Kereru Class - Photosynthesis

Year 5/6 Winter Tournament

It was a great day for Winter Tournament today. The sun was shining and the students were all feeling positive about the day.
We had a few awesome results! Our Year 6 Netball girls won their competition, one of our Football teams (The Bombers) won their grade, St Paul's Blue team came second in the Boccia Tournament (missed out on first place by one point!) and the Rugby boys came fourth.
Well done to all of our amazing Year 5/6 students for taking part and representing our school so well.
You are a fantastic group of kids! Ms Hampson and Mrs Trolle are proud of all of you!

 

Brook Waimarama Sanctuary

                                               
What a great trip we had this morning to the Brook Waimarama Sanctuary! Rick, our guide, taught us so much about the bird and plant life up there.

We discovered a weta living in a hollow tree. Rick took out his phone and held it up to the hole so we could see the weta.
Kyle.
I learnt that you can use kawakawa leaves to help with ulcers and toothache. We also learnt how stoats and other animals affect the area by attacking birds nests.
Grace.
The leaves shaped like ears were edible and can be cooked in garlic and butter.
Patrick.
It was cool when we saw the freshwater dam and little waterfall.
Ruby.
Rick was able to tell me a lot about what I wanted to know about plants.
Andrew.
The liked the different type of vocals that the birds had. 
Jonte.
Going on the trip was really fun I loved seeing and hearing the Bellbirds and Tuis.
Savanna.

Week 6

This week is going to be super busy so here is run down of events to keep you on track!
Monday: Trip to Brook Waimarama Sanctuary (mufti to be worn-sensible shoes)
Tuesday: Music with Mr Phillips.
Wednesday: Winter tournament all day (a notice was emailed home on Friday)
Thursday: Sport Tasman (handball)
                School Speech Competition in the afternoon
Friday: Daffodil Day (Uniform with something yellow or ALL yellow clothes.
            Gold coin please)
            Sport/Art in the afternoon.

Winter Tournament Practise

All term we have been training for the Primary Winter Tournament next week.
We are playing rugby, soccer, netball and boccia. We work together really well and support each other.
Here are some photos from one of our training sessions.

Learning about Traps and Planting

This morning Tom from Nelmac came to talk to us about his job in the Nelmac Nursery and also how he is involved in pest control in our National Parks and bushland.
Tom is taken into the bush by helicopter and left on his own to clear and set traps for pests.  He needs to be very fit as he does a lot of walking while looking after the traps.
Tom also works at the Nelmac nursery. He enjoys looking after the plants and brought some natives for us to have a look at and learn about.

Learning about native plants.

A close up look at a stoat trap.

SNAP!

A dead stoat!

THE PHOTOSYNTHESIS SONG

Today we learnt some more about Photosynthesis. We began to construct our own plant leaf model showing the process of Photosynthesis. We sang along to this song while we worked.

The Lorax - Plant The Seed

As part of our Science topic we watched The Lorax. The Dr Seuss story has a very important message; that the environment must be protected against those who would profit from it. The Lorax sounds the warning siren, but is ignored, as environmental groups often are, until it’s too late.
Here is a powerful scene from the movie containing the quote;

"Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It's not."

Starting With Plants

Kereru Class (and parent helpers) here is a short (but sweet) email we received from John Campbell at the Museum after our visit there on Thursday. You are all awesome!!!
Angie,
Your students, staff and parents were fantastic, as always I thoroughly enjoyed the St Pauls visit.
Please pass on to your principal how impressed I was with your kids.
Best Regards
John Campbell

It was lots of fun at the museum. I learnt that bees have noses and they use them to get the nectar out of the plant and pollen sticks to their legs.

By Emma

My favourite part was drawing different plants.

By Henry

I had a fun time. I learnt about the food chain in nature like how some insects eat bits of a tree and birds eat the insects and stoats and other animals eat the birds then bigger birds eat the stoats.

By Charlie

I liked the flower activity. I learnt how bees extract the pollen from the flower. I also learnt that with pine cones some seeds don't make it out of the cone so they rot.

By Ben

The museum trip was really fun. My favourite part was sketching the plants.

By Savanna

I learnt that there are male and female flowers and they're not common gender.

By Emily

When the wind blows the seeds come out and blow away so a new plant grows somewhere else.

By Trinity

All Star Winners!

Our Year 6 All Stars netball team participated in the Primary Interschool Netball Tournament on Tuesday and they won!
We are very proud of their achievement and well done to their coach Monique Bergman!

We tried so hard in the first game because it was against a difficult team. When we won that one we were excited because it made us more confident going into the rest of the games.
The next two games we tried our best cause we knew we wanted to win.
When we got to the finals it was a draw at half time and then in the last half we fought really hard and got the goals. We won 18-8
By Margeaux and Ruby