Inspiration, Challenge, Achievement – Te Hiringa, Te Werohia, Te Whakatutukitanga
Karaka’s chickens weren’t due to lay an egg until early January. However, our well fed chooks surprised everyone (including Dave) by popping out, not one, but three eggs since last week. It looks like scrambled eggs will be on the menu for the end of term party!
We have had so much fun this year with the chicken, and boy! Have they grown!
This term in Mahoe we have become researchers! We have been working hard in buddies and on our own to measure body parts using string. We measured our height, hands, feet, around our heads, our pinkies and ears. We have been estimating which body parts we think will be longer and then measuring and checking to see if we were right. We found out that all the way around your head is a lot longer than we thought! We worked as a whole class and put the string showing our height into height order from shortest to tallest. We realised that we may have made some mistakes with our measurements because some people’s string was a lot taller than they were! We also found out that your ear is about the same length as your pinky.
We have also been researching information about the human body. We are working in groups and on our own to find out interesting information about different systems within the body. Fortunately, we have had a parent expert come in and talk to us about bodies, x-rays and surgery! In addition to that we have been using the laptops and searching on cool sites like Kidshealth and Scholastic Kids. We have been finding information and keeping track of what we are learning with note-taking sheets and organised group research folders. It’s been exciting to explore all the intricacies of the human body and to be real researchers asking questions, making predictions and hypotheses and gathering information to answer our questions! It’s been very fun and I can’t want to hear about all of the neat things Mahoe has learned about their topics! Gillian Menaker
This term Caroline came in to assist us with producing masks as part of our production preparation.
Our ‘guinea pig’ for the first mask was Will Park. Will is always on for these type of things – he loves giving everything a go.
The rest of the class watched and listened carefully as they were all going to have to help so we could get 26 masks done in the morning.
First up Will coated his face with bee-balm (vaseline would do too)-
Then Caroline wrapped some Gladwrap around his hair so the plaster wouldn’t stick to it and rip out later – Ouch!
Next we prepared the plaster strips. These are the plaster bandages used to make plaster arm casts when you fall off your scooter…
Next step – applying the plaster bandages in stages. We used small paper ovals to cover the eyes. The class loved this stage as Will was finally unable to speak in the class for a few minutes!
After a couple more minutes to allow the plaster to set, we got our Will back and he was allowed to see his pale double.
We had created a ‘negative’ of Will’s face. Then everyone in the class got busy and we all made a mask. Once they were all completed we coated the inside of each mask with vaseline.
The final stage was to cast a ‘positive’ by pouring casting plaster into the negatives. We sat the negatives in small nests of paper so the noses wouldn’t get squashed. They were hard in an hour. Cool!
