Room 14's Post on Thursday, 14 December 2017

Messy learning - making marble runs.

Visitor from DOC

We had the pleasure of a visitor from DOC today. Richard is a Pest Detection Dog Handler for DOC and saw the Predator Free Brooklyn stand at the fair with Room 14's learning and offered his time to come and see us. He brought his rodent dog, Flint, in with him. It was really interesting hearing about the things that he does with his dogs, how he trains them and how he got into that line of work. Richard and Flint gave us a demonstration of Flint's hunting skills using a special smelly toy rat. Flint loved it and did not want to let go. We are so lucky to have these experts give up their time to come and help us with our learning. I was super impressed with how the students all listened and asked great questions.

Long lunch

Wow! What a day. Busy morning preparing food and setting up for our Long Lunch. Everyone did so well - great team effort. It was delicious. Healthy wraps, a sausage sizzle, spaghetti and cheese toasties, cheese straws and of course the sweets! What a spread. The decorations looked beautiful and all the hats and placemats the students made were amazing. A good time was had by all. Then onto BEST kiwi thank yous where the students had a chance to thank all the wonderful parents who gave up their time to come and help them learn some amazing things. THANKS!

My boat trip to Somes Island by Keira

 Once I went on a boat to somes island and the boat kept on rocking and rocking, and all you could hear was Aaaa Aaaa Aaaa Aaaa because everyone  tried to stand up on the boat. Soon everyone got told off so I went to the top floor and the seats were wet so I stood up. splash, water was splashing on my pants, wind was blowing in my face and I thought I was going to puke. I quickly ran to the bottum floor, got my drink bottle and went back up. I hope I never get sick again.

The ferry from Somes Island by Kohaya

This is what happened!
"Come on, come on!" cried Katya as she pulled me towards the ferry. "Hurry up or we'll be sitting on the bottom!" "Ok Ok" I responded. Clang, clang, clang went the ladder thingy as we stepped on it. "Over here!" I pointed to an empty bench. "Yessss! we got the top!" exclaimed Katya. We dumped our bags on the empty bench. "Why do we need to put our bags on the bench?" I questioned. " In case we feel like sitting down" Katya responded. I doubted we would want to sit down "Katya over here!" I pointed to empty spots on the railing. Thirty seconds later, the boat started moving. Wooooooosssssshhhhh! Splash! Water rained down on us. " More water more water!" Ruby started a chant. Me, Katya and a few others joined in. SSploosh! "I'm soaked" I shouted over the racket of the engine. We looked down but all we saw were small waves. I dunked behind the railing. It was so cold my teeth were chattering. When I popped back I had missed a spray. "Best. Day. Ever!" Me and Katya shouted together. Splosh! Splash! We were drenched! "Hooray for the ferry" I shouted as Katya shouted "I've never felt so alive in my whole life!" Just then the ferry slowed. I turned to face Hilary and I asked "why don't we do this more often?"  "Because" she responded " It will cost too much." The boat carefully glided across the ocean. "Turn around" chanted Ruby. Ssssshhhh. The boat slowly glided into port. Just like that the trip was over.

The Boat Trip by Max

Shh Shh Splash the salty waves hit the side of the boat and the cold breeze brushed in your face. Bss Bss Ahh the kids scream when the salty water hits them in the face. People were saying it's the best day of their life on and on. "More water more water" the kids chanted. "Whoooo" said Ruby when she got wet. "Whooo" everyone screamed when they got wet by a big wave. When the boat stopped people said "turn around". When we got out we were soaked.

Room 14's Post on Tuesday, 28 November 2017

Making slime demonstration

The Boat Trip by Finlay

The waves zoomed past the boat as it lapped along the waves. Wind zoomed past my face as I looked out to the sparkling green water. Ruben was screaming his head off as another wave showered him with frothing white sea spray. When we got bored of getting showered by sea spray, we walked around the boat and tried not to fall over. When we got close to the island me and Ruben admired the view as we got off the boat. The ranger checked if we had any pests. Then we went off into Somes Island.

Jake's writing

It was a sunny day on the boat in the sea. Waves were splashing into the boat and ending up hitting our faces! People were laughing like crazy and most of all it was the best experience of my life! Woosh! A wave the size of a tyrannosaurus rex splashed into our faces. SPlash! The boat was rocking side to side. This kept on going for a while until the boat was just at least 10 metres from land. As soon as I had a foot on the concrete I was very depressed, but when I looked at my friends their hair was sticking up as if they had been doing a science experiment! We were giggling and laughing "this was a day I would never forget" I thought!The end.

