Bike course

Yesterday and today we had a visit from Bigfoot. Bigfoot is a bike company that comes to schools to teach the year five and six students about bike safety. In our first session we didn't ride our bikes, we just learnt about safety. Today we got to ride our bikes on the tennis court. We did some bike games like red light green light, but also did a course which had skills like weaving in and out of cones. It was a lot of fun. Thank you to big foot for coming in and teaching us bike skills and bike safety. This is a photo of our group playing a balance game on our bikes.

Possum

In reading we read a book on possums and how they affect New Zealand's native animals. We learnt that possums are happier here in New Zealand than over in Australia. This is because New Zealand doesn't have any predators that will eat possums. But over in Australia they have lots of predators like snakes, dingoes and goannas. Another reason is that possums like it over here better than Aussie is because possums have more to eat. The reason for this is that a lot of our native birds are flightless which make it easier to catch them. Possums also carry diseases. This leaves us to a conclusion that possums must go. If you discover claw marks on the bark of your trees, pellet-looking poo (possum poo), clawed lemons and new leaves with claw marks than it would be a good idea to set up some traps.I hope you have learnt something about possums.

Fractions booklet

In Maths we refreshed our work with fractions. We had a booklet with different activities to do with fractions such as equivalent fractions and adding and subtracting fractions. It was lots of fun. Something I found interesting was converting improper fractions.

Kia Kaha

In Room 5 we have been learning about Kia Kaha. Kia Kaha is a program run by the police force. Kia Kaha teaches us about bullying and how we are all special. Even though we are all different we still learn abut ways we are similar and ways we work as a team. Here is a picture of my shield explaining how I am unique and how my class is unique.

Diorama

In topic we have been learning about habitats. We had to pick a habitat and find information on it. I choose a coral reef. A fun fact I found is that sea horses have curled tails to grab on to sea grass if needed to change directions. I also found out that fish that live in coral reefs usually have flat bones that allow them to squeeze through tight gaps. Both of  these unique things are adaptations. This is my diorama on a coral reef and some animals and plants that live in this habitat.

Australasian Bitterns

Roaming the banks of New Zealand and Aussie, the Australasian Bittern, also known as the Brown Bittern or Matuku Herupo, searches through the wetlands for dinner. With a sharp beak and a shy personality will this bird become extinct?

The Austrilasian Bittern is a bird so it feeds on a diet of eels and insects. They will also eat frogs, spiders and snails. These birds have several different ways of catching prey. Some ways they catch their prey is by standing and waiting and slow stalking. Leg and wing movements are used to confuse or attract prey.

The Austrilasian Bittern is not only a predator but also prey. Sadly the Australasian Bittern is endangered. Drainage of swamps removes the habbitat of the Austriaasian Bittern. There are less than 900 left in the world. Stoats are major predators of the Australasian Bittern. They were introduced to New Zealand to control the amount of rabbits and hares but has had a devastating effect on native animals like the Australasian Bittern and it is still affecting our native animals.

Bitterns live in wetlands and banks of New Zealand and Australia. If you live on a farm during October you can go outside and try to spot any. Male Bitterns will build a nest with a clump of reeds in a bit of swamp water. Then they will place it on top of bent over reeds. Once this process is finished several females will breed in this male’s territory.

The Austrilasian Bittern is brown, black and white. It has long skinny legs, and can stretch its neck out super long which makes it look really tall. The Australasian Bittern has a low bellowing call to attract females. It also has a sharp pointed beak used for stabbing other Bitterns.

So now you know what an Australasian Bittern is, What it looks like, What it eats, where it lives and how it’s endangered. Everyone can help these incredible birds by doing simple things like voting for them on bird of the year. All the money raised on bird of the year will go to these birds if they win. I hope you have learnt a thing or two about these birds.

My Cross

This term we have been painting crosses to put up around the school. We had to paint symbols of our school, symbols of God and symbols of Auckland. The symbols I put on my cross is a Pohutukawa flower to symbolize God's creation,  the Maori symbols are to symbolize our multi-culture, the shield is there because it's our school symbol and the candle to symbolize that Jesus in the light of the world. This is my cross.