HERMAN THE TURTLE VISITS

Today Mrs Kenyon's son Luca visited us with his pet turtle Herman.  Herman is about 1 1/2 years old and loved his visit with us.

He had to come to school in Mrs Kenyon's car.

Then some of the boys made an enclosure for him so he could walk around.  He was a bit tricky though!  He kept banging his head on the side and breaking it.  He's very strong.

 

  

Some of us got to pick Herman up.  He has long nails.

    

Thanks for visiting Herman!  Thanks Luca!

We hope you visit again soon.

THE TORTOISE & THE HARE CHALLENGE

Today we were challenged to find a way to make a Tortoise travel faster.  We didn't have a Tortoise to check our inventions but Mrs Kenyon took two of the inventions home to try out on Herman the turtle.

 

Charlie made a wonderful car for Herman to travel in.  She found it tricky to get the wheels to move.  Herman only just fitted in the car and managed to make it fall over.  He's not a safe driver.  Maybe he needs a helmet?

 

Herman loved his rocket!  Once again though he didn't fit in it very well.  

Herman is bigger than we thought.

We watched a movie of the Hare and the Tortoise and wrote stories about it...

Have a read of Lloyd's story:

Once upon a time there was a rabbit. They wanted to have a race. 

"On your marks, get set go!"  The rabbit bet the tortoise.  He took a nap.  The tortoise caught up and passed the rabbit.  The rabbit woke up.  He ran past the tortoise.  The rabbit came by some rabbits.  He started to be a showoff.  The tortoise passed the rabbit again.  He got distracted.  He played tennis and the tortoise won.  Slow and steady wins the race.  The rabbit wanted a remath so the did. 

"On your marks, get set, go!:  The rabbit got puffed so the tortoise won again!  \\

"Looks like I can bet you! YAY!" said the tortoise.

SCIENCE SHARING

Today, we took time to share all the learning we had gained while in our Science Opt-ins.

We took 20 minutes with our workshop buddies and our workshop teacher to decide what to share.  Then we came together and each group got to explain what we had discovered.

The kids from Hubble Bubble Potions went first...

The children investigated liquids, solids, powders and crystals.  They even made crystals!

Mrs Kenyon's workshop learnt to classify animals.  They shared with us the different classifications of animals such as mammal, reptiles, amphibians, birds, fish and insects...

Mrs Lunn's Magnet kids took turns sharing what they had learnt.  They even demonstrated their learning with their magnets.  It was like MAGIC!

Here's what the magnet kids had to say...

Charlie - When you get a plate and put a paperclip on it with a paper car ... the magnet underneath the plate will make the car move

Jack - If you put the South and South ends together on a big and little magnet, they repel

Hunter - Not all metals are magnetic

Kazma - If you stick metal to a magnet, the metal becomes magentic too.

Ethan - We found out the plastic, wood, fabric, rubber and cardboard are not magnetic.

Amon - Only some metals attract

Rudra - When you put the South with another South it repels

Max - If you put North near South, they attract

Zach - If you put N near N, it repels

Shyloh - If you put the magnet next to the iron filings, the sand is attracted to the magnet

Harlem - If yuo put the big magnet to the same letter, it repels

Tyler - The big magnets have N and S but if you put the same letters together they repel

Fai-ana - You can make metal things move by using magnets

Holly P - Some magnets are stronger than others

Lakhdeep - Magnets do not attract plastic unless it has a piece of metal in it that is magnetic

Cooper - If you have a magnet with S and N, it will attract a N and S

REPORT WRITING - REPTILES

We are learning so much about report writing.  We have learnt to give our reports a title and to write in third person.  

Tomorrow we start learning all about paragraphs.  Take a read of our reports about Reptiles.

"Reptiles are cold blooded.  They lay eggs.  Some slither or crawl on their tummy or close to the ground.  They breathe with their lungs.  For snacks they eat ants, insects and mice." 

