Stream Visit

 We have been learning about water quality and how it impacts on stream health. We surveyed two streams in the local area. One was in a forest and the other had recently had a slip run down it.  We put out fish traps the night before but were not lucky enough to catch anything. Some of the tasks we completed were ar survey of the macro invertebrate populations, the speed of the water, water clarity and temperature, and the composition of the stream bed. We wer e supported by Rhianna from Landcare Trust and Zoe from Enviroschools.

Lockdown Challenge

 As part of our Lockdown Learning we had a weekly challenge. One challenge was to build an native animal out of lego and research some interesting facts about it. Toby made a kotuku, or white heron. His mother made a the karearea, or New Zealand falcon.  He found the following facts about the heron.

I'm going to tell you about the white heron. The white heron is on the New Zealand two dollar coin 

The white heron is found in New Zealand on the West Coast on waitangiroto river down at Whatatroa. The Maori name for it is kotuku. You can take a guided jet boat ride to see them from September to January when they are breeding.  Birds make their nests in the crowns of tree ferns or in kōwhai or kāmahi trees along the bank of the river 

We see them on our way to town in the farm paddocks, creeks, and on the river. When we go into lake mahinapua for a look you can always see some before September.

They eat little fish like whitebait, eels, frogs, mice, insects, and small birds like wax eyes. 

Mum said my neighbour has to put netting over her fish pond as she had one that used to come for breakfast and eat her gold fish. It would sit on the roof of the house and wait 

Daffodil Day

 As we were in Lockdown for Daffodil Day our school chose to postpone our fundraiser until we were back at Level 2.

So we had our Daffodil Day fundraiser today. It was a non-uniform day. You could choose to come to school dressed in yellow, or green. We also collected a donation for the Cancer Society. 

This is Piwakawaka in our bright Daffodil Day clothes.

Olympics Learning

 For the first two weeks back at school we have been following the athletes at Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan. We have read three books: Tom's Tryathlon, Iron Tamariki and First Olympians. We have been learning about the history of the Olympic Games, medals, mascots and individual athletes representing New Zealand. These are our learning tasks.

Matariki

 Piwakawaka are helping our town promote Matariki. There is a festival in town with a big display. We have been involved with creating decorations for the Mid Winter Christmas tree display. Our theme was Slip, Slop, Slap into Summer. We made jandals, caps and sunglasses to decorate the tree out of cardboard boxes and used black paint to highlight areas. Along with the other senior class we painted a giant star. Our star was Matariki, these giant stars will be placed around the town and people need to follow the clues to find all of them.  

Our school put on a barbecue and we all go a sausage. The catch was we needed to make a basket so we could carry our sausage. So we wove our flax baskets. It was quite tricky.

Our Penguin Ambassador

Olivia was selected to be a Penguin Ambassador. She gets to review a recently published book from Penguin Press. Her review will be used to help promote the book promote the book. Olivias book is called 'The Memory Thief', so look out for it in a bookstore near you. This is our principal Mrs King presenting Olivia with her book at our school assembly.

Pinks Shirt Day

 Piwakawaka participated in Pink Shirt Day. Pink Shirt Day is a day where we agree that bullying is not okay. We need to ensure that we are part of the solution, not the problem. It is never okay to bully others. Bullying is behaviour that continues after we have asked for it to stop. It can be physical or using our words. If our behaviour makes others sad then it needs to stop. Did your class mark Pink Shirt Day? What activities did you do? We would love to see a photo of you in your pink shirt.

Tangrams

 We have been creating Tangrams in process we learnt how to flip and rotate shapes. It helps us develop our spatial awareness. Here is Toby's post.

Authors Visit

We had Mary Ann Scott visit our school. May Ann was cycling the West Coast Cycleway and stopped in on her way south. She writes young adult fiction books. You may know 'Sticking' this is a story about some boys going pig hunting and Fantastic Mr Bean. Mary Ann uses everyday events to base her stories on.

After speaking to the whole school Mary Ann worked with our Year 5 and 6 students and told them all about crafting a narrative. 

Planting in the fort

 Scratch, scratch, scratch the shovels scratched the long grass away from the soil. We are digging holes for the plants we had donated to the class, thanks Mrs Phelps. These are all native plants that included little rimu trees, lancewood, toetoe, broadleaf and mahoe.

It is nice to think that in years to come we will be able to see the results and there will be more habitat for the insects. 

To plant you need to loosen the soil around where the plant is to go in, dig a hole slightly deeper than the root  ball, place the plant in the hole and refill it with dirt. Finally you have to compact the soil around the plant root to ensure it stays straight.

We will need to make sure that the long grass is kept away from the plant so it does not get suffocated.

Marching Ants

 As a class we have been trying to solve the problem of the Marching Ants. the two teams of five ants are on opposite ends of the branch. They have to get past one another. Each ant can only jump the ant in front, if there is a space, each ant can only move forward.

We worked on the problem for over a week, trying lots of different solutions. 

Here is an example of how we worked together to solve the problem. We challenge one of our buddy classes to to see if they can solve Marching Ants.