Gathering data and displaying it

We are coming to the end of our statistics work and we wanted to make some displays for our classroom to show the things we have learned.
We made a tally chart showing our favourite rocky shore animal. Next we used this to make a pictograph. We talked about what the pictograph showed.
Tomorrow we are going to use the tally chart to make a bar graph and we will write up some statements about what the graph shows.

We got carried away discussing tally charts and reviewing our knowledge of pictographs, so will
continue next week.

Reading and writing today

Here are the children from the Tohora group reading a true story from Rarotonga.  It is a story about a Cuviers beaked whale that was stranded by the local school.

Later we shared our descriptions of fish which we had written. 

Today we made posters about animals we could find in the Pacific Ocean.  We needed to draw the animal, label it and write three facts.  We have done a super job and the classroom is starting to look more interesting with lots of quality work displayed.

Two butterflies have hatched :-)

 

How cool for the tamariki.  We were looking at the chrysalisis before school, when it split and the butterfly began to emerge.  We watched it unfold its wings and its abdomen extend and then it began to dry the wings.  Pretty soon it was flying around the classroom and Mrs C had to catch it.  We put it outside on the manuka.  We have two chrysalises remaining.

Now that Swimming is over for the term, we can finally get onto some topic work.

 

Just as well we were able to start our topic work about the Pacific Ocean as we have our trip to the Island Bay Marine Laboratory coming up next Friday.

In Room 6 we have been looking at things which float and things which sink as well as talking about what makes something alive.  This was a very interesting discussion and the children had many misconceptions.  One of the main ideas they had was that if something was able to move, it was alive.  This made several of them think that clocks and robots are alive.  Research confirms that these are normal ideas for children.

All living things are made of cells. DNA, or deoxyribonucleic acid, is a chemical found in cells. The precise makeup of something's DNA decides whether it will be a mushroom, cabbage, frog, lion, or some other form of life.

Living things have a metabolism. They get chemicals from some sort of food to their cells and turn them into energy. To do this, humans and other animals need oxygen. They get the oxygen through a process called respiration.

Living things eliminate waste. Mammals do this by exhaling, sweating, and going to the bathroom.

Living things grow. Living things also reproduce. They produce other organisms of the same kind.

Living things also respond to their environment. If you are cold, you put on a sweater. Move a plant away from the window, and it will grow toward the light.

All living things do these processes. Yet, there is still lots of variety among the living things on Earth

Lots of thoughtful discussions have been happening in the classroom.  It would be great to talk to your children at home about this.

Crab descriptions

In Room Six we have been writing descriptions of crabs.  The children have a good knowledge of crabs and used this to great effect in their writing.  We then made some fabulous handprint crabs to mount our published work on.

We hope you enjoy reading our crab stories and would love to hear you comments.

Lots of butterfly action in Room 6

When we arrived at school this morning, we noticed that one of our four monarch butterfly chrysalises had turned black. Reyse knew that this meant that the butterfly will hatch out very soon. We hope it doesn't happen over the weekend as we all want to see the new butterfly and be able to set it free in the school garden.

Our second tadpole has grown its back legs now. The first on has changed into a frog and he is busily eating all the fruit flies we have been growing for him. He likes to sit on the leaves of the plants and waits until we put some more fruit flies onto the piece of nashi in the aquarium. Then he jumps over and gobbles up as many as he can. We need to come up with a good name for him.

Name suggestions are welcomed.