By Samantha

"Some reptiles slither on the ground.  They lay eggs and are cold blooded.  Some live under water.  Snakes eat their prey.  Snakes eat mice, mammals and insects".

By Finn

Reptiles crawl or slither.  Some of them live in the water and they breathe with their lungs.  They are cold blooded.  They lay eggs and have tough scales or shells.  Reptiles live in Australia, Russia, China, India and even more places except New Zealand.  Most of them have venom and they eat mammals, bugs, worms, rats, mice, insects and birds and they drink water.  They live in all continents and they are really long".

By Ava Rose

"Snakes slither on their tummies and crocodiles are cold blooded.  Reptiles lay eggs and some live in the water.  Snakes live in Australia and worms, birds, rats, mice and insects.  Snakes have a back bone so are called vertebrates.  Reptiles breathe with their lungs.  Crocodiles stay in the sun for a bit and they go in the water so they can get very fresh and cool".

By Skylah

SCIENCE - LIVING WORLD - ANIMALS

We were lucky to have two experts from Massey University visit us today to teach us about animals.

Dr Penny Back knows so much about cows she visits countries like Indonesia and Myanmar to help teach them.

Dr Kate Griffiths talked to us about Deer.  We had a lot of questions for her.

It was lucky that we have being learning about mammals so we had lots of sensible questions to ask them.

Thanks for coming Penny and Kate!

SCIENCE - OUR WONDERINGS

After our first week learning about animals we are left with a few Wonderings. 

These are some of them:

• Why are some rabbits fluffy and some aren't?
• Do kangaroos live in the desert?
• Do seals have skin or fur?
• Are humans animals?
• What do giraffes eat?
• How do rabbits hop?
• Do sharks have scales?
• What is the biggest animal on the planet?
• Where does a conquer bear live?
• Why are hedgehogs spikey?
• Why are some eggs called larvae?

Let's hope we can answer some of our Wonderings next week.

REPORT WRITING

Today the Penguins, Giraffes and Seals started learning about Report Writing.  We read lots of reports about different animals, the cheetah report was our favourite.  We didn't know that lots of cheetah cubs die before they become adults.  

This is what we knew today about reports.  I bet we know more in a couple of weeks.

We decided we'd write our first report about dogs because we knew so much about them.

Take a look at our first try.

Some dogs are so cute.  Some are so smart if they get trained so well.  Some dogs like grey hounds are very fast because they do races.  Dogs have different sized tails.  Dogs smell so well like Police dogs and Police dogs are working at the airports to sniff if some people bring in lollies.  By Kaito

Dogs run fast and they have four legs.  They have long tails and dogs have two eyes and wet noses and dogs are nice.  They jump and they like their tummies rubbed and they live in kennels. By Skylah

Dogs have four legs and they like to run outside.  They eat dog food and they have two eyes.  Some dogs are small and big and some live in a kennel.  Some are so funny because they try to eat bees.  Some hide in the garden.  By Ava Rose

Dogs have four legs and like to run fast.  Dogs have two eyes.  Some dogs are pretty and live in kennels.  Dogs like to eat dog bones and are animals.  Dogs are different colours.  By Ryla

A dog is an animals.  They love to run around.  Dog's have four legs.  They have two eyes and wet noses and senses.  They are very intelligent and smart.  Some have fancy accessories.  Some dogs can do tricks.  Dogs can be furry.  By Keira

SCIENCE: LIVING WORLD - ANIMALS

Today we had our first Science session with Mrs Kenyon.
We are going to learn about the Animal Kingdom. 

 It was kinda tricky because we didn't even know the name of some of the animals she had for us.

Some of us had never seen a bison or an antelope before, and do you do know the names of all the birds?  It's not easy. 

  

 

But, we kept at it.  We checked out the animals, had a play and then 'tried' to put them into groups.  BUT.....there were lots of ways to group them.

For example; green animals, animals that like water and animals that live on a farm.  

Jacob N taught us a new word called reptile which is the group that our snakes can go into.

We're going to try this activity again next week.