Every Tuesday, Arlen, Whaea Kiran and two other lovely Te Manga students cook or bake. This term the students have had a chance to make shortbread, popcorn, chocolate cake, nachos, gingerbread men, mince savouries, chocolate crackles, pizzas, muffins and cheese scones. Everyone loves Tuesday’s thanks to Arlen and Whaea Kiran. Thank you to both of you!
Our class love learning about Pūtaiao (science). Some of our students have even conducted their own science experiments at home and brought them in to share with the class.
Pranshi, Te Reinga and Mia were so keen to share that they became the afternoon teachers and stepped us through a Chemistry experiment- Making a Lava Lamp.
This experiment teaches students about density. The experiment useds liquids with different densities; water, oil and hand sanitiser. When the three substances are combined, they form distinct layers based on their densities. The less-dense liquids rise to the top, while the denser ones sink to the bottom. The students were so surprised that the oil kept moving to the top!
The lava lamp experiment with oil, water, and hand sanitiser was an engaging and hands-on activity that the students really enjoyed. Thank you to Pranshi, Te Reinga and Mia for igniting everyone’s curiosity and interest in science!
We have been learning all about Puanga and Matariki.
In Te Tai Tokerau, Puanga signals the turning of the year – a time of remembrance and reflection, a time to celebrate the present and to plan for the year ahead.
Puanga is the Māori name for the star Rigel in the Orion constellation. Puanga is a star which is seen first in some locations around New Zealand before the cluster of Matariki. This is because Puanga is a 1st magnitude star – meaning it is of the brightest magnitude. The Matariki constellation is a 6th magnitude constellation so it is fainter.
Puanga and Matariki are a time to celebrate the preparation of the māhinga (garden), growing, and harvesting and is also a time for wānanga (learning), reflecting, and sharing hākari (feast) with friends and whānau. We enjoyed a hākari in Te Manga to celebrate Matariki and Puanga. Ngā mihi to Whaea Kiran, Whaea Reyna, Nana Pearl and Nana Angela for helping us on the day and celebrating with us.
Puanga and Matariki are also a time to share pūrākau (stories) with your whānau and friends. The students in the reading group Tikumu read and retold the story of Maui and the Sun.
We explored (and had a lot of fun) with magnets today!
We learnt that magnets have two poles, a north pole and a south pole, and opposite poles attract while like poles repel.
Today we started our Science journey. The students discussed the questions ‘What is SCIENCE? and ‘What do you know about SCIENCE?’
The students brainstormed in their groups and shared their ideas such as; nature, dinosaurs, explosions and space. After discussion, the students decided that science is all around us.
There are many areas to learn about within Science and this year we are going to be learning within three of the main areas of science. The students had to look in the three mystery bags and discuss what those areas of science might be.
After lots of debate and discussion the students worked out BIOLOGY and CHEMISTRY but it was Alex who helped everyone with the tricky mystery bag which was PHYSICS.
After all the korero it was time to have some chemistry fun so we headed outside and did some hands on learning. You can have a look at the instructions on our class site. The students combined vinegar, dishwashing liquid, food colouring and baking soda. They discussed what they thought would happen before getting started. The reaction was fantastic and the students enjoyed the experiment however there was an unexpected reaction that will help us in our future learning. You can ask your child what that was!
Whaea Deb
Today we went to Lake Gem to plant trees as part of the Dune Lake Restoration Project. This kaupapa aligns with our school values of Porihanga (Community and Partnership) and Kaitiakitanga (Caring for the Environment) as well as our local community curriculum focus.
It was a fabulous effort with 100 students and 20+ whanau helping. We managed to plant 1700 plants and go for a big hikoi around the lake, all before lunch! Our students were marvellous and represented Paparore School beautifully. We have been planting at the lake for years and it was lovely to have one of our former students there as part of the planting crew. We look forward to the next planting opportunity.
