My Pet

In Room 7 we are learning to introduce our pets in maori . This is my work

Why You Should Try Beekeeping

I feel it is important to keep bees because they help the environment grow and thrive. People who live in rural  properties should give it a go. Maybe some day you might be a beekeeper. 

Bees are vital for the human food chain. They pollinate flowers and flowers are eaten by live stock and the meat and milk from livestock is eaten by you and me. Think of your favourite dairy or meat product. For instance ice cream. Imagine a world with out ice cream. 

Bees are great for crops and orchardists because they pollinate every thing and if there were no bees there would be no fruits.

If you like exceptional flavours then you should try  the mouth watering, delectable, might I add the outstanding HONEY!!!

You can also make a large amount of money from bee keeping with honey and wax. Manuka honey is a little expensive.  Manuka honey will give you a little bit more money for your work as it is known to have good healing properties. Also you could make an income from renting the hives to farmers so the bees can pollinate the crops and other plants.

Bee keeping is a good job, good hobby and best of all gives you HONEY!!! . 

The Film Fesfival

Toki Pounamu Film Festival 

 

This morning the seniors went to the Toki Pounamu Film Festival at the Regent Theatre. The Toki Pounamu Film Festival is a time where most School in the West Coast district come together and share the films that we make. This year, the first year for the whole west coast, the topic was 'our place' and that means the things you love to see and do on the West Coast. 

 

The film I liked was called The Robber.  It started out with a news anchor talking about how 3 millon dollars worth of property was stolen from around town. It says meanwhile and the screen cuts to a person dressed in black and he goes to sleep and  the sheriff and a detective came across the sleeping robber the robber wakes up and. The camera turns to slow motion and the sheriff gets his 22 lor revolver  and swings his arms around in the air and the detective tackles the robber and the robber was on the ground. The sheriff screams at the robber to stop resisting and the detective aims the gun at his head and threatens to shoot him. This was the end of the film. I liked the film because they took something serious and turned it to something funny.  They did a great job with the editing of the slow motion sequences. They had costumes and props. I really enjoyed watching this film.

my powelliphanta snail writing

In room 7 we have been Learning about mini beast . I have picked the largest snail in the world . But we have to make it about nz niavte mini beats Here is my writing 

       Powelliphanta Snails   

By Shannon 

In North Westland and Nelson in Aotearoa lives the Powelliphanta snails. The Powelliphanta snails
are the largest snails in the world weighing up to 90 grams. There are over 21 species. They belong to t
he gastropod family which means their foot is their stomach. They are invertebrates - this means they
have no spine.  

Physical features 

Their shell can grow up to 100mm across. Their shells have swirly patterns and come in black, brown,
yellow and pinky red colours. Most snails and slugs have blue blood. In the Nelson area there has
been a rare white snail discovery.  

Habitat  

Powlliphanta are found in the north west of the South Island around Buller and Nelson. They normally
live in damp conditions, such as under logs and leaves. Some species live in coastal areas and
mountain areas. 

Social behaviour 

They live in small colonies in separate areas. They normally come out at night to gather food and mate.  

Feeding  

Most powelliphanta are carnivorous eating worms and smaller snails and slugs. They have a radula.
The radula is a organ like tongue with is covered in rows of 33 teeth. It is estimated to be 6000 teeth.
When eating worms they suck the worms up like spaghetti.  

Life cycle  

The Powelliphanta lay up to 5-10 eggs a year but it is hard for the eggs and baby snails to survive.
The eggs are pinky white and 10mm tall the colours make it easy for birds to spot. They are
hermaphrodite this means they have both  gender organs. They also live up to 20 years.  

Threats  

Their predators are possum, weka, rats, thrushes, and wild pigs. Other man made threats like
farming mining and forestry are changing their habitat.      

                                          

   

                      

Facts 

Do not move or take the shell because it is hard to determine if it is empty or not.  

DOC took some Powelliphantas from a site where the government were going to make a road.
Unfortunately they died ( to D.O.C next time don't use fridges to cool down the snails ).   

          

My animation

Today we were learning how to do an animation on google slides. We had to make our animation from free to use images. We also had to change false to true and change the speed inside the code to make it work. I hope you enjoyed my animation about a sinking ship.

weta report - term 3

weta 

This is a piece of writing that we did for our minibeast topic when we were learning about weta. We had to write an information report of the  inescts .

click here to see my success criteria

           Weta  

Weta are related to grass hoppers.  There
family name is orthoptera. There are over 70
species of weta. The five main groups of weta
are tree weta, cave weta, giant weta, ground
weta, and tusked weta.  The early maori called
the weta punga the spirit of ugliness. 

Physical features  

 The weta are Tane the god of the forest sons
and daughters. Weta have six legs and two
large antennae on their head. Weta have ears
on their legs below their knees. Their body parts
are head, abdomen and  thorax. A weta has a
xoskeleton. Exoskeleton means that their bones
are on the outside of their body. Weta don't
have lungs. They breathe through their body
not mouth. The males have larger heads than
the female weta. 

