Ukulele Lessons

In Te Ngahere we have been learning how to play the ukulele. Our ukulele teacher was a Irish lady called Alison. She taught us about the parts of the ukulele and some of the chords. Tayla, Jack and I all had the same color ukulele. A bright yellow. Alison is going to be teaching ukulele to us for 5 weeks, everyday on Wednesday. Soon the whole school will be become an awesome ukulele playing band. I think I did well listening to Alison but I could do better by playing to the beat.

Maramaku

On Friday some of the school went to Maramaku. Maramaku is when all the rugby and netball players come together to have a tournament. In my team was Tia, Tayla, Astin, Taleisha, Saffyre and Reitu. We had a to play netball. The tournament was 4 and half hours long and we had 5 games. We only won 2 games because we were in a year ⅞ team, we won against Opua and Waikare. It was really fun and a good learning experience for us because every weekend we win so we needed a good challenge.

Here are some photos

Possum Problem

In Te Ngahere we have been learning to make connections between the text and my prior knowledge and/or personal experiences and/or between texts. We had 3 different texts and we had to choose 2 to answer questions on. I decided to do the Possum Problem one. We had to explain how the possums food chain is different from New Zealand to Australia. After that we need to list up reasons for and against, that people gave for possums to come to New Zealand. We then needed to make a flow chart of all the events in the story. Then we had to pretend that we went back in time to when people were going to invite possums into New Zealand. Lastly we needed to write negatives and the positives for people bringing carpet snakes into New Zealand to stop the possum problem. Once we finished all of those activities we needed to put them all together on a doc or a slide show. I did well answering all the questions but I could do better by answering them quicker. '
Here is my presentation.

Endemic, Native or Introduced animals.

In Te Ngahere we have been learning to make connections between what we read or view. We had to decide on a bird and a animal and research it. My bird was a Morepork and my animal was a Long Tailed Bat. We had to say what that creature ate, where it lives, how it helps in the ngahere, if it was endemic or native and some interesting facts. When I made my Morepork presentation I worked with Dayton and Jack. With my Long Tailed bat presentation I worked with Taleisha. I think I did really well working on my presentations but I could do better by rehearsing and adding some more facts into my slideshow.

Hope you like my slideshows.

Bay Bush Action

In Te Ngahere we have been learning to save the ngahere. Brad and Stella came into Te Ngahere and taught us a bit about our ngahere and how we can save it. We first got told about the different types of predators that are in our ngahere. We talked about how to trap possums, rats or stoats. They demonstrated what would happen if a rat would walk into the trap and the consequence for that (Death). They gave us 10 traps to put around our school so we could become the first school in New Zealand to become rat free. I enjoyed holding the plush possum. It was such a memorable day. 

Here are some photos.

Moment In Time

In Te Ngahere we have been doing descriptive writing. We had to describe a forest. We had to put a lot of descriptive words in, also we had to add similes and metaphors to make it more exciting. I think I did a great job and doing my writing when I have never written like this before but I could do better by not saying I see or I hear.

Here is my writing


Trees swaying in the distance, pure blue sky with very few clouds hanging above me. Muddy tracks left behind by other humans or sneaky animals. Birds fleeing from their nest to collect food for their babies. Snapping sounds of sticks as other creatures search the thriving forest floor.

My ears tune into the sweet lullabies coming from every tree. A choir of chirping sings from a nest signaling a new arrival. Beautiful patterned butterflies gracefully sore from flower to flower. Insects travel up trees searching for food. Leaves falling from the sky, daisies blooming out of the corner of my eye. Bees buzzing around hunting for pollen.

Trees brush against my face like a birds wing. My hair sways as the soft breeze hits my skin. My feet sink into the mud and smother my shoes like icing on a freshly baked cake. Birds sitting together in there nest reminds me of home. The smell of fresh roses beginning to bloom run up my nose. Sunlight trying to make its way through the trees. Spider webs getting caught in your hair like a messy hair day.

Explanation Writing

In Te Ngahere we have been learning to write a explanation about healthy ecosystems. In our ecosystem writing we had to explain what a producer,consumers and decomposer was. But we also had to say what unbalanced ecosystem looked like. The explanation writing was really hard to write because I haven’t written this type of writing before so it was new to me. I think I did well writing my explanation writing but I could do better by following the success criteria.
Here is my writing.

What makes a Healthy Ecosystem??

A healthy ecosystem is made up of non living things (inorganic matter) and living things (organic matter). Decomposers, producers, consumers and inorganic matter are things that play a very big role in a healthy ecosystem. Decomposers, producers and consumer are all living things so it means they are all organic matter. Almost everything in the ocean has a special part to play in a healthy ecosystem. If anything in the ecosystem is missing or not working properly it will wreck the entire ecosystem and become unbalanced.

What is a producer??
A producer is a plant that makes its own energy. It gets its energy from the sun or rain etc. Once they find energy they make it into a form of sugar. This, is called photosynthesis. Consumers eat producers. Kelp, seaweed and trees are examples of producers. 

What is a Consumer??
A consumer is a living creature that gets its energy from producers. Consumers also eat other consumers and get the energy from them. The role of consumers is that they catch and kill all there prey and eat them for themselves. Starfish, Kina, Sharks and fish are all examples of consumers.

What is a decomposer??
A decomposer is a non living creature that breaks down dead matter or organic matter. They also get the energy from the dead matter. Decomposers give their energy to the producers so the producers get what they need to live. Fungi and bacteria is a example of decomposers.

An ecosystem is very fragile, if anything goes out of place it will have a catastrophic effect. The ecosystem could become unbalanced or worse. For example at Matai bay all the fisherman were eating all the crayfish and catching all the big snapper so nothing was eating the kina which made the kina population explode. So the kina was eating all the kelp and there was no kelp left which means the producer was missing also there were no spots for the little snapper to hide..