Tuesday 16 October

After discussing what we thought birds might like to eat, each child brought into school a different type of food including seaseme seeds, a dog bone, apple, cheese, ham, bread, toast, wheatbix, cornflakes, cat food and chicken and gunea pig pellets.

We then put all the different types of food on one of the picnic tables. What a yummy selection of food! 5 minutes later two sparrows flew over the table to look at all the food. Then suddenly another sparrow swooped down, picked up a piece of bread and flew away!

Femka & Nina hid behind a tree so the birds wouldn't get nervious or think that we were setting a trap for them.

15 minutes later Daisy spotted a girl Tui hovering around the table. Then 2 Blackbirds started eating the bread that we had dropped on the floor.

We then decided to move the table next to the goal post and closer to the big trees where the birds liked to play. A few minutes later 5 sparrows came over to the table to eat food that had fallen to the floor. Several Blackbirds and Tui's came to visit as well as 2 Kingfishers, 1 Seagull and a Wood Pigeon...Tama thought maybe they could smell the food and wished that we had some smelly fish to offer as well!

Tama, Louis, Jamie, Xanthe & Paige tried to get a closer look at the birds by hiding behind the trees. Even though they were really quiet, the birds could sense them and stayed away.

On Wednesday 5th September, Rooms 1 and 2 went to The Brook Sanctuary and to the Museum. At the Museum we met Rick. Rick told us a lot of facts about Powelliphanta Snails. We learnt that they are meat eaters - one of their favourite meals included worms and grubs. We watched a little video which showed a snail eating a worm. Nicola said that the the snail sucked in the worm and that it was pretty gross and disgusting!

We did a few activities whilst we were at the Museum.

Afterwards we went to The Brook Sancutary and had morning tea. We got to play on the field. Rick took us on a bush walk. We got to see heaps of possum, stoat and rat traps along the way. Rick showed us a real possum that had been caught in a trap and a dam that was built in 1869.

August 2012
In our quest to learn more about birds including how they lived and ate, we got a big pair of tweezers, chopsticks, pegs and tongs and pretended that we were birds and these tools were our beaks.

We then tried to pick up seeds, beads and other small objects using only these tools. We realised through this activity that birds have a beak that suits the type of food they eat.

 It was not an easy task but a lot of fun to try!

Tuesday 28th August

We have been continuing with our facts on birds. The children have been exploring the playground and reading interesting facts on birds and in particular those native to New Zealand. We hope that you have been learning some interesting facts on birds at home too!

Today Nina, Femka and Nikau started working on their Bird Fact File. They each chose their favourite bird and wrote down facts that they had learnt or read about. They then had to carefully draw their chosen bird and focus on certain parts including their beak, feet and habitat.

On Tuesday 21st August Room 2 went bird spotting around the playground. Nina said that her favorite bird was the fantail and that if everyone walked around quietly you could hear the birds sing and talk. Tana spotted 3 hawks!

We made a tally which included the type of bird, how many times we spotted a specific bird and where we located them.

Femka spotted two birds nest along the way. All the children had a turn using the binoculars. We looked through the book "Common Birds in New Zealand 1" to help us learn more about which bird we spotted.

Maybe this would be a good activity for the children to continue at home.

In July we were really fortunate to have the Recyclying Circus visit Hira School. They performed in front of the whole school. Tama thought they were really funny and his favourite part was the juggling.  They were very clever and only made a few little mistakes, but that was ok - it was lots of fun to watch!

On Monday 13th August, Judi Keylock came to Hira School and helped us decorate masks for the Mask Parade. Tessa explained to make the masks they needed to use Japanese paper, tissue paper and dried up flowers.  Then we put special glue to stick the dried up flowers onto the paper. Judi also taught us some magic - what we had to do was wrap special leaves and put them in a steamer. After 1 hour we took the leaves out and they changed colour, some were pink, purple and even blue.  Tessa agreed that it was lots of fun and is looking forward to wearing her mask at the parade.