Habitat  

Over all most weta like damp dark places like
under logs and trees and under rocks. Ground
weta live in burrows under ground. Giant weta
live under rocks and in fallen leaves. Cave
weta of course live in caves but they can live
under rocks and dead leaves. Tree weta are
found in hollow trees. Tusked weta make and
dig burrows smoothing the walls with their
saliva. They then go in backwards and seal the
hole with mud.  

Social behaviour 

Most Tree weta live in colonies unlike the
ground
weta. They live alone. Tree weta are mostly
asleep in the day but at night the colonies
get violent. The male weta fight over the
tunnels. The male weta fight with their
over sized jaws  

 Feeding  

Gaint weta and tree weta are herbivorous.
They eat leaves lichen seeds  fruit and flowers.
The tusked and ground weta are carnivorous
meaning they eat small dead insects. 
The cave weta eat both meat and plants.  

Reproduction  

Weta mate in the spring.
The eggs are laid in the next spring.
This cycle will repeat for years.
The eggs are laid five or ten at a time in the
ground near lichen colonies. This is so the
newborns can have food.
The small weta shed their skin as they grow.   

Threats  

The biggest threats are deer, cats, boar, goats,
mice and rats. The rats and mice fight
the weta for food. The cats try to play with them
but kill them. The goats and deer and boar dig
and flip over logs in the weta's land. We could
stop the weta dying out by doing these -
not squashing the weta and stop dropping
poison on the bush. And they also must have
a good habitat to live in.  

By Shannon 

    

                  

         Tree weta               tusked     giant weta

Shannon Reading Term Three Week 4-5, Insects

 Reading Term Three Week 4-5, Insects

At school we have been learning about minibeasts. Here is some of my reading work that I have been doing with Sapphire. 

To build a bot -reading

This term we have been learning about emotional robots - A.I and about kids building robots . We read two two interesting articles about building robots   . link to my work

pick a path

today is digital learning i will use this again

   Our learning goals are to:

-write a description, using powerful words and phrases

-include some Te Reo Māori

-carefully check that our sentences make sense and have correct punctuation and spelling.  


      The Abandoned city      

It was a cold eerie day with fog hiding the mountain tops. I was exploring the jungle I had been on a expedition with about four explorers.  One had fell and had broken his leg from slipping. So I was determined to find the abandoned building that I had read about after the war.  

 After five blustery wet days of treacherous conditions I had finally got to the abandoned city of the Amazon. I was excited but it sent a shiver down my spine to think what surprises it might hold. I slowly crept into the door I heard a growling noise from the corner I un-holstered my Bowie knife and my revolver and backed away firming my grip to my knife but suddenly two pumas pounced out at me. Fire-ring off warning shots they ran out and left me. 

 After treating my wounds I went to the neighbouring buildings in search of the golden tooth. It smelt musty and damp. While running my hand on the crusty wall I realised one of the tiles did not feel the same and had a key hole . So I thought of what I could do I searched the room after rubbing the layer of dust off a old photo frame it was a strange emperor but there was a lump behind the photo I tore open the frame to find a necklace with a shaped stone on the end with no thought  I inserted the stone in to the key hole and stepped back dust rose up like leaves on a windy autumn day a one meter tunnel appeared so I climb through the cave. 

 It opened up into a room it seemed odd after taking thirty seconds of searching. A snake arose not moving far from my position two men climbed out of the tunnel  it was the two explorers they had got the other explorer to safety. Then after the good news was put to a end they gasped. One of them reacted fast killing the snake with one bullet. One of the explorers went to examine the snake carcass he fell down a trap door. As we went to look at what had happen to him we saw a old rotten ladder leading into darkness turning on our lamps we climbed down to find not only the explore but mountains of gold. My grin took up the room amazed that we would now be rich and famous.     

My Scratch Project - Te Reo Måori

Task: Create a simple animation using scratch that teaches people some of our phrases of the week - Korero O te wiki

WALT: 
-use scratch to code for computational thinking.
- learn how to create basic code on scratch
- Say basic phrases  in Te Reo Maori

Click here to see our Korero O te wiki-phrases of the week

My Marae Recount

Marae Visit  

In our class we have been learning about marae. 

On the first of May Room five and Room seven went on an overnight camp at  marae. We all travelled in parents cars. I travelled  in Donna's car.  When we were there we practised the waiata. Then the two women did the karanga.  When we went into the wharenui the heke/roof lights were shining down on the carvings. After we said our mihi we had our Kai. 

We went to the Arahura river after Kai to look for pounamu.  When we got to the river Jerry told us not to look for green. It seemed a bit strange at first but when he explained the stone had whitish crust it made sense. So we all set of up the river looking for white. I found what I thought was greenstone but when I got to Jerry the pounamu had faded five shades lighter   green. Jerry said it was serpentine.  Later I saw Cameron. He was digging up a hole as he was talking to me. He had found an under ground spring. I went over to join him. Within the next five minutes he complained that I was not doing anything so I ran testing for pounamu. I started to try to break the stones open. If they did not break then I would hold it up to the sun to see if the light shone through, then it had passed the test.  We finished the day with a sculpture from mud sand and sticks.  

