Science Fun

Last Friday our class had a fabulous day taking part in some very fun science experiments. 

We discussed what we thought 'Science' was and what 'Scientists look like and decided that 'Scientists' are people who ask questions and want to know why things happen. We are all scientists.

With each experiment the class thought about the following questions:

• PREDICTION - What do you think will happen? 
• EXPLANATION - Can you talk about what is happening?
• CONCLUSION - WHY did it happen? 

The first experiment was called 'Magic Milk'. We needed; milk, food colouring and dish washing liquid. 

The students added milk, then drops of food colouring, then the fun began when they dipped their skewer in dishwashing liquid then into the milk. The reaction and responses were awesome especially from our little visitors from Te Pihi.

The second experiment was called 'Crawling Colour's. Hemi, Jacob, Larell and Edmon set this one for the class. We predicted how long it would take for the colours to start crawling. We were so surprised when it only took 30 mins for the colours to move! We predicted it would take 2 or more hours for the paper towels to absorb as much water as they could. Then they would be saturated!

Our last experiment was called 'Lava in a Cup' using oil, water, food colouring and salt. The class discussed why the oil would settle on top of the water and it was great to hear words like 'density' and 'lighter'. We all had a lot of fun creating the lava using the salt!

Check out our class site to find out more - Science on our Class Site.

Raranga Matihiko - Follow Up - Waitangi Visit

Our class is very lucky to have visited Waitangi and the Raranga Matihiko Classroom twice this term.

Our visit two weeks ago was an amazing experience for all the students as they encountered new technology learning that they had not seen before. We have been learning about Polynesian navigation and the teachers in the Raranga Matihiko classroom, Whaea Monika and Whaea Kristina, encouraged the students to put themselves into a voyaging world. They were challenged to sculp pou using Sculp GL that represented different forms of navigation i.e. tides, wind, birds. These were then printed on the 3D printer for the students to take it home. 

The students then created an object or thing that they might see in the voyaging world using Paint 3D. Lastly Whaea Kristina took a photo of each student and added their pou, Paint 3D object and their avatar into our own Virtual Reality Voyaging World.

Thank-you so much to Whaea Monika, Whaea Kristina and Whaea Kerry for giving us the opportunity to experience such a range of learning in the Raranga Matihiko classroom. We feel privileged to have been part of your classroom at Waitangi! 

We hope you enjoy our videos as much as we enjoyed making the items that are in them!

Beach Education Day - Ahipara - with Te Tinana and Te Putake

We had a fantastic day at Ahipara to learn about beach safety from the team at Surf Life Saving New Zealand. The education team taught us how to keep ourselves and our whanau safe at the beach. We were able to look around the Surf Life Saving Club and find out about the equipment that they use when they are on patrol. Then the best part was when we went down to the beach and did some fun activities in the water. Thank you to the Surf Life Saving team and all our whanau who came to support our learning on the day. Click on this link to look at more photos from the day (more photos will be added next week!)

Te Hiku Kura Film Festival Highlights

 The Te Hiku Kura Film Festival was a huge success. Our students had a great time taking part in the film making process. Our wonderful local film maker, Harley Alexander, has put a clip together of the highlights of the film festival. It is a fun reflection on the effort, creativity and talent  that was shown during the Te Hiku Film Festival!

Please click on this link to check out the photo album from the film festival too!