The Kiwi

By Kayano

I am learning to inform my audience through an information report. 

What is brown, fuzzy and is special to New Zealand? No it's not a kiwifruit, it’s a kiwi bird. The Kiwi is one of the rarest flightless birds in New Zealand. The Kiwi is also a distant relative to the ostrich, the moa and the elephant bird from madagascar, although they are very different in size. There are five different species of kiwi which are the North Island Brown Kiwi, the Southern Brown Kiwi, the Little Spotted Kiwi, the Great Spotted Kiwi and also the Okarito Kiwi. That’s a lot of Kiwis. But in order to survive they need a healthy source of food.

Kiwis have a highly developed sense of smell which can be used for catching a lot of food and are the only bird with nostrils at the end of its very long beak. Kiwis are omnivores which means they eat both meat and plant. But Imagine eating small insects, seeds, grubs, leaves, and worms, fruit, small crayfish and even eels, these things are everything that a kiwi eats. But water? No kiwis don’t need a lot water, because roughly 85% of the food they eat is water. But a kiwis habitat is very important for its survival and source of food as well.

Luckily kiwi are very adaptable and live in a huge range of habitats, from forest and scrub to farmland, sand dunes and even mangroves. They especially like places with trees and running rivers with vegetation. Unfortunately the kiwis habitat is now infested with stoats, weasels and possums which are a threat to native New Zealand birds.

Weasels, dogs, stoats, possums, cats, ferrets and rats are all threats to kiwi. Yes kiwis are very endangered. There used to be more than twelve million but because predators eat so many chicks there are now fewer than one hundred thousand left.

Kiwis are full of miracles and it is lucky that we still have kiwis in New Zealand. It is our national icon and is important to our country. Kiwis are endangered and it is our job to protect them.

Odd socks

A couple weeks ago Our school had a speech competition.  Everybody did a great job writing their speech.  In the end this speech came third out of the year fives. Here is my speech:

Odd socks, one of life's most greatest unknowable mysteries, no one knows where they go, or how they even get there in the first place! Well, in the united kingdom, six hundred and seventy six million socks go missing each and every year! Well today that's all going to change, because for the first time ever, I will be unraveling the mystery of missing socks. I will be telling you about where they go, how to prevent them from going and some fun facts.

While some people think, no big deal, it's just a sock! Others like me will search high and low, losing sleep looking for the beautiful matching couple. So here are my two theories.

Theory number one, the washing machine theory. Apparently, it is very likely for your washing machine to “eat” your socks. You might think i’m joking, but no this is one hundred percent true. So your washing machine could be licking its mechanical lips and devouring your socks.

Theory number two, the washing powder theory. Washing powder can be good for cleaning and taking out stains, but who knows what kind of chemicals are in that detergent. Maybe there's a chemical that can dissolve socks or maybe even make them a different colour. Who knows!

Now that i’ve told you about my two theories, it's time to talk about how to prevent them from going. Match socks as soon as you fold that load of laundry. Maybe pin them together, that way you don’t have to fold them. Or my favorite way to not lose them, simply don’t wear them!

Speaking about not wearing socks did you know that Albert Einstein hated socks? Einstein was known for being very smart and enthusiastic, but he gave up on socks at a very young age But why? Because he hated the holes made by his big toe.

Albert Einstein would be quite old now but socks are pretty old too. Well you might be wondering, how long have socks been around for? well socks have evolved from The earliest models from animal skins tied together and braced around the ankle, to modern day socks! An item of clothing Worn on your feet.

Did you know socks may have originally gone with flip flops? The oldest socks that have been discovered date to roughly around two hundred and fifty to four hundred and twenty centuries old and are equipped with split toes, meaning they could’ve gone with jandals! Researchers found a rose coloured pair of woolen ancient slip-ons near the River Nile In Egypt. What sets these socks off is that they used a different style of knitting called nålbindning which only used one knitting needle. Nålbindning also took longer as they only used one knitting needle.

The most expensive pair of socks are the Emperor diamond socks, woven with precious jewels and gold thread and cost $58.76. The Makers of these socks actually regretted creating these socks as they can’t actually be worn or used for anything.

So socks are pretty amazing if you ask me. So when you get home I encourage you to look in your washing machine, pin your socks together, look at the information at the back of your washing powder and fold your laundry. But remember, life is too short to wear matching socks.

Weather

In math we have been learning about temperature.  Me and my friend Lucy made a slide show about the weather in different countries.  Here is the slide show.

Code club

For the past seven weeks we have been learning about how to code.  We have made games comic strips and mini skits using two websites called Scratch, and HTML.  We ALL loved playing each others games.  One of my games is called synchronized swimmers and is down below.  Last week was my favourite week, we made a ransom note and is on my blog.  I loved code club and I hope we will be on next term.

Instructions:

When pressing the left arrow the hippos will turn 15 degrees to the left and when the right arrow is pressed they will turn 15 degrees to the right.  When you press the down arrow they will gracefully swim backwards and of course when pressing the up arrow the will swim forward.  Making a routine is easy just press the m key or the space bar.

Crosses

In Art we've been painting crosses to go in the entrance of the school. These are my crosses:

Cultural Week

Last week it was cultural week. We each chose a country to learn about, the choices were Spain, the Philippines, Japan, Brazil, France, Italy, India, Korea and Germany. At the end of the week we had an assembly showing cultural dances and songs. We all had fun, and i hope we do it again.

Ransom Note

This week in code club we made non-violent ransom note.  We used a website called trinket to make these notes.  Here is my ransom note

Bird Science

Pointed beak, flat beak and pelican beak are all the types of beaks we used for this discovery. But these things are also known as forceps, tongs and cups. First we learnt about the meanings of the words we need to know like, aim. Aim means trying to achieve something in the experiment we were trying to see what shape beak is the best for picking up food. And we learnt what will we change( the equipment), What we will measure ( the amount of food) and how we will keep it a fair test. The way we can make it a fair test by having a nice steady surface, by having the same person doing each type of food also by having the same amount of time of 30 seconds. We had an amazing time experimenting with rice, peppercorns, gummy worms and skittles and after we got to eat LOLLIES. Thank you Miss Down for this amazing experiment.

The M&M Challenge

Last Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday we did the M&M challenge. The class got into groups with one leader in each group. Miss Down gave us some M&M’s and we had to count how many we had and next figured how much M&M’s our group had. After we found out how many M&M’s we all had many people realised that some people had a very small amount of M&M’s while others had about 50. The next thing we did was counting how much of red we had then blue then yellow until we had finished all the colours we had. When we did everything Miss Down told us to share all the M&M’s equally with our group and everyone in the class got 41 M&M’s each! We have put our information on a poster.

Gandparents mass

On Friday 24th August 2018 we celebrated Grandparents Mass with our grandparents, family/whanau and the whole school. We first went to mass to celebrate with Father Bernard Kyle, who blessed our dear Grandparent with a blessing and we sung a special song to them. When mass was finished our PTA team prepared a treat for us. There was lots of sweet and coffee/tea to sip on. By the time the that all the food was finished it was then time to perform some dances for our audience. The groups that performed were the Sheridan Kapa Haka, Choir, Tap dancing, Ukulele and Irish Dancing. That was a joyful day that we would always remember. We are blessed to have such special people in our lives.