Did you know there are animals in H.E.S?

Did you know there are animals in H.E.S?

On Raapa o 26 te Whiringa-a-nuku Room 9 explored their school (Hamilton East School). They were hunting for animals.

First they spotted some bees in the butterfly garden. Did you know in a hive there are 3 kinds of bees? The Queen, the worker and the drone.

In H.E.S’s Totara tree there is a bat house. Bats may sleep in there during the day. Bats send signals to find food and the signal bounce back to them to say where the food is.

Lots of mosquitoes have been found breeding in the H.E.S. pool. It is only the female mosquitoes that bite you and make you itch. The school caretaker, Dugan, has emptied the pool to prevent this happening to everyone at Hamilton East.

Ants like to crawl on top of the gardens at Hamilton East. There are more than 12,000 species of ants in the world. Which ones are there at H.E.S?

Cockroaches have invaded the weta house near Putikitiki. Cockroaches can live up to a week without their head. No cockroaches without heads have been found at H.E.S. The search continues.

Monarch caterpillars and butterflies are gathered at the butterfly garden because it is Spring. Caterpillar are the common name for larvae of the butterfly. Caterpillars can be pests because they are voracious feeders. At H.E.S people see these caterpillars eating away all the swan plants.

Ladybugs, that are not really bugs at all are actually beetles. Some ladybirds are found near flowers in our gardens.

Spiders are not insects. There are around 4000 species of spiders. Some species spotted at this school are daddy-long legs and white tails.

Sparrows are a very small bird. It can reach 4 to 8 inches in length and 0.8 to 14gms weight. Sparrows have a dark body with brown (male), black and white (female) feathers, but it’s wings are round. Sparrows enjoy the decks and trees and ground areas to play in at H.E.S.

Tui can be seen by the gardens and in the trees singing their songs. Kowhai trees are there favourite. They belong to the honey eating family which is why they drink from the Kowhai tree. They can be found on all three of NZ’s islands.

All blackbirds are not the same. They are very common and can be found in many places in Hamilton.

Fantails are also found at H.E.S. There are 10 types of fantails but only 3 types live in NZ. The oldest fantail is 3 years old, that is very old for a fantail.

In conclusion many animals were found at H.E.S. from insects to birds to arachnids, and even some human mammals have been spotted. Come and check out these animals.  

Newspaper Report Writing Rubric Level 3

	Checklist
My report tells about something new, important, unusual or interesting.	✔
My piece has a headline.	✔
My headline gets the readers attention and tells about the main idea of the news story.	✔
The introduction comes next. It is short and tells who, when, what, where.	✔
The rest of my writing tells more facts, that I have researched.	✔
I told about the news happening to someone else.- I have not used “I”	✔
I have not wasted words.	✔
I have underlined and corrected my spelling, and attempted tricky words I don’t know.	✔
All my sentences start with a capital letter and end with a full stop.	✔
I have tried using brackets ( ) commas , or speech marks “ ”	✔

Oral language: Speaking and listening

We found a link to New Zealand birds to listen to. We listened to some different bird calls: A female kiwi, and a male kiwi; a tui, North Island fantail, a parakeet, a pigeon. After we listen to each one we talked to a partner about what we thought they sounded like. 

This was our learning for speaking and listening today.

The toolkit
We think - we are curious.
We are literate - we speak in a range of contexts daily.
We participate and contribute - we link to others with our blog and we are an enviro school.

Enviro-tour writing

WALT participate and contribute to our enviro-school.

• Know what makes us an enviro school
• Think of what we need to do to continue to be an enviro school
• Write a description of our hunt for all enviro-school elements at H.E.S.

Devon

I heard the birds tweeting like water spattering in my ear. My friends, Erana and Quartez and I ran up the hill like bulls chasing someone. The smell of fresh air was coming through my nose and out my mouth.

We all rushed up and down stairs and hills. We all scrambled to the last spot. We went through a tunnel with knives and sharks attacking you. Finally we got through that and we saw Tawhiti standing there with a box. Tawhiti opened the box, cockroaches popped out. They fell into a pile of leaves. I could see the leaves moving as if the wind was moving them. We ran out through the tunnel.

Up a big hill, we ran into the garden and sat on the new seat, and rested like bats in Winter. We scrambled through the garden and stood near the tree. Near the entrance of the garden, we thought we heard fantails tweeting, but what we actually heard was a tui.

The teacher called us,

“Stand by the gate and listen to the tui. The tui is telling you something.”

We sat by the gate and listened.

