Trout Art

Near the end of last term, Waka Whanake created some stunning pieces of trout art as part of our inquiry.

These pieces took a long time and we put a lot of hard work and care into creating them!

We used watercolour paint for the blue background. While we waited for that to dry, we painted newspaper green and ripped it into pieces to make it look like lake weed. We also painted pieces of paper with brown, purple and black and then laid glad-wrap over the top to make it look like it had creases and cracks, just like rocks. We ripped these up into small pieces and glued them to the background. Next we sketched a trout in pencil and smudged charcoal with our fingers to create shading. After cutting these out, Miss Fraser sprayed them with hairspray which stops the charcoal from smudging any more.

What was the best part of our Trout Art? What did you find really challenging?

Water Cycle Investigation

In Room 19 today we investigated how the water cycle works.

We discovered that the water cycle starts with the sun. The sun heats up water and the water turns into water vapour (which is just like hot air). The water rises. This is called evaporation.
When the water rises, it cools down and the water vapour changes back to water. This is called condensation. When the water joins together, it forms clouds. When the clouds get too heavy, the water falls back to the ground like rain. This is called precipitation.

Miss Fraser showed us an example. She boiled the jug. As the water became hotter, some water vapour started rising up. Miss Fraser and Luke held a bowl over the top of it. The water vapour filled the bowl then it turned back to water and stuck to the sides of the bowl. When enough water had collected, it started dripping down the sides because it got too heavy.

We also watched this video which helps explain all the tricky words like evaporation, condensation and precipitation.

With a buddy we  made our own water cycles in a zip lock plastic bag. If you want to make one at home, here is what you need to do...

Materials:

zip lock plastic bag
vivid/sharpie
piece of scrap paper (to draw your plan)
water
blue food colouring
sellotape

Method:

1. Draw a picture of the water cycle on a scrap piece of paper. When you are happy with it, draw it onto your plastic bag with a vivid.
2. Mix two drops of food colouring with 1/4 of a cup of water and pour into your plastic bag.
3. Make sure it is sealed tight!
4. Sellotape your bag to the window in a sunny spot.

Wait and see what happens...

By Miss Fraser, Luke D, Luke R, Zach, Sophie, Fin, Seth, Jade and Jazmyne.

Nothing Ever Happens Poetry

Waka Whanake read a fantastic Poem by Lorraine Williams called Nothing Ever Happens. We used the structure of her poem to create our own inventive, funny pieces of poetry.

Using our e-learning skills and a fantastic app called Aurasma, Miss Fraser recorded us reading our poems.

You need to download the Aurasma app to view the videos. Here is a link to the Apple app or the Google Play app.

Once you have downloaded Aurasma, click the triangle menu button at the bottom of your screen.
Then click the magnifying glass button and search "Waka Whanake". Select to "follow" us.
Click the square viewfinder button on the bottom of your screen (the one in the middle) and hover your device over the pictures below.  Make sure the whole picture is in the frame and there is no glare or shadows on the picture.
In a few seconds, the video should start.

Good Luck and happy watching!

 

 

 

 

 

What do you think of our poems? Have you written a great poem that you could share with us? We love your comments and feedback!

Enviro Week

Last week was enviro week at Waipahihi.  Mrs Wills organised lots of great events to get us all thinking and acting enviro friendly.  One of the challenges was to create an outfit out of recycled goods.  Here are some of the amazing entries from Waka Whanake...

Zoey's dress was gorgeous.  Zoey's mum and her spent all weekend on this creation.  She used plastic bags, newspaper and pages from magazines.

Pippi and her mum made this stylish hat.  They used and old light shade and hot glued plastic bags on every second wire and then made newspaper bows.  They used crazy looms to tie them on.  She has a gorgeous bow made out of a plastic bag tied under her chin.

Anna sewed her own bag.  She glued old material onto it for decoration and collected loads of Dad's old bottle caps and shells from the beach to attach to the handle of her owl bag.

Amber made this beautiful dress out of old parachutes!  Her dad helped her cut the amount of parachute needed.  Her Mormor (Swedish for Granny!) who very kindly sewed it for her.  She cut the bottom off the dress to make a belt.  And glitter for bling!

