Fonterra Tanker Visit

Learning about the dairy industry we have been lucky enough to visit a dairy farm and learnt how we get milk from cows. Now we have been lucky to have a Fonterra tanker visit us at school to find out what happens to the milk when the tankers pick it up from the farm and takes it back to the factory.
We all thought that the tankers would have to be refridgerated to keep the milk cool but did you know that the air flow in the barrel of the tanker keeps it at 7 degrees?
Our day was made tip top when we ALL got an ice cream for lunch.
YUM thanks Fonterra!
And a big thank you to Warren and Neil who spent time out of their day to came and share their knowledge with us.

How to win and lose like a champion

Following the Middle Syndicate relays we had a few people who were disappointed that they had not won. We had a discussion that we don't always win everything in life and we need to think of ways to help us cope when things don't go our way.
Lots of us had witnessed sore losers or winners in our soccer, basketball etc games that we play after school and we didn't like it when people were show offs about winning. Or when we thought it was a good game but the other team were sore losers.
Following our talk about what makes good winners and losers we made up our own skits and showed them to the class.
Faye also came up with a motto for us that "If we give it our best try, we are winners."

Athletics

On Wednesday we had a beautiful sunny day for athletics.
We all tried hard and some of us will probably be representing Vardon at Interschools.
Check out some of our photos.

Making Ice Cream

YUMMY!
One of the dairy products that comes from milk is ice cream.
We got to make our own ice cream using snap lock bags, ice, salt, cream and milk, vanilla essence and sugar.
First we had to put the cream, milk, vanilla essence and sugar into the small inside bag. Next we put the ice and salt in the bottom of the big bag and then we placed the smaller bag into the big bag. Then we shook and shook and shook some more until the contents of the small bag went hard and formed our delicious ice cream which we then put sprinkles on top!
This is the video we watched before making our own.

Check out our videos and photos of us making and eating our ice cream.

Grassheads

In Room 11 we have been looking at the dairy industry.
Did you know that cows eat  between 70 and 120kg of grass per day?
So we decided to grow our own grassheads and see who could get the best looking hair do.
This means we have to find a nice sunny spot for our heads and give them plenty of water.
Check out our collection of photos as we put them together.

Grassheads on PhotoPeach

Video's from the farm

We had a great day out at the farm and learnt so much!!
Thank you Matt and Miss Workman.
Here are a few videos capturing a few snapshots of great learning happening outside the classroom.

Questions we had for Matt-and the answers

How do you turn on the milking machine?    (There is a button you push in the milk room).

How does the milk get sucked out?     (Using the milking cups-we felt the suction).

Where do you get your cows from?     (We can buy herds from a saleyard or lease cows off other farmers).

Why do you have a poo (effluent) pond?    (You need that to run all the poo from the shed to go onto the paddocks so it is not in the water).

Do you have any other animals on your farm?     (Chickens and dogs).

How many cows do you have on your farm?   (281).

Is yours a small, medium or large farm?    (Medium to small).

How long does it take to milk a cow?     (On average 7 minutes per cow).

Do you have other farmers to help you milk your cows?   (At the calving and mating time my Dad helps me for about 3 months a year).

Visit to the farm

On Wednesday we were lucky enough to go to a real life dairy farm. We had a great day out there visiting the milking shed (some of us were lucky enough to go into the pit), the milk room, we checked out the effluent pond, sat in a paddock for gumboot throwing and we saw silage being bailed. We got to try our strength on the pressure hose, taste milk fresh from the cow, feel the suction from the milking cups and check out where the calves live and there calfateria's.

Dairy Farm Visit 2012 on PhotoPeach

Should farmers care for our environment?

If dairy farmers are busy milking cows should they have to worry about our environment. Listen to our ideas on why we think farmers should or shouldn't have to care for our environment.

Are dairy farms important?

New Zealand has a lot of dairy farms but are they important for us to have?
Listen to the thoughts we have as to why dairy farms are or aren't important.

What jobs are created because of dairy farms?

Listen to our ideas of jobs that we can think of that are linked to dairy farms. We have found there is more than the farmer and their cows that produce our dairy products!

Questions from our KWL

We have completed a KWL in class and put our questions that we want to find out more about on a wallwisher as well. A KWL stands for what we already KNOW, what we WANT to know and then what we have LEARNT. We hope to be able to come back to these questions and answer them maybe after our farm visit but hopefully by the end of the term.

Cow Jokes

This term our big idea is 'From Milk to Ice Cream' looking at the dairy industry that surround us.
I know how much you all love jokes so here are a few to get us excited about cows.