Then we went to find something else. We saw a wooden box, in a tree. It had a picture of a bat on it. We took pictures of it, then we dashed right back to class and had a rest.

Tayla

First I was going to put on my purple sneakers. My class and I were looking at the Migrant Mother’s garden. I love looking at the green plants and the grey machine with water in it.

Then we went down Putikitiki. We went down this sharp, prickly cave. It felt like little piranhas biting me. I smelled rubbish, I picked it up.

Then we went back to our class. I wonder if we can go on another hunt.

Michelle

A moment in time was when our class, Room 9, went for a walk. We talked about the Migrant Mother’s garden. Then we went to the Redwood tree and talked about it. It is really tall. We walked down middle then went down Putikitiki. We went through that hole. It was prickly and I saw a cockroach house.

Ben

First we looked at what the Migrant Mother’s did. I smelt green plants in a dirty pit. All of us looked around the school. I heard tui, up, up, up into the tree. I saw flat, spiky leaves. The more I thought, the more I saw. Then we headed to Room 9. We talked about everything we saw.

Anab

Yesterday our class was investigating what makes our school an Enviro-School. We went down Putikitiki to see what kind of things were there. On our way we collected all sorts of rubbish! Later on we got to have a look at the weta house. It was prickley and spikey, itchy on it’s path. When we got there the weta house was taken over by cockroaches. On the way back up the path, was even worse than before. We ran up the hill, like it was a mountain.

Tawhiti

We were in class. The whole class was going to learn about how our school is an Enviro-School. First we went outside. We saw a garden. It was the Migrant Mother’s garden. Then we went to Putikitiki. I found a cockroach house. It was hideous, I couldn’t stand opening the wooden door. Then we went back to our peaceful happy class. Then we did a brainstorm. A cool one, and once we were done I went to the fun bus.

Abagail

We were talking about what we would see in the enviro medal that is in our school. We looked at some stuff, like what to look out for and what makes us an enviro medal.

We went to see what kind of gardens we would see. We looked at the Migrant Mother’s gardens and we saw the water tank, that a class long ago put there. It watered the plants for them. We looked for little insects.

We went down to the Redwood tree that is the oldest tree in the school. I wonder how long it has been there. It looked like our boss of our school. We hear a lot of cars going past our school and I think it scares the birds away sometimes.

We also went to look for a weta house and there was cockroaches inside it. We had to go through some evil prickles to get through. It was so smelly, it smelled like a dead rat, it did not smell good.

We looked at some plants like the plain tree. We all walked through the new path to go to the gardens. We looked at the glasshouse and the new seats inside the gardens.

We went up to the Totara tree and looked for the bat house. We also saw the blackbirds in the Totara tree.

We walked past the Kauri tree and the Kowhai tree. We all felt tired after that big walk.

Maria

We zoomed off like stomping elephants to get our shoes on. Next we looked at the Migrant Mother’s garden. There was a water tank to collect the water from the sky. We were off to go down to Putikitiki. I went down the slide. “Weee!” I said.

“Look at that” someone said, “I found a pathway!” We lined up to go inside. “Ouch, ouch” I said. There were spiky leaves poking into me. It felt like mini knives. Finally we were there. Tawhiti lifted up this wooden box. There were cockroaches inside, then it was time to come out. This time I got whacked in the face with spikes. Everyone had a turn.

We went to the garden. This mysterious bridge was there we went over it and it led us to the garden. We listened hard and heard the birds talking to each other, tweet tweet. Then we saw this glasshouse, it was called the greenhouse. We sat down on our new bench. It was plain, pale, then I saw this beautiful leaf. It was soft on one side and rough on the other. I smelt the compost. Down we went on the new passage way.

It was time to go back to the class, but before that we spotted the bat house. It looked more like a bird’s house. Then I slipped off my shoes and went inside.

Phoenix

We were marching down to the garden. As we were walking I nearly fell on the ground. Luckily I had my hands to grab something to stop me from falling. We were talking about our school environment.

When we were finished talking we were going down Putikitiki hill. I heard there was a cockroach house and we had to go through these prickly bushes. I could feel these knives poking me. I saw the cockroach house, and Tayla opened the wall. There was the ultimate cockroach.

We walked up the hill and saw the bat house.

James

I walked with the teacher to the Migrant Mother’s garden. I asked Whaea Georgia “I need to go to the toilet” and Whaea Georgia said “Yes!”