Noah made a robot outfit out of boxes from Pack n Save.  He had to cut a flap so that he could see.  He used sharp scissors to cut the middle of the box out so that his Dad could tickle him!

Here are Lewis and his little brother Tate.  They came 3rd in the creation competition.  They made an owl using all sorts of things from their Dad's workshop and from around the house.

Holiday Highlights

Check out what our Waka Whanake children have been doing over the holidays.


 

Created with Padlet

ANZAC day learning

At the end of last term, the amazing children of Waka Whanake learnt all about ANZAC day. We discovered that ANZAC day is for remembering the soldiers who fought in World War One so that we can live in a safe and peaceful country today. We felt very lucky that we live in a beautiful and safe country like New Zealand.

Check out the work we did to remember and celebrate the ANZAC's...

We read a book called The Anzac Puppy by New Zealand author Peter Millett. We thought it was a fantastic book and it made us think about the importance of pets in our lives. They make great companions! Some of Waka Whanake wrote letters to Mr. Millett telling him how much we loved his book and why we agree pets are important to us. Here are a few...

Dear Mr. Millett

We read your story. It was amazing. It made me feel worried. You got me hooked into it. The puppy was brave. I'm proud of the puppy. I bet Lucy was really glad to see the puppy. My aunties puppy barks at people to keep his family safe. Her puppy always wants to play. If you don't play with him he will get all sad and lonely but if you do play with him he will follow you.

Thanks for sharing your book with us. I would be sad if my dog had to go to war. It would break my heart into pieces.

By Holly Fo

Dear Mr. Millett

We read your story The Anzac Puppy and we loved it. It made me feel so sad! We also looked at your story on the internet and saw a picture of you holding your book. The book gave me a good feeling in my heart. My dog helps my family live. It is very important in my life. My dog helps my family because it hunts for us. He gets pigs, deer and goats. When he gets an animal, I feel excited. My dog always wants to be with me. He is so important.

By Luke D

Dear Mr. Millett

We read your story, the Anzac Puppy and we loved it. It made me feel happy we have a pet dog that is brave. If my dog was in the war I would be very very miserable and scared. I would miss it lots. Your story came to life and gave me a feeling of how the dog feels.

My dog makes me happy because when I am sad it cheers me up a lot.

My dog is a lovely friend because she plays with me all day.

My dogs comforts me which makes me feel warm inside.

Thank you for sharing your book with us. We are happy that our dogs do not have to go to war because my dog is special to me.

By Ruby

Some other children in Waka Whanake were practicing the reading strategy 'inference'. This means reading between the lines. We thought about how the main characters would feel at different points in the story. We also used our 'green hat' creative thinking to come up with different ways to keep Freda the dog safe in the war. Check out some of our work below...

 

 Others in Waka Whanake read a journal story which told us why ANZAC day is special and where the idea of eating ANZAC biscuits came from. Here are some current events webs we created with the new information we learnt from the article.

Once we had learnt the history of the ANZAC biscuit, we made some. YUM! Our biscuits were a delicious wet day treat. We even had to put our fractions knowledge to good use as we had to double the recipe to make sure there would be enough biscuits for everyone!
 



To finish off our ANZAC day work, Whaea Tracey helped us to create beautiful vases of poppies.

What was your favourite part of our ANZAC day work? Did you learn something you didn’t know before? What was it?

Writing

Waka Whakane are learning to describe a 'moment in time' in our writing. We decided to be successful we needed to include descriptions about what we saw, felt, heard, smelt and wondered. On Day One we looked at this amazing photo. We pretended we were the child in the picture.

Here are some of the amazing sentences by authors in Waka Whanake.  

Why do you think these sentences are so effective?

The elephants thump slowly through the grass.  

Kenzi

Above me is the endless sky like a sheet, spread out with a cloud gently floating across the landscape.

Phoenix

I felt like if I stood up I could touch the sky.

Summer

The big jungle fades away behind me as the elephants trudge forward.

Anna

A cloudless sky hovering above the world.

Luke

The blue, endless sky with one lonely cloud looking for a friend.

Wilson

I hear the tremendous BBBRRRR as the herd raise their trunks.

The revolting smell of mud fills the air as we trudge through the paddocks.

Zoey