 

After we had the sculpture contest we went back up to the marae and had tea.  The worst part of it was the vegetables. Later we did our evening rotations. For the first half I did soap carvings with tooth picks.  I particularly made a fish hook, its a sign of good luck and wellbeing. For the second half I did flax weaving. We used four strips of flax. We went under over under. Within the last two minutes it turned into helping make the smores. After we did our evening rotation we were sent to brush our teeth. We went to bed. Now came the hardest part getting to sleep.   

 

In the morning my  bones felt stiff as a tree trunk.  When I tried to get out of my sleeping bag my back made 12 clicks.   

Once we had finished  packing our bags we got into our car groups to set of to lake Mahinapua. By the time we had got there we all had to stretch. Then Miss Ireland gave us our wild life sheet to try to find the trees on the list. Me Flynn, Charlie and Aden were in a team . We got on are way and to pass the time we made rock people with a marker and a rock. Me  Flynn and Charlie sped up ahead and then we decided to stop for a brake  so we flipped  over stones on the side of the trail. We wanted to find fresh water koura.  When we got to the look out it was beautiful with the reflection from the sky on the lake. On the way back I got stuck in the mud twice and got stalked by two fantails and two bush robins. Near the end of the walk me and my team hid in the ditch and waited  for the next team to come and gave them a surprise. We only managed to give them a small fright. By the time we got to the car park we were all puffed we got into our car groups and we started to make are way back to the school.  

 

 

I found the marae trip very interesting with the carvings and the legends.  I just ask to put gum-boots on the list next time.  I am glad I went because it was a good experience. 

If I Had Wings Poem

For the past few weeks we have been doing poetry. This weeks task was a poem about If I Had Wings... First we had to answer some questions and then we had to colour in the piece of paper with the poem. Last of all we had to write our own If I Had Wings poem. We had to use sticky ( interesting ) language, use the five senses and use interesting verbs and nouns. Here is my poem. 

Ship in a bottle - poem

As part of our writing work we have been learning to write poems. We got to choose and item to write a poem about. I chose a ship in a bottle to write about. We had to use 'sticky' interesting language to write our poem. Here is my poem.

Hospitable tin

Steady adventures

Comfortless old painted red

Ancient rustic minuscule worthy capsize  
handmade float blue sea

Delicate built white

Ship in bottle

Powhiri

We have been learning about the powhiri proces because we are going to the Arahura marae. I had to use my writing skills to show my knowledge about Maori culture and the powhiri process. Here is my writing. 

The powhiri is a welcome to the Marae  

 

1. The wero 

The wero is a challenge performed by the hosts. The fastest warriors would run out to meet the visitors. The warrior will place a leaf or a stick  on the ground. If the visitors turn their back they want war if they pick up the object and keep looking at them they come in peace. Now days this is rarely performed, mostly only performed for special guests. 

 

2. The karanga  

The karanga is a call done by a female host. It is a signal to say you are now allowed in the marae. The whakaeke responds  to the karanga  and leads the group on to the marae. Sometimes  the tangata whenua will do a chant or a dance.  

 

3. Whaikorero 

 Inside the marae the men will make a speech and the the manuhiri's last speaker will place a gift. The tangata whenua's speaker will then pick up the gift. At the end the group do their waiata. They mostly talk about history,  the past,  and about the day. 

 

4. Hongi  

After the speech is made they all press noses and shake hands. This shows the unity and breath of life. The manuhiri will form a line and move a long the tangata whenua line.  

 

5. Kai  

After the hongi the visitors are taken in to the dining room and a person from tangata whenua will say a karakia and then they  serve the  food.  

  

6. Poroporoiki  

At the end of visit the manuhiri say what they enjoyed and thank the hosts for their hospitality. The manuhiri may do a waiata to fare well their hosts. The tangata whenua speak and finish with the karakia. 

Marae

Marae 

 

The marae is on tribal land where they hold Hui (meetings) powhiri and tangihanga ( funeral ). The main building within the marae is the wharenui. 

 

The wharenui is the meeting house but it is not just house. It is an ancestor or a chief.  The wharenui  has legs, arms, fingers, head, spine, ribs. 

 

The koruru sits above the verandah. It is the head of the house.  The maihi  spread out under the koruru the raparapa are at the end of the maihi. The tahuhu is the long board going along the top of the  rafters. The poutokomanawa is the centre pole of the wharanui and is said to hold up the heart. 

 

It tells the history of the tribe and inhabitants through the carvings and tukuku panels.  

Kawa of Care

We have been learning to follow the kawa of care which tells us how to look after our devices and be cyber smart. We had to chose three rules to write about. Here is my work 

swim safe achievement levels

We've been learning how to be safe when swimming and working on our swimming skills. Bellow is my swimming goal sheet and I've highlighted green the parts I've completed. By the end of the year my goal is to try to complete level 3.