Room 14's Post on Friday, 24 November 2017

Big bubbles

Room 14's Post on Friday, 24 November 2017

Some games and big bubble blowing at Prince of Wales park for a Kiwi outing this afternoon. Nice way to end the week.

Matiu/Somes Island trip

We had such a great trip to Matiu/Somes on Monday. Here are some pics of our trip and Room 14 are writing about their trip at the moment so there will be lots of info following from them.

the kiwi syndicate Somes island trip .Daniel G

On  the 20th of Ñovember the kiwi syndicate went to Somes island as a trip that is to do with there nap (native animals and plant) homework. The syndicate travelled by bus and then by boat to Somes island and then the classes had to go through bio-security. When we went through bio-security we had to check our bags to make sure no predators had hitched a ride in our bags, then we checked are shoes for any dirt and luckily only a few people had problems with their shoes and bags. 


After we got back into our groups and then we set off my groups started by going to the  Maori statue and looked at it's carvings. Then we went to a white fence and our group guide told us that this place is very good place for the Maori to keep a good watch  for enemy's  because it is very high up so they can see if they are coming at a far  distance and prepare. 

next we went up to the memorial and are guide  told us that some English people from England trailed for 3 months to get to wellington harbor and sines lots of people got sick so they went into quarantine at Somes island to make shore other people didn't get sick on the mane land. Lots of people died there so the people that worked there built a memorial and bearded them there. Then our guide told us that once there was a man that had a skin disease and he was at Somes island and the people there thought that is was dangerous so they put him on a small island off the coast of  Somes island and he died in 3 months living there. 

Next we went to the quarantine and at quarantine the people that use to work there had to be sprayed with bug spay for 2 minutes and then take there cloths off and take a shower and then put there work cloths on and then go to work. Once we went though  quarantine we saw some geckos in the fire hose box and then we went to the  sheep near the sheep there lots of poo, then went to the lighthouse and had a group photo after that we went to a lookout and then we went back to the boat and then we went back to school. The end    Daniel

The kiwi syndicates trip to somes island by katya

"This is the best day of my life'! I yelled and it truly was. Our whole kiwi syndicate was going on a trip to Somes island, I know pretty exciting is it?Anyway...on the boat it was so fun!  When we got there we met a few rangers and they began to show us around.First my group went up a hill and we saw a kakariki! Then just when it was getting so well, we saw black feathers! Our ranger Malcom said that an n.z falcon sometimes flew in and killed some of their native birds!Can you even believe that! A native bird,killing a native bird! I know,it is nuts but life is life. Even though we were a bit shocked about the dead bird we got over it quickly and I'm just glad we did. Because we had a  great walk around the island. We saw some skinks and we went to the lighthouse and went to a memoriel. Then we had to go, it was sad to go but the ferry ride back was even better then the one before!                          THE END!

Visitors and presentations

We have been really lucky this week to have two special visitors come to the Kiwi syndicate. The first was Phoebe Morris who is an illustrator and an ex-pupil of Brooklyn School. Today, we had Mel who is a parent from room 18 and works for the Jane Goodall Institute.

Phoebe shared with us her journey to becoming a full-time illustrator and we got to see some of her beautiful work. Most of us were already familiar with some of the books she has illustrated such as First to the Top and Speed King.

Mel talked about how she became a scientist and the different things she has studied and researched. We learned a lot about chimp behaviour and the work Jane Goodall and her teams do for Africa. Mel came with a great message that everyone can make a difference.

Both speakers had a similar message for the students about following their passions. Phoebe and Mel both loved what they are doing now from a young age and followed their dreams.

We also had some more special speakers today....room 14! They have all been busy researching and planning presentations about some questions they had around germination or pollination. I learned quite a lot from them today. It is pretty tricky to find information in different places, understand it and then summarise it in your own words but I think they did really well.

Pest traps

Our persuasive writing worked and we finally got our pest traps out yesterday. Now to wait and see what we might catch...

Living World

We had a busy day today. Our bee garden plants were tall enough to plant outside so we weeded the insect garden and got them planted. Can't wait until they are in full bloom!

We have been germinating bean seeds by wrapping them in damp paper towel and placing in a plastic bag. Today they were planted in a variety of conditions such as inside, outside, in soil, in sand, in water, in the dark etc. We have written hypotheses about what we think will happen to each one. Some ungerminated ones also got planted in the insect garden.

