Weight and Capacity

We have been learning about weight and capacity.

1kg = 1000g

1litre = 1000ml

Estimating and then measuring how
many potatoes are in 1 kg

Zack and Blair trying to make playdough
weights

Aotea and Katie working out how far away from 1 kg their estimation was

Issy counting how many 1/3 of a cup
fit inside the jug

Janice and Zack measuring how many
mls they used to make colours 

Georgina made a a container to hold 1/4 of a cup.
Look how close her estimation skills were.

Ruben cutting a lemon
I wonder how many mls of lemon
juice he will put in his lemonade?

Charlie and Keiarliya working together to make
a 200g weight.

How many kernels fit in 1/4 of a cup?
Great strategy of making groups of ten by this group

Angus and Pinenga testing how many mls
their containers hold

Squeezing lemon juice ready to make the perfect
lemonade. How many mls of lemon juice and sugar syrup? 

Jack measuring his lemon juice

Blake and Jordan calculating together
how many mls of each colour they will
use to make purple.

Weighing to find out what they can send in a
parcel and how much it will cost.

Jessica carefully measuring 2 tablespoons
of cocoa powder

Working together to put the mixture
in a cup ready for cooking

Estimating and counting in 1/3 of a cup. 

Maia following the instructions to cook
the chocolate cake

Yum! Chocolate cake.

If you would like to make the chocolate cake at home here is the recipe

WALT measure a fraction of an amount

                                           Follow the recipe to make a 1 cup chocolate cake

3 Table spoons flour
1/4 of a teaspoon of cinnamon
2 Tablespoons of sugar
2 tablespoons of cocoa powder
1/4 teaspoon of baking powder
1/8 teaspoon of salt
1/2 teaspoon of vanilla essence
1/2 large egg (scramble the egg in a bowl and then just use half)
30 mLs of vegetable oil
30mLs of water

1)   Mix all the ingredients together in a jar or cup

2)   Put in microwave for 2 minutes

3)   Let it cool down

4)   Eat and enjoy!

Adding Detail To Our Writing

In our writing, we are are learning to add detail to help create a vivid picture for the reader. We have been creating stories about finding a mysterious egg.

Check out the adventures these authors have created............

Author Gemma

I was just wandering across a mountain path when I saw an egg. It had shiny grey scales . It was in a nest and it was made of green grass.It was in front of me. When I picked up the egg it began to crack and the shell made a bigger hole I saw a grey red eye in the big hole looking up at me.Carefully I moved the pieces of the eggshell ...until the creature BIT ME ouch! My finger was bleeding. The creature had long fluttering wings and the creature made a squeak. Who is this creature? I thought. I wondered if I could keep it so I found a shoe box and put some crunched up newspaper in the bottom and I caught the creature and snapped the lid on to the box. I kept the box beside my bed until the griffin grew too big and  broke my drawers. Now I had nowhere to hide him, oh no. Sadly I had to let him free in the rain forest.

Author James

One day me and my family were at Wingspan looking at the falcons and watching the falcons on display. The lady that took Ozzy for  his display said  that I could hold Ozzy because I was ducking while Ozzy  flew right over my head for 20 minutes so I held Ozzy. When I came back I saw a brown egg with brown feathers to keep it warm then ... crack crack crack two falcon like feet popped out of the egg and it started walking around but the rest of its body was still inside the egg.Eventually...

The rest of the egg came off ... Something brown came out of the egg with wings all curled up I said to dad, "Could this be a falcon or a harrier dad ?" and dad said "It's a falcon for you James" "I'll have to ask what food do falcons like to eat because I do not know what falcons like to eat". "What do baby falcons like to eat" "The baby falcons food is in the office" "Thank you for telling me". After that we went home with 9000000099 packs of falcon food in the boot for the baby falcon to eat. It sat on my shoulder and made a  hell of a noise. It is going a bit hard when the baby falcon grows up if we still live in town for it to catch live food. Would you like to have a falcon for a pet?

Author Bailee

One day I was jumping on the trampoline until  I spotted  something in the bush shimmering .I jumped off and went a little closer to see what it was. It was a middle sized egg with purple scales. It was stuck in the bush. It started to lift off the ground

then it cracked in one big line. Two tiny hands quickly popped out. They were odd hands then two legs then a mouth and nose popped out. It was odd looking. Suddenly a little head came out covered in with fur.Two wings slowly came out. It slowly

came to me and said “Muma” to me. It thought I was its mum so I picked it of the ground and ran to my room and got my pillow and put it on it. I carefully put it to sleep and I called it Molly.I wonder where Molly's real mum is?

