Save our Sand Dunes!

On Friday Room 4 went down to the New Brighton Sand Dunes. We have been learning in R.E. all about caring for the whenua (land). It was a beautiful and sunny day to learn all about an important part of the land in New Brighton. We met the instructor and she took us down to the dunes and began teaching us all about how dunes are formed from the rocks coming down from the mountains and being ground up by the rivers and ocean to form sand.

We first learnt about how the dunes protect us from the wind and waves. The class was then split into four groups and given the challenge to make a dune 1m long and 30cm high. We then learnt about the special plants that grow on the dunes to hold it in place and protect the animals. Marron grass grows its roots down to hold the dune together, the pingāo grows its roots wide so that it holds the top sand down. The ice plant and purple groundcell provide protection for the animals and add colour to the dunes.

Some of the animals you may find at the dunes are the Katipo spider (New Zealand's only poisonous spider), skinks, and sand scarab beetle. They all like hiding in the plants and the hot dry sand.
It was such an informative trip and was interesting to hear that you can help protect the sand dunes by planting new plants.

Science is fun!

On Wednesday we tried  science experiment, testing surface pressure We blew up balloons and place them under a table. Next students made predictions about how many students could stand on the table before the balloons popped, our guesses were from 0 to 10. In the end we discovered six students could stand on the table.

What we discovered is if the more balloons there were the more they could absorb the weight. We learnt about how the density of an object affects its ability to absorb pressure from another object. Look out on the students blogs for their recount on the science experiment.

Amazing Athletics

On Tuesday the class competed in their very first senior Athletics day. This was good practice for the following years when they will qualify for zones. I was so impressed with how everyone gave it their best go and gave everything a try.

We finished off the day with a house relay where the teachers ran the first part of the relay. It was lots of fun and very tiring, the next day a lot of people had sore muscles.