Chickens Hatching

This term we have been looking at life cycles. We have looked at the life cycles of butterfly's, frogs and chickens. As part of this we put some eggs in an incubator in our classroom. We had to work out what temperature to set the incubator to and what humidity it needed to be set at. When we found this out we were ready to begin. We turned the machine on and set the temperature to 37.5 degrees C and set the humidity to 55%. We made sure that the pump was working (to keep the humidity right) and that the machine was rotating the eggs. We then worked out when the eggs would hatch by counting and marking 21 days on a calendar. We also found out that we could 'candle' the eggs to see if they were growning. When we tried this at around day 11 we couldn't make this work, so we researched some more and then in groups of 1 or 2 we hid under a table that was covered in a big tarpaulin. We needed to make the space REALLY dark so the torch could show the inside of the egg. We saw lots of veins and could actually see the chickens moving inside the eggs. We were so excited. Then at around day 18 we stopped the incubator from moving and turned up the humidity. We watched and waited. Then on Cross Country day we popped out to the library and when we came back we had our first chicken. We were so happy but were a little sad that we hadn't seen it happen. We then went out to cross country. The next day when we arrived we saw 2 eggs with tiny holes in them (pipping). We used the ipads to record and project what was happening inside the incubator up onto our interactives. Then we finally saw not one egg hatching but two. A movie is attached below of a time lapsed movie that we have put together. We hope you enjoy.

One of our research teams at work!

Incubator all set up

We needed a darker space so we could Candle the eggs so here we are Crawling around under the table with Mrs G.

After our first chicken hatched (no sign before we went to the library and hatched before we got back).

Watching the second and third chickens hatching.

Our timelapsed video of some chickens hatching.

 

Cross Country 2020

 Today we had our cross country at school.  It was very different for us as normally it is an interschools competition but as we are in level 2 with COVID-19 it was just us.  We did FANTASTIC and really enjoyed ourselves anyway.  Here is a video of us this morning when we went to see where we needed to run.  This was a fun and helped us get ready for the afternoons real event.

After an early lunch we waited in age groups ready for our turn to run.  Everyone had photos taken at the end and these will be uploaded into students individual digital portfolio's.

Engaging reading through Coding instructions

Here is take 2 of our trial of using instructions to engage our readers more.  The idea is that it provides a focus and a real context for children to use their reading skills in.

Here is their work.  Don't forget to comment and let us know what you think!

Tommy

Subira

Peri 

James 

Evie

Engaging Reading through Coding instructions

In reading we have been trialing lots of different things to excite our readers in class.  What we plan to do is to use instructions as a reading task and children need to follow the instructions to either make something or do something.  Today the task was to use a Scratch instruction card to make characters move and dance.

We think they have done a great job.  What do you think?

 

Evie

James 

 

Peri 

 

Subira

 

 

Tyler

Project Energise with Matua Tupara

Project Energise with Matua Tupara

On Wednesday we had a fun Project Energise session with Matua Tupara.

We are learning to pass a netball in different ways. We are also learning to work as a team to move the ball around our team. At home you can practice passing a ball with each other. Maybe your child could show your whanau some of the games we played. Mrs Stevenson's favourite game was the sleeping cat cool down. We lay in the sun then pretended to wake up stretching out just like cats do!

We can’t wait until our next lesson with Matua Tupara!

Frog publishing

Last week we have had lots of fun writing and learning about Frogs and their life cycle.  We learned lots of interesting facts and practiced writing sentences that had interesting adjectives (describing words) and verbs (doing words).  At the end of the week, we published one of our stories and used a picture animation tool (ChatterKid) to record our stories to share for our assembly, and for our parents.  We were really proud of them.  We also had to learn lots about speaking with expression, clearly and loudly.  We also did lots of talking about background noise.

We hope you enjoy our movies.

Andrew

Colin

Tyler

Tommy

Subira

Sio

Sadie

MacKenzie

L'Sayn

James

Hawaiki

Hannah

Andrew

Butterfly Publishing

Children were super excited about this writing topic and many of them found lots of interesting facts about the life cycle of the butterfly.  Great work ALL of Team Maunga and Iti.  Here are a couple of examples of Explain Everythings that were created to publish children's writing this week.  

Andrew                                                                    Tommy

Pic Collage Life cycle work

So far this term we have spent a week looking at the life cycle of the butterfly and also this week the life cycle of a frog.  Students decided they wanted to present some of what they had learned at our class assembly.  

Here is an example of some work that a couple of students created.  They were able to use word cards around the room to independently create pic collages to explain the life cycle of a frog and a butterfly.  We used them as part of our assembly presentation.  Well done Evie, Hannah, and Subira for your great work.

Watch out for other examples of this work, on our blog!

      

Hannah                                                Subira

Evie

Assembly Term 3 2020

Last Friday we had our first school assembly since Covid. For many kids this was their first assembly ever! Evie and Abi did a great job presenting our presentation, especially with the technical difficulties we were having. All the children from Maunga and Maunga Iti presented during the assembly. It was great to see such confidence to stand up in front of the whole school.

Here is a video by Maunga Iti and their sock puppet germs giving us some hygiene tips. Keep an eye on our blog for other items that we shared.