Author Louisa

I was strolling through the jungle and in the corner of my eye I saw a big nest inside a long on a small hill. I went up to a nest the size of a small bowl and the nest was made of… sticks, grass, mud and feathers. Inside the small bowl sized nest was a small lumpy smooth egg. The lumps were light green and the rest was light purple. It was very shiny and clear to see.

As the sun went down I picked up the egg in a towel and put it inside a box with the log and the nest. In the morning I got up and looked at the egg but the egg was shaking. It rolled into a berry bush and started to crack then it cracked some more then the lid popped off and as fast as lightening it shot out! A little purple dragon came out! I put it inside the box and it hopped up and down.

I left to get the dragon some food like meat and water. I took the food back to her. Then I looked up on my computer some types of dragons and millions of dragon types came up. I scrolled down and up came a purple backed dragon with a light green tummy. I looked at my dragon, it did have a purple back and a light green tummy. It looked like the picture on the computer. I saved the website then went to look at the dragon. The dragon was gone! I went for a hike up the hill to look for her and up on a mountain in front of me what do you think I saw? Yes! The dragon! It had made a nest on the very top of the mountain. She had grown up a lot. I went to see her. I was so happy to see her I jumped onto her back then we flew off. I could hear and feel the wind blowing into my face and small birds were chirping. I was feeling excited because I had never been on a flying dragon before. After the flight we came back to the mountain and I said goodbye. She roared. I think she said farewell. Then I went home. Sometimes, if you look closely I am sure you can see the dragon hidden inside a log under some moss…..

When I was older I sometimes went up to see her but I could never find her on the mountain. In the night I sometimes see a shadow lurking by my window and hear sharp scratching claws with a voice saying, “Let me in, let me in.” I wonder if that lurking shadow by my window is that big purple and light green dragon?

Author Caitlin

Creek! I opened the cupboard to get my cup for my milo but WHOOSH! I was pulled into the cupboard. All of a sudden there was a thrash of a waterfall and I was no longer standing at the kitchen bench. I was standing in the middle of a bright cool forest. I thought it was a lovely place so I

decided to start exploring. I was about half way from the waterfall when I saw a twinkle of bright light up in a big oak tree. Wow! I thought it was a very nice day but if I looked carefully I might be able to find something awesome like a gold bar or a tiny magic leaf. But, if I want to find out I will have to carefully unwrap the twigs, leaves and vines. As I unwrapped the coat of vines and twigs to my surprise it revealed a golden egg that had beautiful blue stars all over it. As soon as I reached for the egg it rolled off the tree branch and landed on the ground. But it didn’t crack it was as if an invisible sponge was on the ground. One thing I didn’t think of was getting down the tree. In amazement I stared. I saw a vine. Speechless I swung down to the ground. Crack! I thought that I had stepped on the egg but I didn’t. The egg was just rolling about on the ground with a crack going right around the egg then another and another. POP! Something popped out of the egg. I looked around but there was nobody to be seen so I knelt down to the egg and listened carefully. There was a slight snuffling sound. POP! I jumped back. Thinking that I was imagining it  I saw a snout sticking out of the egg. I blinked a couple of times but guess what it was real. I wasn’t dreaming! Suddenly, a wolf cub shot out. It had two big blue eyes and was so cute I had to take it home. But I knew I shouldn’t. So I walked away but padder padder the cub was following me. Thinking I shouldn’t I grabbed my dressing grown that I just saw even though I was dressed then raced over to the cub and scooped it up in my dressing gown. I ran home to put this cub in my dolls house but whenever my mum is home alone I shut it in the dolls house. One month later, “Here’s your food Sparkle.” Whoops, I forgot to tell you that this cub eats sausages. Its name is Sparkle. What if I found another magical egg that would be funny wouldn’t it.

Author Erin

In the corner of my eye when  I was going for a walk I spotted a golden birds nest. In that nest there were 5 golden speckled eggs. The nest was hanging off a branch and was about to fall off but I carefully caught it but the nest started to break in my hands because it was made out of tiny twigs. I saved the bird nest and the golden speckled eggs from cracking. The nest was safe. “Oh no! I cried.” The eggs are wobbling and starting to crack. What am I going to do? I scooped up some brown crunchy leaves from the field to keep the eggs safe, warm and dry. Carefully, I made a nest. Gently, I put the eggs into the nest and left them to hatch. The next day, I visited the nest and surprise there were golden baby ostriches that were trying to stand up but their legs were not strong enough. So, I pretended to be their mother ostrich and helped the babies learn how to walk. Then, they started to follow me around. Dad and I built an enclosure in our backyard for the ostriches to live in. We made a zoo and people paid to hold them and see them playing and eating. Sometimes, we put music on for the ostriches to dance too. Have you ever seen an ostrich dance before?

