learn how to make good choices as a home owner and community.

Next we will be learning about the different types of habitats in our estuaries around New Zealand.

Year 6 Valuing our Estuaries and Mangroves

Today, Year Six explored the value of of our estuaries and mangroves as carbon sinks, habitats, places of recreation and flood preventatives. We listened to experts talk in a radio interview and read a newspaper article.  To check our understanding we took part in an exciting Kahoot.

Next, we wondered how we could collect data on how our local community valued and used our estuary.  We used Google Forms to devise our own surveys that we will be able give to our friends and family.  We can use the data to help inform the actions we are going to take. Take part in one of our surveys here.

We were particularly interested in finding out more about the shy Banded Rail that lives in the mangroves, but is rarely seen. 

 

Year Six Explore our Estuary Animals

 Back in December 2023 our Pestfree Cadets visited our local estuary and took dna samples to see what lives there.  Check out our field trip here - https://wakaenviro.blogspot.com/search?q=edna

The Wilderlab got back to us with the results: https://s3.ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/wilderlab.openwaters/reports/a5fbe79b5ac54637.html

We were very excited about the banded kokopu and short finned eel. We wanted to share what we've learnt  about the importance of estuaries and the endemic and native animals that live there.

After exploring the difference between endemic, native and introduced we broke into groups and adopted an estuary animal  from the testing and field trip observation to research and champion.

We have contacted the Wilderlab to see if they will donated some kits so we can repeating out testing.

Year 6 Look at Estuaries as Habitats

Did you know our estuary contains six different habitats that are home to lots of different plants and animals?

Year Six quizzed, read, cut, pasted and played to learn about the salt marshes, mudflats, shallow/deep water, seagrass meadows, mangrove forests and sand shores that make up the Tamaki Estuary.

Room 21 had time to draw a tricky mud crab: