Thursday 31 March 2016

Podcast #5

Red Cross Clothes Drive




As part of our inquiry into global citizenship the year 5 and 6 students will be organising a clothes drive on Wednesday 13th April in support of Red Cross New Zealand.

We are encouraging students and whanau to donate quality pre loved clothing (e.g. used clothing that no longer fits). We are hoping to collect warm children’s clothing for the winter months such as thermals, PJs, jackets/fleeces and woollen hats. The donation of these items will help support the great work the Red Cross do throughout New Zealand and the world.

All donations will be greatly received before and after school in Rooms 1, 2 and 3. Donations can be made up to and including the 13th of April. Many thanks for your support.

Do dogs really eat homework?

Kalani and Gabrielle have been on a mission to discover if dogs do really eat homework.


Why are red and green traditional colours of Christmas

Heila and Charlotte used Wonderopolis to answer the question 'Why are red and green traditional colours of Christmas?'


Why is Pluto not a planet?

Dineesh and Eli used Wonderopolis to answer the question 'Why is Pluto not a planet?'


How to make sparkly glitter

Ilsa and Rhea summarised a wonder from Wonderopolis, so now you can discover how to make your very own glitter!

Wednesday 30 March 2016

Why do feet smell?

Here is Michael 'the sock' explaining why we have pongy feet

Why do mice love cheese?

Do mice love cheese? Sara and Emily K read and summarised this particular question from Wonderopolis.

Why do we get blisters?

Here is Joshua and Caleb explaining why we get blisters.

Why do we have tonsils?

Here is Samarah and Ella's summary of the Wonderopolis article - Why do we have tonsils?

How to do the Hula

Leslie and Fiona summarised an article from Wonderopolis. A summary is a shortened version of a text that contains all the main points. Summarising is an important skill that helps us when we are researching, gathering and presenting information.

Tuesday 29 March 2016

The Dodgeball War by Joshua L


The Dodgeball War

It was a Friday afternoon and we left our class, looking forward to playing dodgeball with Room 4. We had time left over from assembly, so Mr Bainbridge decided to play dodgeball. Three minutes later, we were on the turf, waiting for Room 4. At that moment, I saw people coming down the slope towards us. “Finally,” I thought, “they’re coming!”

Once we were all on the turf, Mr Bainbridge yelled for us to sit on the blue area in front of him. Mr Bainbridge then talked about the rules. “The first thing is that we are going to crush you guys…” Everyone laughed but Mr Bainbridge kept on blabbering away. When he when he finally stopped talking, he told us to line up against the wall. “Peep!” The whistle blew signalling the start of the game. How long could Room 4 hold up with some year 6’s on our side? My class charged to the front, balls in our hands. Soon, there was only about 19 players in Room 4. ”Get Kevin!” Mr Bainbridge bellowed.

Balls as fast as bullets raced towards Kevin he had no choice “Boing!” One ball hit its target and bounced off. I threw an insult at the other team: “Please enjoy my bright yellow balls!” I yelled as balls rained down onto the other team. The whistle blew for the end of the first round. Compared to how many people we had at the beginning, we had done pretty well. We gone back to our starting positions and Mr Bainbridge said, “Remember, go for Kevin!” The second round started. It was like a war. People were yelling at each other and the game went on. Soon it was the last round and we switched sides. Somewhere near the end, I managed to get someone on the back.

By the end of it, I was sweating like mad, and we all shook hands and headed back to class. We had won.

Wednesday 23 March 2016

Canoeing at Camp by Heila


Canoeing in Camp by Heila

“Group 5, you are doing canoeing with Adrian, Shivana and Rachel” Jono said as he read the list. It was our first day in camp and our first session was canoeing. We were in Long Bay and the camp we were in was called MERC. My group went at the front gate and and sat on the log, our instructors were already there. We introduced ourselves to the instructors and they also introduced themselves. Adrian was from Canada, Rachel and Shivana were from New Zealand. I was so excited.

“What kind of paddle do we need when we are canoeing?” I asked. “A T grip paddle” Adrian said. “Ok now wear your togs, sunscreen, sunhat and we will give you a lifejacket” Shivana told us. I quickly got ready and came where the lifejackets were. I wore one and waited for my other team members. When everyone came we went to the beach with our T grip paddles and practised how to paddle a T grip paddle. When we were ready we pushed our canoes to the sea with the help of our instructors and our parent helper, Mike. There were 3 canoes, they were side by side by wood and tape. We hopped in the canoe and our adventure had just began.

We paddled and paddled until we got far out in sea. ”Stop paddling” Adrian shouted. “You guys can swim” Adrian said. “Isn’t it deep, or there might be sharks” I thought to myself. I had to face my fear and I jumped in the sea. It was really nice me and Emily D tried to touch the ground but we couldn’t because it was so deep. After a while we had to get back in the boat. “Ok guys we will play a game, canoeing karaoke” Shivana said. “This is how you play, here is a milk bottle (the bottom was a quarter bit cut). I will fill it up with water, we will pick one of you  to sing any song you want but you have to entertain us, if we get entertained a little then I will splash the rest of the water on you, so who will go first?” Adrian told us. Bronson’s hand went straight up so he was first. Bronson didn’t entertain us so he got splashed with water. I then put my hand up and I was next, my song was Row Row Row your boat. I entertained everyone but still got splashed with water for fun. That was my memorable moment.

