Sunday, December 15, 2019

Christmas acrostic poem



Cookies are loudly being munched in cozy houses by a warm fireplace 
Ho ho ho” Santa clause says merrily
Reindeer obediently lead Santa’s sleigh with pride, gliding it through the air to deliver presents to the children of the world
Icing is splattered precisely onto delectable gingerbread houses, by mothers who have worked hard to make succulent food.
Santa’s workshop is very busy for the elves make pleasurable presents to positive kids.
Tinsel is wrapped around the lush, tender, green trees that are covered with bright, colourful ornaments and decorations.  
Mrs clause is eagerly waiting for santa to arrive after delivering presents
A time of year to spend time with friends and family  

Santa delivers presents to those who are nice and coal to those who are mean  

Wednesday, December 11, 2019

Catch it meerkats perspective



Intro-
I wake up from a relaxing sleep and stretch my limbs, ready for a new day My fellow meerkats and I slept huddled together in a pile to keep warm and cozy for the night.  Fortunately, I was at the top of the bundle so I could yawn, look around and slip away from the group to explore for a while. I poked my head up from my underground burrow to examine my surroundings. I looked left, right, then left again and spotted the other members of my gang peering at me from a nearby den entrance. My friends all spring out of the hole and together we scatter towards a tree and stare at a beautiful, red and juicy pomegranate. It hung down by its tough, brown stalk from a high tree branch. Me and my gang steadily climb up the tree. Then I go forward and stroke the pomegranate’s soft skin with pride and care. I admire its plump body. I quickly back out because of all my other mates who are waiting to admire it. After the last meerkat, we gathered on the ground and looked skyward, up at the magnificent specimen.  


Paragraph 2- 
Suddenly, a dark shadow loomed over us so we scampered to safety.  We then realised that this gloomy silhouette belonged to a merciless, menacing vulture.  He landed on a branch next to our beloved pomegranate and wrapped his long talons tightly around the tree limb.  He had a large, ebony coloured body with a wide wingspan. The vulture’s neck was covered in thick, white feathers and he had a scarlet coloured face.  His grotesque, hooked beak was the stuff of nightmares. He sounded like a grunting pig. Next, he shuffled along the branch and snatched the pomegranate with his sharp claws.  Then he flew away promptly into the distance…

Paragraph 3-
 Just then one of the meerkats raised their hands, signaling for a war to take place.  The other meerkats agreed and raised their hands as well. We chase that dense vulture who doesn’t know that we can easily catch up to him since we are way faster than him. One of the meerkats jumped onto the vultures feet and then I   jumped on . The other meerkats understood what we were doing and quickly they all jumped on

Paragraph 4- 
We continue flying at full speed. We can see so many trees and beautiful scenery.  “This is probably the best day of my life,” I said. 
I could see all the different trees in various shades of green they were luxurious and extraordinary. It was a wonderful sight. There were tons of pink and yellow flowers and the grass looked like it hadn't been cut for months.  The visibly vicious vulture suddenly shakes off and we all start to descend to the ground. Happily, the pomegranate falls down with us. One of my fellow meerkats, Mike the meerkat, caught the pomegranate and passed it around. My friends and I were to fast for Victor and he couldn’t catch the pomegranate or us. After a lot of catching and throwing, the vulture had sadly gotten hold of the pomegranate. We all land down to the ground safely. The vicious vulture was smirking at us and not looking at where he was going and crash!!!!!!. Thank goodness Mike, who is the best catcher in our group, Had zoomed off and caught the pomegranate.


Paragraph 6 -
 Once we catch the pomegranate then we form a triangle and start playing rugby with it. We are having so much fun tossing it around and passing it to each other. One of my fellow meerkats passes the pomegranate to me. Because  I am the leader I got to do the legendary shot…


Paragraph 7-

So much for the legendary shot, I think to this day because guess what happened. I was kicking the ball through two very tall trees and I guess nobody was there to catch it so... Splat!!. 

Tuesday, December 10, 2019

Rainbow Water Density experiment

Rainbow Water Density Tower

Aim - To observe how substances with different densities interact

Materials
Glasses - 1 per group
Food colouring (red, blue, green and yellow - you can make purple and orange by combining two colours)
Sugar or Salt (and measuring spoon)
Measuring cup - 1 per colour (you can have 6 colours to work with, or limit it to 4 colours)
Measuring syringes 
Water (warm water from a tap or kettle)
Plastic spoons to mix the sugar and food colouring in the water
Pots of water to rinse syringes between each colour
Plastic plates or trays to protect the table from sticky sugar water


Steps (Method) we took to do the experiment:
 Put two spoons of sugar in the yellow dye. Put 6 in the red dye. Put 4 in the green dye. Finally,y put 8 in the blue dye. l  Get the blue dye and with the syringe collect 200mls. Squirt the blue dye into the glass. Now ow. collect 200ml of red dye. This time carefully,  get the syringe, go deep down and squirt. Now get 200mls of green dye. Again carefully squirt slowly. Do the exact same for the yellow. Wash the syringe every time before you add the next coloured dye. 


















