Edible Art 2014

The focus for this years Edible Art Parade was 'Going Global' which could not have been better for Room 3. Lydia had come back from her wonderful trip to South Africa with stories of her visit to Kruger National Park and the plight of  South African animals. She explained to us all about poaching and the effect it was having on some of these animals.
Anti-Poaching became our theme and from there the children worked cooperatively in groups to choose from one of the ten most endangered animals in South Africa. Once chosen it was all about planning, collecting and then creating the animal out of recycled 'stuff' that was a food related item. Not an easy task, but  they came up trumps.
Seeing them spending their whole lunchtime gluing on little bread bag ties and corn kernals along with other kids from other rooms, who just happened to join in, was superb. It really was cooperative learning at its best.
Check out their creations...real Green hat creativity!!

Black Rhino

African Elephant

Cheetah

Ethiopian Wolf

African Lion
 

Aren't they awesome? And in case you haven't heard all 5 costumes went through to the finals in the Junior grade. I was in Wellington at my graduation and when I got that news, I hightailed it home to be at the evening show where they were 'walking' the cat walk. Talk about exciting!!
The result was our Ethiopian Wolf, modelled by Sophia took 2nd place and our African Elephant, modelled by Lydia was 1st. I think our message of Anti-Poaching was just too important to overlook.
Well done everybody, as it really was a TEAM effort.
The job now is to think how we will use the $250 prize money!!

Meeting a Kiwi

Last week was just tooooo exciting. Not only were we trying to finish off our amazing  endangered South African costumes for Edible Art, but we also had our Native Bush trip to The Pan pac Kiwi Creche at Lake Opouahi.
Paul from Mountain Safety had prepared us well for the trip into the bush, and Tuesday saw every child coming to school in a woolly hat, warm gear, gloves and a substantial packed lunch.
 It was pretty exciting to take off in the bus to a destination none of us had been to before. The ride took about 1 1/2 hours and I am pleased to say the bucket and flannels I had taken along (just in case) didn't need to be used.  Robyn from DOC, Paul and Mack, a trainee ranger, were all there to meet us. They took us through the predator gate and into the creche where we met some of the amazing kiwi volunteers who work tirelessly to take care of our beautiful national bird... the kiwi. These people give up their time to go into the Kawekas and retrieve the kiwi chicks who only have a 5% chance of survival, and bring them to the Creche at lake Opouahi where they live predator free until they are big enough to go- it on their own. They are then returned to their homes with their chances of survival rising to about 85%, if I remember rightly. A fantastic effort I'd say!
We saw eggs, predators, traps, plants, but to top it all off we got to touch a real kiwi, which I found quite moving. I won't go into any more detail but I will share a couple of the childrens stories, which are much more fun to read.
All in all it was a special day, and made so by the great help from parents and caregivers that came along to share it with us. Thank-you so much.


Hena-C with a kiwi egg- it is huge!

Lake Opouahi- a little gem

 

Bruno up close to a kiwi...Wow!



The predator fence

                               I got to feel a kiwi yesterday at Lake Opouahi. It was fun. The kiwi was soft and it looked wet but it wasn't. The kiwis eyes aren't very good so they use their whiskers to feel with. The kiwi was scared. It had a long beak and two strong legs. We heard birds in the bush and we got to see the predator traps go off. We could smell the native bush. I had a good day.   Jaxon


 On Thursday I went to Lake Opouahi. I liked tasting the kawakawa leaves that Mack tricked us into eating. He said they were icecream leaves when they were really pepper leaves! A cave weta jumped on to Gus's face, he stayed very still until Mack took it off. He let it go free and it jumped away. It had very long legs. I saw some bush stinging nettle and some black berry. A piece got caught onto Sophias neck and gave her a fright. We went on a bus we had never been on. I sat right at the back and it was fun. It was very exciting for everyone.   Kyle

Yesterday we saw a kiwi for real. It was a baby but it was big for a kiwi. It was 11 months old. My favourite part was eating the kawakawa leaves that Mack tricked us into eating. My family came for the trip too. It was a spectacular day.   Luca

It's All About Mulch

As part of our study on the Native Bush we have been looking at an Action that we can take part in to help our school environment. We asked Keith our fantastic caretaker what we could do to help him, and that started us on a bit of a mulching journey.
Every day armed with rakes, shovel and brushes and a bucket the children in Room 3 rake up leaves all around the school to make into mulch. The mulch is put under the trees and bushes around the school to encourage seedlings. Not only are the children doing a great job mulching, but they are also picking up litter that they find in the gardens at the same time.
Hows that for being switched on kiwis.

Thanks Bethan, Joseph, George and Gus, you really are helping make our school environment a better place.

A proud Player of the Day

Our big news for the weekend was from George whose highlight was playing a great game of soccer and being made Player of the Day.  He brought his tophy in to show us and we all felt very proud of him. Well done George!

Week 1, Term 2

Week 1, Term 2 by Vinnie and Joseph
Last week we had a visit from Paul Hodgkinson and Robyn McCool.  Paul was from the New Zealand Mountain Safety Council and Robyn is from The Department of Conservation who we are doing our study of The Native Bush with. We learnt a lot of interesting things like how to make a raincoat out of a rubbish bag.

Guess who?  Yes thats me, Joseph. 

We had to find out what things would be good to take in a pack when we go tramping in the bush.  We needed to think about how heavy things are before we put them in. We found out we need to wear long trousers and a long sleeve top so we don't get cold.

We are all looking forward to our trip to the Pan Pac Kiwi Creche on the 27th to try out some of the Bush Survival things we learnt.

Written by Joseph and Vinnie

Our Living Classroom

Did you know that Room 3 has been renamed as the 'Living Classroom'.  That wonderful idea came from Lucy, on the way home from our trip to the aquarium and Dolbel tree reserve a couple of weeks ago. I thought it was so appropriate with all the goings on this term, we all agreed that it was a great idea.
Unfortunately our next exciting trip to the Pan Pac Kiwi Sanctuary has had to be postponed and is probably going to be postponed again, with the week ahead looking decidingly dreary.  I have fingers crossed that it can happen next term, but we will have to see if it can be rescheduled by DOC.
Any way back to business.  Our bloggers last week were Amelia and Sinclair and they have chosen our colourful bugs to talk about.

We have been studying 'BUGS' this term.  All sorts of creepy crawlies. In maths we have also been looking at symmetry and so we put on our Green Creative Hats and put the two together and created our colourful bugs. We painted half and then smudged it so it came out on the other side of the paper and magically our bugs were born.  Abit of black paper to form the body, head, thorax and abdomen, a couple of antennae and 6 legs and they were ready. 
 They look beautiful and help to make our Living Classroom look great.
By Amelia and Sinclair

Our Week, by George and Lenny.

Did you know that our school is a Cool School.  That means that we try to look after each other, especially in the playground.  When things don't go so well, we try to sort them out. Thats called mediation. 
It is fun playing in the playground with our friends because we have lots of cool things to do, like climbing trees or playing on the monkey bars and we also enjoy playing cricket too. Last week we had to work hard at sorting out our differences because we didn't all agree on the rules. We had to try to agree on things, which didn't always work. 
 We hope that this week the game will run a little more smoothly. We will let you know.