1) What do you call a grumpy cow?
2) What do you call cattle with a sense of humour?
3) What animals do you bring to bed?
4) What happened to the lost cattle?
5) Where do cows go on dates?

Leave a comment with what you think the answers might be and I will put the answers up in a few days.

PRODUCTION

Earth on PhotoPeach
I am learning how to do a photopeach.

Mathethon

Remember to keep practicing your maths for our mathethon in Week 2.
Click on the link below and scroll down to find the fun practice games.

http://www.studyladder.co.nz/about/fundraising-mathethon

Don't forget to keep collecting sponsors either.

Some other good websites to practice your multiplication (times) and division (divided by) are;

www.wmnet.org.uk/resources/gordon/tlit%20the%20button%20v9.swf
www.resources.oswego.org/games/mathmagician/mathsdiv.html
www.resources.oswego.org/games/sumsense/sumdiv.html

Fairytale Play-The Popsicle Boy

This term our big idea has been performance and with that we looked at fairytales. We have practiced our parts over the last week of term and on Friday performed it to the class.
Can you guess what fairytale The Popsicle Boy is based on?
What do you think we have done well?
What could we improve on for next time?
PS: We had a PJ party for our last day of the term which is why we are in our PJ's at school.

Enlargement Art

We have been learning about enlarging an object, shape or image as a nice way to end the term we have done some artwork which required us to enlarge. so we had to do the maths before we could get started on the art. We first of all choose a kiwiana picture and then we measured out grid lines 3cm apart. We then got our big sheet of paper and enlarged it making the picture 1.5times the size.
Check out our progress so far.
REMEMBER YOU CAN CLICK ON THE IMAGE TO 'ENLARGE' IT IF YOU WANT TO SEE MORE OF A CLOSE UP.

Fairytale writing

We have listened to lots of different fairytales this term including twisted versions of our old favourites (some with a New Zealand twist eg: Trev and the Kauri Tree, Cindy and the Lost Jandal, The Three Sheep and The Ugly Hatchling). We have started writing our own twisted fairytales which we want to put altogether in one big book for others to read. First we walked through the much loved story of the Three Little Pigs. We wrote down on the footprints what the setting was (where it took place), the characters (the people in the story), the problem and solution (way the problem was fix), what happened in the beginning, next, then and finally at the end. This helped us to step out exactly what made this fairytale special.

We each got small versions of these posters to put in our books and we choose our own fairytale to twist. We glued the posters in the middle of our page and on one side wrote what happened in the original version and then on the other side what our version was going to include. This became our plan which helped a lot when we came to writing our own fairytales. We also knew that a fairytale must start with 'Once upon a time...' or something similiar and most fairytales end with 'And they lived happily ever after.'

James and the Giant Peach

We have read the story James and the Giant Peach after lunch this term. We love listening to Roald Dahl stories! We enjoyed the adventures that James and his friends went on so we linked our reading and writing by pretending we were James. We then had to think of someone to write a letter too and then write it as if we were James telling them about all the wonderful adventures we had been on. Some of us used similes and some of us created great pictures in the readers mind by describing the giant piece of fruit floating through the air.

Production-Air group

We all loved being up on stage and being part of our whole school production Colour Our World. Working with Room 12 and 6 as well meant we had to be good role models for the juniors and look after them getting them to follow us in the cars and for singing in the rain. Being the air group we started in a world of smog with Mary Poppins finding it difficult to get down to the Banks family, driving around in our cardboard cars. Then as the rain came down we 'sang in the rain' with ponchos that we made and added raindrops to the front of, complete with umbrellas to stand under. Then as the rain cleared we could see the stars again.

Watch our video which has a few snapshots of our item and some reflections of what we enjoyed.

Quadblogging

Yay! We have started our quadblogging journey. To find out more about quadblogging check out this video.



We are all super excited to be part of it with schools from Canada, Scotland and the United States of America. We are excited because it means that we will get to comment on other people's blogs on the other side of the world and it also means that we will get some comments back on our blog from them when it is our turn.
Everyone's schools look so different! Maybe because we are so spread out around the world?

New Zealand's Shake Out

Today people all around New Zealand took part in the great New Zealand Shake Out to make sure we all know what to do if we are in an earthquake.
We are very fortunate not to be experiencing what poor Christchurch are constantly being rattled around but we jumped on board and had a practice at dropping, covering and holding this morning. Here are a few photos once the drill was over and it was safe for Mrs Head to come out from her table.
We also learnt a poem about how to keep ourselves self in an earthquake.

