Madam Butterfly

Today 28 June Madam Butterfly came to our school. She is a kaitiaki because she cares for the butterflies and moths. I learned that butterflies love nectar like bees. The part I enjoyed was when Mrs A dressed like a butterfly. I think Madam Butterfly is doing a wonderful job to save the butterflies. I also think Madam Butterfly is doing an important job. The most interesting thing was I got know that Monarch Butterflies came from America.  N. M.

Today Madam Butterfly came to our school. She is a kaitiaki because she cares for all the butterflies. I learned that many butterflies are in NZ. The part I liked was watching the caterpillar transform to a Monarch Butterfly. V.V.

Today, June 28, Madam Butterfly came to our school. She is a kaitiaki because butterflies are part of our Earth. I learned that they are not extinct. The part I enjoyed most was when Mrs A was dressed as a Monarch Butterfly. Madam Butterfly is very interested in butterflies.  J.V.

Today Madam Butterfly came to our school. She is a kaitiaki because she knows about butterflies and looks after butterflies.  M.L.

Madam Butterfly is a kaitiaki because she looks after a type of animal called a Monarch Butterfly. I learned that butterflies are special. The part I enjoyed most was seeing Mrs A as a butterfly. It was crazy and funny. I could laugh for 900,000,000,000 years until the world has ended. Caring for butterflies and moths is important because they are in the biospherre.  G.S.

Madam Butterfly is a kaitiaki because she takes care of butterflies. She started the organisation Moths and Butterflies NZ Trust and she studies about butterflies. I learned that there are 20,000 species of butterflies. The part I enjoyed most was when Mrs A got dressed as a butterfly. Taking care of butterflies is a good thing so there will always be more of them.  A.K.

Madam Butterfly founded the Moths and Butterflies of NZ Trust. She also really cares for butterflies. I learned there are 20,000 species of butterflies worldwide! The part I enjoyed most was laughing so hard my stomach hurt when Mrs A blew the butterfly tongue!  K.J.

Madam Butterfly is a kaitiaki because she studies butterflies and helps them. I learned that butterflies might be threatened  but not endangered or extinct. The part I enjoyed most was when Madam Butterfly dressed up Mrs A as a butterfly. Madam Butterfly's job is important because not a lot of people care for butterflies so she cares for them.  H.K.

Madam Butterfly looks after Monarch Butterflies, Red Admiral, Cabbage White, Coppers, Common Blue and Magpie Moths. I learned there are lots of species. The part I enjoyed most was when Mrs A dressed up as a butterfly. It was interesting because Madam Butterfly had a collection of butterflies.   A.M.

So here is the part we all enjoyed..............

Kaitiaki at Ruapotaka Marae

On June 27 we visited Ruapotaka Marae to learn more about being a kaitiaki. One of the things I learned was that Ruapotaka Marae and Stanhope Rd School are a family.The part I enjoyed most was making pois. If I could go back again I would ike to lear more about the kids who have lived there that are 21 now.  S. G.

One of the things I learned was how a Kaitiaki cares for the Earth. The part I enjoyed most was singing the Maori songs. I would like to go back again I would enjoy that. A.N.

One of the things I learned was how to make a poi. Also things like how to behave on a marae

that we don't clap after they have sung their song and so on. The part I enjoyed was making the poi. If I could go back again I would like to do the weaving.  P.S.

Getting our materials ready for poi making

 So far so good, just a little trim needed.

The nearly finished product! One poi!

The Mighty Middle School preparing to leave Ruapotaka Marae at the end of our visit.

Down the Drain

On Monday, after learning about stormwater with Sally last week, we decided to check out the stormwater drains at our school.
We discovered that there are at least 26 drains in our school grounds.
The other thing we discovered was that there were these things down the drains: leaves, mud, sand, lollipop sticks, bubble gum, calcyum drink packets, straws, chippie packets, grass, nut bar wrappers, sticks, sandwiches, squashed cans, tear tabs off cans, juice cartons......... as well as water!
We have learned that stormwater drains go straight to the sea so it isn't good to have all this rubbish down the drains.

Today, we thought about how these things could have got in the drains and what effect they are going to have when they reach the sea.
By the way we also opened the jar of foodscraps in water that Sally left with us! Guess how it smelled!!!!!!!

Water Care Day

On Wednesday, Sally from Water Care came to our class to teach us about water. She showed us some jars of water and poured other things into them and shook them together. These are the things that we don't want going down the stormwater drain.  L.J.

* These jars are in our classroom. They contain water and..... oil, food scraps, detergent, cooking oil and paint. Sally has challenged us to open the one with water and food scraps in one week!
Not many of us are looking forward to that! Watch our blog to see what happens.

On Wednesday Sally from Water Care came to Rm 14 to talk about how to save the fish from extinction and how water is important to us. Sally told us all the dirty water from houses is transferred to Water Care and the germs in the water are eaten by superbugs. But the water that comes from drains goes straight to the sea.  D.C.

On Wednesday 19 June Sally from Water Care came to Rm 14 to talk about how water is important to us and how to keep it clean and safe. First she talked about her work and showed us pictures. She showed us superbugs which are little hairy bugs which eat germs in the sewerage.   A.M. & H.K.


On Wednesday our class met a girl from Water Care. She taught us how important water is and she also taught us about pipes and drains. Her name was Sally and she knew a lot about sewage water - it is disgusting!   J.W.