We also put together an ant village and went on the hunt for some ants to live in it. They got a tiny bit of Ella's honey sandwich and Max's strawberry for lunch!

Blendspace

USe this Blendspace to research information to help you answer your questions about bees and flowers.

Room 14's hypotheses

These are our hypotheses about growing beans in different conditions.

If we put it in the water the seed will drown. Lachlan
I don't think it will work because you are practically drowning the seed. Max
I don't think it will work because you need a certain type of plant that grows in water. Ruben
I think it will grow fine in water because if you forget to water it, it will still survive but it could be bad because the water may not have the nutrients. Kohaya

Soil will be amazing because it has all the things the plant needs. Katya
I think outside in the soil will work because it gets the sun and rain. Jake
I think outside in soil will make the seed grow fast because it needs sunlight to grow. If it is inside it will not get water when it rains. Daniel

I think sand will work because the roots can push through the sand. Ruby
I think sand will be ok for the plant because it is similar to soil and it is light so the plant can push through. Sara
I think sand outside will be good because it is similar to soil. Outside the sun will get sun and rain. Finlay

If we put the seed in the dark the seed will rot because it has no sun. Brooke
I don't think it will grow in the dark since seeds normally need sun to grow. Natalya
I think the seed will grow in the dark because it still has nutrients from the soil. Harper
Seeds will not grow in the dark because seeds need sun to grow. Sam

Pest traps by Fifi

Pest traps

Listen to the lovely singing of the  tui and the beautiful chirping of the  piwakawaka if you do then you'll realise that if we don't put pest traps up all of that will go away. Tui have a wonderful singing voice and when  you wake up don't forget to go to your bedroom window and you might just be lucky enough to hear the tui sing! lucky you .Yay yay yay! Our pest traps are really safe because there only small enough  for rats and mice.  So that means kids can't  put there hands in it. These pest traps are made of  wood and they can only trap mice and rats.Not stoats, possums  because  the hole is too small.  Pest traps trap rats and mice really fast like this fast zoom!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Anne and ethan taught us how to set a pest trap safely.

Fifi

Pest traps Kohaya

Why Brooklyn School should have Pest traps

Think of the soft pitter-patter of the Kiwi, the loud but impressive squawk of the Kea as it swoops down to catch it's prey and the soft sound of Tui from the power line.If you let us put pest traps in brooklyn school this might become a reality.

We might have 2 or 3 more times native birds that we have.Also New Zealand will be so much safer.And because of pest traps there will be less  diseases.But the good thing is that people won't be hurting their fingers in the traps.

We think you should let room 14 put pest traps in Brooklyn because you won't have to pay for anything except bait.Also we will have more native birds.That's why Room 14 thinks Brooklyn School should have pest traps.

Kohaya

Pest traps Harper

Imagine brooklyn to be a hill with singing tuis in trees and fantails chirping in the air. Lesser short tailed bats fill the night sky. New zealand could be safe off pests.

We need to trap the pests so we could be safe. We will save our endemic creatures, this is your chance. We need you let us have traps so we can have more endemic birds and animals. Our endemic animals are very special to new zealand. So if we put traps traps out the endemic birds won’t get extinct.

We should use the traps because they are in boxes so you won’t get hurt get unless you purposely put your hand in. Also we learnt how to set the trap safely.

We can’t Kill all of the rats, mice and other pests because they are a big part of  the food chain. We want to kill most of the pests but maybe let 2% of the pests live. If  we kill all off the pests we will  lose all off the birds that eat the pests.

So we should have traps in brooklyn school.

Harper

Persuasive writing by Brooke

Imagine NZ predator free. Room 14 has been working on putting out pest traps to trap

Rats and mice. We are thinking about to put out traps to help our nz Endemic birds

so the Endemic birds won’t disappear of the face of the Earth. But hopefully we can

help so that does not happen. Room 14 have been writing about  trapping rats and mice.

Well that is the end of the information by Brooke.

Persuasive writing by Max

No pests:

Ms Rhodes imagine endemic bird,s everywhere you go it would be amazing. You could go outside and lay in the middle of long grass and listen to the piwakawaka and the  impressive squawk of the kaka and the sweet chirp off the hihi.when you wake up you can listen to bird,s singing song,s.