Explanation 

All of the colours had different amounts of sugar, causing the colours to have different densities and refuse to mix together. Since it won’t mix, it instead makes a tower of all the colours from the first colour(the one with the most density) to the last colour laying on the top( the one with lesser density ). 





References:



Look at the websites below and also do research of your own - Then write a paragraph explaining ‘the science’ behind the experiment.  Why do we see the results that we did?

Monday, December 9, 2019

Ice fishing

Ice Fishing 

Aim/Purpose:
To see how salt can affect ice or react with ice


Materials 
  • Small paper cups, bowl or an ice cube tray
  • Glass of water
  • String (yarn or kite string works great)
  • Small stick
  • Salt
Steps/Method:
  1. Fill the cup or tray up with water and place it in the freezer.  You can also use ice cubes from your freezer and skip this step.
  2. When the water is frozen, remove the ice from the cup or tray.
  3. Put the ice in the glass or bowl of water. The cube will bob up and down in the water and then float on the top.
  4. Place one end of the string from the fishing pole on top of the ice cube and sprinkle salt on the ice where the string is touching. Watch as the water melts slightly and refreezes.
  5. After about 10 seconds, carefully lift the ice cube out of the water with the fishing pole. You caught a fish (ice)!
My results:
Salt - The string stuck really well to the ice and pulled the ice cubes up out of the water
Sugar - The string didn’t stick to the ice cubes and none of them were pulled up out of the water.  Some people started to see the ice cubes stick - but it then failed after that.
Flour - THe ice didn’t stick to the string at all 
Pepper - The ice didn’t stick to the string at all 
More salt than normal - The ice still got picked up by the string


Explanation - Why does it work?
Ordinary water freezes 0° celsius.  But when you add salt to this it lowers the freezing water’s temperature. This simply means the ice melts. The salt you sprinkle on the ice cube lowers its freezing temperature and, since the ice cube can’t get any colder than it already is, it starts to melt. A little pool of water forms on top of the ice cube and the string sinks into it. As the ice cube melts, it decreases the salt mixture in the little pool; the freezing point starts to go back up again. The ice refreezes, trapping the string. So then as soon as the ice cube hardens, you can raise it by lifting the string. This is why it works.

refrence:
Resources:











Tuesday, December 3, 2019

Water filter

Water Filter Experiment 


Aim/ Purpose - 
To filter or clean water using a number of materials 
How to clean/filter water - making it clean


Materials -
Sand, 
gravel, 
activated charcoal, 
cotton wool, 
plastic bottles cut in half,
bucket of dirty water (can make the water dirty with soil or whatever from outside)

Predictions - What is going to work best?  What steps/process and in what order - why?
Cotton wool at the bottom - It will absorb the smaller dirt particles from the dirty water
2nd layer up - gravel - The gravel will grab onto the dirty parts and the clean water will drip off the gravel through the gaps.
Second Layer Up  - Charcoal - The second smallest material, can absorb the things not cleared by the bigger materials.
Third Layer Up - Sand - Turns hard when it’s wet - Take all the bigger dirt particles 
Top layer - Gravel - All the hugest dirt particles out first.  

Method/Steps:
Firstly we put 3 cotton balls in the top half of the cup. 
Then we put a sprinkle of charcoal on top of the cotton balls. 
After that, we put in  a few spoons of sand
Lastly, we put in some gravel


Explanation - How did it work?
The gravel takes all the large pieces out of the water
Then the sand to take and pieces that have passed the gravel and the sand hardens.
The charcoal absorbs tiny particles of dirt and other things
The cotton wool holds everything from falling through




Why is it important for cities/towns etc to purify and clean the water before it gets to peoples’ homes?
In New Zealand cities and towns, clean water is pumped straight into our homes. We have systems in place to monitor how safe our water is for drinking, and to manage what happens. It also helps to stop illnesses and catches algae and bacteria.








Wednesday, November 27, 2019








Vrushti- paragraph 1
Hi, my name is eve and I am a Kereru. So let me introduce myself. I can be found all over New Zealand. In places like forests, parks, reserves, and gardens. I live with my parents and my four siblings. Polly, Holly, and Molly are 3 years old so they are annoying, but my twin sister Ava is not that annoying she is  16 and a half years old I am also 16 and a half since we are twins. We live in an Auckland park.WE live in a soft, snug, sheltered and huge nest. So let me tell you a little bit about what I get up to in the day.



Paragraph 2
 I see the sun peeking up at The sky tower. That means it's time to wake up. I can feel the sun shining on my colorful feathers and vivid red eyes. The first thing I do in the morning is fluffing my vibrant feathers and go to the pond to clean myself.  Then we go hunting for food. we all have turns today is me and Ava's turn. So we fly from our nest in search of fruit, leaves, twigs, buds, and shrubs. Those are the things us kereru eat. We found some delectable berries. YESSSSSS!!!! My favorite breakfast. Along with that, we found some leaves and twigs. We go back to the nest and share the food equally. Mum and dad were happy with us. It was really delicious. We get really good food in spring it’s our favorite season. 





