Listening to the first audio-conference

At 1.30 today we listened to the first "Kakapo" audio-conference. Andrew and special guest, DOC Ranger Steve Horn answered questions from Ashburton School and Rosehill Intermediate. The topic being discussed was "Quarantine for kakapo on Codfish Island".

The audio-conference lasted about 30 minutes, and 10 questions were answered. After listening, we made a basic 'Question + Answer' mind-map on wallwisher to help us remember the information we had heard.

Here is our mind-map:


Tomorrow's audio-conference topic is "Kakapo - a unique parrot".

P.S. We were really amazed to see that Andrew, the LEARNZ teacher leading the virtual field trip, posted a comment on our blog. Thanks Andrew!

We're going on a (virtual) field trip

We're going on a (virtual) field trip to look for Kakapo. We will learn how the Department of Conservation have tried to rescue the Kakapo from extinction.



The virtual field trip is organised by LEARNZ and will take us to Whenua Hou (Codfish Island), where there is a Kakapo sanctuary. We will listen in on 2 audio-conferences, where children will ask special DOC guests questions about how the Kakapo was saved from extinction. These Audio-conferences will be held on Wednesday and Thursday this week. We will also be able to email the LEARNZ teacher Andrew with our own questions during the week.

From the LEARNZ website:

The kakapo field trip plan

Tuesday 15 September: Travel day

Join Andrew as he sets the scene. Get on the plane and take off to one of the most southern cities in NZ and the world, Invercargill. It's our destination in preparation for our trip to Whenua Hou tomorrow. We'll take a look at the sights on the flight down from Christchurch.

Wednesday 16 September

Get your gear and bags checked at the southern islands quarantine store in Invercargill. Take a plane trip to Whenua Hou and land at low tide on Sealer's Bay beach. Get to know the restrictions for visitors and the quarantine requirements needed for access to this special island sanctuary. Then help check traps around the coast line.

Thursday 17 September



Spend the day caring for kakapo chicks. Learn about their dietary needs and whip up a tasty treat for them. Take a close look at their vital statistics as they are measured and weighed during a health check. Check out the track and bowl systems on the high plateau. Find out about how to locate kakapo using triangulations from transmitter signals.

Friday 18 September

Finish off Conservation Week with a look at how the kakapo recovery programme is saving these amazing birds from extinction. Examine some of the gadgets used for monitoring kakapo. Catch a plane on the beach as we leave Whenua Hou and head back to the mainland at the end of our adventure.

Our Visit to Te Papa #2

The interest generated from our trip to Te Papa has been amazing!

Most children have presented to the class something that they found 'fascinating' during the day. The classroom 'newsboard' is chocka-block full of posters, mind-maps and visual aides that children made to support their mini-presentation.



The 'Colossal Squid'exhibit really seemed to catch our imagination! I found the online version to the 'create a squid' activity at Te Papa. Click on the link below to have a go!

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http://squid.tepapa.govt.nz/build-a-squid/interactive

Clean up New Zealand!

This week is "Clean up New Zealand" week.



The Year 3-4's went down to the beach and helped by spending half an hour looking through the dunes for plastic and paper rubbish.




There actually wasn't that much rubbish so people must be really getting the message that littering is really really wrong!

New Homework blog

I have created a new homework blog to help inform you and the Room 7 students of any 'different' homework that might be set this year.

As you may have noticed, sometimes the set homework is a little different from the usual 'spelling and basic facts' routine.

This new blog is designed to help answer any questions about any 'special' homework that might be set.

It can be viewed at

http://room7homework.blogspot.com/

or by clicking on the link on the right hand link bar.

Upcoming visit to Te Papa

Tomorrow (Tuesday) we are going to visit Te Papa museum.

One of the experiences we will have will be at the Te Papa marae. We will learn about the protocol for being welcomed onto a marae. We have prepared a song to sing as part of the welcome.

We will also get to explore the museum in small groups. One of the places we will visit is the 'Awesome Forces" exhibit. This is where we can learn all about how New Zealand/Aotearoa came to be.

"What Now" visited Te Papa and made a really fun 'tour' of Te Papa that you can watch...

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We have been finding out about our Family history.

Every Family has an exciting story to tell. We wanted to find out why our family ancestors came to Aotearoa/New Zealand.

Have a listen to our "Family Stories" here.

"Giraffes Can't Dance"

Some photos from our item "Giraffes Can't Dance" which we performed at ArtSplash 'Schools for Schools' last week.

Buddy Class

Each week Room 7 visits our buddy class, Room 4. The children in Room 4 have just started school and really enjoy visits from the 'older' children of Room 7.

Today, we helped the Room 4 children during ICT time. We taught them how to use a mouse properly, and how to draw a picture using KidPix. It was really great seeing the excitement of the 5 year-olds in Room 4 as they realised they could make the computer draw and write things. There was lots of laughter!

