Understanding the message in poetry.

Today the Harry Potter and Percy Jackson reading groups looked at a poem called The Sink. This poem showed the readers how the author felt about doing the dishes. We decided that she liked playing with the bubbles and water in the sink, however she didn't actually like having to washing the dishes. 

Using the structure used in the poem, we wrote our own poems about objects around our houses or classroom. In our poem we had to give our readers a message, to show them how we felt.

Phoenix wrote about the laundry shoot: 

The laundry shoot is an adventure for my clothes, which takes them to the washing machine. 

The laundry shoot is a monster that takes my clothes to the laundry. 

The laundry shoot is a wooden sewer. 

The laundry shoot is a place were the clothes go for a holiday. 

The laundry shoot is a place where the clothes magically get cleaned. 

Faaizah wrote about the car: 

The car is a monster that takes me places.

The car is a trash can that I sit in. 

The car is a car that can talk. 

The car is a ride that takes me to school.

The car is a machine that can hug my family.

Tug Of War

We have been creating our own tug of wars, to look at the different points of views or opinions on a topic or idea.

Miss Johnson gave us one as a class to look at:

"As humans we are the biggest predators that animals face."

We have to explain or justify why we agreed or disagreed with the statement. 

Then in pairs we created our own Tug of War, by doing our own research. 

The statement was: 

"Humans have a positive impact on the environment and its animals."

Here is our response... 

Dear Greenpeace

 After reading the story Dear Greenpeace and learning about the threats that whales are facing as a result of human action- we decided that we wanted to know more. 

We read their website which looked at the different threats that endanger whales all over the world. We were motivated to do some more research of our own. 

Check out the website here 

We discovered that these following things all threaten whales: 

- Oil Spills

- Whaling or poaching

- Ocean or plastic pollution

- Getting stranded

- Loss of food as a result of over fishing

- Loss of habitat. 

We wrote to Greenpeace to show them our support and to ask- "As children what can we do to help?" 

             

                       

Zoo Signs

After our visit to the Zoo, we noticed the signs on the outside of the enclosures, and found them to be very helpful. They told us a lot of information about the animals, as well as showing us pictures of them. 

We decided to make some of our own! 

These signs had to be informative (give our readers interesting information), they needed to be factual (we couldn't make stuff up) and they needed to be easy to read, as well know a lot of people of different ages go to the zoo. 

Researching Skills!

In reading and inquiry it has become very clear how important it is to be able to find and interpret information. 

We have been using websites and non-fiction stories, in our journals, to find information about a lot of different topics. 

But, how do you interpret information? 

What does interpret mean?

We discussed it and decided that interpret means to understand, but more than this, it means to understand, put into your own words, and use the information correctly. 

We have been doing this! 

In our reading we been identifying facts and important or relevant information. We have been brainstorming this information and sorting it into groups. When we sort it into groups we are able to use it to help us answer questions or in our writing. 

   

Our learning: Food Webs

After learning about the different animal roles within a food chain, we looked at food webs! These are much more complex than a food chain. Food webs show you all of the feeding relationships that exist between animals within one habitat. 

We watched another Study Jams video to help us understand more about what food webs are. 

Working collaboratively, in our table groups, we were able to have different roles, to help us investigate how a food web in a garden (this is not a New Zealand garden). There are so many connections in this food web and we could see how much animals relied on one another. 

Miss Johnson told us that within a food web, that one plant or producer, could be at the bottom of many food chains. We also discovered that one animal could be at the top of many food chains, this was made very clear by our food webs. 

Our Learning: Food Chains

This term we have been learning about belonging. We know that animals belong in different groups, you can classify animals by their "type", such as mammals, reptiles, amphibians, birds and fish.

We discovered that habitats provide animals with all of the things that they need to survive. Within a habitat we discovered that food chains exist. 

We used this StudyJam video to help us understand what a food chain was... it was new learning for some of us! 

A food chain is the relationship that exists between different animals, it shows how animals are connected through what they eat. 

In this food chain the snake is the third level consumer and he is a carnivore (he only eats meat). The lizard is the secondary consumer. The locust is the primary or first consumer, he is a herbivore (only eat plants). In this food chain the maize is the producer, these are plants that produce their own food from the soil and the sun. 

Check out some of our work around food chains! 

 

We looked at a garden habitat and classified or sorted the animals within this habitat, into their different roles. 

A decomposer is an animal that breaks down rotten plants and animals, so that their nutrients can be put back into the soil.

 

Then we selected our own habitats and explored the animals that live within these habitats. It took a lot of research, but we were able to create our own food chain on Google Docs. This website was SO helpful! 

Room 3 let free at the ZOO!

On Tuesday Room 3 went with the other senior classes to Auckland Zoo. We went as a part of our belonging study, to learn about animal habitats, what animals need to survive and how animals have adapted to survival in their specific habitat. 

We learnt a lot of new words, that we will be investigating this term. 

Words like... 

- Food Chain

- Endangered

- Threatened

- Niches

We would LOVE to thank our parent helpers, without them we couldn't have gone to the Zoo. 

Here are some of our photos... ENJOY 

 

  

Welcome to 2017

We have been slow to start blogging, but we are all settled in class and are underway. 

Room 3 would like to welcome you to their blog. In this space we are very excited to share out learning with you. We would also love to ask you to help us with our learning. 

This year we are Chromebook users, we are using Google Classrooms and are loving it! We are working towards building up our digital literacies (we are getting really good at using these devices as tools to help us with our learning.) 

Thank you for reading, please leave your comments and celebrate our achievements with us.