Paragraph 3-
After breakfast, mum and dad take us children to the Kereru morning gathering area where females lay their eggs and help each other with their eggs. I get so annoyed since mum makes me and Ava help take care of the other eggs. It is also really boring, Oh, whoopsies, I forgot to tell you we are going to have new chick siblings next month  YAY!!! I hope they are not as annoying as Polly, holly, and Molly. After that, we go back to the nest to have lunch. Finally lunchtime!!! I’m starving. We had the same thing for breakfast as lunch. my dad is sitting with us and he is pretty lazy for a bird. He is just like you humans. When me ava go to explore we see houses and we see humans lazily sitting on a thing called a sofa and watching a square liked thing with pictures on it and voices are coming from it.

Paragraph 4-
I am now soooo annoyed at mum because we are in charge of feeding, cleaning the triplets at the pond and putting them to bed. Well at least we can have lunch before this list of tiresome chores. Because I was starving. The reason we put the triplets to bed is because of you unwanted humans. You come to the park we live in and make all that unnecessary noise so the triplets will start whining. The most horrible news of all is that ME and ava have to do the afternoon routine since it is getting harder for mum to look after us and the nest. Now we are at the pond and Polly, holly and molly are making a huge fuss. I told you they were annoying!! They don’t want to take a bath because they are extremely hungry. Now we have finished and are just about to go back to the nest

Paragraph 5-
 Then we see something passing us. at first, I am not so concerned because it could just be another bird. But I am astonished to see a cat. A kururu's worst enemy. I am scared and I don’t know what to do. “HEEEEEEELLLLLLLLLLLLPPPPPPPPPPPPPP!!!!!!!!!” Screams Ava. I tell her to be quiet because the cat will hear us. But thank goodness for my dad .for once he wasn’t being lazy he was flying around the corner and heard Ava and came to our rescue. he told ava to help him defend the cat as she was older than me (Sometimes she thinks she is better just because she is 2 hours older which is pretty annoying also don’t tell her I said that). I took The triplets to the other side of the lake and she watched as dad bravely defended the cat with ava alongside. After some time dad and ava had defended the cat. We were so glad. Mum was so happy that we had got the girls home before you humans got to Cornwall. You’re probably wondering why I said in the afternoon even though some people also come in the day time but mainly people come in the afternoon when the weather is just right.




Paragraph 5-
It’s time for dinner. YYYYYYYYYEEEEEEESSSSSSS!!!!!!!!! I was starving from all of the trouble and hard work. We’re having the same, fresh fruits, berries, some flowers, buds, and shoots. After dinner, me and Evie go out to sit on the trees and feel the afternoon breeze. It's not that cold, that's because kereru have thick feathers to keep them warm. I’m getting hungry so I go pick a few berries with my might crimson-colored beak. Then I see something heading towards us. For a minute I thought it was some kind of dangerous bird, but no, it turned out to be our fellow kereru friend Mike.  it turned out that he also came to get some dessert and we said that he could join us for dessert and a quick fly before bed. We get back to the nest and go straight to bed. YAWN!!! I’m soooo tired from my extremely tiring but fun and crazy day. Bye and good night, see ya tomorrow dear human.










Tuesday, November 26, 2019

Baking soda and vinegar experiment

Inquiry experiment  


Aim/Purpose : 
To see what happens when baking soda and vinegar mix/combine 
To see the reaction that occurs when these two substances are mixed

Prediction - What do we think is going to happen:
We think it will explode/ It’s going to blow up
The ziplock bag will pop open and the liquid will spill out
It could fizz up 
The bag might fill up with air 
Fizz up like soda when shaken
The air pressure created inside the bag will cause the seal on the bag to pop open

Steps:     
  1.  Open up a paper towel on a flat surface
  2. Put 4 levelled teaspoons of baking soda in the centre of the paper towel
  3. Wrap up the baking soda in the paper towel like a package - Keep the baking soda concentrated in the middle of the paper towel
  4. Tape down your package of baking soda with a piece of masking tape so that everything stays in place
  5. Open the vinegar and pour it into a cup - until the cup is half full
  6. Then open a zip lock bag and pour the vinegar into it
  7. Hold the package inside the zip lock bag, making sure it doesn’t yet make contact with the vinegar - then zip up the bag - making sure that it is completely closed
  8. Let the package of baking soda drop into the vinegar and shake the bag up a little so that they start to mix
  9. Observe what happens

Materials/equipment:

  • Baking Soda  (4 x tablespoons) 
  • Vinegar (half a cup)
  • Ziploc  sandwich bags 
  • Plastic spoon
  • Paper towel 
  • Masking tape




The Result - What did we see happen?
When we shook the bag it started fizzing and we saw bubbles. 
 Then after a little while it popped. 

Variables - How could we change the variables?
Predict what might happen if we change the variables 
Experiment - Were our predictions accurate?

Put 5 or more teaspoons of baking soda into the package  and the same amount of vinegar - The explosion happened slower 

Two cups of vinegar and same amount baking soda- The explosion happened  faster



The Science - Why did the explosion  happen?  
Baking soda and vinegar react with each other because they exchange atoms. In this reaction, baking soda acts as a base, and takes a proton from vinegar, which is an acid. The reaction releases gas because when the baking soda receives the proton, it transforms into water and carbon dioxide .