Huora

 

Matua Andy came in and asked to write and find pictures for the 5 words of well being- 

Connect, keep learning, be active, take notice and give.

Maths times table challenge

 Whaea Alison gave us a link to some times table games that we could pick from to help us learn the times table in a creative and fun way. So we chose the snakes and ladders 8 times tables because its the one we know the least about. If you needed to know, Leo won. (She's the blue pebble). It was fun but I think I've perfected my times table so it was kinda easy to do. Whats your favourite times table?

Which animal?

 

In reading we needed to do a research idea out of the research chart so I chose to research about these animals. 

Where do pencils come from?

 Where do pencils come from?

Pencil, an everyday object you might just glance at before walking away yet every piece of a pencil would’ve been in a long and endearing adventure before being put together and sold out to you. This writing report will tell you all about how a pencil reaches your hands and fingers.

Pencil lead, the silver-grey stuff in between the wood, is not actually lead. It’s made up of a non toxic material called graphite and some clay mixed in. For a softer and darker point of a pencil, you’d need to add more graphite then clay. Which means, you can’t poison and kill yourself with just eating some pencils though the graphite and clay can still damage areas of your gut.

Graphite powder is dug out of the ground first, separated and cleared from said rocks, and mixed together with water and clay. Then they are dried and compressed into cylinders, placed into a tube and squeezed out into your average pencil led shape. Yet the process isn't done yet. They  bake the leads over 1000 degrees celsius, hardening the clay so it is as sturdy as you can get it. And finally, they place them in wax and fill in the holes in the lead so it writes easily on paper.

Cedar wood is the most common wood type made into pencils. It’s a softwood that wouldn’t snap under the pressure of our fingers and is a perfect candidate for mass production hence it being the most favourable one to use. 

They cut the wood into blocks which then goes through a machine with a blade which cuts grooves into said-block which are then going to have leads placed into them later on. It goes through another machine that places glue into the holes. The wood pieces are separated so some have lead placed in while others are then placed on top of the block with the lead. The blocks of wood are compressed and are left to dry for an hour so the glue steadys. And finally the wood is ready to be cut. Machines shape and separate the wood and the pencils are then painted, sharpened and shipped out to be bought by people like you to use.

So now you know. A pencil comes from many areas and things from forests to mines. So next time you lose another pencil, think about how much time it took to make that little stick.

Get creative - Get ready for our marble run!

 Nikita, Georgia and I are going to make a marble run  as our next get creative but we are still planning it. So get ready for our fantastic video in the next 2 or few weeks!

For now have this peppa pig marble run video I found on youtube here!.

Pinwheel and winds.

 We have been learning how wind works and have created many wind-powered devices one of them being pinwheels. Pinwheels are smaller toy versions of wind turbines which does about the same job but much more powerful - windmill. It was incredibly fun to create and make and interesting to learn about,
and do you know how a pinwheel/wind turbine works?

Minecraft House!

 

This is my minecraft house. I created it so the heat from the sun gets trapped in the room so it doesn't need heating. I made it while I was thinking of those houses with large windows.