Praying Mantises by Ethan

Since lockdown began, Ethan has been working on his own Inquiry inspired by the 'What is in your backyard?' activity.

Now that it is finally complete, Ethan wants to share his learning with everyone. What a wonderful way to showcase all our Learner Attributes! He tino pai tō mahi, Ethan.

There is a very special message at the end that Ethan would like everybody to take away from this.

Enjoy!

Zealandia's new game

Darren from Zealandia came in today to introduce us to a new game that the team at Zealandia is developing together with students from lots of schools. He left us each with a card that shows a bird found in New Zealand and tells us some key information about it, like how rare it is and how it flies. He has challenged us to make our own cards about:
 - a bird found in New Zealand,
 - a special place in New Zealand or
 - an event (good or bad) affecting New Zealand's birds.

He also left us with some tracking pads so we can see what kind of animals are in our backyard - are they animals we want, like native birds and lizards, ora animals we don't want like rats and possums?

We looked at some old style traps and talked about how the new traps we have are much more humane as they kill the animals swiftly and don't leave them hurt and suffering.

Thanks Darren. We're looking forward to your visiting again next week and telling us more about how the new game works.

Otari Bush Trip: What is in our backyard?

We are all standing next to the 800 year old Rimu

Touching, observing and smelling native plants.

We went to the Otari Bush today to wrap up our inquiry, "what is in our backyard". We enjoyed finding out about the native bush. Here is a link to their website http://wellington.govt.nz/recreation/enjoy-the-outdoors/gardens/otariwiltons-bush

Please write about what you found out in the padlet below:

Created with Padlet

Movie by Milly

Our Year Six Students

Penguin House Update

This weekend we went to dad's work and got a crate and broke it up. We started taking the nails out, then we built a penguin house. We didn't screw down one piece so that we can look inside. Looking forward to seeing those happy penguins. 

By LVVHP

How does the MetService predict the weather?

MetService

This is our MetService Movie for our inquiry. Last week, we went to the MetService weather centre and found out about the weather. We were interested in the process of predicting the weather in Wellington.

Hope you enjoy…

From George Hunter and Chester

Here we are forecasting the weather..

Rat Trapping in our Backyard

Some children from Mahutonga and Matariki have been going down the bank to set some traps. We wanted to get rid of the pests which are eating the seeds, preventing the native bush from growing.

We set 2 traps and we put one weta hotel by the Puriri tree.  We have been baiting them with Peanut butter but as yet have not caught any.  Those rats are really clever managing to trip the trap without getting caught and then cleaning all the peanut butter off so that they are completely clean.  

We are wondering what we need to do differently so that we catch some pests.  Do any of you have any ideas?  Please leave a comment.

Here is one of the traps →.

Oto with one of the traps.

We also did some planting of more native trees down the bank with Brian Thomas, the head ranger for the Eastern suburbs.  We planted some Rewarewa, Tuapata,Tarata, Totara, Kawakawa and Kohekohe as well as some species we don’t know the names of.

By Jack.H and Burton

@kidsedchatnz debate about flags

Today we took part in an education twitter chat. We are learning about debating and how people have different opinions. We also shared some of our own flag designs that we made during the art exhibition. To see the questions that were asked go to the @kidsedchatnz website: 
http://kidsedchatnz.blogspot.co.nz/2015/07/w3-nz-flag.html

different opinions.
Kidsedchatnz Flags from Matariki on Vimeo.

We shared our flag designs during the chat

We designed flags during the Art Exhibition

Mystery Skype with St Teresa School in QLD

Today, We had another Mystery Skype. We took turns asking other schools yes or no questions, we gave each other a couple of clues, but the rest was used Chromebooks and google maps as tools.

We asked....

- Are you from New Zealand?
- Are you in Asia?
- Are you a Catholic school?
- Are you intermediate?
... and other questions.

The school was Saint Teresa in Monto, Queensland.
They guessed us before we guessed them. We guessed just after them.

By Asha

Mystery Skype #3 from Matariki on Vimeo.

Conservation Talk

Today in the senior area, Brian the conservationist came in with his friend Joakim. Brian talked about rat traps and how we could use them. After that, Joakim; from Sweden, talked about how many native species of flora we have in NZ.  Joakim also talked about a program they were running from the council that involved families and volunteers coming down to help them with weeding and growing. After that happened, we asked him and Brian questions, here are some of them...

Q. Do we have stinging nettle on the Miramar peninsula? -Jack K

A. Yes, we do have stinging nettle in Miramar.

Q. How many varieties of nettle are there? -Jack K

A. There are over 200 species of nettle in NZ.

Q. How many native flora species are there in Sweden? - Jude S

A. Around 6 thousand species of flora, but that’s because it’s surrounded by other European countries.

Q. What is the fastest native growing plant?- Louis

A. Ngaio is the fastest, and grows around 6m a year, but Bamboo can grow up to 5cm a day!

We are looking forward to learning more about conservation and how it works. Big thanks to Brian and Joakim.

By Jude and Jack K

If you would like to find out more about how you can get involved and what you can do in your own backyard go to: http://www.doc.govt.nz/get-involved/events-and-awards/conservation-week/choose-an-activity/in-the-backyard/

Who is in our backyard? Stories about our backyard...