Dodgeball by Kristy

                           

Dodgeball by Kristy

It was a nice Friday afternoon on the turf and, Room 3 was about to verse Room 4 in a very competitive dodgeball game.  Mr Bainbridge pointed at Kevin and said “aim for this guy” with a grin.  The rest of the rules were explained and all I wanted to do was start, But we had to wait, BORING!  Finally the game began and just before the whistle blew people were jumping around with excitement.  Suddenly the whistle blew and Room 3 ran up to the line then started to throw balls at them.  “Miss James is actually really good”, I exclaimed to Rhea.  She had just gotten someone out.

“Yes” I shouted, I hit Nikita just under the shoulder and she didn’t defend herself.  Mr Bainbridge aimed at Kevin, then threw the ball and got him right in the leg.  Room 4 kept losing players except the girls because they were hiding in the back.  Now it was down to most of Room 3 and two girls from Room 4.  They are both new girls that came this year.  First Mr Bainbridge told us to aim for Sarah or as he called the blonde girl.  Once we finished her we went onto the other girl, she was acting quite confident.  We all grabbed a ball of the ground and Mr Bainbridge got her right in the leg.  “Out” he shouted with a huge smile.  Then the whistle blew for the end of the first game.

“Ready,” Mr Bainbridge asked everyone “GO!”  It was the beginning of the second game, and Room 4 was off to a good start.  Nuha had her eye on me. I was about to get her out, instead she got me out cause she caught the ball on the full.  I disappointedly walked to the sidelines and watched till someone caught the ball.  “Samarah, Samarah, pick me pick me” everyone shouted when Samarah caught the ball.  Luckily for me I was the one who got picked.  “Back in the game” I whispered to myself.  Lots of people kept getting out and coming back in.  Sadly the game came to an end, and the winning class was Room 3 it was obvious we were going to win.

Overall it was really fun game, and I’m also very happy that Room 3 won.  My favourite bit would have to be when I got Nikita out.  Mr Bainbridge said it was murder that we kept winning as we walked back to class.  The final score of all the games was 4-0.  Room 4 won no games, well too bad for them they should have known we are the best class at dodgeball.  

Dodgeball by Rhea

                         

Intense Dodgeball!!! by Rhea


“Hit Kevin! Hit Kevin!” Mr Bainbridge exclaimed. We were playing dodgeball against room 4 down on the turf. We were taking people in room 4 out by the minute and students were sitting on the sidelines, cheering their class on. I was aiming at Eli, when someone hit me on the shin really hard. “Dang it” I muttered to myself and jogged to the sidelines. But then Mr Bainbridge blew the whistle and said that was just the first round. I put a sly grin on my face.


Mr Bainbridge then explained that if you got out of the game, you could come back if your friend caught a ball. Then he blew the whistle and the game began. Balls were flying everywhere and everyone was catching a ball like a lion catching its prey. We hit so many victims that we were close to getting everyone in rm 4 out when they hit about 5 us (including me)!!!! But then our team started to catch lots of balls and we all got back into the intense, strategic game. “Hit the new girl in 3, 2, 1” Mr Bainbridge said and all the balls in our team went towards her. Woo- hoo!!! She was out!!! Then Mr Bainbridge blew the whistle and said we won because their were more players from our team than theirs. “But they might win the next round” I thought.


We were now on the next round. Mr Bainbridge summoned us for a team talk. “Lets hit all the good people first such as Kevin (grrr), the new girl and Angel. Then Mr Bainbridge blew the whistle and the final round began. We all aimed at Kevin, the new girl and Angel and then eventually we got the new girl and Angel. Then Mr Bainbridge yelled “OUR NEXT VICTIM: KEVIN” and then Eli hit Kevin. We also got everyone out until there were 2 people left from their team. Mr Bainbridge then blew the whistle and told us to pack the balls while he walked towards the front of the turf.


I thought that the game was very fun but there was a tiny problem: I din’t know who won. “Who won Mr Bainbridge?” I asked him. “Obviously us, because we murdered them” he answered.

Flippaball by Kalani


Flippaball by Kalani

The whistle blew, and Mr Bainbridge threw the dodgeball into the pool. The Year 5’s of Room 3 swam up to the floating ball and stretched their hands out, thinking they had telekinesis to move the ball to them. The second Group on the other side were way closer to the ball than my Group were. After a while of screaming, Sana got the ball and threw it across the pool, everyone tried catching the ball by jumping up and down like monkeys. Sana’s throw landed on top of the water and, “SPLOSH!” Nearly all of my group went after the ball, but someone from Group 2 snatched it and scored a goal. 1 nil for Group 2.

My group and I weren’t worrying at all, we were like “Pssh, we can beat them” But I didn’t know what was going to happen next. We all swam back to our positions and steadily waited for the whistle to blow. The whistle went for the second round, so everyone started to fight the water just to get there. One person from group 2 got the ball and started to swim like mad! He stopped swimming and threw the ball to Eli. Rhea, Charlotte and I tried banging the ball off him, but he scored another goal for group 2. 2 nil for group 2.

