Making artificial magnets in room 5

Br Oscar and Rhys

This year in room 5 on the first of September we were making artificial magnets. The day before in the investigation we were meant to make artificial magnets out of nails. but we couldn't get these to work,   So we tried again with the nails and then with paper clips and even a spoon!!! The strongest one was probably a spoon which picked up 6 paper clips!!!  We need to redo our investigation with spoons to see if the amount of strokes changes the strength of our TEMPORARY magnets.

Here's Hana picking up 6 paper clips with a SPOON!!! (It doesn't look like it but it is real.We idn't use photoshop). 

Here are some more photos of people picking up paper clips with artificial magnets.

Here's Holly who got the first 2 paper clips with a nail. (Room 5 history)

Taku Akomanga Vocab

Watch the Mice are stirring on Reomations
to see how many words you know

The Mice are Stirring


Here is the script to check what you know

Transcript and Translation

Speaker	Māori	English
Rōpū tamariki (off-screen)	Ka oreore ngā kiore	The mice are stirring
Rōpū tamariki (off-screen)	Ka kuhu te kiore ki te rūma. Ka peke. Ka āta haere ia. Ka oma ki raro i ngā tūru. Ka tae ki ngā pukapuka. Ka piki ki runga. Ka peke ki te tēpu. Ka takahurihuri haere. Ka ohorere. Ka oma, ka heke ki raro. Ka kuhu ki roto i te kāpata.	The mouse enters the room. It jumps. It moves slowly. It runs under the chairs. It arrives at the books. It climbs on top. It jumps to the table. It turns around. It darts off. It runs and goes down. It goes into the cupboard.
Kiore	Ka oreore ko ngā kiore Ka oho, ka korikori e Kei te mahi tahi, te iti me te rahi Mai te ahiahi, ki te weherua pō! Āta nekeneke, āta nukunuku Kia tūpato, kia mataara Ki te ngeru weriweri O te kura nei!!	The mice are stirring. They wake up and move. They work together – the small ones and the big ones. From afternoon, to midnight! Moving slowly, moving carefully Be careful, keep watch For the awful cat Of this school!

Here are all the words in Te Reo for things around our classroom / taku akomanga

Try to learn them all and use them

akomanga	classroom
kaiako	teacher
kāpata	cupboard
karaka	clock
kūaha	door
kura	school
kutikuti	scissors
makatiti	stapler
matapihi, wini	window
mea	thing
papamā	whiteboard
papatuhituhi	blackboard
peita	paint
pēke	bag
pene	pen
pene hinu	crayon
pene rākau	pencil
pepa	paper
pikitia	picture
pukapuka	book
raiti	light
rapa, ūkui	rubber
rorohiko	computer
rūri	ruler
tēpu	table
tūru	chair
whāriki	mat

Netball

Netball

by Eila and Karisa

Every Monday and Wednesday girls at PPS in year 4 and 6 play netball over the North Shore. The girls in the netball wear a skirt and shirt that say Ponsonby on the back. 
In netball you are not allowed to wear jewellery on and your not allowed to do a thing called contact.  This is when you push and shove. 

The year 4 team has to get to school at 8:00 until 9:00 to practise. Each week the teams play either at 4:00 to 5:00 and 5:00 to 6:00.   Each school has a umpire that tells you if it was not right. The PPS empire is called Ella and she used to go to PPS.

Miss Cowsill has added some photos from last night.

How the World Works - Magnets

Our inquiry this term started with a  wondering, as all good inquiries do - Hamish's wondering - how do birds navigate when they migrate? He wondered this after learning about how Maori used the stars to navigate in his Matariki research.



Watch the video again to find out about this.

What scientists have found

Now read a bit more about what scientists are doing.

Birds Can "See" Earth's Magnetic Field

John Roach
for National Geographic News

September 27, 2007

To find north, humans look to a compass. But birds may just need to open their eyes, a new study says.

Scientists already suspected birds' eyes contain molecules that are thought to sense Earth's magnetic field. In a new study, German researchers found that these molecules are linked to an area of the brain known to process visual information.

n that sense, "birds may see the magnetic field," said study lead author Dominik Heyers, a biologist at the University of Oldenburg.

Magnetic Orientation

Human-made compasses work by using Earth as an enormous magnet and orienting a tiny magnet attached to a needle to the planet's north and south poles.

Scientists have thought for years that migratory birds may use an internal compass to navigate between their nesting areas and wintering grounds, which can be separated by thousands of miles. (Related news: "Migrating Birds Reset 'Compasses' at Sunset, Study Says" [April 15, 2004].)

