Dinosaur Stomp...

Well the juniors have loved our inquiry this term into dinosaurs and fossils.  We've been stomping dinosaurs across the whole curriculum and have learnt and shared so much. Today we had a celebration of our learning and went on a Dinosaur Stomp through the Year 0 and 1 classes to see what they've been up to.

We started off in the C Block quad singing a heap of very cool dinsoaur songs.  Then made a huge long snake and trailed our way around the school.  

We were very proud to show our Dinosaur World to the other classes.  Making a model for each thing we learned about was a great idea that the children in E7 came up with earlier in the term.  The attention to detail - beaks vs teeth, claws vs stompy feet etc has been noted with every dinosaur; lumps and bumps applied to meteors; lava spewing out of the volcano.  We wrote books about our learning, and made fossils out of clay.  Dinosaur World rocks!

Swimming Fun...

We had so much fun in the sun today with our friends in E6 for our first swimming session.  It's been several months since we last swam in our pool.  We were reminded how to safely enter and exit the pool, turning at the top of the steps and using the handrail; we made a humongous whirlpool by running around in a huge circle; we did animal jumps across the pool - going in and under and getting very splashy.  We can't wait to go again.

Parent/Caregiver reminder: E7's swimming days are Tuesday and Friday each week until the end of term.  Swimming is part of our school curriculum and all children should participate unless they are unwell.  Please make sure your child brings their togs, towel, goggles & swim hat (if required) to school in a named plastic bag, each of these days - regardless of the weather.  The weather is quite changeable at the moment and may start off awful, but become beautiful - just like today!  The teachers will make a judgement prior to the session about whether the weather is suitable and whether the pool temperature is okay (today it was lovely and warm)...

We've been learning about some more herbivore dinosaurs this week - Ankylosaurus and Triceratops...

Paleontologists...

We had so much fun this morning talking about our fossils that we made and remembering where fossils came from, how dinosaurs could become them, and who discovers them.

Our clay fossils are dry.  They look really cool.

Look at all the things we know about Paleontologists...

We even had a chance to be Paleontologists ourselves. Mrs P gave us a chocolate chip cookie each, and some 'tools' (a knife and a sharp stick). Very carefully, we worked away at revealing the chocolate chips hidden in the bikkie.  It was like finding fossils inside rocks.  We realised quite soon that we needed to be very careful, else we could break the chocolate chips inside.  If this was a real fossil, it would be such a loss to damage it.  

Check out our Dinosaur World ... it's growing (along with our knowledge of dinosaurs and fossils):

Skip Counting ...

We need lots of practice with skip counting.  We are learning to skip count by 2s, 5s and 10s.  Here's some songs you can listen to to practice your skip counting at home...

Try playing some of these games:

Balloon Pop Math - Skip Count

Number Bubble Skip Counting

Some ideas from NZ Maths to help secure skip counting skills:

Skip Counting in 2s and 5s

Skip Counting to 20

And remember ... if you count forwards, then you always count back!  It's tricky but keep on trying and it will get easier.

Stegosaurus...

We have been learning about Stegosaurus.  We found out that it lived long before T-Rex - 156-140 million years ago.  Sophia told us that it had 17 plates on it's back which acted like armour and stopped other dinosaurs from eating them.  Violet shared that it had 4 spikes on it's tail which he used to flick other dinosaurs to stop them attacking them too.  Faisal observed that a Stegosaurus had a beak like a bird, and no teeth.  We thought this was really interesting after our trip to Te Papa and learning that chickens were descendents of the Tyrransaurus.  Knowing this makes it easier to picture what a dinosaur beak might have looked like.  We know that a T-Rex was about the height of two buses. 

Luka told us that a Stegosaurus is the height of 1 bus ... about half the size.  The Stegosaurus is a herbivore and he ate plants (Alex).  He walked on four legs (Dehan) and had four toes on his front feet and 3 on the back feet (Rory).  Rather than claws, he had D-shaped hooves (kind of like an elephant).  Stegosaurus had a tiny brain, the size of a walnut (Luka).  

We also found out that his plates acted a bit like solar panels.  They absorbed and retained the heat from the sun, keeping the dinosaur warm in cooler time.  When it was hot, the plates helped keep the Stegosaurus cool. We are not sure of it's colour as we have seen lots of pictures of him different colours, but we decided as a class that it would have made good sense to be coloured like the plants and landscape around them (camouflaged), so they could hide from the dinosaurs wanting to eat them (their predators).  

Look at this cool Stegosaurus that Anvesha, Violet, Jalisa and Faisal made...

We've now written a book about Stegosaurus and
 Tyrannosaurus Rex.  Take a read next time you're in our class. 

Mana ... The Spirit of Polynesia

Today Eastern Hutt had a special visitor - a performance artist called Bernard Mangakahia.  Bernard has travelled throughout the world and learnt about different cultures through dance and story.  He shares this knowledge with his audiences.  Today Bernard shared stories and dance from Polynesia, including North America, New Zealand and Hawaii.

His hoop dance was amazing.  He used 7 hoops and we could see him act like an eagle and a butterfly... here is his hoop dance from his YouTube channel so you can see it in full.

He told us about traditional North American hoop dancers who use up to 30 hoops to do their dance.  We found a video online of one ... wow.

Bernard told us that each hoop in his dance represented a challenge in life.  As you face a challenge and accomplish something that you thought was hard, then you have 'earned that hoop', you pick it up and never let it go.  By meeting all those little challenges, you achieve big things.

He said we should hold on to our dreams and never let them go, work towards them and never give up them.  

After sharing this Native American dance, he talked to us about New Zealand and the Māori.  He showed us a traditional costume - a piupiu skirt, moko (he told us about the different parts of the moko - the forehead marks your rank in a tribe, the nose is your signature, the chin is your spirit, the cheek marking represent your position/job in the tribe) and also poi.  He showed us a great poi dance and got Sophia from our class up to help demonstrate it to all the juniors.  Sophia showed great courage and did really well using the poi which had really long strings.

From Hawaii, Bernard demonstrated how to wear a lavalava and flower leis as body decorations.  He showed us a cool dance, which many of recognised from The Lion King movie.  He used uli uli (a feathered instrument kind of like maracas) to dance with.  

Lastly he finished his show with some hip-hop and we all got to try some of the moves.  It was pretty cool.

Bernard left us all with a challenge ... to go home and ask our families to share their stories and culture with us - through words, songs, music and dance.  And then for us to share that with others, then ask for more.  By doing this, we can keep the stories and culture alive for many generations to come.  The children are all quite excited about this - so be ready to be asked for your family stories!

This show was very relevant this week, as we are celebrating all of the different cultures in our own school community with a special show on Friday.  Our class is going to the dress rehearsal and we are really looking forward to it. 

Dinosaur Stomping...

We love rocking out to this awesome song by Dan and Dani....

Fossils...

After watching a few online clips and reading up in some books about fossils and fossil finders (paleontologists), we decided we'd make our own.  We used some clay and moulded it with wet hands into a rock or egg shape.  Mrs P helped us to slice it in half using a special piece of wire.  Then we went through the dinosaur exploration box and found some things we wanted to make into 'fossils' - some shells that look like rings, some that looked like sharp teeth and lots of little plastic dinosaurs.  We pushed these objects in the clay really hard and then very gently pulled them out, leaving an imprint of the object in the clay.  They look really cool.  It will take a few days for them to dry out we think, then we might paint them and add them to our Dinosaur World.