Round 3. I stretched my arms out, and got ready to push off. I pushed off the wall and swam as fast as I could. Once I reached the middle of the pool, Mr Bainbridge and my team shouted, “KALANI, THE BALL IS RIGHT THERE!!” I didn’t know what they meant by there, so I looked up and down about three times. Finally someone from my team got the ball and swam up closer to the goal and passed it to me. I locked in my target and threw. I crossed my fingers and BAM I got a goal! Finally, one for group one!

I loved Flippa Ball. My favourite part was getting a goal and banging the ball off Eli. I didn’t really like how people kept on snatching the ball off people, but I still liked the game.

Monday 21 March 2016

Escape Artist Clyde

The Avengers used their inference skills to create these wanted posters for Clyde the runaway otter. They used information from the illustrations and text to describe Clyde's appearance, behaviour and actions. 

Sunday 20 March 2016

Should Animals Be Kept In Captivity?

After reading 'Escape Artist Clyde' by Philippa Werry the Avengers thought about whether animals should be kept in captivity or not.


In the story ‘Escape Artist Clyde” an otter named Clyde repeatedly escaped from the zoo before eventually being moved to Australia. We evaluated the claim that ‘no animals should be kept in captivity’.

Reasons for not having animals in captivity are animals may be unhappy. For example Clyde escaped twice from his enclosure because it may have been too small compared to his space in the wild. He may also have been bored from just wandering around the same place everyday. Animals need to have the opportunity to act naturally as they would in the wild. Debate.org says that 74% of people say animals should not be kept in captivity. This shows that the majority of people believe that that animals should not live in an enclosure.

On the other hand some people say that some animals should be kept in captivity. Although only 26% of people on Debate.org think that yes animals should be kept in captivity we agree with them. Our opinion is that If the animal is endangered they can be bred in captivity to boost their numbers. For example there are only 1600 Giant Panda left in the wild. However there are 300 panda in zoos and breeding centres around the world trying to increase its population (Nationalzoo.si.edu). Zoo’s not only breed animals but also help them to live longer compared to in the wild. In zoos the zoo keepers feed the animals regularly instead of having to hunt for food that might not be available. Also if the animals are unwell the zookeeper can look after them rather than in the wild where they would probably die.

Overall we think alongside the majority of people in Room 3 that some animals should be in captivity. However the zoo or sanctuary that keeps the animals needs to be able to provide shelter, food and close to a natural habitat for the animals they care for.

What do you think should No animals should be kept in captivity?

Wednesday 16 March 2016

Year 6 Camp Day Four

Thank you to the parents, teachers and instructors who helped run a great camp!

Cyber Bullying

We created this video to show how cyber bullying can have a deep and harmful affect.


Year 6 Camp - Day Three

Tuesday 15 March 2016

Monday 14 March 2016

Year 6 Camp Day One

Here's what we got up to on day 1 at Camp MERC. It's been awesome trying new things and sharing new experiences! 

Wednesday 9 March 2016

Should children be able to stay up late?

After reading ‘Staying Up Late’ by Steven Storer the Justice League evaluated the claim that ‘Children should be able to stay up late’


After reading ‘Staying Up Late’ by Steven Storer we decided to evaluate the claim that ‘Children should be able to stay up late’. Some of us agreed that children should stay up late because they can get used to being awake at night, this could be useful as an adult if they get a job working at night or doing late shifts. Also if you stay up late you can have extra time to do homework and fun things like watching movies or your favourite programme on TV. We also thought that staying up late could be a reward for doing your homework. Staying up late also gives you more time to think and wonder about things. Lastly children often just lie in bed for ages doing nothing before they fall asleep.

However we also could see the argument for not staying up late. These were if it is a weeknight and you sleep in you will be late for school, you need 8 hours sleep for your brain development, children need sleep otherwise they get grumpy and become sleep deprived and you might miss important appointments if you sleep in. Most importantly
missing out on sleep can be bad for your health.

Overall we think that there are more convincing reasons for children being able to stay up late. So Mum and Dad we will now be going to bed later.

Maori Days of the Week

Here is Kristy's guide to the Maori Days of the Week.

Tuesday 8 March 2016

Rhyming Couplet Poetry

In writing we have been writing poetry featuring rhyming couplets. A rhyming couplet is two lines of the same length that rhyme.


  

Monday 7 March 2016

Staying Up Late

The Justice League created these guides to staying up late using information from  "Staying up late" by Steven Storer.


Google Maps

In Maths we explored Google Maps - How long would it take you to walk to school? Add to our padlet.


Sunday 6 March 2016

Language Features in Songs

In writing we identified language features found in songs.

Thursday 3 March 2016

Tuesday 1 March 2016

Translation, Rotation and Reflection

Here is Kristy explaining translation, rotation and reflection

New Zealanders Giving Less Than They Used To

Rhea, Heila and Joshua G summarised an article about how New Zealanders are now giving less to charities and needy causes.