Author Zack

On a hot summers day me and my brother were playing rugby outside when I stumbled over a large bright blue striped oval shaped object. I stood up and slowly peered at it as I moved the tall grass aside. The object was in a hole that my dog had dug. As soon as all the bright green grass was gone the oval object disappeared. Then, my brother shouted out, “There!” We saw that it had mysteriously disappeared then reappeared on the other side of my backyard. We sprinted to it. Slowly, I started to hear a … CRACK!! The thick smooth object started to fall apart. “What’s that? Oh, the oval thing is an egg.” The lid of the egg popped off. Carefully, I stared into the egg. Looking up at me were two white eyes. I reached in and pulled out a mini cute pink pig. He looked at me and said, “Daddy.” I was so surprised that he could talk. I said, “I’m going to name you Pickles.” I took him into my house and hid him under my bed in a little box that I had created. Every day, I took it food. After a couple of months he was all grown up and was too big for me to hide under my bed. So, I said to Pickles, “You are big enough to take care of yourself and who knows you might find your parents.” The next day, when I was going to school I sneaked him out and released him into the wild. Every day when I got home from school I would run into my room and look at part of his egg. It made me remember when we first met. I have never forgotten about Pickles.

Author Emily

Woo Woo. The wind was blowing. I marched into the forest. I saw a mountain. Out of the corner of my eye  I glimpsed an egg on the mountain. Oh no the wind blew the egg down. A scaly, rainbow spotted egg was rolling down the mountain. I wanted to catch it but if I do it won’t hatch. I ran to the tall blades of grass where the egg stopped. I saw a paper think crack on the very top of the egg. Suddenly, boom the egg exploded and something silver came out. It has skinny legs and it went squeak squeak. It kept following me flapping its wings. It flew on my head. I said, “Stay there while I make you a metal mansion.” When I was finished building the mansion I went to the meadow to go to my house. The creature followed me to my house in the meadow. “It’s a silver themed dragon,” I shouted. Drip drop the rain bounced on the dragon. Suddenly, he burst into flames to keep himself warm. I asked my mum if I could keep the dragon. Mum said, “Yes you can.” Then, Dad came out with lemonade. He said, “Darling, who is this?” Mum told him it was Emily’s new pet. Her name is Ecra. I hope Mum doesn’t change her mind but if she does I will say, “Mum, can I have a puppy?”

Author Marcus

Far far away in a forest beside a beach as I was building a giant sandcastle CRASH! one wall knocked down and…. I spotted something incredible. I wondered what is that strange thing? I crept to see what it was but my brother pulled me and whispered, “Marcus, stay in the castle it might be dangerous.” But, I didn’t listen so I crept closer and closer. I could see some bright white at the tippy top of the object. I was excited and I dug down to see what the rest of it was. It was striped white and violet about the size of a babies head. It wiggled a bit then stopped…. “Uhhh ohhhh!” Suddenly, a crack appeared right down through the middle quite fast and then out tumbled a mini bird and …. It turned into a Pegasus. My mum said, “That Pegasus is a flying unicorn.” I fed it, played with it and it just grew and grew and grew until it was old enough to look after me. It grew into the Queen Pegasus. Is it magical?

Art Exhibition

Come to The Parkvale School Art Exhibition 'Visual Art Inspired by Artists of Aotearoa' We are so proud of our art and how we told 'The Story of Us'.

Compositions from tracey hill on Vimeo.

All the children of Parkvale School have created a special piece of art. Make it a family outing to the exhibition. It is open before school, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, this week and until 6pm each night.

Harakeke

We have been learning about harakeke

We have been learning to weave and Cortney (Naomi's Mum) taught us how to make putiputi. We have been challenged but it has brought out the best in us. We supported each other, showed appreciation and were very determined. 

Weaving on PhotoPeach

1. Look on some of our individual blogs to find out how to weave.

A big thank you to Cortney and Miss Sampson for giving up their time to help us with our weaving. 

Reports

We have been learning to write reports.

We have read lots of different reports and looked at what is different between reports and stories. 

We created our own mixed up animals and wrote reports about them.

