Term 2

I don’t know who is more excited in Nikau the teachers or the students! Our learning focus for term 2 is Space. Space will flow through English with explanation writing, myths and legends and poetry being the types of writing we are learning about. How far is the Moon away from Earth? What is the mass of the Moon? Luckily we are looking at measurement this term so we can figure out what measurement units we can use to measure these; we might need a few more rulers though.

Once again Caroline returns to school to enhance our Art programme, we are going to dismantle old computers, videos and other donated bits and pieces. Then create some amazing kinetic art out of these cool things.

We will be creating other great pieces please come and have a look.

PE is moving away from the round ball and learning about the oval one. In Health we will be running the ‘Kia Kaha’ programme in conjunction with Officer Dan so we can be strong with ourselves and be nice to others.

Space Art using line, colour and space to create our own SPACETASTIC ART with pastel using different techniques such as rubbing, cross hatching, crumbling and crushing to create different effects.

Does your shadow fall in the same place at the same time everyday? We created a sun dial that would cast a shadow. At 1.45pm twice a week (or when the sun shines) we go out  to the exact same place and rule a line to show were the shadow has fallen.

 This term has flown by and Nikau have been busy doing lots of different things.  We have really enjoyed our study of “The Body’ – we have discovered a lot of facts about how our bodies work.  We have studied bones, blood, kidneys, the heart, the bladder, lungs and so much more.

 In pairs we created some skeletons of a body.  Here are a couple of the finished products!!

Created by Ned and Ossian

Created by Ella and Riley

Here are some interesting facts we wanted to share

 -we have 206 bones (Tamrah)

-the heart pumps blood all around our body (Ned)

 -we have 700 muscles (Ella)

 -the kidneys work like a washing machine cleaning our blood (Tasmin)

-a broken bone can heal by itself usually (Miha)

-your blood goes around your whole body in 1 minute (Flynn)

We have written a report each about our digestive system.

  Here are a couple:

Miha’s explanation report

 Do you know where your food goes?

 It doesn’t just fall down a big hole and come out your butt!  It’s much more!

 First you chew up the food.  Then it goes down the oesophagus into your stomach which mixes it up.  Then to goes into your small intestines. The good stuff soaks though into the body.  The waste goes into the large intestines and comes out as poop!

 So now you know all about it.

Joe’s explanation report

 This is your amazing digestive system!

 First it starts in your mouth where your food gets chewed up by your teeth. 

After that your food slides down your oesophagus to your stomach. Then your stomach grinds up your food into an even SLOPPIER substance!

 After that your small intestines suck out all the fibre and the waste goes into your large intestine.

 Then your food sits in your large intestine for a few days.  Finally your food goes out your rectum as poo.

 You see –it really is amazing!!

We have also spent quite a bit of time in the school veggie garden.  We weeded it and cleared our all the old plants. 

We experimented and made ‘broad bean dip’ with the broad beans we grew.  There was definitely a mixed response to that!!!!  We have planted beetroot, leeks, spring onions, lettuces, courgettes, cauliflower, carrots, broccoli, cabbage, spinach, and tomatoes. Think that’s everything!!  Most things are really taking off. 

Kale –planted earlier in the year

 Please feel free to water them if you are around in the holidays and eat stuff if it’s ready.  We will leave some watering cans near the garden.

Busy gardeners from Nikau

Checking out how things are growing!!

 Yellow courgettes really doing well~ yum,yum!!!

Nikau has had a really fun year and I hope everyone has a great holiday with lots of sunshine and relaxing.