Thanks for being such great buddies this week, Room 7!

Early Aotearoa

Mr Dobson was talking to us about the way some of the polynesian people
had come to Aotearoa ( New Zealand ) and made it their home. They had survived the rough seas and stopped on all the islands that had never been discovered. For example the cook islands were discovered by the polynesian people. I think this is truly amazing and to be out sea for so many days thinking you may not survive is quite tough.

By Sally.




For inquiry we are talking about the timeline of New Zealand. Today we talked about how the people got to New Zealand and who they where.
We learned that the polynesians came to stay from other places/countries. When one place was filled up they moved on to the next. They found New Zealand by sending out well trained explorers who followed the stars. (a type of compass or map) They used clues like birds, the cloud, things floating in the water and wood floating past to find New Zealand.

By Harry!!!!

"Music Room" classroom music

Today we started our classoom music programme "Music Room". Over the next 8 weeks we will be learning about beat, rhythm, pitch and tone colour. Check out this link to play 'the welcome song' again and add some of your own beats!

First Moon Landing 40th Anniversary

As you all know, Mr Dobson loves anything to do with outer space. Monday 20th June 2009 is the 40th anniversary of the first people landing on the moon. Isn't that amazing! 40 years ago. That's from a time even before Mr Dobson was born!

Watch out for special TV programmes on Discovery, Nat Geo and the History Channel this weekend, that celebrate this amazing human achievement.

If you were the first person to step foot on the moon, what would you say? (You can hear Neil Armstrong saying "that's one small step for (a) man, one giant leap for mankind". Not what I would have said!)

It cost BILLIONS of dollars to get astronauts to the moon back in the 1960's and 70's. In todays dollars, it is estimated to have cost about half a TRILLION dollars ($500,000,000,000)

Do you think it is worth the cost to send astronauts back to the moon by 2020?

Harry's Blog

Harry has been very busy on his blog and has recently posted all about Room 7's worm farm project. You can visit Harry's blog by clicking the link below, or by going to the Room 7 publishing blog and clicking the link to the right.


http://harrycrawfordblog.blogspot.com/

Homework games

A couple of weeks ago, Room 7 students were set the task to design a game that would teach a skill to another child. We had some amazing creations. Some games were designed for children to practice basic facts or spelling, others were designed for children to learn a new language or to play a musical instrument. They were all fantastic and we had so much fun playing them on "Game Day".

Vegetable soup!

Remember when we planted the vegetable plants earlier in the year?



Well, some of them have grown realy well!



Today we harvested dome of the veges and made a big pot of soup for the Year 3 and 4's to have at Morning Tea time.

Art Splash Choir! By Billy and Harry

On Monday most of room 7 and the year 4-6 went to art splash practise at Hutt intermediate school. We sang 12 songs including super troper, aleluia, waterloo, radio ga ga, any dream will do, chikatita, preyer and lots more! It was very fun, room 7 loved it even though they missed morning tea.


By Billy and Harry

Worm farm, compost and gardens by Margarita and Bridie

hi,

Last week Room 7 made a worm farm for the year three and fours. We researched about how to make a worm farm and then made instuctions. Later in the week, each table group helped put the worm farm together. We put shredded paper in for bedding, some organic waste from our year 3 and 4 compost,and dirt on top for grit for the worms. Mr.Eames is going to give us some tiger worms from the year 7 and 8 worm farm. Outside Room7 we have planted vegtables in wooden troughs that Ted made and are growing really well. We plan to have a vegetable soup day soon

by Margarita and Bridie

Worm Farm by Emma

this week our inquiry is to make a year 3&4 worm farm.We have been working so hard to get as far as we have,we're already up to putting the worms from MR. Eames. How to make the worm farm is simple first you plan how you are going to make the worm farm second, you make the worm farm third, you set up the worm farm with soil,shreded paper and food and put them in after that you're ready for the worms!!!
By Emma

World of Maths

On Tuesday we went to the "World of Maths" interactive workshop in the Hall. We spent an hour solving all sorts of different mathematical problems. Most problems were 'hands on' and involved strategic thinking, with plenty of opportunity to experiment with the different possible solutions.

Worm Farms!

What have we been up to lately?

Our school garden inquiry has been focussed on worm farms and composting. We visited the Year 7-8 compost and looked at what we could use the compost for.



We now have our Y3-4 compost bin up and running in the garden outside Room 7 and 8.


We visited the Y7-8 worm farm and Mr Eames talked to us about how to look after a worm Farm.






We then spent some time improving our mindmapping skills while researching what worms do that make them valuable enough to ‘farm’





We are really excited about building our own worm farm this afternoon.