Happy Birthday Roald Dahl!

Yesterday was Roald Dahl's birthday and we also celebrated 30 years of the BFG. The BFG blows dreams into little children as they sleep and so we came up with our dreams for the future.

We had also just finished reading James and the Giant Peach so we had a quiz. The Mean Aunt Spiker group and James Great Adventure groups won getting seven out of 10 correct. The Mean Aunt Spiker group was made up of Amelia, Paarth and Faye. James' Great Adventure group was made up of Shaynie-Lee, Oliver and Saphyre.
Test out how well you can do with the quiz below.
1) Until what age did James have a happy life?
2) How did James' parents die?
3) What are James' aunts' names?
4) Which of the creatures in the Giant Peach does James tie shoelaces for?
5) How many feet does this creature have?
6) Which of the creatures is described as a 'lady firefly without wings?'
7) Which of the creatures lived happily ever after with the Head of the Fire Department?
8) What do the Cloud-Men make in summer to practice for the winter?
9) How old was Roald Dahl when James and the Giant Peach was published?
10) In an early version of the story, James found a different kind of giant fruit. What was it?

Production

Well the day has finally arrived and today we get up on stage to a real live audience. We have spent many afternoons of this term piecing our whole school production together and we will perform it today at 11am for our matinee with another show tonight and the final show tomorrow night. We are all excited to finally be doing it for real and with all of our costumes that we have been busy making.
Our production is called Colour My World and it looks at how we need to care for our environment all parts of it (including the air, sun, forest, garden and ocean). We are part of the air group with juniors from Room 6 and seniors from Room 12. We have loved working with these other classes.
Here's a sneak peak with photos from our dress rehearsal and the behind the scenes work that went into putting the production together. We hope to see you at the show!

Writing- Describing characters

WALT:  Describe characters for a narrative.
Think about what they look like, what they are wearing, who their friends are, what they do.

These boys have been stuck in the woods for six years. They live in the forest and are extremely poor, they have no money and no food so they have to kill animals with their bow and arrows. Then toast the meat on the fire to eat with fire made from sparking stones and bamboo rubbed together. They sharpen sticks to peel the skin of the animals bodies and cut the animals up to cook over the fire.

The boys use bamboo cut in half to make little bowls and giant leaves for plates to eat from.

They build treehouses out of sticks, bamboo and leaves with secret tunnels and trap doors made from the tree trunk hollowed out. They have secret hide-outs with slides to kept themselves safe from all the animals that are angry the boys have killed their friends to eat and make mats from the animal skin and destroy their forest to make their own treehouses.

They use bamboo to make tubes and use the teeth from the animals and rope to tie the teeth onto the bamboo to use for their arrows. Their guns are made from bamboo filled with animal teeth and when they blow, the teeth attack firing out of the bamboo.

THIS IS OUR DRAFT PIECE OF WRITING. TO CHECK OUT MORE LOOK AT OUR INDIVIDUAL BLOGS FOR OUR OWN CHARACTER DESCRIPTIONS.

Writing about a setting

WALT: Describe a setting for a narrative story.
Thinking about who might live here and what its surroundings might be like.

This house has a large pole that looks like a tree trunk that has grown out of the ground with a regular looking letterbox house perched on top. A rich man owns the house because the house is customised with lots of rooms. The rich man is a very tall man who needed a big house to fit inside. He lives on a farm with fences that look like spiderwebs next to the huge house. The house reaches up towards the clouds like a rocket pointing to space.

THIS IS OUR DRAFT PIECE OF WRITING THAT WE HAVE QUICKLY COME UP WITH AS A CLASS. PLEASE CHECK OUT OUR INDIVIDUAL BLOGS FOR A SIMILAR EXAMPLE OF OUR WRITING.

Cross Country

This term we started our cross country training by going out each morning for circuit training. This got our heart pumping and then we started practicing running around the field pacing ourselves so that we didn't run out of puff! We made the field into a butterfly with one side of the field (butterfly wing) a walking side and the other a running side. Then everyone had to try their best to sprint down the middle of the cricket pitch. After each lap we collected an iceblock stick and tallied these up in our books.
Congratulations to everyone that gave it a go!
And another congratulations to Amelia (who came fourth in the 7-year-old girls) Gina (who came third in the 7-year-old girls).

