Maui and the Sun

We read the Maori myth, 'Maui me te Rangi' and also watched the video of Peter Gossage's book,  'How Maui Slowed the Sun'.  This is read in Te Reo with English subtitles.  It was interesting to pick up how many words we knew, and hear the rhythm and pace of the Maori language.

How Maui Slowed the Sun by Peter Gossage

It was also interesting to hear how people in the olden days explained natural phenomenon, such as   shorter daylight hours in winter, through colourful, traditional myths.   Nowadays, scientists explain that the reason days are longer in summer, while they are shorter in winer, is due to the Earth's tilt on its axis.  The hemisphere that is closest to the Sun has the longest, brightest days because it gets more direct light from the Sun's rays.

We used cotton buds, instead of brushes, to apply the dye.  We tried very carefully to stay in the lines and not load our applicator up with too much dye.

Here is a finished sun to illustrate our re-telling of the Maori myth.

Before we even started our illustrations, we listened to the story again.  Once we had the main ideas in our heads, we brainstormed some of the key words we would need in our stories.  Then we wrote our own plan using verbs that described exactly what happened.  Over the next few days, we re-told the myth using our own words from our plan.  

This is Nico's story, but you can read them all on the Reading page.

Cockle Bay is a Sun Smart School

Cockle Bay is a sun smart school.  We decided to test for UV rays as these can harm your skin when you are exposed to them.  First, we threaded UV beads onto pipe cleaners, either as a little man or as a bracelet, so we could see the beads easily and they wouldn't get lost.  Then we exposed them to the sun.  We discovered that they very quickly changed colour.  As the beads were sensitive to UV rays, this demonstrated that the UV light was present.  Some people, particularly Juwon, have discovered that their own skin changes colour as well . . . to red.  When we took the beads back inside, they very quickly turned back to white.

We then protected the beads by putting a thick layer of sunscreen on clear film, and placing the UV beads underneath.  We discovered that the beads stayed white when we applied this protective layer.  This is how wearing a hat and shade clothing, applying sunscreen or playing out to the sun all protect us from harmful rays.

The next thing to investigate is to see if UV lights rays can go through our sun shades and the dome roof.  Watch this . space! 

Outdoor Classroom Day

Luckily this year, the National Outdoor Classroom Day was sunny and dry.  We went outdoors to do our Maths.  We used 30cm rulers to measure all the different things we could find in the Oak Tree Walk.

Sometimes, when we found extra long things like flax, we joined two rulers together to get our measurement.  Mathematicians call this 'tiling'.

We recorded our measurements in our Maths books.

Mushrooms are growing in Room 18!

At Cockle Bay,  22 mushrooms 'mysteriously' appeared in Room 18.  Could it be anything to do with the heavy bag of clay that was delivered earlier in the day?

We spent the morning experimenting with clay and learning how to manipulate it, by making shapes, pounding, rolling, pushing, pulling, poking and cutting.   Later, in the afternoon, we made mushrooms by making a think column for a strong stalk, and then a round umbrella shape for the cap.  We used a toothpick to make the gills under the cap so that they all looked like real fungi. 

It was interesting to learn that the typical umbrella shape of a mushroom is Nature's way of keeping the tiny spores dry.  These spores are tucked away under the cap in gills so that they don't get wet.  If they stay dry, they are much more likely to catch the wind and fly through the air to find a new place to grow.

We now have to wait three weeks for the clay to properly dry out before we fire our mushrooms in the Cockle Bay kiln.  

Weka Day Camp

When we arrived at our base camp near Totara Park in the Auckland Botanic Garden, we were organised into three groups.  Each group rotated through the same camping activities, but in a different order.

The camp wagon had a chalkboard showing the rotations.

This sign kept us safe!

You needed to follow this map to find the flags when we were doing orienteering.

Rylee's Dad's group were pretty tired after finding some of the orienteering flags, but were soon ready to have another go!

We followed a map of Totara Park on our tramp through the bush.

We stayed in the camp circle to cook our sausages.

We liked relaxing inside the tent once we had finally got it erected.

Don't go to sleep, Mrs Bear!

Tramping on the Weka Day Ccamp

Year 3 students go on a Weka Day Camp at the start of term 4 every year.  We go to the Auckland Botanic Gardens, and one of the camping activities we do is to go on an hour long tramp through the bush near our base camp.  Here is a video of one group as they started their walk through the bush:

Weka Day Camp - tramping over the bridge

Happy Halloween

We celebrated Happy Halloween in Room 18 on 31st October.  We started early and carried on all day.  We decorated the room first and then we did Happy Halloween Chunk of the Week, Happy Halloween Science, Happy Halloween poem, Happy Halloween Maths and Happy Halloween Reading.  It was such a full-on day, that we couldn't fit in Halloween Art, so we did that later.

The jack-o-lantern made the classroom smell of cooking pumpkin as the candle warmed the inside of the shell.

We decorated the classroom with spider webs

We cut out bats for the windows and gave them cellophane eyes so they glowed in the sunlight.

Everyone looked spectacular!

Mrs Bear didn't look very well.

We made static electricity by rubbing balloons in our hair so that we could make the little paper ghosts dance.

Our Happy Halloween chunk of the week was 'oo' - we made words using gummy eyes for the 'oo' - which meant that we could write, read and then EAT our words!

We did some Happy Halloween multiplication with playdough - here we have (2x5) + 3 = ....

We read, copied and illustrated our skeleton poem with ...... a skeleton.

In Happy Halloween Science, we learned about physical and chemical reactions, and sorted them into two groups.  Then we carried out a chemical reaction by cracking a glow stick to mix two chemicals together to make coloured lights.  We tried these out in our Happy Halloween cave where it was dark.

In Happy Halloween Maths, we made spider webs by making pairs to 10, or 100 or even 1,000.