At Paihia School we had a lady named Stella arrive at our school. She came to talk to us about the pests in our ngahere, and how they kill some  of our wildlife. She started by introducing herself. She then had talked about what Bay Bush Action had done for our ngahere. Next she had spoken about rats, she shown us two rats that aren’t actually from New Zealand, in fact they both came from India.  I had been so shocked seeing the color difference and the different tail lengths, but then we all realised that there was more to come. She told us that most of the pests didn’t just wake up in New Zealand, she said that we brought them here. Stella lifted the cloth off the container and showed the school a fierce looking stoat. The stoat had razor sharp teeth, as she was explaining about stoats she mentioned that they sneak into the kiwi barrow and wait for the kiwi to come back and then attack. She said that not only the pests were the problem, but humans are just as bad. She told us that we can be the solution by fixing what we created. It was so interesting learning about the different pests that are in our ngahere. Next time I could ask more questions about the pests.  After we had created a pest animation here is mine.

On Friday the 31st of May, Paihia Schools kapa haka roopu was so excited to go to the Kawakawa cultural festival. We were learning to get out of our comfort zone and perform like we would at school. We  all could not stop talking about it. Before we headed off the kapa haka roopu quickly practised a few songs just so that our vocals could warm up. Next we made sure that we all had a ride in a car to get to the festival. As we arrived I felt so nervous but then I started to calm down as we got welcomed in, Kawakawa kura started the haka powhiri. We sat down as they started some amazing waiata. After we  felt like singing ko te whaea back to them, so we did. I loved watching other school’s perform but once Maramaku kura had finished it was our turn to go up and preform. As I was walking up on the stage I honestly felt like I had so many butterflies in my stomach. After we had finished all of our items and headed off stage, I was so breathless. I really enjoyed watching the other schools perform because we learnt something new each time. Next time I will push myself to do more facials.

Adding and Subtracting decimals

In Te Ngahere we have been learning how to add and subtract decimals. I found out that
the easiest strategy to add and subtract decimals was to round the number to a tidy
number. For example, 2 . 8 + 1 . 5 you would have to add 0 . 2 on to 2 . 8 to get 3 so you would do the same on the 1 . 5 but instead you would subtract 0 . 2 - 1 . 5 which equals 1 . 3 so you would have to add 3 + 1 . 3 = 3 . 3. I found this strategy better than others. Because some of the other strategies confuse me and I don’t really understand them. My next goal for decimals would be to learn different strategies.

Great Marble Challenge

In Te Ngahere we have made a Marble ramp for a steam challenge, Once everyone had built their ramp, we had to put our names down on a google doc, so the teachers could print it out, The teachers had an awesome idea to put our names in two bowls so that whoever’s name gets picked out of the box their ramp will be getting built by whoever’s name gets pulled out of the second box. We all quickly sat down on the mat while our teacher laid out the measuring sheet. At first I was hoping not to get picked out first because I was not quite sure if our ramp was going to get the same result as how my group and I had tested it. But We got picked first and had to gather all of our materials for the other group that was making our ramp. I personally think that our instructions were clear for the other group who was building our ramp, Next time when we build new ramps my group and I are going to modify our ramp alot to get even better results.

Nga Motu

In Te Ngahere the year 6’s got to go to Nga motu to help our teina in their learning. But first we had some fun things planned to do  with nga motu. We started off by making mothers day cards with the teina, we got to pick a buddy to work with and started to write a nice letter, after we checked if we got our spelling right and our letters made sense we were able to choose a colored paper to make into our good copy, Some people chose to write on the coloured paper while other people cut their cards and added a picture of them on the front. After we made our cards the year 6’s got to help our teina to create their visual pepeha on our chromebooks. I really enjoyed helping our teina in their learning and making them happy.  

Anzac Biscuit Problems

In Te Ngahere we have been doing maths around anzac. Our problem was that the original recipe makes 30 anzac biscuits, then we had to work out our own biscuit problem. My group had come up with different examples of how to show our evidence, even if we weren’t quite sure if the examples were right. With the anzac biscuit problems we used trebling and thirding because trebling and thirding is easy to understand if you have the right numbers. I knew that if you times 3 by 9 you get 27 so if you times 30 by 90 you get 270, it is easier if you use 3 times tables even though the number is odd. So now you know what 3 times 9 is so you times the original recipe by 9 because the original recipe makes 30 biscuits. I really enjoyed learning different way to solve these problems . I think I did well understanding how to treble and third the recipe to get 270.

Marble Run

In Te Ngahere we have created a marble run for our steam challenge. Steam stands for, science, technology, engineering, art and maths. Our goal was to create a ramp for a marble and as the marble rolls on the ground the marble has to stop exactly 110 cm. I enjoyed creating a ramp for our marble and seeing the different results each time when you change a variable. A variable is something that you change on your ramp to get a different result. I think my  group and I worked well together because we were collaborating and making sure we all agreed on modifying our ramp. Next time I think we can create more of a detailed ramp to get a better result.