Cultural Performances

Every Wednesday afternoon the Middle Syndicate students that want to learn Kapa Haka head to the hall. This reduced some Middle Syndicate classes to a quarter of its normal size. This got us thinking of the best way to utilise the time. With a gymsport festival promoting participation in aerobics, hip hop and cheerleading we put together teams to give it a try. While we didn't enter the gymsport competition we spend five part afternoons creating a routine and praticing it. We then performed to our parents with the Kapa Haka group as well.
Take a look at what we came up with.

When was the Olympics first televised?-Group 7

Germany hosted the 1936 Summer Olympics at Berlin.  These games were televised by two German firms, Telefunken and Fernseh, the using RCA and  Farnsworth equipment,  This marked the first live television coverage of a sports event in world history. Four different areas were telecast using three cameras.  In total, 72 hours of live transmission went over the airwaves to special viewing booths, called "Public Television Offices" in Berlin and Potsdam.

http://www.tvhistory.tv/1936%20German%20Olympics%20TV%20Program.htm

Room 11's Assembly

Room 11 have recently performed our assembly to the rest of the school.
It is always exciting to share our learning with other people and to get up on stage!
Our assembly consisted of us sharing our voicethread on why we thought Te Reo Maori was an important language to learn and learning about the culture. Then we shared our dramas about the five different Maori legends we looked at during Maori Language Week, with our artwork that we created during that week on the back wall. We showed off some magic with our magic maths of cutting a hole in an A4 piece of paper big enough for the teachers to fit through and the card trick where you can tell the person how much the cards add up to just by being told how many cards facing upwards are red. We shared a bit about our Olympics research with Frankton and a few interesting facts we had already discovered. Next we read out our Who Am I? Fairytale character descriptions, heaps of people in the audience knew Snow White and Cinderella but the Ugly Duckling was a bit harder. Lastly we performed the twisted fairytale of One Fierce Dog and Three Sneaky Cats written by Gina, Sofia, Tawhiao and Rhiannon.
Everyone did so well especially because we had a couple of people away on the day of our assembly that had practiced their parts well and at the last minute someone else had to quickly read their part. We also had some technical difficulties with the laptop dying that had all the music ready to go but in true show style, we knew that the 'SHOW MUST GO ON,' and we kept our cool and carried on.
WELL DONE  ROOM 11 YOU CAN BE VERY PROUD OF YOUR PERFORMANCE AND I LOOK FORWARD TO SEEING YOU INVOLVED IN OUR SCHOOL PRODUCTION IN A FEW WEEKS TIME.

How triathletes get to the Olympics

A maximum of three men and three women may be selected for the New Zealand Triathlon Team.

 The selectors will select athletes for nomination to the New Zealand Olympic Committee (NZOC). The NZOC will select athletes for the Team.

Athletes must submit to a fitness test and/or medical examination

register no later than 6 months prior to the games

 Athletes must qualify through the ITU London Olympic Games Qualifying Criteria (as attached) and will not be eligible to qualify through host nation or tripartite commission Invitation place.

http://www.triathlon.org.nz/index.php/page/london-olympicsNew Zealand has the right to 2 male and 2 female starts for the London Olympics from the ITU London Olympic Games Qualifying Criteria. New Zealand must earn the right to the 3rd male and 3rd female starts. To qualify for the additional (3rd) start New Zealand¡¦s third ranked athlete must qualify New Zealand as the eighth ranked country or higher through the ITU London Olympic Games Qualifying Criteria If there are places remaining,
If any athletes who had been previously selected in Race 1 (or Race 1 additional selection event were to race in Race 2 the NZ selection qualifying place (but not the race place) would roll down to the next previously unqualified person who meets the criteria.

The maximum of three (3) places will be allocated to the first eight (8) NOCs to have three (3) athletes eligible through the ITU Continental Olympic Qualification Events, the 2011 ITU World Olympic Qualification Event and then the ITU Olympic Qualification List (in that order).
 the first placed New Zealand male and female finishers in Race 2 will be eligible for nomination to NZOC providing they finish in the top 8 places in the elite field.

Maths Week 2012

This week is maths week so we have been doing some problem solving. Check out how we worked out the problem below.

Group 3-Olympic Research

Created by Pierre de Coubertin in 1914, the Olympic flag contains five interconnected rings on a white background. The five rings symbolize the five significant continents and are interconnected to symbolize the friendship to be gained from these international competitions. The rings, from left to right, are blue, yellow, black, green, and red. The colors were chosen because at least one of them appeared on the flag of every country in the world. The Olympic flag was first flown during the 1920 Olympic Games.

http://history1900s.about.com/od/greateventsofthecentury/a/olympicfacts.htm

The Five Rings on the Olympic Flag The rings on the Olympic flag represent the five continents of the world that have come together in the Olympic spirit. Every country in the world has at least one of the colors of the rings in their flag, blue, black and red (top colors) ･ yellow, green (bottom colors).

