Museum Trip

 This past week, different classes have been going to the Auckland Museum as a day trip. Because we have been learning about war this term, we were lucky enough to get a chance to see the amazing exhibitions on display there. We left school at 9 o'clock on Thursday and arrived at the Museum at 9:40. First we ate our morning tea in a small room around the back. Then we met our guide for the morning. His name was Aaron. He led us up the stairs to the first room. It was a WW1 room that had a section about a every year in the war (1914-1918). After that we went to the Hall of Memories. It is a huge room with around seven thousand names of Aucklanders that died in WW1. After that we went around to the next room. This was the second Hall of Memories, for WW2. Aaron showed us real life things that were used in the war and we got to try them out. 

After that we explored the rest of the museum in our groups. We found heaps of cool things like life size aircraft used in war. This was my favourite display. It had a copy of the engine and when you put your hand on the glass, it powers the mini propellers. 

I learned that slugs could detect gases in the trenches so that the soldiers had a warning to put their gas masks on. After that we went to the volcano room and went on the shaking ride. It wasn't as scary as I remember. I found out that the whole museum was made from families who lost loved ones in the war, and they got the money from fundraising.

What is this plane called? 

Making Connections

 This week for Literacy we have been learning to make connections. In our groups we read four texts about how soldiers were cared for during the war. The first two were about New Zealand nurses during World

War 1. The third one was about animals and how they were used in war and the last one was about the medics/doctors in the war. 

When we started this week the question was "How were soldiers cared for during war?"

When we put our ideas down I said that they weren't really cared for at all. That they had no beds to sleep in, little food to eat and living conditions in the trenches were horrible. I also noted that medical technology at the time wasn't very advanced, which would make it harder to look after wounded soldiers.

This is our groups Making Connections doc.

At the end of the week we were tasked with making a thank you card towards the nurses in the war. We had to imagine we were soldiers in the war and received care from the nurses.

What is something I can improve on with my poster?

 

Racism In New Zealand In the 1970's

Kia ora,

Today in class we learned about racial inequality in Auckland in the 70's. We watched this video And learned about the dawn raids and the Polynesian Panthers Party.(PPP) The PPP were a revolutionary movement formed by a group of young Polynesians in the early 1970's aimed to stop racism in Auckland.

What are the dawn raids? 

In the 70's New Zealand had a major immigration problem and the government at the time decided to crack down. They ordered the police to carry out raids on Pasifika households, looking for overstayers

(immigrants with expired visas). Even though most overstayers were white people from England, South Africa, Canada, etc. The raids often took place early in the morning, hence the name. The dawn raids started in 1974 and ended in 1979.

Do you know anyone that had to go through a dawn raid?

Samoan Language Week

 This week was Samoan Language week. In our school we have a daily quiz that has questions about Samoa and their language. Each class also had to make a dance/act/video about Samoa at the assembly on Friday. Our group was going to do an interview but I went to a Soccer tournament on Thursday so we couldn't do it. Luckily the girls did their own interview and made a video. 

For maths we learnt about Samoan numbers and times of the day. For reading we learnt about the Spanish flu and how bad it was in Samoa.

My favourite part was watching each classes presentation at the end of the week. There were some really cool and interesting presentations.

Do you celebrate Samoan language week?

Propaganda Poster

 For our literacy in Room 5 we were learning about how the army got people to enlist in the war. We looked at several propaganda posters from the Allied and Axis/Central Powers, and saw what language features they used to get men to enlist. After that we made our own posters. We could make them by hand or online. Here is my poster.

Science

 In our school we have this cool programme called Careers. There are five groups in careers, Science, Workshop, Food, Art and Robotics and we rotate around. This term we are doing Science and we did some experiments about light. We got laser pointers and experimented with mirrors and how they work. It was funny when we had to go in a dark cupboard to see the lasers properly and some people got scared.

What causes war

For literacy in Room 5 we were learning to synthesise information. We read several texts and then wrote in a google doc the different causes for war. After that we made a storyboard about how how our thinking changed from the start to after we read the texts. 

  Here is my storyboard

What do you think causes war?

St John's First Aid Training

This morning our class went up to room eleven and did the St John's first aid response course. We learned about what to do if you find someone that is unconscious, and if they are not breathing, how to perform CPR. It was a lot of fun and we found out heaps of interesting and helpful things.

 
 

Inquiry Term 1 - The Wesley Rebuild

 

The inquiry topic this term in room 5 is, What is Wesley? Our school is rebuilding soon, so for our inquiry we are choosing an area of the school to rebuild. Me and Joseph choose to design a new front court area, with a roof and some turf, and right now we are doing research on how to rebuild the courts and how expensive it is. We haven't finished our slides yet because we have to measure the courts to see how much the turf would cost. If you have any suggestions for what else we should add to the courts please let us know!

My PB4L Poster

For PB4L in Room 5 this week, we had to make a poster of how to display the three core values in a certain area of the school. I decided to make my poster about the hall. We used the PB4L Matrix in our school to guide us with the rules.

The most challenging part of making this poster was finding images that matched the text. Here is my PB4L poster.