Exciting week 4 and upcoming week 5

Dear parents and whanau,

Sadly the weather didn't behave itself last week and we didn't get to visit the Botanic Gardens. Your child will be coming home with the $5 you sent in for the trip.

On the upside last week was a great week of learning. We had a dog education visit from the council, every Monday we are learning new basketball skills with ex basketball players and we tasted kawakawa from our very own rongoa garden.

This week we are investigating waste and landfills as we will be hosting the upcoming Green Day assembly in week 7. The theme for the assembly is waste and landfills. Make sure you pop in and support our assembly on Thursday week 7.

Water Science and Urban Design

Dear parents and whanau,

Learning about our beautiful rongoa garden last week saw the students think like scientists and write fantastic diamante poems. We learnt about descriptive verbs, nouns and adjectives to create our interesting verses. (Photos of work will be posted soon.)

This coming Friday we are excited to be going to the Auckland Botanic Gardens for a fun day of learning. We are going to be learning about how we can save our streams from further pollution and flooding. Please remember to send the permission slip and $5 to your child's teacher this week.

Previously this year we were invited to share our ideas with a team of people from the council who are redesigning the green and community areas around the Oakley Stream. Our trip to the gardens will reinforce the importance of urban design taking into consideration our precious water ways.

Now on display in the hall foyer is a collaborative art project from across the school showing the children's interpretation of a stream's journey.

This week we will be learning and enjoy talking to you about:

the Earth's water sources
collecting data, analysing and drawing conclusions
the story of Wairaka

Science Week

Science Week

4 – 8 May

Dear Parents and Whanau,

To celebrate Science Week each class will be learning to think like a scientist.  We will be carrying out investigations in class and encouraging children to talk about this learning with you.

Room 17 will be learning about the healing properties of many of our native plants that grow in our very own Rongoa garden. Please ask your child to:

• name four different plants that grow in our Rongoa Garden
• name and explain the various uses of four native plants
• explain perimeter and area of various shapes
• explain what the terms profit, loss and cost mean in terms of making and selling ointments

Science Selfies

No, we don’t want a picture of you but a picture of any wonderful science learning you do at home!

Take a photo or record yourself, and send it to Miss Green, our resident science lover.  Email it to: jgreen@owairaka.school.nz  by Monday 11 May.  We will be sharing all of your great home Science learning during our assembly on Friday 15 May.  There will be spot prizes for a lucky few home scientists!

Learning About What's Good For Our Bodies

The past week we were all very excited to be part in fun lessons in the Life Education Trailer.

We learnt about all the basics to live a healthy lifestyle and how a few of our body's systems work.

It was fascinating to learn how to read the nutrition labels on the back of our favourite cereals, chocolate bars and snack bars. We were amazed at how much sugar was in fruit cereal bars compared to chocolate bars. We discovered the best cereal for us in the mornings was Weetbix as it's low in fat and sugar. The great thing about Weetbix is that we will feel fuller for longer than if we ate a bowl of Coco-Pops or Nutrigrain for breakfast.

We loved the star lights in the trailer and singing 'harry-oke' with Harold the Giraffe on Friday afternoon.