Gallery Seven News - Term 1, Week 8, 2012

 Jasmine and Emelia got our Kowhai Express Star awards this week.  They both got them for being self managing and engaged class members.

We put our enlarged T-Rex Jigsaw skeleton together this week, he looks very cool. Unfortunately he got knocked over and broke his hip, so he has been dismantled and is awaiting a hip replacement. We also continued the papier mache on our Ankylosaurus with the help of Mrs Neal. He is almost ready to have his spikes and bumpy back attached.

Ashton found a praying mantis in his garage and he brought it to school for us to have a look at. We let it go in the gardens at school where it could camouflage on the leaves and find things to eat.

On Friday we all got to wear mufti, we brought  along a gold coin to help raise money for children with cancer. We raised over $1000. We also put some beads on long strings, we made these for Emily she is a lovely girl at our school who has cancer. We hope these make her feel stronger as she has her treatment.

Ashtyn and Thomas received our Artisan awards this week. Ashtyn got hers for being a bubbly and experimental class member and Thomas got his for being engaged during our dinosaur learning. 

On Friday afternoon Ashton’s mum brought in a birthday cake and lollies so that we could help celebrate Ashton’s birthday which was on Saturday, Dion’s birthday was on the same day. They both got to blow the candles out and we wished them a very happy birthday!

While we ate our treats we watched some more Prehistoric park. We learnt about Deinosuchus, he wasn’t a dinosaur but a marine reptile and the ancestor of the crocodile. Quinn drew this awesome picture of a Deinosuchus catching a Pterasaur.

Where did the first people come from and how did they live?

I think the dinosaurs made our bones, then they kicked us into a rock.  When they were dead we started to grow our skin.  20 years later on I think we came alive.  Maybe the food they eat was goo goo grubs I think.  Probably they lived in rocks.

Molly

Maybe they might of eaten meat and plants and might eat both, and they ate cave men.  They lived in caves.

Noah

I think the first person to get to New Zealand came from England.  They might of discovered England.  They might have worn shirts and shorts.  Their names might have been Mathew and Molly.  Molly was nice I think, and so was Mathew.  They might of lived in houses and eaten fish and chips.

 Zoe

The first person was God and made the next person.  There was no food, so they had to kill the animals.  They lived in the jungle and were naked.  They made forts around the jungle.

Matt

I think the first people were naked and their house was rock.  They had plants on their house.  They lived in North America.  They ate

bananas, and they looked like monkeys.

Thomas

I think God was the first person here, and I think God lived in the caves.  I think they ate fish for their food and to  stay alive.

Lucia

 I think Kiwis made us because they were dinosaurs.  They were

gorillas, then cave men.  We fought, I can’t remember it, it was so long ago.  We fought, we lived in caves, we were in the wild.

Quinn

I live in a spooky house, I built it.  It has bugs and creatures in it.  It has it in it because there weren’t any people.  I wear nothing.  I live in America at 4638.  My name is Harry.

Keira

 God made us.  God brought us here.  You will know the first person

because they would be in the ground, and on the gravestone sign, where the flowers are it will say when they died and their name.  I don't think they lived in a house.  I think they built a hut near a lake and they caught fish.  God got us from his floating house in the blue dark space.

Ashtyn

The first person came out of nowhere.  I think they wore dresses and skirts.  I think they eat bananas and good food.  I don't  know if this is right.

Eve

  I think cave ladies and boys and babies wore clothes made of rocks.  They ate birds they shot the birds with bows and arrows.  They lived in a cave.  They drink out of leather.

Ruben

 I think the dinosaurs got killed when the dinosaurs were dead, the people came in eggs.  Then they wore animal t-shirts and they had leaf trousers and skirts.  They eat leaves and lived in a cave.

Emelia

I think the people first started as a fish, then a gorilla and the fish might eat bait but now the gorilla is turned into a monkey.  The monkey  ate bananas.  Now the monkey is a cave man, the cave man didn't find food.  The fish lived in the ocean, but the cave man turned into people.  Cave men lived in rock houses.

Jasmine

People came from eggs buried in the ground.  They wear leaves and eat dinosaur eggs.

Crystal

How did the first person get here?  My Grandma and Grandpa was the first person.  

Kyla

 They fell from the sky and they ate mud and wore leaves and branches.  They lived in caves.

 Bradley

I think the first people lived in the forest.

Dion

 I think that they lived in the ocean when the dinosaurs were alive.

Ashton

 I think the dinosaurs might of not eaten fish and chips.  I think that dinosaurs don't have a hut in New Zealand any more.  I think there was a cave man, just one cave man, and an island with no dinosaurs.

Harriet

 I  believe that people came from the earth.  But how did it make them?  You will just have to find out.  They would of lived in caves, the clothes could have been made out of plants.  The food could have been fish and veges.  They would have had to hunt.

Shawn

 I think God brought us.  I think in the olden days the Queen was the first one to be brought by God.  I think they got leaves from the trees and made clothes out of them.  They might of eaten leaves.

Alicya

 I think that God made people. The people they ate animals. They lived in caves and they wore clothes made out of feathers.

Sean

I think the first person was a dinosaur.  They lived on Earth.

Gabriella

 Maybe they might of made us out of little balls, and then put the bones in and then they might put the blood in.  They wore clothes.