The new research helps explain how this natural compass may work.

Heyers and his colleagues injected migratory garden warblers with a special dye that can be traced as it travels along nerve fibers.

The team put one type of tracer dye into the eyes and another in a region of the brain called Cluster N, which is most active when birds orient themselves.

When the birds got their bearings, both tracers traveled to and met in the thalamus, a region in the middle of the brain responsible for vision.

"That shows there is direct linkage between the eye and Cluster N," Heyers said.

The finding strongly supports the hypothesis that migratory birds use their visual 

The finding strongly supports the hypothesis that migratory birds use their visual system to navigate using the magnetic field.

"The magnetic field or magnetic direction may be perceived as a dark or light spot which lies upon the normal visual field of the bird," Heyers said, "and which, of course, changes when the bird turns its head."

The study was published in a recent issue of the Public Library of Science journalPLoS ONE.

We need to explore magnets ourselves in class to understand more.  

Please, we need magnets to help with this!

What do you think we need to understand about magnets? Make a comment about this.

Matariki - Te Uru Gallery visit

Te Uru

As part of our Matariki Inquiry  all of Puriri visited Te Uru, an art gallery in Titirangi, to learn and make our version of a Maori taonga called  Hei Matau.



Here are some photos of Monday's visit.

When we went to Te Uru art gallery,we went into a room which had tons and tons of photograph on the walls. My favourite part of the pictures was the horse.

We had to draw a dark forest out of pipes which was made by an artist.

Everyone looked hard at the sculpture then concentrated as they drew different sorts of lines .  We tried to show dark and light tones with our pencils.

This is the lady at Te Uru Gallery showing us how to make fish hooks for Matariki. We used clay to make the fish hooks, and we carved and made our own patterns.  

Here are some hooks from the past. One special hook could even fish up the land.
We made some fish hooks, and made them from clay. We found it very
hard at some points, but in the end we found it really fun!!  

                                         This is us listening to the teacher for the next step of making our hei matau.

After the visit, the people who hadn't painted their hei matau, got to paint them at school. Everybody  got to PVA glue their hei matau on black cardboard.

                                         This is how the hei matau look once they were completed.
We would love to hear your thoughts about the day. Please add your comment to this post.

Term 3 welcome

Hi Room 5,

Welcome back to school for an action packed term of learning.  I hope you have all had a great break and are rested and ready to work.

We are straight in to our Speech Presentations as the  finalists need to be decided on by Week 3.  The first lot of presenters are on Tuesday.  I hope everyone has been practising and ready to take up this challenge.  The timetable is on the homework sheet for this week but here is another copy of it for you to check when your turn is.

Speech Timetable Room 5

Tues  26th July	Wed  27th July	Thurs 28th July	Fri 29th July	Mon 1st Aug
Seb Oscar Karisa Ava Ojas Berenger	Jamie Frankie Chenelle Sybilla Damar Biba	Rhys Hana Evie F Aleeza Hamish	Jack W Catherine Evie H Alfie Jack D. Kip	Holly Jackson Eila Frances Joban

The School Art Exhibition is also happening in Week 4.  Congratulations to all of you who have completed your pastel  Room 5 Bather drawings.  I loved framing these in the holidays as I could really see how many pastel techniques you had tried to use in your work - just like Degas.  The body shapes and towels, even though they were very challenging, show lots of thought and problem solving.  Well done!

Here is a couple of finished pieces -

What are your goals for this third term in Year 4?  Start thinking about what you'd like to focus on this term in this last week of Matariki. 

Te Mata Peak by Berenger

On Saturday when I was in Hawkes bay, me (Berenger) and my friend Angus and our mothers went to Te Mata Peak.

Here is part of the legend: 

Many centuries ago when New Zealand only was inhabited by the Māori people, there was a pa with a Pakipaki chief, and he and his people were under threat of war from the coastal tribes of Waimarama.

Hinerakau, the daughter of the Pakipaki chief, would get to the leader of the Waimarama tribes, a giant called Te Mata, to fall in love with her turning his thoughts from war to peace, but she too fell in love.

The people of Heretaunga, however, hadn't forgotten about the past and their revenge, demanded that Hinerakau should make Te Mata prove his worthiness by being set seemingly impossible tasks. The last task was to bite his way through the mountain between the coast and the plains so the people could come and go with greater ease.

He died trying to prove his love and today you can still see his half accomplished work.

I think that you should go to Hawkes bay to see Te Mata.

By Berenger Iverson

P.S. Don't fall down!