Brook Waimarama Sanctuary

                                               
What a great trip we had this morning to the Brook Waimarama Sanctuary! Rick, our guide, taught us so much about the bird and plant life up there.

We discovered a weta living in a hollow tree. Rick took out his phone and held it up to the hole so we could see the weta.
Kyle.
I learnt that you can use kawakawa leaves to help with ulcers and toothache. We also learnt how stoats and other animals affect the area by attacking birds nests.
Grace.
The leaves shaped like ears were edible and can be cooked in garlic and butter.
Patrick.
It was cool when we saw the freshwater dam and little waterfall.
Ruby.
Rick was able to tell me a lot about what I wanted to know about plants.
Andrew.
The liked the different type of vocals that the birds had. 
Jonte.
Going on the trip was really fun I loved seeing and hearing the Bellbirds and Tuis.
Savanna.

Fossil Walk

Today was on our big trip up the Richmond Hills to dig for fossils. It was a beautiful day for a walk and we were all very excited to use our fossil kits and dig for real fossils.
We were hoping to find some fish Trace Fossils but were pretty happy with all the shell fossils we found.


'Walking through the mud was cool and finding quite a few fossils in one rock was awesome!'
Emma
'I liked the part when we went for a walk further up the hill. I saw lots more fossils in the rocks and I found one to take home to my brother Josh who missed out cause he was sick.'
Grace
'Fun and frustrating because I didn't dig up any fossils but I did find one on the way back.'
Eve
'When we climbed higher the view was great and we found a sign to slide on down the hill.'
Jack
'It was hard climbing up the hill and finding a fossil but I did find one.'
Trinity
'It was tricky to find the fossils at the start but I found a big black one and had to use two hammers to dig it out.'
Jonte
'The view from the top was amazing!'
Caleb
'Hopefully I found the biggest fossil!'
Finn

Jurassic Park!

This afternoon we started watching the movie 'Jurassic Park'.
It fits in with our topic 'Memory Bones'
It was really interesting because one of our reading groups was reading an article called 'Fossil Seekers' about three famous Paleontologists (Mary Anning, Jack Horner and Barnum Brown) Jack Horner actually worked on the movie 'Jurassic Park' to make sure the dinosaurs in the movie were as realistic as possible.
We'll be watching for his name in the credits when we finish watching it on Friday.

We made Resin (Amber) Fossils out of jelly.

We'll eat them during the movie...

Close up of our Amber Fossils

 

Blake and Joel's Resin Fossils

Great way to spend a wet and windy Wednesday!

Eating our 'Fossils'

Yum!

The Titanaboa!

Our reading group has been reading about The Titanaboa, A  ‘titanic boa’ an extinct type of snake that lived about 60 million years ago after the dinosaurs became extinct. Here are a couple of our responses to what we read.
By Grace and Emma, Jack and David.

Fossil iMovies

We have been researching different types of fossils and writing explanations of how these particular types of fossils are formed.
Here are Grace and Ruby, Patrick and Finn, Holly and Margeaux with their explanations of how body, mold and index fossils are formed.

 

 

Cross Country

What a fantastic time we had at Rabbit Island today! The weather was perfect and our Year 5/6 students were raring to go. You were all amazing. Ms Hampson and Mrs Trolle are very proud of all of your hard work and effort over the past 5 weeks of training. Everyone finished the course and felt a great sense of achievement. 

Well done Kereru and Kotuku!

Zumba!

What a great way to finish off the week! We all really enjoyed our Zumba session and had a lot of fun!