Marvellous Maya

Maya deserves the applause she received in assembly for being our champion student of the week.  Well done on your lovely progress in Reading, Maya!

Our volcano experiment!

Today we did an amazing experiment!  Mrs Gordon read us a book that showed us how to make a mini volcano.  We went off to the sandpit and then we followed all the instructions.  We needed to dig a hole so that a drink bottle could be placed in it.

Then we scooped some baking soda into the bottle.  







Next, we put the bottle into the sand and we packed sand around it to make a cone shaped 'mountain'.

After that, we made a mixture of water, dishwashing liquid and red food colouring.

We poured it into the bottle and it started foaming and oozing out like lava!  It looked just like a volcano erupting - how exciting!

Spinning wheels

We made these spinning toys using card and string.  Then our buddies helped us to get them spinning and we took them home to show our families.  It's likely that our parents also made these when they were young and we bet the toys bring back happy memories!

Hector's World - Cybersafety

Hector's World has been the focus of attention in Room 5.  We have enjoyed meeting the wonderful characters and have learnt many tips on how to be safe on the internet. 

Marvelous Mangere Mountain

As part of our focus on natural disasters we are about to discover more about volcanoes.  We have many extinct or dormant volcanoes around Auckland and one of these is Mangere Mountain, which is not very far from our school.  Today we were the first group who headed out to find out more about volcanoes and to study one in situ.  It was a wonderful experience and we learned about craters, lava bombs, fire fountains, scoria, basalt, etc.



 On our arrival, Farrel, talked to us about volcanoes and how they are formed.  He told us about the structure of a volcano and told us that Auckland has 50 extinct or dormant volcanoes.  We learned that the youngest volcano is Rangitito which is 500 years old.  The displays in the education centre were hands-on and interesting too.

As we walked with our knowledgeable guide, he pointed out many things along the way.  We all managed to scale up to the top of the mountain from where we were able to see a number of other volcanoes including Mt Eden, One Tree Hill, Mt Albert, Rangitoto and Mt Wellington.  

Mangere Mountain has two craters, littered with lava bombs that formed into various rock shapes such as the 'bread crust", the "cow pat", the lens and the ribbon.

We thoroughly enjoyed exploring this fascinating mountain and were intrigued by all we saw.  

We build together

We had some development play time on Friday afternoon where we worked together as a team to make buildings out of blocks.  It was fun getting the blocks to balance and we were proud of the end products.

Our Star Learning Assistant!

Mrs Blakeman is a member of the Greater Auckland Chorus and will be singing in a show called Pacific Dreams at Sky City on Saturday, the 31st August.  We are amazed at all her talents!

Shining Star, Shion

Congratulations to Shion for winning the certificate of the week!  He speaks Japanese at home and also speaks in English.  We are proud of him for being brave to talk to all of us.

Making Lemonade

Lemons make a refreshing drink and we got to see how easy it is to make lemonade.  Mrs Shewring squeezed some lemons from her garden and then we went down to the cafe to make the lemonade.  Here is the recipe -
INGREDIENTS

• 1 cup sugar (can reduce to 3/4 cup)
• 1 cup water (for the simple syrup)
• 1 cup lemon juice
• 3 to 4 cups cold water (to dilute)

METHOD

1 Make simple syrup by heating the sugar and water in a small saucepan until the sugar is dissolved completely.

2 While the sugar is dissolving, use a juicer to extract the juice from 4 to 6 lemons, enough for one cup of juice.

3 Add the juice and the sugar water to a pitcher. Add 3 to 4 cups of cold water, more or less to the desired strength. Refrigerate 30 to 40 minutes. If the lemonade is a little sweet for your taste, add a little more straight lemon juice to it.

Serve with ice, sliced lemons.