Working hard

We have been doing lots of interesting activities with Miss Elliott. Here are a few of them. We wrote about what we wanted to be when we grew up and there were a lot of different jobs.

We started using more descriptive words in our written work and trying differnet metaphors. Our work is on the wall in the classroom so please come in and have a look.

We carefully observed an experiment after we had hypothesised what we thought might happen and then saw what actually happened.

Orokonui

After having to postpone our first trip because of bad weather we were lucky to get a great day for our visit to the Eco-sanctuary. S.1 and S.2 travelled on a double decker bus which was fun. Once we arrived Nathan welcomed us with a song about the sanctuary and we saw a video. He told us all about the predators that they cleared out of the sanctuary after the 9kms of fence was installed. Nathan explained how ferrets and stoats were so good at hunting. After morning tea we split into 4 groups.
There was the pond group that looked at the insects you might find in and on a small pond and how they show us how healthy the pond is. There was a group that looked at birds' nests and listened to the birdsong in the bush. They also made poo bombs. There was a group that looked at how predators were removed from the sanctuary and how birds are tracked and how there are constant checks to keep the area pest free. The final group looked at the Takahe that live there and also the skinks. After lunch we walked through the sanctuary down to Waitati and our bus collected us there and took us back to school. We had an amazing day and all felt happy and tired.

         

Bug Census

The Otago Museum came along to do a Bug Census at our school. First we gave as much information as we could about insects and the different types we thought we might see at school. Then we went up to the Community Garden and got into groups. We looked at the insects on the plants, the ones flying around and the ones hiding under rocks and bricks. If we didn't know the name of an insect we were given a series of questions such as how many legs or wings or antennae. We weren't able to catch many insects in the net but we did see quite a few.

Changes

As part of our topic on Changes we thought growing plants would be a good thing to do. Unfortunately we didn't have a lot of success with our bean plants. First the plants were over-watered and then when we tried again, only a few grew. We grew two types of 'potato-heads" and also did experiments with bean sprouts that we planted in different locations in the room. We are now going to try growing some bulbs, hopefully these will work!!

Looking forward to our trip to Orokonui

Tahu came to school to talk about our topic "Changes". We all gave our ideas about the changes that happen in all sorts of ways. Then we went up into our playground to look for native plants. We are going to the Eco-sanctuary soon.

A trip to the Art Gallery

We went to the Dunedin Art Gallery and worked with Mr Neumegen on our wonderful pictures. We used lots of colour and the results look fantastic.

Scientists at Work

In S2 we have been using our observation skills and looking closely at plants and insects. We used magnifying glasses and bug viewers to get an even clearer view. We have made observations about size, shape and texture as well as colour and anything else of interest.