Science showcase

Children leading the learning; an open afternoon of showing and sharing the Science learning.

Watch the Science showcase Wevideo, click the link.

Learning zone school assembly

Watch the Wevideo created by the Learning zone, click the link below.

Southern Lights

Southern Light

Tama-rereti was interested of the stars he saw at night. One night, he saw stars dancing across the southern sky. He wanted to see where the stars were dancing so he, built a waka from a totara log.  He was chief of his tribe and he took his warriors and sailed away for a long time.  It was cold and very windy.  After a long journey they reached an island. When they came out from a wild storm, suddenly the big waves threw them to the rocks. The waka burned and broke. All of the warriors died except the two old men who were washed up to shore, barely alive.  The warriors who died were also washed up to shore. The two old men found the group of stars called the scorpion’s tail or the southern lights.

The legend explained the dancing lights in the southern sky now called Aurora.

The name “Aurora” comes from the Latin word meaning sunrise or the Roman goddess called Dawn. Aurora is a natural light in the sky, usually of greenish colour but sometimes red or blue.  This happens in the Antarctic pole. In the Southern hemisphere the effect is known as the Aurora Australis or the Southern Lights.  A beautiful and colourful blend of purple, blue, and green lights.  What a beautiful sight!

by: Patrick

Butterflies

Butterflies

Did you you know that the bright colours on the monarch butterfly are warning signs? It tells us it is poisonous. The monarch butterfly and other butterflies used to live in Australia and the countries in the Pacific. But they get blown to New Zealand. Butterflies can’t survive here because our winters are too cold.The blue moon butterfly have white patches and big wings.  It is because when a bug tries to eat the blue moon it hides and pretends  to be a big bug. Butterflies are trans Tasman travellers.

by Antonio  

   

The shearing shed

The shearing shed          

“Aaaaaaaaa, what’s that!” I saw a big hand coming towards me. I tried to move away but the hand got me. It half dragged, half pulled me out to a stage. I knew I was in the shearing shed. Suddenly, I saw about a thousand beady eyes staring at me. I started to run away and the people started laughing.”What’s so funny?” I thought. Next thing, I know this funny little machine starts making a very loud noise and the tall woman is making it come toward me. I started to panic but I couldn’t move because the woman put my head between my legs. I started to yell for my friends but they couldn’t hear me.The woman started shearing my bottom. Finally, I stopped squirming and I let her finish. Then she pushed me down the sheep shute. It was really dark, but then I saw one of my friends stuck down here too.” Maybe it isn’t so bad down here after all” I thought.

By Brianna

Marie Curie

Marie Salomea Sklodowska Curie

By:Mikayla G

If you don’t know who Marie Curie is, I’ll tell you what you should know about her. She is a scientist who discovered radium in X-rays.

Marie went to the University of Paris and studied Science. When she was there she didn’t speak French well but she caught up.

When Marie graduated she got married, her husband’s name is Pierre, Pierre and her discovered radium. They made something 100X stronger than uranium that can go through metal. After a few years, Pierre died by radium because radium can cure and harm.

Marie Curie won two Nobel Prizes one for Physics in 1903 and one for Chemistry in 1911. She also won the Davy medal in 1903 and Wallard Gibbs Award in 1921. She established the first military field during World War 1. She was married in France and was born on 7th November 1867 in Warsaw, in the Kingdom of Poland and died at the age of 66 in 4 July 1934.

   

Butterflies are strange creatures

Butterflies are Strange

by: Valansea

Butterflies are strange creatures and wonderful flyers.   There are  lots  of weird facts about these insects.

Butterflies use their round knobs at the end of their antennae to smell with. They breathe with little holes which are called spiracles. Did you know butterflies have green blood and are cold blooded creatures? They have the same temperature as the air all around them. Most butterflies have six legs but the monarch butterfly has four legs. As the weather gets cold butterflies can’t fly unless the sun comes out or warm them up to fly. Wow,  butterflies’ wings are covered with little  tiny coloured scales that overlap like tiles on top of a house. Their brightly coloured wings warn others not to eat butterflies because they  taste bad.

Mighty Muscles

Mighty  muscles

We have more than six hundred muscles in our body, can we beat that. There are so many muscles in our body that make our body work. The biggest muscle is our gluteus maximus, the smallest muscle is called the stapedius. If we want to make our muscles strong then we need to do some training and eating lots of veggies. It is important  to keep our whole body healthy and clean. Muscles pull our bones to make the different parts of our body move, just like a puppet. Muscles can pull but they can't push, it means that we can move it up and down and side to side. They work together to make things move in the right direction.

by: Taylar