Here's Harold!

We've been visiting with Harold this week, 

in his Life Education mobile classroom.

During this year's visit we learned about the journey our food takes through our bodies.
We also learned about the food pyramid. 
The biggest part, at the bottom of the triangle is green, for foods that come from the ground.
(Most of our food each day should come from this group).

The middle part is orange, 
and covers foods that come from animals.
(Some of our food each day could come from this group).

The small tip of the triangle is red, 
for foods that have ingredients, particularly salt, sugar and fat.
(Very little of our food should come from this group).

What have you learned from Harold's classroom?
Does Harold come to your school?

Our World, Our Numbers: Topic 5 - Animals

The 5th topic on the Our World, Our Numbers project 

is all about animals.

We enjoyed learning about Canadian animals from 

Mrs Watson's K/1/2/3 class 

and about kelp forests from Mrs Yollis' class.

We've put up a post about two of our iconic 

New Zealand animals.

The kiwi is a bird native to New Zealand. It is a flightless, nocturnal bird.

What does nocturnal mean?

Attribution: dancedancewerefallingapart

One of the nicknames for people from New Zealand is ‘kiwi’!

Five species of kiwi are found in New Zealand, but all are endangered due to predators such as ferrets, rats and cats and dogs.This is because kiwis live on the forest floor.

Did you know that kiwis can not fly?

You might like to read this legend 

– ‘How the Kiwi Lost its Wings.”

We have some number facts about the kiwi:

In the wild kiwis can live for up to 20 years.

The kiwi egg is the biggest of any bird in proportion to the female’s body.

The average weight of an ostrich egg is 2% of the female’s body weight whereas the average weight of a kiwi egg is 20% of the female’s body weight. 

The kiwi has a long beak and amazingly the nostrils are at the very tip! That’s a very useful adaptation as the kiwi probes in the forest floor for grubs, insects, earthworms and other food.

The kiwi’s beak is about 1/3 the length of its body.

If the bird’s body was 36 cm long how long would the beak be?

The kiwi weighs about 3kg.

How many pounds would that be?

The kiwi is about 45cm tall.

How many inches would that be?

The average body temperature of a kiwi bird is 38˚C.

What is the body temperature of a human?

Another special animal native to New Zealand is the tuatara.

The tuatara is an ancient type of reptile.

Photo credit: ajft / Foter.com / CC BY-NC-ND

Read the links about tuatuaras here and here then head over to Our World, Our Numbers and leave us a comment with a number fact that you found out about tuataras! 

Cheeky Keas

This term's art has been around native New Zealand birds. 

Check out the pukeko art works that we did 

earlier in the term.

Now we've used water-colour pencils to make pictures of another New Zealand bird - the kea.

'Keas' by B4 on PhotoPeach

What do you think of our cheeky New Zealand parrots?

Have you ever used water-colour pencils?

'Top of the South' Area Schools' Tournament

We have 120 teenagers from six other schools visiting for the Top of the South Area Schools' Tournament. 

Area Schools are located in rural areas throughout New Zealand and cater for students from Years 0-13.

This tournament includes sporting and cultural events 
for the older students from:
Reefton Area School
Collingwood Area School
Rai Valley Area School
Tapawera Area School
Murchison Area School
Karamea Area School
and South Westland Area School.
Visiting students are billeted with school and community families for the week. 


View Top of the South Area Schools in a larger map

The first day started with a powhiri to welcome the visitors to our school.
The visitors were called in:
Powhiri 1 from Judy McKenzie on Vimeo.

and welcomed with a waiata (song):
Powhiri 2 from Judy McKenzie on Vimeo.

Each of the other schools spoke and sang waiata, 
then we finished with the Fair Play Code 
and two more waiata:
Powhiri 3 from Judy McKenzie on Vimeo.
Powhiri 4 from Judy McKenzie on Vimeo.

We hope all tournament participants enjoy their week.

Did you billet some students for the week?
Have you attended a powhiri?
How do you welcome visiting groups to your school?

Courage

We've been talking about how trying new things 

sometimes takes courage, with an example being when 

learning to swim.

Listen to these young writers telling you how they needed 

to have courage:

Courage from Judy McKenzie on Vimeo.

Do you remember a time when you needed courage to try something new?

Measuring Ingredients and Baking Biscuits

The topic for Our World, Our Numbers this week 
is recipes and measurement.

We used our measuring skills in B4 to make Anzac biscuits using the recipe from the Edmonds Cookbook - many homes in New Zealand would have a copy of this cookbook!

We noticed that Anzac biscuits also featured in 4KM and 4KJ's  post this week!

Anzac biscuits:

125 g (4ozs.) flour                                    100g (3 1/2 ozs.) butter

150 g (6ozs.) sugar                                  1 tablespoon golden syrup

1 cup coconut                                           1/2 teaspoon bicarb soda

1 cup rolled oats                                       2 tablespoons boiling water

Mix together flour, sugar, coconut and rolled oats.

Melt butter and golden syrup.

Dissolve Bicarb. Soda in the boiling water and add to butter and golden syrup.

Make a well in the centre of the flour and stir in the liquid.

Place in spoonfuls on the trays.

Bake 15 to 20 minutes at 180˚C. (350˚F)

We measured the flour and sugar with these scales.

They have both metric and imperial units on them.
We used the metric units.

We needed a cup each of coconut and rolled oats, so we used our measuring cup.

We needed 100g of butter. 

How many lots of 100g are in our block of butter?

The biscuits were laid out in an array on the baking tray.

How many biscuits on our tray?

We made 3 trays of biscuits, so how many biscuits did we make?

Finally it was time to enjoy the biscuits!

Do you do baking at home?
What do you like to make?

Our World, Our Numbers: Topic 3 Measurement and Recipes

On Our World, Our Numbers this week, our buddies 'Room With a View' from England put up a post with a

delicious recipe for 20 gingerbread cookies.

In B4, Jia Xuan and Tarris used the place value equipment while working out how to double the recipe 
to make 40 cookies.

In New Zealand we measure using metric units, such as kilograms, grams, metres, kilometres, litres and millilitres.

Some of our buddies measure using imperial units, such as pounds, ounces, miles, yards, pints and gallons.

Why don't you head over to Our World, Our  Numbers 

and take our quiz about measurement units!