We have been doing some finding out about the important people that have lived in our land before us. This is linked to our next inquiry, "who is in our backyard?" 


We generated questions for each of the stories...



Who was Kupe?  Where did he come from?  Who was with him?  What did he do when he was here?  Where did he live when he was here? How did he get here?  How did he get home?

Kupe Story



Maui story



Sam Hunt talks to people who live around the Cook Strait.   http://www.nzonscreen.com/title/catching-the-tide---sam-hunts-cook-strait-1988  

Te Rauparaha:  Who was Te Rauparaha?  What is he famous for? What is his story?

Te Rangihaeata:  Who was Te Rangihaeata?  What is he famous for? What is his story?

Where was Tandy’s tavern? (the house of spirits)  What happened there?

Who was the woman who floated from Stephen’s Island to Kapiti?  How did she do this?

Taniwha story: Ngake and Whataitai

Where is Te Whanganui a Tara?  Who is Tara?

 

Who lived at Whetukairangi Pa?

Art Exhibition: Cook Straight News

We got into the Cook Straight Newspaper on Friday. The reporter (Sam Duff) came to interview us about our artwork for the Art Exhibition! Look at the link below to have a look at the newspaper they are in Page 1 and 2. By Asha and Gretel

Link: Cook Straight News

Sounds of Miramar

My art exhibition piece I have recorded different sounds of I made this because I was thinking that it would be cool to   hear what's in our backyard Miramar. The process was to record the sounds, try to put the sounds on Garageband but that didn’t work so then I used movie and it was a success. I have chosen 12 different places to record, each recording is 30 seconds long, so that means the total of the recordings together is 6 minutes. The places I have recorded are  Worser bay beach to hear the waves, A cafe to hear a coffee machine, School inside to hear people making sculptures, School outside to hear people playing different games, The airport to hear the planes take off, The road to hear the cars driving past, A supermarket to hear the bleeping sound of when an item has gone past the checkout, Miramar park to hear people playing football, Miramar Tennis club to hear the tennis balls getting hit, Asb sports center to hear the basketballs bouncing, Kilbirnie pool to hear the splashing of the water and My backyard. I chose to record My backyard because this years inquiry is “What’s in my backyard”. You will hear the sounds of Miramar Wellington.

By Hunter

 
Sounds of Miramar from Matariki on Vimeo.

Wood Towers

We were making wood towers for our Art Exhibition. We used driftwood from the beach and made lots of different sculptures and structures! We made different ones every day! By Anna


Wood Tower from Matariki on Vimeo.

Back Yart!

A frenzy of furious activity, an explosion of form and colour, Worser Bay kids bursting forth with creativity: what is it?

It’s our biannual Art exhibition, of course!

The work on display is the culmination of our school wide Inquiry, What’s in My Backyard?

BACK YART!

There are all kinds of representations of Flora and Fauna, from prints and paintings through to sculptures and installations, done by students of all ages.  

Begin your tour on the driveway perhaps where we are flying the flags of the future.  Walk through the classrooms, admiring the work on the tables and walls, then make your way to the outdoor display areas.

Dressed up trees, lit up bird houses, bird baths, fish swimming on a fence.

Stitched trees growing, sculptures hanging, flying forms springing from the earth.

Driftwood drifting, lanterns glowing.

Watch out for the skeletal beasts with their sadly jangling bones!

Enjoy and participate in the excitement!

Planting on the beach

Today we went to the beach with some council rangers to plant on the dunes. We have to plant on the sand so that it stops the sand and soil from eroding. Planting also helps to attract wildlife, like lizards to the area. It is important to plant new plants every so often. By Jack M.

Planting on the beach from Matariki on Vimeo.

Creating and Making for the Art Exhibition next week!

We are all looking forward to the Art Exhibition next week. We have made our designs and have been creating our incredible artworks. 

Here is a sneak peak at what we have been doing.

Art Exhibition - 

Mon to Wed, 25th to 27th May 

Monday & Tuesday 5.30-6.30pm 

Wednesday 5.30-7pm

Air New Zealand Follow Up!

We made Air NZ Videos. We entered them into a competition for Air NZ's 75th Birthday and unfortunately we didn't win, but we did get certificates of participation and (three) 75 years of Air NZ books! We will be putting these 3 books in the library, they will be- able to be issued to you, if you wish to take one home for a while. Please take a look at the videos below!

Note: This Air NZ Video you may have seen before
Made By, Gretel, Chanel, Frankie, Eloise

Peter's Sculptures

This is Peter (he is an artist). Today he came to school to talk to us about some of his art work. He has been inspiring us to think about our own ideas for the art exhibition.

Here are some of his smaller sculptures:

Sculptures can be all different sizes.

This one to the right is a big one. It looks like it has 3 legs, but it has 4 legs and the wheel is wooden.

These are made by Peter, my grandad. They used to be logs and my grandad got a handsaw and shaped them.

These are some sculptures in his shed that he is working on. (To the right)

These are his big sculptures.

By Jasper

Gretel, "They were inspiring. It was great to see how small they could be with so much detail. I really want to make a tree sculpture."

Eloise, "It was interesting, I liked it when he turned skeletons into artwork."

Frankie, "It was really inspiring seeing old and un-useful things being used for artworks."