I went and then came back and started to go near the nature trail. We looked at the beautiful ferns and looked at other plants, and then we looked at the amazing Redwood tree and we sat down on the hard strong plastic rocks with our feet touching the hard bark from all the trees planted there. I walked with most of Room 9 down the hard wooden stairs and then I walked the rocky Putikitiki hill. We all stopped for a few seconds while Tawhiti was trying to look for a weta house. We started to go down more and we looked at the Kowhai tree and then we all went to a few trees to look at the blackbirds.

Tawhiti found the weta nest and we came up the hill to see it. I started to come down through the ouchy cave. It hurts lots and it was very hard for me to get through. It felt like it took three minutes because it hurt so much. I finally came through and I saw the wooden weta house. Tawhiti opened it so I could look inside. I took a few photos. The evil cockroaches stole the weta house and marked it for their own, and his family now owns it! I went out.

Whaea Georgia said “go quickly through” so I did. I came out and then I walked to middle and Whaea Georgia showed us a new bridge. We came up the rock hard wooden bridge and went to the garden. We came back to class.

Pita

Yesterday we went by a dusty fence that smelt like rare cupcakes. Then after we wandered by the slide and looked at the Redwood tree. We saw thousands of long branches on top of it. Then we went down to Putikitiki and saw all of the pretty flowers. After that we ran to the Migrant Mother’s garden and saw heaps and heaps of vegetables. Soon after we went to the Migrant Mother’s garden we went back to class and did some class singing time. Then the bell rang and we went home.

Detroit

We went on an enviro hunt, and first we went to the Migrant Mother’s garden. After that we went to Putikitiki to look at the trees, then we went in this pathway down the bank by Putikitiki. There were spikes everywhere. I could feel the spikes poking my back as I went in. It smelt kind of like mint. Then I saw a cockroach house. I saw four cockroaches. We went to the Redwood tree. It’s the biggest tree in the school.

Quartez

Our class went to look at the environment. First we went to the Migrant Mother’s. I could smell the spring onions. We walked down to Putikitiki. Then we walked through the thorny bushes. It felt like tiny men were shooting at me. I saw a cockroach house. There were millions! I could taste the air and heard birds chirping in the sky. We wondered if the birds would eat the cockroaches.

Aniket

Our class was wondering about the environment and what makes us an enviro school. Our class saw rubbish, out over the bins. Then our class went to our school’s redwood tree. Our school redwood tree was the biggest tree ever. Then we ran down Putikitiki. Whaea Georgia told us that the plants are planted. We saw weta houses but the cockroaches took over it. Then we walked to our school garden. Then we ran to class but it was fun. It was a good day. We had two Just Dances then the bell rang and we went home.

Dakota

We went for an enviro hunt. We went to the garden and the middle of Putikitiki. We saw a weta house and there were spikes. It hurt. There were cracked stones, they were big. Next we went to see the bat house and the bat house was small. After that we got back to class.

Sam

I saw a new bridge and a new path and it was really cool. I went through it. We know Room 9 once saw a bat home one a tree and I loved it.

Ahmed

We were curling around the school. We went to Rm 7’s garden and we looked at the plants. We went the garden, the real Hamilton East School garden. We sat by the green garden and saw some new plants. Then down Putikitiki we looked for a tunnel.

Micah

Firstly we saw the Migrant Mother’s garden. I was fresh. The sparkling water drops fell off. Then we went to the giant Redwood tree. It is a Grandpa. We want a Green-Gold. Animals love our school. We take care of them too. There is a lot of space to play on. We have compost and we celebrate other cultures. We met up at the hall to give awards.

Samaa

We went to go around the school. First we went to the weta and cockroach house. When I went there I feel like I was in stinking land. When I arrived at the weta and cockroach house I saw all kinds of bugs. When I got out of the weta and cockroach house, I said to myself “I wonder if worms are bug?”

So we went to the garden but we went a different way. First we saw a bridge so we went there to go to the other side garden way. I felt I was in a dream. We went and saw plants.

Kaya

What we saw around the school.

As we started our walk we saw the beautiful Migrant Mother’s garden they had made, it had lettuce, spring onions and spinach.

Then we had a look at the bat house. I couldn’t even see it, it was so high up. I kept looking around and around and around. It took me so long I thought it was camouflaged, then finally I saw it. After all that looking around we scurried to go and see the new bridge. It was so wobbly, I felt like I was going to trip over. While I was climbing up the little hill, I got flicked in the leg by a stick, but it didn’t really hurt. It hurt a little bit. When we got up the hill we got to see the garden. I could smell compost, it was like rotten egg land. It stank so much. I tried to run as if I was a cheetah.

