Term 4 Inquiry - Out and about...

This term we have been looking at what we can do when we are 'out and about'.

We have explored our school and what we can do here...sports, sketching, gardening, co-operative games, playing on the climbing frames and the tyre swing, reading...and lots more.

We have talked about everything we can do in Hamilton and made links to websites on this blog (have a look on the right hand side).

But what can we do in the wider Waikato...???

We can visit a Dairy farm!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We were very lucky to be invited to Mrs D's farm to have a look at how a dairy farm works.

We met Tony, Shona, Mr D and Sven.

First we went to look at the animals.

We met the horse who is called Cracker Jack

We learnt about the tractor

We met the new little goat, this goat was wild a few weeks ago and is still pretty jumpy.

Next we went to the milking shed and we walked where the cows go. The farm owner, Tony, showed us where the feed is dropped into the troughs and how the milking cups go on the cows' teats. Tony let us put our fingers in the suction cups to feel it. It felt very weird.

Some of us even tasted the cow feed...apparently it tastes like Weetbix!

Milking cups

Milking shed

Next we went and played the game that Room 10 taught us, it is called the Capture the Flag. it is a lot of fun but was hard to play as the ground was really uneven.

The last activity was the Burma Trail. A Burma trail is a rope trail through the bush, it runs over logs and around trees, like an obstacle course. 

Normally it is done at night time and you hold the rope to guide you along. You have to use all your senses to help you get through the bush.

As it was day time we used blindfolds instead. It was a lot of fun and quite tricky! We think if we did it again we would help each other more. We also realise we need to stay on one side of the rope.

Getting ready to go in

Into the bush!

Yikes where am I?

Oops, watch your feet...

Hold onto that rope!

Steady does it

Where am I going?

I'm getting the hang of this

Almost there

Trees are tricky to get round with a blindfold on!

We had a great time learning how farms work and doing exciting activities.

Thank you Mrs D, Brett, Tony, Shona and Sven!!

Taking our rangoli outside

     After we had created some designs we tried drawing large versions outside in the playground with chalk. The colours were beautiful and the playground looked really exciting.

Unfortunately, just after we drew our designs it rained, so they didn't last long. 

Diwali art

This week we tried making Diwali art. This type of art is called rangoli, in Indian culture these patterns are created on the floor in courtyards or outside houses. They are usually used with coloured rice, sand or flowers. The designs can be symmetrical geometric shapes and this is what we based our designs on. 

We started by using a dotted grid to help us make symmetrical geometric patterns. Then we moved onto creating patterns with pastels on paper.

                                               








































We watched clips from youtube of Rangoli art being created to get inspiration.

Happy Diwali

Diwali started today and our Indian students who celebrate Diwali showed us how to dance to Indian music. They explained what Diwali is and what happens. We learnt that it is a festival of lights,  goes on for over a month, and the families spend time visiting each other and taking special foods with them.

We learnt some of the Indian dance moves, we realised it is not as easy as it looks!

Athletics

Erin from Project Energise came to teach us about athletics. 

Here is how to start a sprint

1. Put your foot on the line, foot facing forward
2. Put your bottom in the air
3. Hands clenched lightly
4. Look straight ahead

 Wait for the 'On your marks, get set, GO!!!!

 Here we are starting our sprint

Then we moved on to high jump..

First we practiced the scissor jump

Then we tried jumping over the tape. We had to make sure we lifted the leg closest to the tape first. This was fine when we were jumping with one side (our dominant side). It was harder when we were trying to jump with our non dominant side.

We also were told to keep looking up.

Thanks for coming Erin!