What's Going On in The Gardens?

There is a whole lot of activity happening in the gardens, in our shade house and even in the trees around school. Here is a quick run down. The gardens are full of veges. The artichokes are particularly lovely. What a beautiful flower! Everybody will have to try them. They are great with a vinagrette. The garden club has been busy, weeding and planting at lunchtimes. We have started building wind protection barriers for the top garden boxes. This is a fantastic sunny spot but the wind cann be brutal and tends to harm our seedlings before they really get going.

Tom Mayo the Park Ranger came to see us last Friday and we potted up some new trees. Karemu from seed we collected when on camp at Kaitoke is sprouting now. We also have some Tawa that might be shooting. Very exciting!

Can you see the tiny Tawa shoot? We are also growing cuttings of Taupata which we hope to be able to plant out around the hillside next year. Tom said that he will take us on a seed collection mission too. We will be looking for Pingao seeds and other coastal species. Yesterday we had a Kererū in the Puriri tree. Good spotting Darrgh! It was eating the Puriri berries. We are hoping to attract more birdlife with a nectar feeder and this spectacular bird house. Finn and Cloe have been working on it all year and now it is ready to go up in a tree. Kākā don't make nests so we are hoping that a pair might set up house here. It will no doubt be a waiting game.

And, finally, we have a new compost bin under construction. We are planning a composting Event! An Event to put the new bins to work. A visit from the City Council Composting Team is on the cards too. Watch this space!

Nutrition for Positive Health

As part of our Inquiry, 'Healthy Body? Healthy Mind?' we have been thinking about nutrition. If our bodies are human machines, food is our fuel. How well we eat, affects how well our bodies work. 

It is especially important that we eat healthily as children, as we are still growing and developing. A healthy diet is sometimes called a balanced diet as it needs to consist of different types of foods.

The Food Pyramid

Willa: Food pyramids are a good way of showing what quantities of food you should be eating. You should eat grains more than everything else. You should have 5 vegetables and fruit a day. Have one or two portions of meat a day. You should only have a little amount of fats. So have lots of grains...

Lillian: Nutrition is very important to staying healthy. There are many different types of vitamins. They keep different parts of your body healthy, such as Vitamin A, Vitamin B, to Vitamin E. All of these vitamins play a vital, (as is the name) role in keeping your body healthy. Vitamin A helps keep your eyesight strong. Here is the list for all of the vitamins and their roles: 

Vitamin A: This helps maintain your eyesight and strengthen it. 

Vitamin B: It helps your body make protein to strengthen muscles. 

Vitamin C: This vitamin heals your skin, and keeps colds away. 

Vitamin D: This strengthens your bones and how strong they are. 

Vitamin E: It strengthens your cells and keeps them healthy.

Darragh: I learnt that protein: is good for growing your muscles. Iron is good for healthy blood and you can find it in your leafy greens. Vitamin c is good for healthy skin healing skin and is found in tomatoes and citrus fruit.

Lucca M: Today I learned that sunlight strengthens your bones. I thought it was only your teeth!

Tom, Oscar and Jake: We were learning about healthy food.There is a food pyramid and it shows you what you should eat daily. We learnt why these foods are healthy. We were shown that it is important to eat a range of colours. If you go out side and the sun shines on you, your brain feels better. You need to stay healthy and eat a lot of veggies. You should have 5 veggies or fruits a day to keep your system working and running. Chocolate isn't actually that bad for you if its dark or plain but you should still limit your self on that.

Emily and Anastasiya: The food pyramid shows how much of what foods you should consume daily for it to be a balanced diet, carbohydrates are on the bottom because you should eat it the most but of course not too much. Sugars and Fats are on the top layer because you should consume the least amount of it otherwise it can be quite unhealthy. You should also remember to eat 5 portions of Fruit and Veg daily.

Mae A: We learned about what a balanced diet is. We learned the properties of different coloured fruit, for example yellow fruit and vegetables produce vitamin c. The most common vitamins are: vitamin A, Vitamin B, Vitamin C, Vitamin D, Vitamin E and Iron. Vitamin D helps strengthen bones in your body. Eating things that have iron in them such as green leafy vegetables and meat will have healthy blood. Vitamin A Helps maintain eyesight, you can find it in sweet potatoes and carrots.

Lisa and Olive:
1. A small amount of chocolate is good for you.
2. Purple and blue foods give you a strong brain.
3.Just because you do lots of exercise doesn't mean that you don't have to eat well
4. Food labels are confusing, The front packaging can tell a different story than the back. 

5. Eating vegetables are good for you. 

6. having lots of different colours on your plate helps your health.

SunSmart and Beach Week(s)

As we head into the much anticipated Beach Week(s) it's important to remember sun safety, especially here in New Zealand!

Heading into this week we will be learning about sun and beach safety to help us prepare for our outdoor fun in the coming weeks. 

Beach Safety + SunSmart

Later in the week, we will have a visit from the Cancer Society, who will add to this learning. The Cancer Society are also coming to help us understand the work they do with more depth. As the Year 6s fundraise for them in their Positive Purpose push.

From the newsletter:

We are looking forward to Beach Weeks, a highlight of our school year. There are many things coming up over these two weeks and not all of them at the beach. 

Events coming up include:

• Fun Run fundraiser for the Cancer Society on Tuesday 30 November

• From the Wednesday 1 December, we will be doing a mixture of environmental projects, a beach cleanup, weeding and caring for the dunes, visiting the local rock pools on the Seatoun headland as well as Surf Lifesaving, swimming and other water based activities

• Sailing in the second week (6 - 10 December)   

• Mount Victoria/Tangi te Keo history, nature and challenge course walk on Monday 13 December to conclude our Education outside of the classroom (EOTC) activities.

Year 6 events include the above plus:

• Monday 29 November - Day at Worser Bay Beach

• Tuesday 7 December - Space Place: Navigators 

• Monday 13 December - Arena Aquatics / Porirua Pool  

Being at the beach is a great way to finish off the year and a lovely way to connect with our community.  If you are able to, it would be amazing if you could join us at some time.  To ensure we have the ratios around water that it’s safe for kids, we would really appreciate your help for some of the activities.  All volunteers will need to check in with the office to ensure vaccination status meets the government’s guidelines.  

Gear List

• A good lunch and drink bottle

• Sunscreen applied before school, also provided by school

• Swimwear, rash top, wetsuit, towel, etc

• Hat, wide-brimmed ideally

• Spare clothes or warm layers

• Walking shoes, particularly important for Fun Run and Walks

• Garden gloves (optional)

	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
Wk 7 29/11-3/12	Whole Transition Day Fort building with Years 3&4 Year 6 - Beach	Fun Run Fundraiser (Cancer Society) At the beach  2022 Camp Info & Yr 3 Transition  Parent Meeting - 3.15-4pm	At the beach	Walk to Seatoun headland - Rock Pools	At the beach
Wk 8 6/12-10/12	Sailing	Sailing - Yr 4-5  Yr 6 - Space Place - Ngā Tohunga Whakatere: The Navigators	Sailing Staff vs. Year 6 Netball (TBC) Lunchtime	Sailing Year 6 Dinner	Sailing
Wk 9  13/12- 17/12	Mt Victoria walk - Yr 4 -5  Yr 6 - Porirua Aquatic Centre	Staff Vs. Year 6 Football (TBC) Lunchtime		Poroaki 9.30am (Year 6 speeches)	School Finish 1.00pm

 

Philosophy for Children - Animal Testing

We have been thinking deeply and entering into great discussions this week during our P4C sessions. 

In Matariki, we studied this image.

Some questions we considered:

Do rats have feelings? Morals? Values?

Is it okay to test on animals if the product will save a life? your life?

Is it okay to test of rats because they're... kind of gross?

You will see from our notes that we covered a lot of topics in this short session. We are keen to revisit this and explore these ideas in greater depth.

What is P4C?
A conversation is facilitated by giving everyone a chance to share their thinking. Students are able to add on to others ideas or challenge them. It is encouraged that they provide an explanation for their thinking. We have some very keen philosophers among us!

The aims of Philosophy for children are:

• to encourage creative, critical and collaborative thinking
• to learn to listen and contribute to discussions
• to understand different perspectives

If you want to find out more about Philosophy for Children this article is a great place to start.

The Brain - Te Roro

Our Healthy Body, Healthy Mind inquiry has us thinking. Is brain health physical or mental? Both, of course!

We learnt that while the brain is only 2% of our body mass, it uses up to 20% of our blood supply. We know that keeping and healthy and fit is the best way to ensure our brain is always at its physical best. We looked at some metaphor (monkeys in a tree, the hand model) - different ways of thinking about our brain and emotional well-being. Our brain has different parts which can be separated into upper (thinking and logic) and middle (survival). When these parts are communicating, we can make decisions and focus on tasks. Sometimes the communication breaks down and we might "flip our lid."

First Ideas about the Heart and Lungs. What do we know? (or think we know?)

We have begun to look at how the body works, how the muscles are fueled and how we can get our body working as well as possible. The Science behind how the body works is simply fascinating. We wondered if the body is a machine, with about half of us thinking it is and the other disagreeing. We discussed the amazing Leonardo di Vinci, how he made some of the early discoveries about how the body works. We are beginning to ask our own questions about this amazing subject.

How do the lungs work? Can we become make our brains work better by breathing well? What is heart disease? How can we make our body's work as well as possible. Over the next couple of weeks we will be doing research to explore these questions.

Statistical Investigations

 As part of our Healthy Body, Healthy Mind inquiry, we have been thinking about different ways to measure our strength and fitness. 

We revisited some learning around heart rates. We had another go at recording our heart rate before and after exercise. This time, we put all that data on a dot plot. This type of graph makes it easy to see patterns! 

 

The beep test might spark fear in the hearts of many, but we absolutely loved it. Everybody gave it their all. This left us with a really interesting set of data. We looked at a different type of graph - the Stem & Leaf. We learned about how to analyse data by finding the range, mean, median and mode. We also learnt that data always has limitations but as long as you know and make clear what they are, that's all good! 

Next we looked at how to plan an investigation. Staying with the idea of fitness data, we thought of exercises that would be easy to measure. We also talked about the idea of sampling. We don't have time to measure everyone! Here are some of the things we measured:

Plank

Sit-ups

Sprint course

Standing jump

Pull-ups

Here is an example of the plan we used:

We are data detectives! Watch out for more data analysis to come. We'll do the beep test again and compare our results later in the term.