Karen Lucich (Summit Forests)
Dune Lakes are threatened habitats and Summit Forest has identified this site as having high conservation and recreation values. Summit aims to plant 1000 eco-source seedlings annually around Arbor Day. Seed is collected and grown by Bushland Trust at Kaitaia Intermediate School. Many schools including Pompallier, Awanui and Oruaiti have been involved over the 12 years this project has been running but Paparore School are kaitiakitanga of this area.
With everyone’s support, this wetland area has made a momentous transition from totally degraded to its now pristine state, providing habitat for threatened birds and plants and feeding clean water into Lake Ngatu. Last year Summit’s paddock to the south of Lake Gem was planted with 700 Pohutukawa seedlings expanding the project by 3 hectares.
Recently Summit Forest has installed new mountain bike access gates. Kaitaia College students are marking out a new recreational loop track to join the existing Lake Gem track through Te Hiku Forest to Te Oneroa-a-Tōhē and to the Lake Ngatu track. We were spoilt by a sunny day for planting on Friday when 1000 seedlings, mostly Kanuka (with some Karaka, Houpara, Manuka, Harakeke, Tī kōuka and Kohekohe) plus an additional 500 Pohutukawa seedlings were planted.
This is a great community effort we can all enjoy, including the birds and fish for many years to come. Thanks for your support to make this happen.
Ruud Kleinpaste is known as The Bugman. He is an expert in environmental education, championing biodiversity and biosecurity and citizen science. Ruud visited our school 10 years ago and wowed the students with all sorts of bug knowledge as well as introducing some very special creepy crawlies. He did exactly the same during our visit today.
We were enthralled to learn how every living thing is important and all living organisms have a job to do. Ruud talked to the students about the relationship between birds and dinosaurs, the fact that our everyday garden snails in NZ can be eaten (as in France) and being able to recognise when a weta is giving you a warning! An absolute highlight was meeting Dorothy the Auckland Weta. We all had the pleasure of allowing Dorothy to walk across our hands and what a wonderful feeling it was.
In the afternoon, our class was able to start work with Ruud on a bioblitz of Paparore School. We are looking at the biodiversity within our school grounds using an app called iNaturalist which is free and fun to learn with. Stay tuned to find out what we have and don’t have within our school boundary. We are already looking forward to learning more about biodiversity and the creepy crawlies that are our neighbours at school!
Today we had a fun science session looking at the reactions of everyday ingredients you will find in the kitchen. First we made ‘Lava in a Cup’. We used oil, water, food colouring and salt. We found out that oil is lighter than water, so it floats on top, but the salt is heavier than the oil and forces the oil into the water. After this the salt then dissolves allowing the lighter oil to go to the top and lots of cool bubbles to appear.
Next we looked at the reaction between Vinegar and Baking Soda which is always a crowd pleaser when the chemical reaction has occurred! Combining the vinegar (an acid) with the baking soda (a base) results in an entirely new substance, carbon dioxide.
We filled up a cup of water and covered it with a piece of plastic. Then turned it upside down and GUESS what, the water did not come out. The students discussed the idea of gravity to help them to understand what was happening. If air could not get in, the water did not come out. As soon as they shook their cups, air got in and gravity does it’s thing!
Our second experiment was called ‘Magic Milk’. We used milk, food colouring and a stick with diswashing liquid on it. We waved our ‘magic wands’ and put the stick in the milk to watch an amazing chemical reaction. There were lots of oooooooooo’s and ahhhhhhhhhh’s while the dishing liquid made the milk swirl and move in all directions.
The students discussed what was happening. The students decided there was something in the milk that made it react with the dishwashing soap. They brainstormed words like protein, calcium and fat. I was so impressed. They were right, when the dishwashing liquid touched the milk, it reacted with the fats.
The soap molecules from the dishwashing liquid are trying to attach to the fat molecules in the milk which causes movement in the liquid as the molecules in the fat and soap bond together and expel the water and food colouring.
Check out our photos by clicking on the link-https://photos.app.goo.gl/5qS1nPT9mSk4PH1MA
Welcome to your brand new blog at Edublogs!
To get started, simply visit your blog’s dashboard, edit or delete this post and check out all the other options available to you.
We can walk you through step-by-step in our guide to getting started with your blog.
Happy blogging!