Resilience and Energy
Term 3 - 2019
This term we focused our inquiry through games and science investigations. We ignited students thinking about resilience.

We learned about the scientific method and how to follow that procedure to conduct a scientific investigation into energy.

And reflected on their learning and the links they had made.
Energy Reflection Report
Energy is a way of life. Plants they need the sun to grow and guess what? If we didn't have the sun we would probably not be alive.

Energy is movement. Like an engine on a car and the wheels the engine will give out the gas so the pistons will go up and down to make the car go and the more weight you put on the accelerator the faster the pistons will go up and down the faster the car will go. A plane’s engine has the same design a car's engine so it would make the wheels move and then make the plane go so fast that the wings can lift off the ground.

Energy is the capacity to do work. Like lifting stuff off the ground e.g. cranes, excavators. When you go to work you put petrol in your car at a gas station you pay at the cash register and this uses energy. You need a laptop or a computer to book a table at a restaurant and this uses energy too. 

Our experiment was a windmill. The connection with energy was that when the wind blew at it the windmill would start spinning but you had to put it on the right angle to make it spin. We put the propeller on the end of a stick and put it through a block of wood and went out the other way and we put some string on the end of it and hung it off the balcony. Then when it spun the string would twirl on to the stick and go all the way up. So our experiment showed we could change wind energy into mechanical energy to lift weights.

I learnt that I should probably help a little bit more because Andrew was so good and Drew, me and Alex weren't helping the most. Alex and Drew helped a lot with i-movie and I helped quite a lot in the experiment. Everybody helped quite a lot in the experiment but Andrew did pretty much all the writing and researching.

I think being an independent learner was pretty easy but I had a few bumps along the way like with writing this I got stuck quite a lot. I didn't really know how to set it out but Mrs J helped me with that which was really helpful because if I didn't know how to set it out I would probably fail.

In inquiry we had an example poster which helped us know all the things we had to do and set out. I think next time I could focus a little bit more and not get off task all the time. Next time I think maybe we could change the propellers and maybe do paper and cardboard propellers instead of doing Lego ones.
Ben H

Energy Reflection Report
Energy is our main source of life and without it no one would have enough energy to do work. We wouldn't have electricity either, nothing would work and the whole universe would die. Sunlight is very important.

Our plants need sunlight to live without it we would all starve the animals would too. Plants need the sun otherwise they wouldn't be able to photosynthesize.

If we didn't have the sun and its sunlight there would be no food what so ever. Without food we wouldn't have enough energy to do work, we couldn't even walk neither would Animals. Without energy, lights wouldn't work TVs wouldn't work we couldn't charge electronics only we would only be able to cook food on fires! It wouldn't be much fun.

Our experiment is how different coloured light affects plants growth and to see which plant would grow the best. After our experiment we noticed that the plants were all leaning in the direction of the sun. The plants with the white light (no cellophane) grew the biggest. After a couple of days without cellophane they had boosted up really tall. Energy links to our experiment because the plants are using the sun the sun is a type of energy it is called solar energy. 

Working with a team was much easier than working by myself since it was a big project. It was easier when we all worked on the same thing so it got done faster.

When people were unavailable I learned that you should still work even if you're the only person working and that you still have to even if it’s a bit hard. Working independent away from the teacher was easy if I knew what I had to do.

In conclusion, if we got to do another experiment I would experiment how plants react to different music it would be relating to energy by using sound waves I want to learn more about sound waves.

Responsibility and Perspective
Term 2 - 2019

This term we focused our inquiry through speeches, car park safety and tabloid sports organisation. We ignited students thinking about perspective.

In road safety week we visited the school car park to observe car park behaviour
and wrote and created posters showing their perspective on safe and appropriate use of the car park.

Students planned and ran a tabloid sports event for the whole school.

Students wrote speeches that combined the topics of responsibility and perspective using the statement:
Disputes often occur because people have different points of view about their responsibilities" 

Imagine If you were In medieval times, And you and your family Were in a ruckety, Old And uncomfortable Wagon, And your job was to Tighten the bolts on the wheels, But one Night, You forgot, And you and your family were EATEN alive by wolves, Twisted am I right? It all adds up to responsibility, Some people CAN be lazy, But why slack off a job? Little things can add up to Conflict, Arguments Occur lots when Responsibility is at state, So here’s my points of view.

You should see MY bedroom, I know where everything is. It’s basically a organised Chaos, Then my mum walks at the door. And Has a massive spasm and Whines about it being a BOMBSITE, I don’t see her point there, But unfortunately mother’s always right, We never agree when It comes to messy rooms.

