Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Lest We Forget - ANZAC Day 2012




Our very own ANZAC poppy - growing in our  class garden on 24th  April 2012

We have our school Anzac Assembly on 
Friday 27th April
at 11:00 a.m. 
in our school hall. 
Parents, community and friends of our class and school 
are invited to attend our special assembly 




ANZAC Services and Parades in Manurewa on ANZAC Day.


Manurewa Dawn Parade and Service
Where Manurewa Cenotaph, corner Great South and Hill Roads
Service commences 6am
Parade assembly 5.45am - RSA, Maich Road, Manurewa
Parade starts After assembly
Contact

Ross Gallagher 027 499 9447


Manurewa Civic Parade and Service
Where Manurewa Cenotaph, corner Great South and Hill Roads
Service commences 10.30am
Parade assembly 9.45am - outside RSA, Maich Road
Parade starts 10am
Road closure details Hill Road, Maich Road, Northcrest Road, Great South Road
Contact:  Stella Cattle 0274 889 562



Here's a link to our Term two team newsletter. 





Friday, April 20, 2012

New Movie: Caterpillars II - When Chrysalises Go Bad



A holiday project by Mrs Vincent.

Here is my first attempt at an imovie.
It's not quite Lord of the Rings, but it was days in the making - and the result of much trial and many errors.

My academy award speech: I'd like to thank Miss Gifford for teaching me how to use imovie - and helping me out at regular intervals when I couldn't remember what to do.

Monday, April 16, 2012

Our Garden - On Holiday ...


 Special Request from Mrs Whitehead: To make hobo stoves for our Year 8 camp, we need clean empty Sweetened Condensed Milk tins and any clean, empty catering size tins. Please send these along to Mrs Whitehead or Mrs Vincent as soon as possible.


Here's what our garden looks like in the middle of the Easter holidays.
All the chrysalises have hatched and there are no signs of any caterpillars. Some of the swan plants are starting to recover and new leaves are starting to shoot from the bare stalks.

There were two  - or three - butterflies in our garden; one  looked reasonably young - and could have been recently hatched because it rested for a ling time with its wings closed. Another fluttered and rested occasionally before moving on again. It was a darker and the wings were starting to look a little tattered - just.

Don't you think the wings look just a bit tattered? Do you think this is a male or female?

This is another butterfly that flew in for a visit. Do you think it's the  the same butterfly as above?


Is this a male or a female butterfly? How do you know?



 The aphids are still on the busy Lizzies, the oranges are starting to turn ... orange - ever so slightly, and the olives are starting to look a little lighter in colour. 
The aphids are still on the busy Lizzie.


When is an orange orange?

Is an olive olive?

An empty chrysalis.



Check out the butterfly tagging project  explained on TVNZ Good Morning Programme


Wednesday, April 4, 2012

Our Latest Video - What's in Huia 1's Garden?



Made by Kyran, Cameron W, Trent, Lauren, Latrey - and a lot of insects and plants.

The Mysterious Spider

It was the last day of the term and we were decorating our Anthology poem.

Glen was opening the windows when suddenly ...  an exo-skeleton of a spider dropped onto Kylah's book.

She screamed;  Lauren screamed as well. We were  not sure what spider the exo-skeleton belonged to.

It had fangs and beady eyes. Lauren and Kylah named the mysterious spider Dave.

As soon as it fell out of the sky,  Mrs.Vincent said,  "Quick,  get a camera and take pictures of it."

We still don't know what spider  the mysterious exoskeleton  came from ....*this needs more research

Here are some photos of our mysterious spider ... Dave.

This is how big it is compared to the ruler.


This is the exo-skeleton .





Kylah broke it.


Monday, April 2, 2012

Our Garden After the Weekend.

The black chrysalis has not hatched yet. It seems to be taking its time and we are wondering if it might have died. We will wait and see what happens.

The two chrysalises on the tape holding the olive tree to its stake are still going well.

What happens to a swan plant when all the caterpillars have gone - even though it was eaten down to a leafless stalk?

The apples are looking almost ready to eat. The gladioli bulbs have died back and the weeds are growing - but too many chrysalises could be lost if we start pruning and weeding the garden at the moment.

The two chrysalises under the thick leaves of the succulent plant seem to be doing OK still. One may have a bot of a dent or scar on it. Time will tell. The other has an unusual way of attaching itself to the leaf. Instead of attaching its cremaster to a silk button, it has almost made a silk web for itself.

We still have aphids - although there was no sign of ants this afternoon .

If you look very, very closely, you might see one ant - and some little white things. I'm not sure what they are yet. This will need further investigation.


Some of the last of our transplanted caterpillars on our newly planted swan plant. It's taking them a while to eat and they don't seem nearly as enthusiastic as our first lot of caterpillars. This may be diseased as some of the caterpillars on this plant fell off and died - or oozed green fluid, and then died.



Look at this kind of caterpillar that has arrived on one of our flowering plants! Is it a 'goody' or a 'baddy' for our garden?

One of the last of our caterpillars. Can you tell which end is which?

One of our three new swan plants has been completely stripped by the transplanted caterpillars - even though they seemed a bit slow last week. This is where the twitching caterpillars were. There's no sign of any caterpillars or chrysalises.


No caterpillars appear to have found the third of our new swan plants. It's still uninhabited - and it's less than three metres form the other plants.

This is one 'ward' of our chrysalis hospital.

Here are two more 'wards' of our chrysalis hospital. Note the curved chrysalis on the left . 

Last week, instead of buddy reading with Tui1 we did buddy writing with Tui1. 
  
One day there were two brothers named Jet and Winter . Jet had just turned into a chrysalis and Winter was not far away from turning into a chrysalis. 

Winter was watching  Jet transform into a chrysalis. When he finally transformed,  Winter had a strange look on his face. Along came his friend, Poppa Smurf. 

Poppa Smurf said,  "Why are you so down, Winter?" 

Winter said,  "Because of the shape of Jet's chrysalis. Poppa Smurf said that Jet may have a disease." Winter  then said, "I am going to call Nurse Shayla!"

 In that time, Jet fell to the ground. When nurse Shayla arrived, she said that there is not much we can do besides taking him back to the hospital. There we can tie him to a piece of thread and peg him to a container with a soft tissue  in the base, and wait and see what happens.
By Shayla and Daniel Tui1





Progress report on Lauren's rescued caterpillars. They look a bit healthier than our ones left at school. What do you think?

A swan plant with seed pods on it.

Fat, healthy caterpillars.