In the next minute I got sight of the beautiful garden. I saw some corn and strawberries and tomatoes, and some stalks of beans. When we got out of the garden we ran towards the hill that goes down towards Putikitiki. Tawhiti said that he saw a cockroach and weta house. I really wanted to see it. I went down the hill to the cockroach house. On the way there were thousands of evil prickles trying to attack me (I think!).

‘Ow, ow, ow you evil thorns, stop hurting me’ I shouted (me thinking to myself), ‘Hmmm if it is hurting so much like this then maybe I should get out.’

Once I got out we all started walking directly towards the class. On the way we talked about all the things we saw and we thought and we felt. On the way back I heard a beautiful tui saying goodbye to us while we were leaving.

Erana

My class and I were having a tour around our school. First we went and looked at all of our gardens. The first garden we looked at was the Migrant Mother’s garden. I could see green onions. Then we to the one that was across from us. Like on the other side. We looked at all the roses. I could hear birds chirping. We went back to the Migrant Mother’s garden then we went down the steps like a bird flock of birds. We went down the steps to look down at Putikitiki. We got to go in this spiky bush. There was also a wasp house too but there were angry cockroaches in there. I thought it was a wasp house. We went back out through the spiky bush. Me and Devon were picking up rubbish, so was Quartez. We were keeping our school an enviro-school. Quartez and I had the most rubbish and then Tayla wanted to help so I said yes. She already had some rubbish but then she gave the rubbish to Quartez and me. We ran up the hill and back to class.

Shaurav

Yesterday we went to look around the school, to see if we are an enviro-school. First we went to the Totara tree then we went down middle. When we were on the stairs the teacher gave James and me ipads to take pictures. After that James and I started taking pictures. Then we got to go down Putikitiki. There was a mysterious place. It was covered in spiky branches and it really hurt. Everyone had a turn. There was a weta house but the cockroaches took over!! After that we got out, but it was it was tricky getting out. Luckily we got out. Last we headed back to the classroom.

Raedence

I could smell the fresh air with wind blowing the trees like they were waving hello. I could hear the tuis singing songs as we whistled to them. We went 3 by 3 to see the cockroach and weta house. It was very hard to get there. We had to go through spikes and they were like evil prickles defeating us (it felt sore). Then we went to the garden behind the hall. There is a new shortcut to get there. We had a look and sat down, then we went back to class. We talked about what we saw too. I thought that if we saw the wetas that they would bite me!!

Planet Earth Art

An experience outside.

Read Room 9's descriptions of a moment in time we spend outside to work out what we were doing.

Big balls of fluff fly above. They were right in my eyes. I wondered where was the sun going. They were like ice creams flying. It was very very bright.

By Ben

I could feel a swirl of dust on my feet.

I could hear a machine dashing upon the ground.

I could see pitch black because it was too bright to look up and then see all that was in front of me.

The taste of dust almost made me cough.

I thought of the swirl of wind in my ear.

By Devon

I saw the  fluffy animals moving in sky.

I heard cars, motorbikes, birds chirping.

I was thinking how clouds are made.

I could feel the tiny hard rocks. My eyes getting sore from the Sun.

By Pita

Whipped cream in the sky.

I could hear a whole lot of enormous cars coming towards us while we were lying down.

I was thinking that if i was on a cloud i would fly everywhere.

I felt a bit sore on my back and my eyes  were getting so so sore.

By Shaurav

Fluffy marshmallows flew in the wind.

I could hear noises from the bushes.

I could see birds flying through the sky.

I was thinking if I ate a cloud it would taste like whipped cream.

It felt like my eyes were hurting when I looked up in the sun.

By Dakota

I saw big puffy marshmallows in different shapes going past. I heard peaceful wind going past like waves of water except it was the wind. I felt peaceful.

By Detroit

Big and furry candy floss was in the stream sweeping away while I was dazing at the sky. I heard machines roaring at different speed on the massive grey path. I wondered what makes up the shapes of the furry candy and why is furry candy floss is just a colour of dull wool. I felt the stream blowing warm all over me and my eyes hurt like grey scratchy rubber.

By James

Pouffy animals  move in the wind. The whistling wind in the are. I felt waves of water. I saw the bright light in my eyes.

By Micah

It was like I was sitting under white ice cream. I could hear the birds chirping away. I saw the white ice cream changing shapes above me.

By Quartez

It was like whipped cream in the sky. I could hear loud  engines driving along.I could see pouffy white curled up blankets in the sky. I thought if I touched them what would happen?

By Raedence

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