Shaun

 I think cavemen were the first people to be alive. and animals were the first things to be alive.  Cavemen were the second thing to be alive. Reptiles were the third thing to be alive.  They wore T-shirts and pants. They lived in the world where America was.  They ate vegetables and meat.

 Jewels

Is everything either a mammal, reptile, bird or dinosaur?

I worked with a group today who had been interested in mammals and reptiles and who in a previous discussion had identified  characteristics that would allow us to identify, mammals, dinosaurs, reptiles and birds. I provided the children with a pictures of creatures and asked them to sort them into a category. They soon realised that some just didn’t fit into the five categories that they had already identified. The added 4 further categories which were, bugs, insects, fish, amphibians and spiders.

Miss B: what is the difference between a bug and an insect?

Ashtyn: Insects are something small and sometimes helps plants, bugs fly insects don’t.l

Alicya: Insects have little legs.

Quinn: some insects fly, bugs are skinny and fly. Bugs are skinny.

Molly: bugs have little legs and insects have long legs. Fish have to have fins and scales.

Alicya: They swim, a whale is not a fish, it said in a poem.

Quinn: Fish go underwater.

Keira: Bugs have no hair on them and insects have hair on them.

Jewels: Spiders have more legs that’s why they are different.

Alicya: But a butterfly has lots of legs too!

Keira: Spiders have 8.

Jewels: They have more eyes, they have the same number of legs and eyes.

Ashtyn: I think a whale is a fish.

Jewels: A whale is a mammal, its not a fish because it is too big.

At this point I stopped the children and they blue tacked the pictures into the catergories they thought would best fit. We are going to put them on the wall and look at them for a few days and then review our thoughts. When they are happy with the categories we will try and identify their characteristics.

What is a mammal and a reptile?

At the museum Louisa talked to us about 4 features that allow us to identify

dinosaurs as being dinosaurs. These four features were, they hatch out of eggs, they have straight legs, they walk on land and they have scaly skin.  The children discovered that the creatures that lived in the water or flew in the sky were actually not dinosaurs but marine or flying reptiles. Louisa also explained to the children that scientist were unsure of whether dinosaurs were warm blooded or cold blooded and that maybe there were some of both. On  return to school the I invited some children to the mat who had been involved in a discussion around reptiles, mammals , warm and cold blooded and any other interested parties. When the group came to the mat we talked recovered what made a dinosaur and talked about whether they were still mammals or reptiles and did they actually understand what the characteristics of both were. Before we went any further I asked the children to list how you would identify mammals and reptiles.

Reptiles

Ashtyn: Leaves its eyes open for ages.

Jewels: I think a reptile is a dinosaur because it is a dinosaur and not a person.

Sean: Comes out of an egg.

Molly: An animal that comes out of an egg.

Keira: It is a thing that doesn’t have teeth

Quinn: I think reptiles are flying things and swimming things.

Alicya: A mammal is cold blooded.

Eve: A reptile is a swimming and flying thing.

Mammal

Ashtyn: Does not leave its eyes open for ages.

 Jewels: A person

Sean: does not come out of an egg.

Molly: is an animal that comes out of the tummy.

Keira: Things that have teeth.

Quinn: I think a mammal is a thing that walks on land, a dinosaur is a mammal.

Alicya: I think a reptile is warm blooded

Eve: I think a mammal walks on the land.

The children were still interested in the idea of blood temperature and have tried using what they have learnt more recently to come up with their answers, especially  using the characteristics of dinosaurs from the museum.

From this point I helped the children complete an internet search, so they could write lists of what makes a mammal and a reptile. During this discussion the children also began talking about what makes a bird a bird as they knew or had seen images of bird like dinosaurs in the books they had been exploring.

Reptiles

Cold blooded

Scales

Hard Shelled Eggs

Mammals

It has hair

Warm Blooded

The mums can make milk for its babies

Birds

Feathers

Wings

2 Legs

Warm Blooded

Lays Eggs

The children were quite pleased with their findings, at a later date I would like to explore with them whether all of the creatures on Earth can be placed in one of these categories or whether there are further categories that we have not identified. If there are other categories what are they and what are their characteristics.

What do you want to do with what you have learnt?

The children have learnt a vast amount so far and the construction of two dinosaur sculptures is under way. I asked the children if they wanted to do anything with what they had learnt and if they did then what did they want to do.

Noah: Put it online, take some photos and put it online.

Keira: and put it on our blog.

Ashtyn: send a notice home with all the stuff we learnt and put it on the walls of our room.

Zoe: Put it on the walls of our classroom

Molly: We could make a huge wall of concrete and spray our ideas on with paint.

Quinn: Type it up where our photos are going to be.

Thomas: I agree with Quinn, we could type it on the computer and make fact sheets.

Keira: Publish our ideas and what we have learned ande make a book that we can take home.

At this point I was getting the impression from some of the children that they wanted something physical that they could take home and keep. So I asked the children how many of them wanted something they could keep. Out of 25 children, 21 identified this as being important.

Emelia: A wee book to do in assembly

Alicya: Make a book and put all our work in it and give one copy to each class in Kowhai.

Ashtyn: We could put it on sale.

Quinn: I agree with Alicya we could put it in a book and it to Kowhai and get out autographs.

Bradley: Make lots and sell it at a market to make lots of money.

Thomas: I agree with Alicya, we could sell it and get rich and use the money to go and find dinosaur bones.