Maori Legend of Native Birds

Once upon a time there were bugs and even more bugs in the great forest of Tane. They would of destroyed the forest if it had not been for Terearaka. He flew in and out of the bush crying. "What can we do about these bugs?". The word soon got around. "They must do something about these bugs, otherwise we have no home!"

Pipiwharuoroa was asked buy Tui to help destroy the bugs, then Pipiwharuoroa replied, "Oh no, I am far to busy looking after my babies!".

Tui asked Pukeko the same thing. "Oh no, I don't want my feet to get wet and dirty."

Then the Kiwi said "I will do it!" But Tui said, "You will have to change a little. You have to have a long beak, you won't be able to fly and you can only come out at night." Then the kiwi gave up her wings.

As for Pipiwharuoroa, she does not look after her chicks because she didn't help, so she lost her motherhood. Pipiwharuoroa lays her eggs in other birds nests and leaves.

Pukeko had to move as well because she didn't want to help save Tane's forest. The swamp is where Pukeko moved too.

Now you know the Maori legend of why some of N.Z's native birds live in their natural habitats.

By Ngapera


                                                  By Ngapera Marama Tia

Planting Seeds

Our class has been learning about germination in science. Germination is when seeds begin to sprout (grow).

Each group was given a packet of seeds, an egg carton and some soil. We had to put a bit of soil in each hallow of the egg carton and sprinkle in a few seeds, then cover with a bit more soil and add a little water.
 

Room 4 planted sprouting seeds, lettuce, radish, parsley and capsicum. Students made labels and stuck them to the egg cartons so we knew what we had planted and put them by a window so they could get some sun.  We only watered them when the soil was dry.

After 7 days, Room 4 noticed little green sprouts coming out of the soil. Our seeds finally sprouted! We will wait for them to get bigger, then plant them in our vegetable garden.

By Taaria

How to Play 'First to 100'

First to 100

What you need...
Two dies (dice)
Two people or more
Paper and pen

Goal: The first person to get to 100 is the winner.

How to play...

1) The first person rolls both dies.
2) Add the totals together.
3) Record the score.
4 )Each person takes turns until they reach 100.
5) If your total becomes more than 100, you can subtract the total of both dies from your score and work backwards until you reach 100.

Note: You can also play the game using multiplication and division.
And that's how you play First to 100.
  

Science with Robyn

A special lady called Robyn came into our classroom a couple of weeks ago and did some science activities with Room 4.

Robyn asked us to get into groups of three and figure out what we thought was inside two mysterious looking bottles.
Bottles were handed for us to examine out and we all noticed that one bottle had bubbles and the other had none.



When our time was up, we were asked to guess what was inside each bottle. There were wild guesses from everyone, then we clicked after feeling and shaking the bottles that it was lemonade and water.


Our next task was to get a cup of water and a cup of lemonade then drop a couple of raisins both cups and see whether they would float or sink.
My group dropped two raisins into the cup of water and noticed they sunk to the bottom straight away.


When we tried it with the fizzy lemonade, we hoped they would float and was surprised because they floated to the surface after a little while.
Robyn asked us to think why we thought the raisins sunk to the bottom in water and floated in lemonade. We think this might have something to do with the bubbles in the lemonade getting trapped in the wrinkles of the raisins, causing the bubbles to lift the raisins to the top.
Room 4 had fun learning about science with Robyn!

Science - What Insects Exist in our Garden?

During Science today, we watched a short DVD about what insects exist in the garden. We got to go outside and explore a garden anywhere in our school and draw a map of it and mark the insects that we found.

It was fun working outside! Some of us found slugs, centipedes, spiders, worms and ants. Inverness and Sarah discovered an earwig living in the trunk of a tree. Ngapera and Kallisto showed us a centipede hiding under a rock.  Hirini, Billy and Taniela found slugs living in Room One's compost bin.

Taaria, Kadison and Teina saw a walking stick in the bushes outside the staffroom. Ngati and Nivolo found a worm by the library and remembered not to pick it up with their hands because the acid on our skin can harm worms.

By Kacey

Pakaraka School's Native Tree Planting Day

On Tuesday the 30th of July 2013, a lady called Pauline came to our school from the Department of Conservation. She demonstrated how to plant a tree properly with the help of Essica and Ngati.

First they dug a hole and levelled the earth so the top of the tree was the same height as the ground, then they poured water in the hole and put the tree in and covered it up with soil and sprinkled wood chips around the tree to keep it moist.

Next, we planted our Griselinia trees with our partners. Dirt was marked with circles and crosses where we had to plant them. Circles were where we had to plant the Griselinia trees and crosses were where we had to plant the Karaka and Pigeonwood trees. If we were finished in time, we got to plant flax as well.

                



Our native garden is to bring in all of the native birds to our school. Christine Sweetapple did an awesome job organising this for our school. When we are older we will be able to drive past the school and remember and feel special that we planted those trees.

By Dana and Kacey

Body Gardens

Our Mathematics focus for term 3 is Measurement. Whaea Dee thought it would be a good idea if room 4 created 'Body Gardens' because we are exploring 'Gardens' for Topic.

First, our partners measured the length from our elbow to our wrist with a piece of string. This measurement was used to make the stem of our flower. We repeated these steps to make the rest of our flower but used different parts of our body. For example, we measured our hand span to make the leaves, the length of our fingers to create the petals, and the distance around our wrist to form the centre of the flower.                         
               
 


Second, we marked our measurements on coloured paper and cut out the different parts of the flower then glued them onto black paper. Room 4 also talked about shapes, lines, angles and rotation used to create our body gardens. Some of us also added grass and garden insects such as snails, worms, caterpillars and butterflies.


Third, unifix cubes were used to work out the different lengths and were recorded on our flowers and in our workbooks. 

To complete this activity, we compared our flowers and talked about the different measurements and sizes of our hands.
 
Everyone enjoyed making our body gardens, especially being able to work with our friends.


By Te Uira, Billy and Nivolo