A Funeral For a Special Mouse

Our class mouse Jellybean died last week. We made her a beautiful coffin lined with fluffy sheepskin and buried her up in Nature's Way. After singing a waiata we read our  farewell messages then put some flowers on her grave.

"It's time to say good-bye to the smallest member of Room 15. Jellybean was a good friend and we liked having her. She led a very adventurous life and we will miss her alot. I hope she is happy in her new mouse home."

"Jellybean was a great mouse to the class. Even though she had only one eye she was very cute. She probably had a great life here in Room 15. She had lots of kids to pat her and look after her."

"Dear Jellybean, we are so upset that you died today, we hope you rest in peace. we hope that you have a good time in heaven."

"Goodbye Jellybean. We will miss you. I hope you had a good death, not hard, and go into heaven. We might not replace you. You will be sad and we will be sad."

The Clifton Terrace Cross Country

 

Room 15 shows perseverance yet again!
On Wednesday the first of June we had our cross country. When we lined up by our ages I was very nervous. After the six year olds and seven year olds had gone it was the eight year old girls. When we had just lined up I was getting really nervous.
"Ready, set, go!" The whistle went. I ran as fast as I could. We went down the steps, across the bridge, up through the trees, down the hill, through the mud and in between the fence and the fitness circuit. I could hear people cheering and I had to do two laps. When I got to the finish line I found out that I came thirteenth. After all of that I was tired.      
By Bella-Rose

"Go!"
Running, coming first, Marcus is in front now! Kaio is in front of me, now I am coming third! Up the hill I go. I have now got a mark on my hand. Ryan is in front of me- now I am coming fourth. I don't want Joseph in front of me. Now up here, going down. Now I am running past the fitness circuit, now I am running past the playground.  Now on my second lap, I am running up the bank again past the muddy part. Now I have got another mark from Dene, running down the hill, going up puff puff, going past the fitness circuit
again, past the W again, past the playground again - finished!
 I came fourth now I can get a drink, that was fun! My Mum is proud of me. It is sad I don't get a medal.           By Oliver

"Ready, set, go!" Racing across the field. "Go, go, go!" is all I hear. I try my hardest. Everyone is watching. The harder I go, the faster I go, everybody cheering in my ear. I try to get up the front but I can't, it's too hard, so I try again but I still can't,  so I try again, but I still can't.      by Latoya

At the cross country I was nervous because there were lots of people. When I had done one lap I slowed down like a soft green leaf floating in the air..... but then I sped up like the wind, it was blowing in my face.   By Elisha

Bees are special!

On Monday the 11th of April my dad Norbert came to talk about bees. He said that bees are different than wasps because bees have a little bit of fur and wasps have no fur. We got to hold a male bee. They won't sting. We also had honey tasting. The flavours were manuka and honey dew. My favourite was the manuka because it had more taste. He showed us some pollen, we can eat pollen. It is so, so yum.
By Elisha

Norbert came to talk to us about bees and wasps. The drones can't sting, they are the males. The females are worker bees and they feed the queen.  This was one of my favourite things. The bees and wasps are cold-blooded. A bit of smoke makes them eat a lot of food so they become calm. This is funny but bees are furry! After questions Norbert showed us parts of  the hive. Then we got to taste some honey. I tasted manuka honey first, then honey dew, then honey comb. The honey comb was chewy. He then showed us the smoker. We went outside and he let everyone have a turn, it made smoke come out when you pushed it in and out. Then we all went back inside and he showed us the drones and the worker bees. He took the drones out because they don't have a sting. Everyone got to hold one. Then he packed up and went home.
By Erica

On Monday we learnt about bees. There are over 200 kinds of bees. Bees are furry. Some bees make honey that is good for cuts. Bees die after they sting but if a queen bee stings it does not die, it pulls its stinger back into its body.
By Ollie

Elisha's dad, Norbert, came to Room 15. He works with bees. He has a funny costume, a hat and two gloves to wear. He said male bees can't sting you. I held the male bee. The bees are cute.
By Maggie

Bees make honey for us. Female bees sting, males don't. I love bees, they are fragile. Wasps are meat eaters. Some bees live in a box. I got to hold a bee. There are more than 200 kinds of bees.
By Latoya

Norbert showed us how to use a smoker to calm down the bees. When you blow the smoke in the hive the bees think that there is a bush-fire so they fill themselves up with honey and leave the hive so we can collect all the honey without getting stung.
By Leah B

Bees die after they sting except the queen. The queen can't die because she can pull her sting back in. Males can't sting. Bees collect nectar and pollen. Bees are cold-blooded and furry and they eat honey. They're vegetarians.  Smoke calms them down.
By Caleb

Can you spot the bee?

The Water Cycle

Mel, the Waimaori Streamcare co-ordinator, came and talked to us about the water cycle. She told us the legend of Ranginui the sky father and Papatuanuku the earth mother.  She used a model to show us different ways rivers can get polluted. We saw how the  pollution was washed from the land out onto the beach and into the ocean.

Water monitoring at the Brook Sanctuary

By Lachlan

On Friday 25 March, Room 15 got to go to the Brook Sanctuary. When we got there Rick gave us a demonstration on how the stoat trap works - it gave me a fright.

Then we went down to the river and said a karakia. We used the water clarity tube to see how clear the river water is.

After that we all got a net, a paintbrush and an ice cream container and went to catch some bugs.

Fifty minutes later me and Finnian caught a koura.

We used a ball and stopwatch to test how fast the river was flowing.

It was an awesome day.

Metamorphosis 2

We left a swan plant in a pot outside and waited for a monarch butterfly to come and lay some eggs on it.
After a few days tiny baby caterpillars hatched out and ate up the egg shells. We brought them into the classroom so that they would be safe from predator wasps. They ate and ate until there were no leaves left on the swan plant then they found a place to hang in a j shape.

They hung quite peacefully like that for a while but then we saw them squirming and wriggling. The stripey skin split and out came a green chrysalis.

We could see the stripey skin  at the top.  Soon it dropped down like a pile of old clothes and that was the only sign left of the caterpillar.

The best part is when we let them fly free to find a swan plant to lay their eggs on and start the cycle all over again!

Metamorphosis 1

At the beginning of the year Marcus brought some incy -wincy baby gum emperor caterpillars to school. We fed them gum leaves and watched them change from black to green and then get very fat. Then they turned a pinkish colour before spinning a cocoon around themselves. At first the cocoon was white and we could see the caterpillar through it. Now it has gone brown and hard. We are waiting to see what happens next....

If you look closely you can see the caterpillar inside the cocoon.

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