BEARFLY

A bearfly swarms through the sky just like a butterfly. They are wondercrump creatures. the bearfly has big red googly eyes. Also a bearfly has brown coloured ears. Inside the ears is pink fur. A bearfly has a jet black wet nose. The bearfly has wondercrump wings. the colour on the wings are sky blue, canary yellow and lime green. The colour of the skin is cocoa brownish gold. It has a pink furry belly with rough pink pieces of skin on the paws. A bearflys first favourite food is fruit. the second favourite is vegetables. It nibbles quickly on the food and swallows it down. A bearfly lives in a pitch black den that is spooky slimy and smelly. It lives with its babies. the enemy is a great white shark. Something about a bearfly is that it can fly fast. Another thing that is special to a bearfly is it can stay alive for millions of years. Have you seen a bearfly? 

Created and written by Emily

GORLION

A gorlion is an odd animal. it is part gorilla and part lion. 

Appearance and Movement

My animals body is gold and furry. My animal can run and jump to other trees.  A gorlion has a furry branch like tail and flappy flying fly swat at the bottom of the tail. He has cocoa eyes and white eyes too. 

Habitat

They live with their families in the forest. There home is far away from New Zealand it is overseas. 

Diet

The grolion munches up the stripy lemurs. He camouflages and goes and hides in the golden grass. When the lemurs get close the gorlion jumps out and catches the lemur with his sharp claws. 

Predators

The gorlions enemy is the giant cheetahs. The gorlion tries to hide from the giant cheetah. He climbs a big tree. There is lots of animals at their home so the cheetahs run away. 

Created and written by Damarco  

CATCRAB

A catcrab is a much more dangerous animal than any other crabs in the world. It has two sandy sharp nippers and eight bendy crab legs, poking out eyes and shiny wet claws and two sharp incisors for biting its prey. A cat crabs body is covered in thick ginger fur. It also has a stubby fluffy ginger tail.

Movement

It scuttles sideways and sneaks like a crab. A catcrab climbs a tree and it pounces .

Diet and Habitat

It gobbles fish, seeds, baby fish, bugs, food scraps and jelly meat. It lives in the sandy beach, rocks pools and underwater in the ocean. Catcrabs as pets like to sleep on the side of the bed. Catcrabs snap at noses and play with bugs.

Enemies

Sealions, killer whales and dogs like to hunt catcrabs. 

Unique Characteristics

Catcrabs purr like a cat.

There were thousands of catcrabs then humans killed hundreds to cook them in a restaurant to get thousands of dollars of cash then catcrabs were getting endangered. So there were only 10 catcrabs left in the world.

Created and Written By Sam

GUINPUS

A guinpus is half penguin and half octopus. they have a pointy beak and eight long tentacles with sticky suckers that stick to anything. It also has lumpy eyes and flippers for arms on the side. 

How does a Guinpus move? 

A guinpus moves by wiggling side to side and sways. A guinpus can also move by floating in the water and using his flipper to glide. 

Diet

A guinpus eats snapper and shark and sea snails. 

Habitat 

A guinpus lives in cold water that is really sparkly like a shiny castle. 

Enemies

A guipus' enemies is a grey shark and sperm whale and fishermen. Fishermen are an enemy because they catch the guinpus on purpose to eat. 

Unique Characteristics

A guinpus is special because they spread their ink all over enemies actually it kills their enemies. There is only one left in the world. It is endangered now and when that one dies it will be extinct.

Created and Wriiten by Pinenga

FISHCAT

A fish cat is extremely so so cute and very unique. A fishcat is half cat and half fish.

Appearance

The fishcat has shiny scales on most of her skinny body. She has long spiky whiskers and she has red and green striped fins. A catfish also has furry legs with soft small paws on the end, a wide mouth and small round lemon golden eyes. Her tail is pink and dotty.

Movement

The fishcat always like to cattypaddle through the sea. A fishcat opens and closes its mouth when it is eating fish and other seafood. 

Habitat

It lives in the deep sea with the swaying seaweed. 

Predators

A fishcat's predators is a whaleshark, sea sharks and octopus of course. An octopus can eat fishcats. The fishcats can swim faster before the octopus gobbles it all up because the tentacles are too short. 

Endangered

This amazing species is endangered. There  are four more left. If you catch one drop your fishing line we don't want to eat any. We can protect the fishcat by making a marine reserve where their predators can not get them.

Created and Written by Marcus

LIBUN

A libun has a big fluffy mane around her neck and a peachy coloured body and sharp claws to catch its feast. It also has a cute fluffy round cream coloured tail.

How does a libun move?