I personally Think that the That the hygiene at dairy flat is a bit… Sloopy, We have to share a girls and boys bathroom, Litter runs free, There’s always wet on the floor to, And shared with the whole LZ1 and LZ2, That’s a bit of a problem, Do you want to live in a world with low hygiene? Maybe students could do a better job? Or will it be the teachers? Whatever it is, Do it quick, I can stand without no toilet paper…

In the world, Climate change is a big problem, It’s infecting the world by miles, So, what’s the problem with it though? Is it just one of those idiotic Theories?
Apparently, NO, And The effects of it is causing: 
Glaciers Have shrunken 
Ice one rivers and lakes are breaking up earlier 
Plant and animal range have shifted and trees are flowering sooner. 
Loss of sea ice, accelerated sea levels rise and longer, More intense heat waves 

Where will all animals go? Can’t all possibly fit in zoos, This proves some people lack responsibility , This is all the causes of fuel, So They better do something about it really, Or the world might end In a few years. 

The concludes my speech, I think I agree with the Responsibility and someone has to take action, But why me you ask? I’d prefer to have a good try at life and live it to the fullest, e.g TRY to keep my room tidy, MAYBE clean toilet after use, And do my bit to reduce greenhouse gases, Everyone needs to take responsibility, It depends, So what do you say, Do you agree or disagree? It’s all up to you.



Hi, my name is Jaime and I’m going to be talking about your responsibility of rubbish. Yup, rubbish. Now, let's start with something simple.

At home you should already have a recycling bin but if you haven’t got one then... you really need to. The change in the world from a simple recycling bin is ginormous because the more people recycle, the less of the universe gets polluted. Of course some things don’t go in the recycling bin like, for example, food scraps or soft plastic. And some people might not even care to put rubbish in bins but that’s ok! You just need to pick it up for them.

Now, at school you still can’t get away from saving the worlds nature. You’re expected, by the teachers of course, to be a Tidy Kiwi and pick up the litter on the ground. Similar to at home, it’s extremely important to put your rubbish in the right places, otherwise who knows where it will go? Maybe the ocean perhaps? After all, the ocean is way too big to miss! And sadly that brings me to my next subject…

Animals. The poor little, and big, creatures are just hungry when they come across PLASTIC! Then, guess what? They eat it! Yes, animals will eat any plastic that they see. Well, at least attempt to. 

Scientists think, from weight, that by 2050 there will be more plastic in the ocean then fish! And if you think nothing can be worse, people believe that rubbish of all sorts are found up to 11km under the sea, proof from James Cameron. The furthest anyone has gone under the sea. The world could end! All from the dreaded plastic.

I strongly believe with all my information that it’s our responsibility, no matter what, to make sure we are ‘tidy kiwis’ and pick up any rubbish we see. This will make a huge difference in the future and earth won’t EVER be a disappointment!


Students also explored Perspective in art, how to create a three dimensional representation on a two dimensional piece of paper.

Term 1 - 2019
This year we have begun a new Inquiry Cycle model.  
We are also Inquiring through Concepts or big ideas, rather than 'Topics'. This allows us to see connections across many curriculum areas, situations, ourselves and others. Term 1 is all about Respect, Manaaki tanga, (and in sign language - see below)

Our main Inquiry has been about setting, monitoring and rewarding Respectful behaviour expectations at Camp. Groups wrote a list of expectations for different settings at Camp, like the dining room, the bus, bathrooms, cabins and at the different activities. They had to be written in positive language - what they want to see, hear, do. The groups created posters to display at Camp to help remind everyone of the expected respectful behaviour. They also created checklists for the parents and students to mark against to award dojo points.

Presenting the dining room expectations and how they help to show respect.
Poster Displayed in the dining room
Monitoring dining room behaviour and awarding dojo points

Presenting the cabins expectations and how they help to show respect.

We Reflected on and Evaluated the Inquiry
Behaviour/ Respect Expectations being provided and monitored at Camp 2019
What worked well?
Everyone followed the expectations for dining room
everyone followed the expectations for archery.
Children listened to the instructions and followed them.
when people had their cabin ready for inspection
everyone followed the expectations for archery
the posters were good to look at it
most people's cabins were ready and tidy for inspection
Expectations being reached for me.
What could be done differently?

Lz1 could have a bit better listening
Clean the bathrooms everyone (only kids not t or p)
there could be more spaces to monitor
Or group getting to DO our activity
They could listen more to Instructor because it would be easier
Were behaviours affected by the respect expectations? 

some people were eating with their mouth open and been rude
some people slammed doors so we gave them more time but they were still rude
most people where following the expectations to get dojos
Some certain activities (eg volleyball and beach soccer)
How well did they work?