Room 14 have learnt how to set a  trap safely so hopefully no one will get there finger;s cut off so come help the bird,s by killing rats and mice and predators. So it would be nice to see lots of birds like kaka piwakawaka and the robin there's lots more birds to mention but there is so many it's practically impossible

Miss rhodes you  and room 14 can make brooklyn school have no pest and just have native and endemic birds everywhere so no pest just native and endemic birds like kiwi and tui!!!!!

Max

Persuasive writing Daniel

Close your eyes and imagine a wonderful world of birds soaring above our heads with beautiful songs of tuis and the hooting of morepork at night with forests full of endemic birds and animals.

This is your chance to save the endemic animals by placing pest traps around the school. If we do this we could save lots of native/endemic birds. If we don’t do this now in a few years they could be extinct. Since birds are special we want to save them not let them die sadly in pain.

The traps are safe because room 14 know how to set the traps safely which are very secure. The traps have a one way entrance. The trap has a pressure plate with peanut butter in it.

It is a good idea to trap rats and mice because they might carry very bad diseases that could make us sick. If we don’t do this some people could get sick and then it could spread like wildfire. If this happens soon it could be a safer and healthier environment.

Daniel

Persuasive writing by Jake

Imagine a beautiful school full of endemic birds and beautiful butterflies. Well we can be sure to help you with that. Poor endemic birds are suffering the pain of pests eating the birds. We need your help to make Brooklyn School pest free but we can’t do that unless you help us.

Mice and rats are killing our endemic birds and we do not want to make them extinct because they are endemic to New Zealand. (Endemic means that a native plant or animal is only found in a certain place).That’s why we want to put pest traps in school.

The traps are going to be very safe because they are going to be in the middle of a wooden box and out of reach of children. The good thing about pest traps is that it is completely free, Brooklyn School doesn’t need to spend a cent on the pest traps!

Rats carry diseases. We need to kill rats because they carry diseases and it’s starting to infect us. We do not want it to spread because everybody will eventually be sick but if you let us put pest traps in our school that won’t happen. I’m counting on you Ms Rhodes!

Jake

Room 14's Photo on Wednesday, 1 November 2017

Room 14`pest tracking and trapping

By Kohaya, Laura and Max

Wednesday , week 1 , term 4 2017

Anne and Ethan Zealandia rangers came in to room 14 to teach us about tracking tunnels. Tracking tunnels are useful to tell if we have pests in Brooklyn School. Tracking tunnels are triangles made out of recycled real estate signs. They have an ink mat with peanut butter inside. If an animal wanders through and eats the peanut butter then you can see the footprints. We are using the tracking tunnels to figure out if there are any pests in Brooklyn School, where there are pests and what kind of pests they are. We made 5 tunnels and put them in different places around the school. In the orchard, the tree area, by the fence, under room 15 and 16 and under room 18 steps.

Tuesday, week 2, term 4 2017

Anne and Ethan came and visited us to see how our tracking tunnels were going. One of them was missing, three of them had tracks and the one in the orchard didn't. The one under room 18 had weta footprints. They were tiny little footprints like dots in a row. The one near the fence had big smudgy footprints and Anne suspects that it was a hedgehog. The one by the trees had weta footprints and another set of footprints that may be a mouse. We uploaded the photos to inaturalist app. This means that experts can look at our footprints and figure out what they are for us.

Now we know what pests we have we can start trapping them by setting up pest traps. Anne and Ethan came and gave us some pest traps and showed us how to set the pest traps safely.
Room 14 have been writing to Mrs Rhodes to convince her that we should set up a couple of pest traps. We want to do this because we dont want any other endemic birds, birds only found in new zealand, going extinct.

If you see any of our tracking tunnels or pest traps please don`t  touch or open them.

Room 14's Post on Friday, 20 October 2017

Loving the sunshine! And all the sun hats!

Busy start to the term!

It has been a busy start to the term. Today we had a dress up day where we came as a scientist. We had such an amazing range of scientists - astronomers, psychologists, entomologists, physicists, geologists, zoologists and many more. Hopefully, it opened a few minds as to the range of different types of science there is in our world.

We also had a visit from some scientists. Two rangers from Zealandia came to visit and help us with our project on pest tracking and trapping. We got some tracking tunnels made and placed around the school. I will leave the details to our student bloggers though!

As part of our science learning we got some flowers planted on Monday to help make a garden that attracts bees. We will be exploring more about germination and pollination over the next few weeks.

And we have started to think about statistics. To kick this off we are using data squares to gather information about our class. We have to ask questions, gather information, sort data and make statements about it. We will be doing lots of statistics as part of our science learning this term.