The Digestive System Inquiry Presentations

Arts Week Clay Sculptures

Room 1 had a creative day making clay sculptures.
We prepared by designing and drawing our sculpture and made a plan how to make it.




After finishing our sculpture a photo was taken. We then took a photo of an area of the school where we would like our sculpture to be displayed.
We used the Google app Pixlr Editor to create an image to show our sculpture in the area of the school we chose.

Food Revolution Day

On Friday the Senior Syndicate took part in Food Revolution Day, a global campaign by Jamie Oliver. The idea of the campaign is to educate students about healthy food in a fun and engaging way and to give students skills so they can lead healthier, happier lives for themselves and their future families. 
We all made the Squash It Sandwich, here is the recipe:-

Makes 4

4 seeded wholegrain rolls

4 radishes

5 cm piece of cucumber

1⁄2 a small carrot

2 cauliflower florets

½ a small red pepper

1⁄2 a small apple (core removed)

1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar

1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

4 sprigs of fresh soft herbs, such as dill, flat-leaf parsley or basil or 2 sprigs of fresh mint

1⁄2 a punnet or 1 handful of salad cress or sprouting herbs

1 handful of fresh podded peas

1 tablespoon sunflower seeds

2 tablespoons quality cottage cheese or cream cheese

2 tablespoons quality houmous

1. On a chopping board, carefully halve the rolls across the middle using a bread knife, to give you a top and a base for each sandwich. Put to one side.
2. Using an eating knife, cut each radish in half length ways, then slice each radish half into 3 pieces and place into a large bowl.
3. Cut the cucumber in half length ways, scoop out the watery seeds with a teaspoon and discard.
4. Slice each cucumber half into 4 pieces, then add to the bowl.
5. Trim the carrot, then cut into 8 even-sized pieces and add to the bowl.
6. Click apart the cauliflower florets and place into the bowl with the stalks.
7. Pull out the pepper’s stalk, tearing out the core, then discard.
8. Scoop out the seeds and white pith with a teaspoon, then discard.
9. Cut the pepper into 4 slices, then cut each slice into 4 pieces. Add the pieces to the bowl.
10. Place the apple half, flat-side down, on the board.
11. Cut the apple into 6 even-sized pieces, then add to the bowl.
12. Place a clean tea towel onto the chopping board and place the vegetables and chopped apple in a pile in the middle.
13. Fold over each corner of the tea towel so your ingredients are wrapped up like a parcel – make sure there are no gaps to stop the vegetables from escaping.
14. Carefully crush and squash the vegetables with a rolling pin until broken down into little pieces.
15. Open up the parcel – if your pieces are still too big, wrap it back up and crush and squash again.
16. Measure the balsamic vinegar and extra virgin olive oil into the empty bowl to make your dressing.
17. Pick the herb leaves, discarding the stalks.
18. Tear the leaves into small pieces, adding them to the bowl as you go.
19. Using scissors, snip the cress or sprouting herbs into the bowl.
20. Add the peas and sunflower seeds to the bowl.
21. Add the squashed vegetables to the bowl, then using the tips of your fingers, carefully toss them in the dressing so they’re nicely coated.
22. Spread the base of each roll with the cottage or cream cheese.
23. Spread the soft side of each top with the houmous.
24. Equally divide the vegetable mixture between the base of each roll.
25. Place the lids on top, houmous-side down, press lightly, then tuck in!

Toku Mihimihi - My Self Introduction

A mihimihi is a short greeting to introduce our self to other people in te reo Māori.

It is an important part of the process of meeting people for the first time.

Room 1’s mihimihi includes where we come from, our nationality (iwi),

mountain (maunga) and river (awa), school, age and name.

To know who we are, we have to know where we come from.

Yum Pumpkin Soup

As part of our Inquiry topic Plant to Plate we made homemade Pumpkin Soup with Mrs Fowler today.

First a very large pumpkin was put in the microwave for 15 minutes to soften up so it could be cut easily.
Then chopped onions and garlic were added to olive oil in a pot to cook. Mrs Fowler taught us that this is called 'sweating off' the onions!
Cut potatoes were then added to the pot and cooked for about 5 minutes.
In another pot two beef stock cubes were added to hot water.
Once the pumpkin was cool enough to hold it was chopped up into pieces and put in with the onions, garlic and potatoes. The the hot stock water was then added and the soup was boiled until the pumpkin was soft.

Mrs Fowler gently took the soup off the stove the mixture was pureed with a hand blender.
Some students thought they didn't like Pumpkin Soup until they tried it and loved it!

Thanks Mrs Fowler for a fantastic day.

Reading at home

Reading for 20+ minutes at home is set homework each day for students in Room 1. 

Below is a link to the National Library that gives some ideas on reading at home. 
It also describes the huge benefits of reading to children throughout their primary years to promote vocabulary understanding and deeper comprehension.

Reading at home - National Library

Planting Beans and Spinach

Before we planted our seeds we investigated a seed by cutting it open to see what we could find out. We found that a seed has a seed coat which is very hard as we had difficulty cutting open the seed. The seed coat helps protect the tiny embryo (plant) that is inside. We could see the tiny embryo which was a dark colour. Inside the seed was white and we found out that this is the food store which is used when the seed is planted and begins to grow.

We then made our own plastic bottle planter and planted a bean seed and some spinach seeds.

We learnt a new word germination, which means "to begin to grow." For germination to happen there needs to be three things: water, oxygen and the right temperature. We have watered our seeds, put them outside everyday in the sun and germination has taken place! Our bean plants and spinach plants are ready to be transferred into a larger area so they can grow bigger.