Comonwealth minibeasts

This term the school wide inquiry is Little Critters. In extension when the term started the commonwealth games were on, so we names of sports that were being played or competed in at the commonwealth games, in to a hat and then we picked one out of a hat. The one that you got was the one that you had to find a NZ athlete competing in it and or another athlete that was doing that sport and had won a medal. I picked out diving, which I thought was a very cool and interesting sport, and found a girl named Gabrielle Armstrong-Scott who is only a 14 yr old NZ girl from Wellington. And to make our movie relate to our topic we had to say" if my athlete was a minibeast it would be a.....," and say what it would be based on its habitat and lifestyle. Watch my movie to learn more about Gabrielle and what little critter I compared her to.

Classification

Scientists have classified the animal kingdom in to groups based on different characteristics. Vertebrates and Invertebrates are the two main categories.

Vertebrates are animals with backbones,such as birds,reptiles,amphibians,fish and mammals. Humans count as mammals because we are warm-blooded,we have hair, we grow young inside our mothers and we suckle milk from them.


Invertebrates are animals with no backbone.They make up 97% of the animal kingdom and comprise of 7 groups.One of the groups are arthropods.They have an exoskeleton,a segmented body and jointed legs.Another group is the annelidas which are worms. One more is the molluscs which are soft-bodied invertebrates like snails and slugs.

Halloween with Teresa

“Hi Teresa” I said excitedly as she walked into my house. We ran up the stairs while my dad kept talking to Teresa’s. I went outside to show her my dog Jess and my two rabbits Sandy and Coal.”This is my friend Teresa” I said to my dog.Jess is black and really cute. Once Teresa’s caregiver was gone we went back down stairs to the garage. Then she found Isara’s ripstik and she became addicted to it. She learnt how to ride it really fast.

Later on we drove to the Trunk or Treat that my Aunty To’a had organised for her church. But we got invited anyway Trunk or Treat was something that my aunty had made up. It was when people decorated the back of their cars and the children went around collecting lots of lollies. In one of the trunks this lady had a bowl of jelly with some fake spiders in it. The bowl had a sheet over it so we had to reach in and try to get a spider. I didn't get one I just got a big handful of red gunk on my hand. "Ooh, it was disgusting”. Some other cars had some cool things in them too.

I had so much fun at the Trunk or Treat, especially because Teresa was there, and I hope the next time she comes over to my house we will have as much fun as we did this time.

Netbooks

Finally, after so much hard work from Mr and Mrs Burt, the netbooks have arrived. The lucky year 7’s got to be the first ones to use them. The year 5 extension group got to go into the hall and watch the room 19 and 20 students recieve their computers. They all looked very excited. All I was thinking about was when I would get one.

The netbooks are not just for Pt. England though they are for every yr 5-13 in the Tamaki cluster. And we even get free wireless internet. That means we could go to the park or the shops and still be able to work on our netbooks. Everyone that gets them will be very,very lucky.

The benefits of having these netbooks are being able to continue working at home and collaborate with others,we don’t have to wait to have a turn on the computer at school and we don’t have need much stationery.Plus it will just be really fun!

Dental Clinic Demolishing

In preparation for the intermediate block, and with the completion of the new dental clinic, the old one was demolished. Before it was destroyed on Friday one of the builders were prising off the weatherboards with a crowbar to make it easier to destroy.

As the ginormous jaws came crashing down onto the building the windows shattered and beams splintered as it slowly collapsed. The predatory digger flattened the huge pile of rubble.

We all said our final goodbyes as the digger finished destroying the Old Dental Clinic.

Swimming at Pt. England

Shivering and shuddering,I slowly put on my damp and clammy life jacket. I fidgeted for a while with my buckles trying to make it fit as snug as I could. The life jacket was still wet from the last group but I got used to it quickly.

Chris from Water Safety NZ,was going to teach us how to swim and what to do in difficult situations when your in the water. On Monday a pool,that was enclosed by a big white tent and a fence, magically appeared on the netball court next to Tusitala. Finally it was Rm 15’s turn. I couldn’t wait to get in.

As I walked slowly into the pool my teeth chattered and I got goose bumps all over my body. Screaming and squealing, I walked off of the platform that was under the water and made a big splash. Luckily the life jacket kept me above the surface.

“SSSH”, Chris tried to calm us down. He told the whole class to get into a huddle. A huddle is when you get into a group. Then we had lie down on our backs while holding on to the person next to you. Instead of timing us by counting Chris told us to sing the National Anthem.It was terrible!! Everybody sang out of tune and Miss Garden said that she could hear us all the way from her class. Chris gently spun our circle around while we kept singing hideously.

Immersion Assembly

On a cold Monday morning the whole school gathered in the hall for the
start of term immersion assembly. Everybody sat down in their lines
waiting patiently for it to begin. All of the teachers were dressed up
as bugs like ants, spiders, bees and lots of other little creatures.
The topic for this term was Little Critters.

Suddenly
Mr Burt came crawling down the aisle dressed up as a mosquito. Then I
heard someone whispering in to a microphone. I didn’t realise that it
was Mr Burt doing it until he got up onto the stage because he had a
mask on. He was saying things to Mr J like “I’m going to suck your
blood”.

After
that all of the teams started performing their items. Out of all of the
performances my favourite was team 4. The teachers in team 4 were Ms
Squires, Miss King, Miss Va’afusuaga , Miss Garden and Mr Barks. They
were acting as a bee colony. Mr Barks was the Queen bee and the others
were worker bees. Ms Squires was feeding Mr Barks and Miss King and
Miss Va’afusuaga were dancing while Miss Garden swept the floor. The
funniest part for me was when Mr Barks pulled out babies from under his
skirt. They were just little teddy bears all wrapped up. One time Mr
Barks pulled out two babies and said that they were twins.

My
second favourite item was the team 3 one. It was called NZ’s Next Top
Little Critter. At first the music was going and the teachers were
walking and posing around the stage. Then Mrs Barks started saying
things like”I’m fabulous” and other things like that because she was a
lady bug. Then everybody started laughing when Mr Barks called out “I
love you” to her. After that the other teachers started saying lots of
interesting facts about themselves. When it was Miss MacKinlay’s turn
she said that they were actually called lady birds.


This
immersion assembly was really cool and I can’t wait to learn about some
more little critters.I hope this term will be as good as all of the other ones.