Piwakawaka Information Report

What does it look like?

A Fantail is a bird that is different from most other NZ birds.

A Fantail has a tail on its rear end that looks like a fan.

The Piwakawaka colors are brown, green, black and white.

Where does it live?

A Piwakawaka is mainly found in rainforests, deserts and urban rainforests.

The reason why they can survive in these types of areas is that they have a special blubber to keep them warm.

Where their habitat/location is?

Piwakawaka mainly lives between Northland and the Chatham Islands.

They are found throughout all of New Zealand. You can only find Fantails in New Zealand, that means they are endemic.

What does it eat and how does it get its food?

Fantails (piwakawaka) like to eat moths, flies, beetles and spiders.

 Most of the time they hop around upside-down amongst tree ferns and foliage to pick insects from the underside of leaves.

They also follow us because our footsteps disturb the insects that they like to eat.

Where do they breed? Who looks after the young?  

How long do the babies get looked after for?

The Fantails (piwakawaka) breed in the North Island.

The female Fantail (piwakawaka) looks after the young really carefully.

Both adults take care of them for about 14 days.

They mainly make their nests in a cup-shaped nest and often near water.

Within 1 breeding season they can have up to 5 sets of eggs.

After about 2 and a half weeks the chicks fledge (their first flight) the nest.

Social Behaviour

Fantails (piwakawaka) often approach us very closely so people think they are naturally friendly.

Fantails (piwakawaka) can be found in groups but sometimes on their own.

Threats

Fantails (piwakawaka) threats are humans, ferrets, stoats, and possums. Male Fantails protect their territory.

The females protect the babies by trying to trick the predators by leading the predators away from the nest and pretending to be injured.

Some Fantail (piwakawaka) man-made threats are 1080 and plastic. 1080 can kill Fantails and they try to eat plastic.

By Tyler

Volume and Capacity DLO

Reducing Waste In Our Environment!!!

Reducing Our plastic

As part of our learning of the environment, Room seven has been thinking of ways to reduce all the plastic we are using every year. To help us do that we have made our own fabric bags to use instead of plastic bags, and we have been making beeswax lunch wrap which is the other option to glad wrap. We would like to encourage everyone to try and use less plastic in our lunchboxes. 

How to make beeswax wrap:

1) First you have to grate the beeswax.

2) You get two pieces of baking paper and place it underneath and on top of the fabric.

3) Then you have to spread all the beeswax onto the fabric.

4) You then need an iron to melt all the beeswax on the fabric, make sure there is no gaps where there is no beeswax.

5) Finally you need to let it dry for at least 30 seconds.

I really enjoyed making the fabric bag especially for my first time sewing.

        

Where to next? Literacy task

Where To Next?  Connected, Level 4

Turning Old into New

Literacy

Science/Social Science learning goals

We are learning to understand about the environments around us and the negative of

positive impact our actions can have on these environments.

Success criteria;

• identify and explain some of the issues facing our environment today
• identify some of the negative impacts humans are having on the environment
• identify some positive actions people are taking both here and around the world to
• try and help look after our environment.  
• identify some positive actions we can take at school and in our own lives to help our
• environment.
• learn about our local bush track and creek and identify
• some ways in which we can help to look after (kaitiakitanga) these areas.

Reading Learning Goals

-I am learning to use sub-headings to guide me to the main ideas in text.

-I am learning to use illustrations, text boxes, charts and graphs to help

me make inferences so I get more information from the text.

-I am learning to use more than one text, in print or electronic formats, to gather

and check the accuracy of information.

-I am learning to read a wide range of texts (e.g. encyclopaedias, websites, newspapers)

 to gather and check information on a topic.

-I am learning to explain why the author has written a text.

-I am learning to read and understand text that contains academic and topic-specific vocabulary.

Read the text, ‘Turning Old Into New’ and then complete the following activities.

1. Why is recycling a good idea?

Because because we reuse and it doesn't pollute the environment.

But we don’t know where our rubbish/waste goes!!!   

2. How many tons of rubbish do New Zealanders send to landfills every year?

New Zealand sends round about 3 million tons of landfill every year.

3. When rubbish breaks down what gas does it produce?  
4. What environmental problem does this contribute to?

Methane and CO2. This gas makes global warming.

4. Complete this sentence:  Everything we use is made from Earth's natural resources.  

5. Explain where these resources come from;

Wood:Trees, plants and Chemicals.

Metal: Chemicals and rock.

Plastic: Chemicals and oil.

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6) How does oil form? When dinosaurs died, the plants and dinosaurs were covered by mud and sand.

Over millions of years, the mud and sand built up in layers and turned into rock.

The heat and pressure from the rock turn the plant and dinosaur matter into oil and gas.

7) What are some of the things glass can be recycled into?

