Mighty Machines - Incline Plane

Today we learnt about Incline Planes.  We made some incline planes out of cereal boxes and then tested them using a toy car. We discovered that the taller the incline plane the further the car travelled.

Mighty Machines

We have begun our Science Unit Mighty Machines. We had to classify different objects into whether we think they are a machine or not. Here is our thinking. I wonder if our thinking will change as we learn about Simple Machines.

What Other Countries Know about New Zealand

We brainstormed the things that people from other countries might know about New Zealand. Here are our ideas.

Wonderings

Today we discussed Globalisation. We talked about what the following words meant:

consumer - people who buy items
producer - people who make products
import- products coming into a country
export- products sent to other countries
global- the whole world
local- near to us
products - things we buy and use

We then came up with some wonderings after looking at where our shoes were made.

WONDERINGS:

Why aren’t our shoes made in New Zealand?

Why are most things shipped from China to New Zealand?

How are the tags on our shoes translated?


Add what you think in the comments below.

Explanation Reports

We read the Journal article: Nga Manawa ( Mangroves). We learnt about what environment Mangroves live in and what they provide for that environment. Together we did a Cause and Effect map for  "Mangroves dying" and then wrote an explanation for Why Mangroves Die.

We then wrote our explanations using the Cause and Effect map. Here is Alina's and Anish's explanations:

Why Mangroves Die

Mangroves are the only tree that can grow in salt water. They grow in coastal environments   like lakes and the sea. They are found in the top of the North Island. I am going to explain why mangroves  die

One possible cause is some people decided to make rubbish dumps where mangroves live. Another possible cause is people drain the water to  make buildings.  A third possible cause is the weather becomes too cold they won’t  grow.

There are many effects caused by  mangroves  dying. One effect might be poisons going straight into the sea. A second effect might be coastal animals will have nothing to eat. A third effect is if big waves come, mangroves won’t protect the land.

Now you can see why mangroves are dying and the effects they have on coastal environments.

by Alina

W.A.L.T: Write an explanation

Why Mangroves Die

Mangroves are the only trees that can survive in salt water. They are mostly in the North island of New Zealand. They always grow in coastal environments. I am going to explain why mangroves are dying.

There are many reasons my mangroves are dying. 0ne possible cause is that some people are using mangroves swamps as rubbish dumps. Another possible cause is that some people are draining salt water away so mangroves don’t have anywhere to grow. A third possible cause is that if the water the mangroves are growing in is too cold the mangroves will die.

There are many effects caused by mangroves dying. 0ne possible effect is that poisons will go straight in the sea. Another possible effect is that coastal animals will have no where to live. A third possible effect is that some animals might be extinct because the mangroves habitat won’t be there

Now you can see why mangroves are dying and the effects they have on coastal environments.

By Anish

Making Sand

Sand is a significant part of the coastal environment so we had a go at making sand.  We carried out an experiment where we shook a bottle which had stones, shells and water inside.

We found out that shaking the bottle causes the rocks and shells to collide with each other causing small fragments to chip off. This is to recreate the process of erosion.

Once the bottles were well shook the small fragments of rock and shells formed sand, sank and settled on the bottom of the bottle. Very cool!

Food Chains

Today we learnt about Food Chains. Here is a game you can play at home.

Food Chains Game

Kutai

The Turtles today read about Kutai ( mussels). They have used PicCollage to share what they learnt.

Birds Beaks

Today we did an experiment to discover how different shaped birds beaks effect the different food that the bird eats. We tried to pick up different shaped foods with different shaped equipment. As we did this we came up with some wonderings:

• Does the size of the birds beak effect how wide they can open their beaks?
• Do all birds eat worms?
• What does the shape of a birds beak have to do with the food it eats?

If you have any more wonderings about bird beaks put them in the comments.

Mussels

We saw mussels growing on the rocks at Piha. Today we had a closer look.
Here are some of our wonderings:

• Why does a mussel have a foot?
• Why does the mussel want to keep closing?
• Why is a mussel hard to open?
• What is a univalve and bivalve?

You could do some research and post your answers as a comment :)

Piha Trip

We had a fantastic day exploring the Piha beach environment!! It was a real wild, wet west coast day! Thanks to the parents who came and spent the day with us.