The five continents they count are North America, South America, Africa, Europe, and Asia. They do not include Australia, or Antarctica

Read more: http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Why_does_the_olympic_flag_have_five_rings#ixzz23lYry9fQ

According to most accounts, the rings were adopted by Baron Pierre de Coubertin (founder of the modern Olympic Movement) in 1913 after he saw a similar design on an artifact from ancient Greece. The five rings represent the five major regions of the world: Africa, the Americas, Asia, Europe, and Oceania. Every national flag in the world includes at least one of the five colors, which are (from left to right) blue, yellow, black, green, and red. It is important to emphasize that Pierre de Coubertin never said nor wrote that the colors of the rings were linked with the different continents

The Olympic Flag made its debut at the 1920 Olympic Games in Antwerp, Belgium. At the end of each Olympic Games, the mayor of that host-city presents the flag to the mayor of the next host-city. It then rests at the town hall of the next host-city for four years until the Opening Ceremony of their Olympic Games

Read more: http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_do_the_five_interlocking_rings_of_the_Olympic_symbol_represent#ixzz23lfzkIBh

Group 1-On the Olympic Park with Kevin McCloud - London 2012 Olympics

On the Olympic Park with Kevin McCloud - London 2012 Olympics

It keeps itself cool in the day and warm in the night. They won't need to turn on air conditioning or heaters which will save power.
Used steel cables instead of steel girdles saved a thousand tonnes of steel. This is a lot of steel that they didn't have to use.

Olympic Research-Group 2

List of Olympic Host Countries

Country	Summer Games
USA	1904, 1932, 1984, 1996
France	1900, 1924
Germany	1936, 1972
Greece	1896, (1906), 2004
Italy	1960
Japan	1964
Canada	1976
UK	1908, 1948, 2012
Australia	1956, 2000
Switzerland
Norway
Austria
Russia/USSR	1980
Sweden	1912
Belgium	1920
Holland	1928
Finland	1952
Mexico	1968
South Korea	1988
Spain	1992
China	2008
Yugoslavia
Brazil	(2016)

We found this at;
http://www.topendsports.com/events/summer/hosts/list-countries.htm

Year	City	Country	Opening Date	Close Date	Leading Country
1896	Athens	Greece	6th April	15th April	United States
1900	Paris	France	14th May	28th October	France
1904	St. Louis	United States	1st July	23rd November	United States
1908	London	United Kingdom	27th April	31st October	France
1912	Stockholm	Sweden	5th May	27th July	United States
1916	Berlin	Germany	Cancelled due to World War I
1920	Antwerp	Belgium	20th April	12th September	United States
1924	Paris	France	4th May	27th July	United States
1928	Amsterdam	Netherlands	17th May	12th August	United States
1932	Los Angeles	United States	30th July	14th August	United States
1936	Berlin	Germany	1st August	16th August	Germany
1940	Tokyo	Japan	Cancelled due to World War II
1944	London	United Kingdom	Cancelled due to World War II
1948	London	United Kingdom	29th July	14th August	United States
1952	Helsinki	Finland	19th July	3rd August	United States
1956	Stockholm Melbourne	Sweden Australia	22nd November	8th December	Soviet Union
1960	Rome	Italy	25th August	11th September	Soviet Union
1964	Tokyo	Japan	10th October	24th October	United States
1968	Mexico City	Mexico	12th October	27th October	United States
1972	Munich	West Germany	26th August	11th September	Soviet Union
1976	Montreal	Canada	17th July	1st August	Soviet Union
1980	Moscow	Soviet Union	19th July	3rd August	Soviet Union
1984	Los Angeles	United States	28th July	12th August	United States
1988	Seoul	South Korea	17th September	2nd October	Soviet Union
1992	Barcelona	Spain	25th July	9th August	Unified Team
1996	Atlanta	United States	19th July	4th August	United States
2000	Sydney	Australia	15th September	1st October	United States
2004	Athens	Greece	13th August	29th August	United States
2008	Beijing	China	8th August	24th August	China
2012	London	United Kingdom	27th July	12th August	To be decided
2016	Rio de Janeiro	Brazil	5th August	21st August	To be decided

We found this at;

http://yesiknowthat.com/countries-hosting-olympic-games/