Countertops, flooring, tile landscaping stones and bricks.

8) What are some of the things cardboard can be recycled into?

Cardboard is used to make chipboard like cereal boxes, paperboard, paper towels,

tissues and printing or writing paper.

9) What can plastic with the number 1 be recycled into?

Number 1 plastics are PET, or polyethylene terephthalate, and they can be turned into soft drink bottles, pillow and sleeping bag fillings, carpet and clothing.

10)  Attach a google drawing here that explains how number 1 plastics can be turned into clothing.

11) What are microfibres and what is the problem with them?

The most common types of microfibers are made from polyesters, polyamides (e.g., nylon, Kevlar, Nomex, trogamide), or a conjugation of polyester, polyamide, and polypropylene. Microfibers are part of a larger problem with microplastics, or small plastic fragments from any source. New research shows that 70% of microplastics pollutants are microfibres.

12) What is Earth Overshoot day? Its how many resources do we use a year.

Glossary - Write what these words mean

Atoms: Smallest particle.

Carded: Related to fibres aligned in the same direction.

Global Warming: An increase in the Earth's average temperature due to increased levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.  

Malt: Barley or other grain that has been used for brewing beer.

Natural resources: Materials found in nature like water,gas and plants.

Synthetic: Something made by people by combining different chemicals.

In class we will be working on projects looking at issues around rubbish and what we can do to help reduce this problem.  

Video Links

NZ Recycling Crises

Diver Filming Swimming Through Plastic

The Pacific Garbage Patch

Infographic - Reducing waste in our lunchboxes

Science/Social Science learning goals

We are learning to understand about the environments around us and the negative of positive
impact our actions can have on these environments.

Success criteria;

• identify some positive actions we can take at school and in our own lives to help
• our environment.

Literacy

Task: Create an infographic showing people how they can reduce their waste in their lunchbox.   

Our co-constructed success criteria:

-Have a strong title/hook

-Use convincing language and images

-Have simple things people can do

-Use images (free to use)

-Use bullet points/ short sharp information

-Use correct punctuation and spelling

Kos/Keeping Ourselves Safe

Play Summary - Term 3 Weeks 1-2

For the next two weeks you are working in groups to practise and

perform a play.

This is using our oral language and reading skills in literacy.

Our key competency focus is participating and contributing.

For writing your task is to summarise the main events

in your play in three paragraphs.

You must plan your writing first but it is up to you how you

do your planning.  You must also write a fourth

paragraph about your experience of practising and

performing your play.

Yr 6

I am learning to organise my text into paragraphs which begin with a main idea

and contain supporting information/detail.

I am learning to make links across paragraphs.

I am learning to use basic punctuation accurately.

I am learning to use dialogue punctuation accurately.

Yr 7

I am learning to use a range of different planning styles.

I am learning to plan my writing to suit the purpose of my writing.

I am learning to organise my ideas into paragraphs where the ideas

are clearly related and where there are links within and

between paragraphs.

I am learning to use basic punctuation accurately in my writing.

I am learning to use complex punctuation to enhance my writing

e.g. colons : and semi-colons ; , and parentheses ().

Success Criteria

I will be successful when I can/have

-summarised the play in three paragraphs

-made links across my paragraphs

-used some basic and complex punctuation correctly (speech marks).

Once you have finished your writing highlight these success criteria

green if you have met them and can show them in your work.

Highlight green in your work where you have met these

success criteria.

Maui and the Giant Ika

In the first part of this story Maui wanted to go fishing with his four

older brothers but they shouted at him,   “ NO! “

Maui was so angry he thought of a plan to trick his four brothers.

He made one of the toughest fishing lines to catch the best fish.

Maui woke up just before sunrise and hid at the bottom of the canoe.

When they were out at sea

Maui popped out of the bottom of the canoe and said, “ I’m Here! ”  

In the second part of this story Maui started saying the

karakia to call in the fish to them.

Maui started to sing the karakia,

“E te atua, homai ki a matou, tou maramatanga, tou rangimarie,

tou kaha me tou aroha, mo tenei ra, Amine.

” The Karakia worked and lots of fish started to come in.

At the end of this story , this giant fish came right underneath the canoe,

people call it the Giant Ika.

Maui shouted,

“ Stop it’s a gift from our grandmother, Muri-ranga-whenua!”  

Maui caught the fish and

the four older brothers started yelling and fighting over the Giant Ika.

At the end they stopped arguing and all went back to the island, and the

Giant Ika still lies where it is as the North Island.

When my group did our play we had to get all the props we needed from home and school. One thing we did really well was organizing all the props and masks.

One thing we really enjoyed was acting in the play.

As a team we helped each other if we got stuck on a line.

We participated and contributed by bringing props for our play from home.

One thing I would improve on next time would be to memorize my lines.