Green Day Term 1

This term for green day we pulled the weeds from along the fenceline and behind some of the classes. We also picked up any rubbish we found. It looks much tidier now!

Jack Flash

Today we watched a funny play of Jack Flash and the jumping beanstalk. Jack had the task of finding out who was dropping rubbish from out of the sky. You can guess who the culprit was.... it was the giant. We really enjoyed the jokes, funny parts, songs and the storyline.

Stormwater drains

On Tuesday we watched a show presented by the Auckland Council on protecting our stormwater drains.

We learnt the following things:

- always wash our cars on the lawns or at the car wash

- pick up litter from the kerb so that it doesn't go down the drain

- check for leaking taps and tell someone

- let the council know if the stormwater drain caps are coming off

- to never wash oil into the stormwater drains

and lastly rain should be the only thing going down a stormwater drain.

Our letters head off to Room 30

This year we are going to be buddies with another school. We have written letters to Room 30 at Point View School. We hope they arrive before the holidays and that they will be excited to be our buddies. We are looking forward to getting a reply to our letter.

Tate's report on bush fires.

Bush fires in Australia

Bush fires are fires that rage through the bush and cause lots of damage, and can spread and destroy villages. So planes, fire trucks and choppers have to go get water pour it all over the top of the fire to put it out.

In southeast Australia, bush fires tend to be most common and most severe during summer and autumn, in drought years, and particularly in El Nino years. In the north of Australia, bush fires usually occur during summer (the dry season), and fire severity tends to be more associated with seasonal growth patterns.

They happen mostly in Hobart, Melbourne, Perth and a few other places in Australia. Some of Australia’s worst fires are in thick bush areas.

Fire fighters look for a natural edge or boundary, such as a road, stream or plain field, and they do a controlled burn of all the fuel between the barrier and the fire. This means that before the fire gets there, it would have already burned out.

In my opinion, I think firefighters are brave because they carry on fighting the fires to save other people's lives, no matter what

Caelan's report on oil spills.

An oil spill is oil that's been spilled into the ocean. Some oil spills are done purposely, which is really sad and embarrassing. Some happen accidentally, that's also sad because all oil spills kill marine life, and ruin marine life habitat.

Oil spills happen when: people make mistakes, equipment breaks down, natural disasters such as cyclones happen, which cause an oil tanker (a ship that carries oil from one country or place to another) to leak oil into the ocean. Or, on purpose, when countries are at war, one may decide to dump a whole lot of oil into the other country’s oceans. Some people also dump oil illegally into the ocean, because they don't want to pay to do it legally.

Oil spills kill so many different sea creatures, like birds, fish, sharks, whales, seals and so many more. Many people don’t know all the creatures in the ocean that oil spills affect. Everything that lives and grows at the bottom of the ocean, like plankton, seaweed, clams, oysters and mussels can be affected by oil spills, so it's not just the oil floating on the top of the oceans that kills and causes damage. When hundreds of plankton die because of oil, fish don’t have enough food to eat, which will cause them to die. If the fish die, there won’t be enough food for whales, and they will die, too. As you can see, oil spills can damage the entire food chain.

Birds die from oil spills if their feathers are covered in oil. When they try to clean their feathers, they’re poisoned. Oil can also enter an animal’s lungs or liver, poisoning it from the inside. Oil also blinds animals when it gets into their eyes, so they can no longer watch out for predators.

Seals bodies may get covered in oil, which causes build up in the air bubbles located in their fur, which are specially designed to help them survive the cold oceans and help them to float. When oil builds up in the air bubbles, the seals may die of low body temperature.

Oil spills are also one of the main reasons that killer whales are endangered. The oil may be eaten or go in the whales blowhole. Whales rise up to the surface of the water to take a breath. If the blowhole is blocked with oil, the whale can’t breathe! Or, if a whale eats a fish that swam through oil, it will be poisoned and then die.

There are many nice people that help save the animals affected by an oil spill. There are places called cleaning centres that animals are taken to. When birds arrive at a cleaning centre, the oil is cleaned from their eyes and insides and they’re checked for broken bones, cuts and other injuries. Next, they are given a medicine to stop any more oil from entering their systems. They are then warmed up and placed in a quiet area where they’re fed and kept safe until they are healthy enough to be returned to the wild.

When seals are taken to a cleaning centre, they’re washed with warm water to try to break down the oil and warm the seals up. The seals also get given any medicine needed while they are being cleaned. After their fur is dry, they have to stay a few more days so the workers are sure that they are healthy and ready to be released.

Have you ever stopped to think what you use oil for? Everyone uses oil a lot. The whole world uses nearly three billion gallons of oil every day to fuel our cars, trucks, buses, and even to heat our homes. If you have touched a chain on a bicycle, you have touched some oil. The black stuff that appears on your fingers is oil that makes the chains on your bike run smoothly. Oil is also made into plastics, which are used to make your toys, games and many others things we all use. Oil is also used in medicines, ink, paints and to create some electricity.

We can all help stop oil spills from happening. If you use less oil, then less oil will have to be carried by tankers across the ocean. How can YOU use less oil? Leave your car at home and walk or ride a bike to school and work instead. That's one easy way we could all help.

Statistics

Sport

Today we were learning to throw over arm and field the ball. At the end we played a game of t-ball. What a great sports lesson!