Week 1 Term 2 2015

This week is a special time in New Zealand so we have been talking about ANZAC Day and what it means. On Friday we had a special assembly and we had our own small field of remembrance by our school sign. 
Mrs Finucane has read us a lot of different stories about ANZAC Day,about the Parades and the services and about the First World War. One of the stories was called ANZAC Biscuits and we all got to try one, even Miss Roycroft who was our teacher on Friday. She will be working with our class throughout the term.

Week 9 Term 1 2015

We were so lucky to see a chrysalis changing this week. Mrs Finucane had to put all of our plants outside so the butterflies could hatch over the holidays.

We hope you have a good holiday...we will!

Week 8 Term 1 2015

We finally got our stories finished but it has taken out teacher a while to get the photos up! 
Our work is hanging in the classroom if you would like to come and see it sometime.
Here are some of our stories...

Week 7 Term 1 2015

Our caterpillar friends have been very busy this week. We thought we had 4 but we actually have 7, and one chrysalis! All they do is eat and grow!  

We have been writing some awesome stories about what it might be like to be a caterpillar. If you can come in and read them sometime...

Miss Williams found this rap about butterflies. Click on and have a look.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=8rvGUevGxDk

Week 6 Term 1 2015

We have some new classmates in Room 8. 

All they do all day is eat and grow!                                                                                           We are really enjoying watching them and learning about their life cycle. 
They are still a few days away from forming a chrysalis.
However they are shedding their skins each time they grow and we managed to get a photograph of the empty skin. It looks cool!

Mrs Finucane found this poem about Caterpillars which describes the metamorphosis or change.

Birth of a Butterfly

A mama butterfly lays all her eggs,

Out pops a caterpillar, crawling on its legs.

The caterpillar first is rather thin,

But then it eats till it bursts through its skin.

After growing nice and big,

The caterpillar climbs on a leaf or twig.

It makes a shell where it hangs inside,

Then the shell cracks, and the parts divide.

Inside the shell, a change was going on,

The form of the caterpillar now is gone.

When the shell opens, what comes out?

A beautiful butterfly fluttering about.

Author Unknown

Week 5 Term 1 2015

This week Mrs Finucane showed us an article from the news about long finned eels.         We didn't know very much about these very special eels but after watching the piece we now know lots more, and are finding out other facts all the time.                                             Here are some of our stories...

Long finned eels can live for over 100 years.

They live in holes in the river and under rocks. They like to swim around.

If the council doesn’t look after the rivers and the drains and the lakes then they might die and there will be none left.

Blayze

Long finned eels live in ponds and rivers. They are only found in New Zealand.

The old eels swim to Tonga to lay eggs so they can have babies. After they lay their eggs they die.

It takes them 5 and a half months to swim there.

The babies swim back to New Zealand and back to the same places.

We need to look to look after them because they are rare.

Charlie

Long finned eels need fresh water to stay alive. They can live for 100 years.  They only live in New Zealand.

Eels are rare. Things can eat them or catch them or where they live can be destroyed. People feed them to make them big to sell to shops for food.

Eels look like spaghetti when they are swimming out to the sea. When they are ready to have babies they swim all the way to Tonga and they lay eggs. Then the adults die and the babies swim back to New Zealand.

Jayson

The long finned eels swim to Tonga to have babies.  The adult eels die and the baby eels swim all the way back to New Zealand.

Then they turn into adult eels and the same thing happens again.

Eels need to live in drains , lakes, rivers and in fresh water.

The council thought they were doing the right thing  but they weren’t. They thought the eels had gone when the lake dried up but they hadn’t. The digger managed to kill lots of them but there was one alive. A lady rescued it and put it in a river and she hoped it survived but we don’t know if it did.

Eels are rare and we can’t eat too many of them in restaurants or wreck their habitats.

Jake

Long finned eels stay in fresh water like lakes and ponds. They can’t stay in the sun because they will dry out and they will die.

Adult eels go to Tonga to lay their eggs. After they lay the eggs they die. The baby eels grow and then they swim from Tonga to New Zealand.

I have eels at my house, where the big grass is, and it is a river. I can see the eels swimming and trying to hide.

Malcolm

Week 4 Term 1 2015

This week we have been looking at the story of the 3 Kete of Learning and how we can use the concepts in our own learning in Room 8.

We also retold the legend of Tane and the 3 Kete of Knowledge and then made dioramas of our favourite part. Here are some examples...