Rongoā Māori

Last week for reading we read about Māori healing plants. Then we found out which of these plants were in our native gardens at school. After, everybody chose one and we researched some more information. Then we summarised the main ideas onto a sign. (You can see our designs on our individual blogs.) Then we painted our signs and hammered them onto a stake. Hammering was probably the trickiest part of all! Now they are ready to be  dug into the ground next to the native tree it tells you about.

Have you ever used a plant to heal yourself?

Comparing Characteristics of Māori Gods and Demigods to Greek Gods

This week for reading we have been learning to infer. Inferring is when the author has not stated a fact, but has left clues. We had to look for the clues. For example, the author did not say Māui was mean but we thought he was because he deliberately put out everyone's fires and the people were very cold. We made character descriptions saying which character trait the Gods and Demigods had and why we thought that. Then we had to see the similarities and differences between Māori Gods or Demigods to Greek Gods. Prometheus is a Titan and not a God but we found a story about him and compared him to Māui.

Then we created our own God and gave him or her personality traits.

What kind of traits do you think Gods have? Why do you think that?

Here is James and Jakob A's collaborative work.

Sign Language Week

This week is Sign Language Week. We have been reading articles and watching videos about signing. We discovered it is a combination of hand shapes, facial expressions and body movements. We thought it was just hand movements. We were shocked to discover that using Sign Language was banned from 1880-1979. Deaf people had to lip-read and speak aloud to communicate. This is called oralism. But deaf people continued to sign in secret. Then in 1979 Total Communication was used. This is a combination of using formal signs, finger-spelling, body language, listening, lip-reading and speech. It was made an official language in New Zealand by the New Zealand Sign Language Act in 2006. 

We learnt some simple phrases. Check out our individual blogs to learn how to sign.

Chinese New Year

This week we were learning how to summarise. We were reading about Chinese New Year. This year is the year of the Ox according to the Chinese Zodiac calendar. Chinese New Year is also known as the Spring Festival, and the Lunar New Year. We had to read up to 4 books and summarise the main facts onto our posters. Some people were really quick and got time to make Chinese lanterns after they had finished their posters.

Do you know what your Chinese Zodiac animal is? Read our individual blogs and tell them if you know what your Chinese Zodiac animal is in the comments.

Here's Camille's...

Matariki

This week for Reading and Writing, we have been reading and learning about Matariki. We've watched videos, read articles and discussed opinions. We compared it to other celebrations we have in New Zealand as well as celebrations around the world. 

Matariki is the Māori New Year and yet it is not a public holiday. We celebrate the European New Year. We thought about why this was so, and then formed our own opinions about this question: Should Matariki be a Public Holiday? Then we used Flipgrid to collate out opinions. We will be sharing our ideas our on our idividual blogs.

Did you know that in Taranaki they don't celebrate Matariki? They celebrate Puanga because they can't see Matariki in their night sky.

Here's Ciara's:

Coding

This term we are learning about Our Digital World. As part of this unit, we are also learning how to code. This is one of our lessons during Lockdown: 

You can go to our individual blogs to play some of the games we have made.
Here's some Flappy Bird ones we made:

Josh's Flappy Bird

Sione's Flappy Bird

Morgan's Flappy Bird

Maybe you could make your own Flappy Bird game and post it on your blog for people to play.

Our Digital World - Making Circuits

We have been learning about Our Digital World. One of our tasks was to read an aticle called Lighting the Sky with Raspberry Pi then we went to a Circuit Construction Website and created our own circuits.
We had to use:

• wires
• batteries
• lightbulbs
• resistor
• switch

We could also use:

• voltmeter
• ammeter

Here is Kaylah's Screencastify of how she made hers:

Some people had electrical circuit kits at their houses so they used them.

In order for electricity to start flowing, we needed to make sure we made a closed circuit. Electricity is caused by tiny particles with negative charges, called electrons.

When a circuit is complete, or closed, electrons can flow from one end of a battery all the way around, through the wires, to the other end of the battery. Along its way, it will carry electrons to electrical objects that are connected to it – like the light bulb – and make them work!

Amazon Rainforest Wildfires

We saw the Amazon Rainforest wildfires on the T.V. news last week so this week we have been reading articles and watching videos about them. It also tied in with our expositions (persuasive writing) on climate change. 

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We were shocked at how many fires there have been this year and wondered about the effects they are having on the wildlife and tribespeople who live in the rainforest. 

As part of our Reading task, we created google drawings highlighting the effects of the fires. We thought carefully about the message we wanted to convey. You can view these on our individual blogs which will be published in the next few days.

Interdependence

As part of our Inquiry, we are learning about interdependence. But what is it? That's exactly what we had to find out for our Reading task this week. Check out our individual blogs to find out what it means and examples of interdependence.