Fossil Walk

Today was on our big trip up the Richmond Hills to dig for fossils. It was a beautiful day for a walk and we were all very excited to use our fossil kits and dig for real fossils.
We were hoping to find some fish Trace Fossils but were pretty happy with all the shell fossils we found.


'Walking through the mud was cool and finding quite a few fossils in one rock was awesome!'
Emma
'I liked the part when we went for a walk further up the hill. I saw lots more fossils in the rocks and I found one to take home to my brother Josh who missed out cause he was sick.'
Grace
'Fun and frustrating because I didn't dig up any fossils but I did find one on the way back.'
Eve
'When we climbed higher the view was great and we found a sign to slide on down the hill.'
Jack
'It was hard climbing up the hill and finding a fossil but I did find one.'
Trinity
'It was tricky to find the fossils at the start but I found a big black one and had to use two hammers to dig it out.'
Jonte
'The view from the top was amazing!'
Caleb
'Hopefully I found the biggest fossil!'
Finn

Fossil Walk!

This Friday we will be setting off on our Fossil Walk (so exciting!)

We will be leaving school at 11.00 and make our way to our destination where we will stop for some lunch.

After that we will head off down (or up) the track to fossick for fossils.

You may wear mufti on Friday but please remember you will be digging around in the dirt so dress appropriately. You will be taking your lunch, drink bottle and fossil kit.

We expect to be back at school by 2.30.

Paris the Bunny

Today David brought his Mini Lop bunny, Paris, in to show his classmates. Paris is still only a baby so his ears are still sticking up. As he gets older his ears will get more floppy. He is VERY cute!!
Paris stayed in our classroom all day and had plenty of children wanting to hold him and keep him company.

Paris the Mini Lop.

Paris had lots of friends to look after him.

Thanks for bringing in your bunny David!

Jurassic Park!

This afternoon we started watching the movie 'Jurassic Park'.
It fits in with our topic 'Memory Bones'
It was really interesting because one of our reading groups was reading an article called 'Fossil Seekers' about three famous Paleontologists (Mary Anning, Jack Horner and Barnum Brown) Jack Horner actually worked on the movie 'Jurassic Park' to make sure the dinosaurs in the movie were as realistic as possible.
We'll be watching for his name in the credits when we finish watching it on Friday.

We made Resin (Amber) Fossils out of jelly.

We'll eat them during the movie...

Close up of our Amber Fossils

 

Blake and Joel's Resin Fossils

Great way to spend a wet and windy Wednesday!

Eating our 'Fossils'

Yum!

The Great Fossil Dig!

Last week we made dinosaur fossil eggs by making egg shapes out of dirt, sand and plaster of paris. We pushed a toy dinosaur into the mixture and rolled it into an egg shape and waited about a week for it to completely dry. We asked Kotuku class to bury our eggs then we went out to dig them up using the tools in the fossil kits that we had put together. It was great fun discovering the 'fossils' although some are still out there somewhere as we couldn't find them all!
We used our tools to carefully crack open the egg to find our 'fossilised' dinosaur inside. Finally we researched what species of dinosaur we had discovered.
We learnt a lot about Paleontology and how it's important to use the correct tools and also that you have to be super patient!
 

The Titanaboa!

Our reading group has been reading about The Titanaboa, A  ‘titanic boa’ an extinct type of snake that lived about 60 million years ago after the dinosaurs became extinct. Here are a couple of our responses to what we read.
By Grace and Emma, Jack and David.

Fossil iMovies

We have been researching different types of fossils and writing explanations of how these particular types of fossils are formed.
Here are Grace and Ruby, Patrick and Finn, Holly and Margeaux with their explanations of how body, mold and index fossils are formed.