Rubbish DLO

The other day we had a lady named Anouk come in and talk to us about litterless lunch. She talked to us about how to reduce the amount of plastic inside of our lunches. We learned that when rubbish is put into a truck it takes it to a dump. They then proceed to dig holes in the earth and chuck all of that rubbish in. When the hole is full they cover it over and dig another hole. We learnt so much that day and are thankful to her.

Bay Orientation Day

On Thursday the year 8’s had their orientation day to Bay of Islands College. We had 5 periods split into two. But we had one full period. When we got there we had to sit inside of the library and listen Whaea Patsy ( one of the teachers) to see which group we were in. Paihia, Kawa Kawa and Oromahoe. We went to six classes to do six different things. First we had Maori, Performing Art, then Science, wood tech, reo rua, metal tech and food textiles. I liked science the best because it was fun and interesting. That day changed my perspective of the school because I used to think that it was a bad school but now i’m going to Bay.

On Tuesday some of our year 7 and 8 students went to Moerewa to participate in a 7’s rugby tournament. We played three games against Kerikeri, Kaingaroa and Okaihau Hurricanes. Our first game we lost, second game we won and third game we lost again. The day was really fun and tiring. One of my highlights for the day was my try. Before the day ended though, we had a picture with the 7’s world cup. I think we played really good but next time I think we could share the ball.

Sugar count

On Monday Whaea Gina came to our school to talk about healthy eating. Before that she used to come in and do physical workouts with us.  We learnt about liquids you need everyday, sometimes and occasionally. Next to the drinks we had a small ziplock bag with the amount of sugar that is in the drink. We found out that an E2 drink has 22 teaspoons of sugar in it. This was the drink that had the most sugar in it out of all of the drinks that were there. That day taught me about what I was putting into my body. Now I’m going to watch out for what I put into my body more carefully.

Basketball

On Monday and Tuesday one of our teachers took us outside and taught us some skills for basketball like dribbling. We lined up on one end of the court and ran to the first line then the second and lastly the third while dribbling. To achieve success whilst doing this the ball had to be at a 45 degree angle from our leg and it had to be about the height of our waist. It was really fun that in the end we played piggy in the middle using the skills we learnt. Next time I think I could speed up because I have been practicing more.

Report writing

A couple of weeks ago Te Ngahere started an informational report about pests. Our learning intention was to use the correct structure for an informational report. Our structure was a total of nine paragraphs that were pretty hard to do but with the right information it was easy. These paragraphs were first: the animals Classifications, Animal name (what it meant), Anatomy/Appearance, Locomotion, Diet, Habitat, Behaviour, Defence/Offence and Why was it introduced? I think I wrote the structure very good for my first time in a while. Next time I need to write more information in my paragraphs.

Success Criteria:
Use colons and semicolons in my writing.
I need to use words that give the reader detailed and specific information.

Intro:

The rat, a destroyer to animals and plants. An introduced pest that was brought in the 1250 - 1300 in a boat from Polynesia. There are more than 50 species around the world but three species inhabit our beautiful land of Aotearoa. These are the Norway rat, the brown rat and the ship rat.

Classification:

The rat classifications are: kingdom animalia, phylum chordata, class mammalia, order rodentia, suborder myomorpha, family muridae and genus rattus. Kingdom represents what it is animal or not, phylum represents if it has a backbone or not and class represents what type of animal it is like mammals or cold blooded animals.

Animal name:

The name rat is described as a big rodent that resembles a big mouse. A male rats name is buck, a female is a doe and a baby rat is called either a kitten or pup. The rats scientific name is Rattus norvegicus.

Appearance:

Rats are mostly slender and have sharp, curved heads, large eyes and furry ears. The shape of a rat's body is the same shape as a pear. An average brown rat weighs around 230g which is a quarter of a kilogram. Their claws can grow to one centimeter. Their teeth are sharp and pointed. All rats have four legs unless they have been cut off. Rat legs tend to be short and so are the arms.




Locomotion:

Rats scurry along on all four of their legs pretty fast. Mostly three of the legs are on the ground at a time. When it jumps it uses the two back legs to fling through the air. They can jump over 77cm. A rats tail is necessary for survival because it helps them keep their balance. It is important that they move like this because otherwise they will be caught and killed.

Diet:

Rat diets consist of many things. They are pests to the animals in our ngahere. So our birds are in their diet and have been for centuries. So in the wild they eat mostly anything they come across. Mostly this consists of grains, fruits, vegetables, seeds, nuts, bugs, birds and other small animals that they can kill. Rats are omnivores, this means they eat meat and plants. Rats aren’t fussy eaters and eat everything they come across. Even though a rat kills birds about the same size as itself it is near the bottom of the food chain.

Habitat & Range:

Rats usually inhabit dirt holes in dark places such as underneath houses in basements or cellars. Ship rats originated from India and arrived in New Zealand in the late 1800s. Norway rats originated from Norway and the Polynesian rat originated from Polynesia.

Behaviour:

Rats are cheeky, smart and sly. Some rats are solitary which means they live or hunt alone. Rats make passageways underground from their nest to food locations. They also create burrows to get away from other animals.

Defence/Offence:

The rat defends itself from predators using escape routes like their burrows but if cornered and hungry with no escape they use their claws to scratch. Wild rat bites can be infectious.


Why was it introduced/ How did it get here?:

Rats were brought to New Zealand on the first settlers ships in the 1200s through to the 1300s. The first settlers brought rats unknowingly and didn’t know that rats were onboard.

Conclusion:

Rats are killers and were brought by the first settlers. They were brought unknowingly. They are the brown rat, Norway rat and the Polynesian rat.

Saddleback

For the past few weeks we have been learning about endemic, native and introduced animals, birds and plants  to New Zealand. My group did a bird and our choice of bird was the saddle back. This is our second time doing this type of presentation but this one is much better than the first version. I think this time our information was much more accurate and better presented. It was fun learning about the saddle back because it was so interesting like how North Island and the South island species sounded. Next time I think we could get more interesting facts.