So well that people actually followed them.d
some cabins did have it done and dusted and i thought that was really good
it worked good with two parents in each group
very good, after each night every cabin got a little better than before
very good,when we do Archery at camp No one was doing everything right but you need to do a little work on the listening

Brooke and Sophie graphed and analysed the dojos recieved at Camp for the activities.

They found that the Archery and Air Rifles activities got the highest number of dojo points. They thought that might have been because those activities were the most dangerous, so people had to listen and follow the expectations the most, to be safe. Posters were displayed at both those activities. Also the people running those activities were noticing when students were following expectations, so that helped remind other students what to do.
The other activity that got a high number of dojo points was the Zorb Balls. This did not seem to be as dangerous, but Brooke and Sophie thought that, because everyone enjoyed it so much, it was easier to follow respectful expectations.

Term 3  2018

Meet your Emotions

STEAM Term 2 2018
All that matters
reversible and irreversible changes in matter

A demonstration by Dr Hoogerland caused quite a stir!

Mad Maarten’s Magnificent Matter Magic!

The other day, Professor Hoogerland came into LZ1 to demonstrate crazy things!

First, he showed us a clever video. There was a lovely lady lying on the grass.
The camera zoomed out to outer space! WOW! Then it went back to the woman,
then it zoomed deep deep deep inside her eye.

Secondly, he got us to blow up regular rubber balloons so we know there’s
nothing secretly crazy about the balloons. He showered liquid nitrogen on warm
carpet, it immediately evaporated!

Thirdly, he poured nitrogen in a polystyrene box. He MAGICALLY can fit 16
balloons in there! How did this work? Well, the gas got so cold, the balloons
shrunk and got completely wrinkled. When he took the balloons out, liquid
nitrogen was oozing like a spilling cauldron of wicked brew from the
wrinkled balloon.
Lastly, to commence this loony experiment, he put in a *real* rose to see what
happens. It froze and its petals shattered off!
So to come to my conclusion, this was a cool science demonstration!

By Caitlin Woollett, Peck, CW-65.72, Madame Pretzel, Cranky Cat, Crypto

Yesterday Dr Maarten Hoogerland came to do a demonstration on
matter! It took place at Dairy Flat School LZ1 in the M and M
space. At 1:45 on the 13 of june 2018 he came to teach us about
atoms and matter (physics)! He did some experiments with us that
were great fun!

First of all he showed us a clever atom video which showed us
just how small atoms were. It began with a girl lying on the grass!
But we kept on zooming and zooming out till eventually we were
out of the milky way. Then all of sudden we started zooming in
again into the girls eye right down to D.N.A!

After that with the help of some sort of website he showed us
about heating, cooling and putting pressure on atoms! It was all
about changing states of matter which are liquids, solids and gases.
It was extremely interesting!

Then he showed us something called liquid nitrogen. He said it
was freezing cold and if you left your finger in there it would drop
Then he suddenly threw some onto the floor everybody screamed.
But it immediately disappeared into a cloud and when it cleared the
floor was still dry!

Next he poured liquid nitrogen into a small polystyrene box.
Then he asked how many blown up balloons we thought would fit
we said two. So he started putting balloons in after six he told us to
blow up some ourselves. In the end he got 15 balloons in there.
Then he took them out they were all cold and shriveled up! But
when we held them they went back to normal.

In conclusion it was interesting and fuN! So we learned lots!
The balloons shrivelled up because the atoms got so cold they
slowed moving and unlike before they were not putting pressure
on the sides of the balloons! It was great.

Material properties

science- material properties reading

Use the Materials

OCEANS Term 1 - 2018
Sustainable Seas Virtual Field Trip

Spirit of Adventure Virtual Field Trip
Volvo Ocean Race Resources

Zero waste Term 4

As part of our study into the idea of zero waste, we will be exploring how we can do something practical to make the world a better place. 

Some of the sites we will be using to give us ideas include: 

STEAM "Simple Machines" - Term 3

Explore, describe, and represent patterns and trends for everyday examples of physical phenomena, such as movement, forces, electricity and magnetism, light, sound, waves, and heat. For example, identify and describe the effect of forces (contact and non-contact) on the motion of objects; identify and describe everyday examples of sources of energy, forms of energy, and energy transformations.

What is a Lever? 

Wally the ant shows examples of simple machines, vocab explained and labeled pictures using key vocab

An introduction to Simple Machines - A World Without Simple Machines?

Treaty of Waitangi.....what really happened....sort of.....

1 comment:

  1. Thanks for the links! So important to know and understand our history.