A libun sprints on two legs and bolts on four legs and hops on one leg. 

Diet

A libun catches fish with its sharp claws and a libun hunts people to eat. A libun gobbles its prey up. 

Habitat

A libun lives in a deep dark cave and a pitch black den with all sorts of insects and family.

Enemies

A libuns predators is a sea lion and dogs and cats. They creep up on a libun. To protect  themselves they hop into a hole. The predator scrapes the skin off it.

A libun is the fastest animal in the world and has a man around its neck even when it is a lioness. 

Created and Written by Gwen 

DOGISH

A dogish is half fish and half dog.

Appearance

It has enormous gross lips and fat scales. It has two fins on the side and three

fins at the back.The fins are special because each one is colourful.

Habitat

A dogish lives in a mammoth sea all the way at the bottom of the sea. It lives with a school of other dogish.

Diet

A dogish eats starfish and nemo fish, and sometimes when its really hungry it eats seaweed.

Predators

A Dogish predator is an ugly electric eel who tries to sting him. The dogish protects itself by using its strong tail to swim away and hit the eel on its face.

Endangered

A dogish is endangered because people have been going in the sea and wrecking their home. If you do want a dogish to survive STOP wrecking their home.

Created and Wriiten By Nevaeh

EAGSHARK

An Eagshark is an unique  animal. It is half Eagle and half Shark.

Appearance

An Eagshark has a large 3 meter tail that steers the Eagshark ,a yellow beak that is very sharp ,brown face feathers that keep its face warm. An Eagshark  has 15cm fins that helps it glide through the water and 1m pomamanya (dorsal fin).

Habitat

An Eagshark lives in a sea cave underwater. A Eagsharks sea cave is full of coral and sea kelp. It lives on its own.

Predator

A great white shark tears the Eagshark apart. The Eagshark protects itself by stopping like its frozen and then ...

4 boxes come out both sides and top and bottom. There is a speedy engine part on the back and a gun part on the front .

Diet

A Eagshark is an omnivore. It eats whale sharks and basking sharks because they are sluggish and easy to catch. They also eat coral and sea kelp.

Created and written by James

Our next challenge is to find information about a real animal and write a report.
Keep an eye on the blog for some of these reports over the next few weeks. 

Buster the Rabbit

Room 1617 have a travel bug called Buster the Bunny. Buster the Bunny is going to go travelling around the New Zealand and hopefully the world. Whenever Buster the Bunny goes somewhere new  a message is sent to us and we can find out where he is on the maps in our classroom. 

We walked down to a special place to leave Buster for somebody else to pick up and take on a journey somewhere. 

When we walked to Busters' drop off we needed to cross roads safely. We have been learning how to cross the road and keep ourselves safe. We looked left, right and left again and listened carefully. We noticed cars along the road, cars turning, cars coming out of driveways and bicycles. 

Sienna placing Buster ready for his next adventure

If you would like to know how Buster travels around the world visit www.geocaching.com.

A big thank you to Gwen's Mum for walking with us and helping us cross the road. 

Gymnastics

Parkvale gymnasts performed at the Hastinsg Gymnastics Festival with PRIDE. The children worked really hard to refine their routines over lunchtime practices on Monday and Wednesday showing amazing commitment and determination. 

Each gymnast performed on the vault, beam and floor. Mrs H and Mrs Ramsay are so proud of all the children who represented Parkvale so well. 

Untitled from kathy ramsay on Vimeo.

A huge thank you to Mrs Wallace who supported us every Monday and Wednesday lunchtime. We really appreciate all the encouragement you gave to the children. We could not have done it without you. 

Blending

We have been learning to blend colours.

When we blend colours we overlap the colours just a little bit.

We use one colour to pull another colour into it.

We use colours from the same part of the colour wheel, for example a dark blue, medium blue and a light blue. With any colour we blend with we use white. 

We have been learning about how important it is to reuse. We reused magazines and used paper to make out bugs.

Artist Mac

Artist Ruben

Artist Jack C

Artist Niamh

Artist Caitlin

Artist Naomi

Artist Whetu

Artist Coopa

Artist Rain

Artist Sam

To make our flowers we reused old CDS and plastic bags. When we went to the landfill we noticed how many plastic bags were in the landfill. 

Artist James

Artist Tyler

Artist Nevaeh

Artist Joseph

Artist Chahat

Artist Emily

Artist Riley

Artist Bailee

Artist Louisa

If you would like to see more of the fantastic art and blending the children from Room 1617 have created come on in to our classroom.