Gymnastic

This week Thursday we had gymnastics Kiwi Sport with Steven. We warmed up by doing our basic stretches, and playing an energiser called stuck in the mud.  Some equipment has changed, but the rotation circuits stayed the same. In the first one my group started with, there was the beam, line matt, wedge, and smaller beam for forward rolls on a flatter surface. I enjoyed trying to keep my balance on the beam, and trying to make my cartwheels straight on the blue line. The next one we moved to had the bigger wedge, the long cartwheel matt, the springboard, and the trampoline. I liked jumping on the springboard and landing on the matt, and trying to hold a cartwheel for long. The last one we went to had the bars, handstand matt/hand bars, octagonal tumbler, and the other hand bars. I found the trampoline forward dive challenging since it was nervous for me first doing it.

Collaborative Earth and Beyond

This week for Inquiry, we collaborated with LS1 to active our prior knowledge about science, and earth and beyond. Our first activity was creating a digital bus stop slide to active our prior knowledge. I worked with Charlize and Fui to fill out as much as we could about science, space, earth, our solar system, moon, and sun without searching up any of this information. Then we created a final list of Vocabulary about words related to solar system. We had a time limit, so it was a rush to get information down, then communicate with our partner/s. We finally all watched a video to build on to our prior knowledge and write more onto our presentation.

Planting our Beans | Science Investigations for PB

This week Monday, Mrs. Wells from Tamaki College came in again to continue our experiment about the independent variables which we started last week. Today everyone began making our soils, and planting the dwarf beans. Following the methods, we first put on a pair of gloves each. We all then got  ice-cream container and put our independent variable in first (mine was salt). Then we measured the amount of soil using a scale, making sure we each used the same amount so that this would be an accurate experiment. After putting in 400ml of soil into the container, we mixed the ingredients together. Finally we planted our bean, by measuring 200ml of our soil mixtures into small rectangular containers and made a 3cm hole down. We planted these beans and are each planning to water them to see how they grow.

LS2 Stardome Night Trip

This week Thursday, LS2 year 7's and 8's visited the Stardome in One Tree Hill under our inquiry topic space. People who were able to come, met at the school and we all left at 5:30 on the bus. It was a fun ride on the way their, as it was getting pretty dark. The first thing we did was go into this wide open room with pull down seats, and a big visual dome of the sky above us. Watching the screen above us, one of the instructors talked about the constellations of them. Outside the room were visual activities going more into our solar system, rockets/going into space, and planets. It so fun, and interesting. We came back at 7:45 to finish trip.

Information Report - Emperor Penguins

Emperor Penguins

Emperor Penguins or Aptenodytes, are the largest and one of the most common penguins out their. But these loving and social animals, live a different life than regular birds.

All Penguins are known for their white bellies, and black black, but the Emperor is easily recognizable from the orange patches around the black cap face, and a yellow chest. Female Emperors can weigh up to 23kgs average, and Males as well.

Emperor Penguins eat amounts of food per day, being as much as 6 kilograms. Being carnivores, emperors usually pull all of it’s food resources from the ocean. These are usually krill, crustaceans (crabs, shrimp, prawn, crayfish, etc), squid and other small fish. They can eat as much as 6 kgs a day.

Did you know that Antarctica can get as cold as -60oC?. Emperors are one of the most common Penguins, and are the only types to endemic in the Antarctic area, from the ice and snow, to the coldest waters. Penguins adapted to this icy environment as it helps them navigate. Emperors much like other penguins, have a thick layer of skin that protect them from the cold.

Emperor Penguins are the largest types, the heaviest being 45kgs and that’s weighing 7 times more than an average baby. Their scientific name of Emperors, are spheniscidae, the family of birds.  

These interesting animals are scattered all around the world, and you can even find some in New Zealand in the southern hemisphere.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This week in writing, we have been learning to write an information report and the structure/language. We were to create an information report about penguins, either penguins in general or a specific species of penguin. First making an note sheet for our information about the appearance, diet, habitat, predators and interesting facts. Then putting everything together into a correctly structured and written Informational Report. My critical partner, Nyjah and I checked helped DRAFT others writing to finalise it.

Who's the Best? (Information Poster) | Independent Reading Challenge

For the past few weeks in reading, we have been doing an independent reading challenge to extend our ability in remembering, understanding, applying, analysing, evaluating, and creating when it comes to reading. In this independent challenge, we are to complete those 6 strategies and one of the many responses. I read a book called Who's the Best?, about the planets declaring who is the best based of their special features. I created an information poster about the planets and solar system with facts about them.

First Up (Visual Chart) | Independent Reading Challenge

FOCUS: Recalling Information by recognising, listing, describing, retrieving, naming or finding. 

This term in reading, Rakino group and Waiheke have been doing an independent reading challenge set up by our teacher. I finished reading the book First Up, a book that talks about the story of the first man and space-craft to go into outer space and orbit earth. As an activity for Remembering, I chose to make a visual chart of the things in my article using pictures. In my D.L.O, I included the vostok 1 and Yuri Gagarin. You can find out more about this article in the school journal P3/NO. 1 of 2011.