On Wednesday the 19th June Sally from Water Care came and taught us about keeping our water clean when it goes down the stormwater drain. She said when you flush the toilet it goes through sewerage pipes to Water Care's special tanks and the superbug eats it. When it is tired it has a rest while Water Care transfers the other germs to a different tank. Then they send the water to us. We also did cool experiments that often worked.   G.S. & R.S.

Here we are doing our water experiments.
How many rivers can we make? It could only count as a river when it ran off the board. 

About 6 rivers for most of the groups. We learned all rivers run down hill or down to the sea.

Now for the fastest flowing river. Where do we need to put the stones this time?

Finally...will our rock structures hold 6 litres of water? 

Yes they did with just a tiny bit of overflow!

Our Definition of a Kaitiaki

A kaitiaki is someone who is a guardian and who takes care of people or things.

Our parents are our guardians. Our teacher is our kaitiaki at school. Ms Tafa is the kaitiaki of the whole school.

A kaitiaki also looks after our Earth's natural resources because if we don't look after the Earth the natural resources will run out.

These are some kaitiaki we know so far:

NIWA,  Greenpeace,  Border Security,  Forest and Bird Society, Dept of Conservation, Ministry of Agriculture and Forests (Ministry of Primary Industries) Monarch Butterfly Trust, Ministry of Fisheries, wildlife reserves, Water Care, Biosecurity, Scientists......


We also looked at some pictures of environmental problems around the world. Each group worked out what was the problem, what was causing the problem and what could be done about the problem. After we had presented our ideas we ranked the pictures in order of which ones we, as 8 and 9 year olds, could help with. This would be us being a kaitiaki. We decided that the pictures showing the effects of rubbish being where it shouldn't could be the sort of problem we could help with.

Kaitiaki

Back to our Topic this week: If this Earth could talk... what help would it ask for?
We are exploring what a kaitiaki is  (watch this space for our definition soon) what a kaitiaki does, what help does our Earth need and why does it need help.

We have been reading about various kaitiaki and the work they do as well as researching one kaitiaki for our Home Learning task. Our most recent story was Old Blue which told the story of the saving of the Black Robin.

Reflection Time!

After we had done all that measuring we reflected on what we had learned. Here are some of our reflections.

I learned about different attributes that you can measure. The measuring I enjoyed most was measuring the Mars Bars. I participated by measuring for my group.  T.F.

I learned what volume is. The measuring I liked most was measuring the tree with the tape measure. I participated by helping my group measure the Mars Bars. I had to get the equipment for my group.  V.V.

I learned that you can measure anything. The measuring I enjoyed the most was timing because I love using stopwatches. I participated by recording the measurement for my group.  G.S.

I learned what attributes are. The measuring I liked most was the measuring on the power point. I participated by being the measurer in my group. H.K.

I learned that 10mm=1cm, that 100cm =1m and 1000m =1Km. The measuring I enjoyed most was doing the scale model because I liked drawing the scale model. I participated by measuring in my group.  A.K.

I learned about some different attributes and units. The measuring I liked most was when we timed our buddy running to the fence and back. I participated by measuring for my group. A.M.

I participated by recording what my group found out in measuring. I learned you can measure lots of attributes. The measurement I enjoyed most was timing K with a stopwatch to see how fast he could run. D.C.

I learned what width meant. The measurement I enjoyed was watching the power point. I participated by being the project manager in my group. J.V.

I learned to measure with a ruler. The measuring I enjoyed most was when S measured me with the tape measure. I was the photographer of my group. D.L.

I learned how to measure the area. The measuring I enjoyed most was measuring the Mars Bars. I participated by getting the things my group needed.  A.N.

Maths Week

This week we have taken a break from our Topic and concentrated on three days of Maths. Our Maths Intensive focused on measurement.  Our first day was all about understanding attributes and units of measurement. We discussed a power point to get us thinking about the different ways we could measure a mountain: How many giraffes to reach the top of... How many MnMs to fill a crater... How many lavalava to cover.... How long would it take Usain Bolt to run around... and so on. We made our own predictions and suggestions for measuring. We visited the library and saw some scale models. In Room 14 we decided to use Olympus Mons as our mountain to measure. We used equipment and compared Olympus Mons to Mt Everest.

 We had a try at making a scale drawing of our mountain and decided it was a very strange shape. Day Two was when we shared some information about Olympus Mons that we had found out, practised our measurement skills....

and decided the attributes of Olympus Mons we would measure would be the height and width and our unit of measurement would be... Mars bars!
Here we are hard at work on Day Three!

Here is what two of our mathematicians wrote about what we worked out about how many Mars Bars it would take to reach the top of Olympus Mons.

First we measured the length of one mars bar. Our answer was 10cm. We then had to work how many mars bars could fit on one metre (end to end). Our answer was 10. So how many would fit on 1,000 metres. 10,000 was our answer. So how many mars bars for 22 kilometres.(That’s how high Olympus Mons is.) Our answer was 220,000. We checked our work with a calculator. (AM. & S.R.)

Another mathematician wrote:
We measured one big Mars Bar and it was 10cm long. We figured out that 10 Mars Bars=1 metre. We needed 10 000 Mars Bars to make 1Km. So we needed 6 000 000 Mars Bars to make 600 Km. This is how wide Olympus Mons is. It is the tallest mountain in our solar system. (G.S.)