More amazing Learning from Jerusalem Learners!

Pyper created a model and habitat of a zebra:


 Nixon created a model and habitat of a taipan:


 Jayden shows us a model and habitat of the Nile crocodile:

 Jackson created a red deer habitat:
 

 Estella shows us the koala and it's habitat:


Ella created an axolotl ans it's habitat:

Noah writes about dolphins

Noah S has been very busy creating an explanation about the impact of humans on dolphins.  I think he has written a fabulous, comprehensive explanation.  What do you think?

What impact do humans have on dolphins?


Would you believe me if I told you there is a pink dolphin swimming around in the shining blue amazon river. You wouldn’t would you, you would only think that there are only blue, black and white dolphins. Well this is about them, yes the pink dolphins it’s also about the ordinary one’s as well and how you affect them.


What does impact mean? Impact means you have a strong effect on that person or thing. For example a struggling student who needs special attention and/or needs help with their learning, social skills or their physical education. That teacher has an impact on that student by helping them with that particular problem. Also another example is a tornado came through a farmer's land and wrecked all his crops. That farmer might have been relying on those crops for the money he got from the market when he sold them. He might’ve had to sell his great great grandma’s vase or had to sell some of his land. That tornado made a great impact in a bad way for that farmer but the struggling student was impacted by the teacher in a good way.


My first point is about overfishing and catching dolphins in nets. Dolphins, sharks and other big sea animals are impacted by overfishing because fishermen take more than they should. They take millions of fish when they should take less which makes dolphins starve which they have to go to more dangerous parts of the sea to get food. Which comes to my next part about nets and hooks. Since the dolphins have to go to the threatening waters that’s where the boats with the nets and hooks are. 300,000 whales and dolphins are dying from fishing gear a year.


My second point is about chemical spills in the ocean. In 2010 The deepwater horizon oil spill affected the dolphins who lived in the area. Some got lung disease, hormonal abnormalities and 128 deaths of dolphins and whales and they also found out that 6,400 marine mammals may have been harmed because of the BP oil spill. Following the oil spill there have been high numbers of stranded dolphins in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. Since dolphins have to come above the water to breathe they can inhale chemicals which can cause lung cancer. It also burn’s membranes around the eyes and also can irritate the skin and inflame the skin.


My third point is about illegal feeding and boat strikes. The Marine Mammal Protection Act made in 1972 made feeding dolphins illegal and you can get fined to up to 200,000 dollars and a year in prison. The reason for this is because they would train their calves to beg for food instead of hunting. This is very dangerous because if they begged someone could hurt them or the dolphin could hurt the person which would be bad because the dolphin could get put down or something similar. Boat strikes are dangerous and one of them happened in Sydney Australia. Two of the rarest animals in the world were harmed during a boat strike. They were two out of the three snubfin dolphins at Roebuck bay. There are 161 identified snubfin dolphins in coastal waters around the tourist town Broome. 124 were photographed and 63% bore scars and cuts.


My fourth and final point is about habitat degradation and climate change affecting dolphins. Habitat degradation is the loss of the places they live because humans destroy all the places that dolphins need to survive. Instead they have to settle for less favourable places that don’t have enough food or have the wrong temperature. Climate change is also another problem. The climate is changing fast and some dolphin populations may not have enough time to adapt. The sea temperature, freshening of seawater and the rises of the sea. The warming of the planet is causing a loss of habitats for dolphins. It is also affecting their timing and ranges of their migration and also their reproduction.


In Conclusion, now you know what we do to those pink amazon dolphins and those snubfin Aussie dolphins and even the normal blue, white and black dolphins. We need to make a change and we need to do it now. The end.


By Noah Smith

Skoolkit - Get New Zealand Writing 2020

We have been working on a get NZ writing schoolkit this week.  We have been creating some fabulous poems and working really well together to create sestina poems too.   Who knew how fabulous we we could be at writing poems?  We are so happy with our outcomes. 

We have been learning about fables this term.  We looked at some of Aesop's fables and then we identified what a fable needs.  We created our own fables.  This was a very enjoyable activity and we had some amazing fables written!   Check these ones out and tell us what you think!

Advertising - We are learning about making advertisements...

    WALT: to create an advertisement

SC: using language, symbols and texts through music, drama and digital and visual arts.

Things to consider:

• A name and logo for your robot.
• Writing an interesting script using: catchy phrases, interesting words, alliterations, onomatopoeia, etc.
• Your use of voice in your advertisement (make your voice interesting and exciting to listen to).
• The drama/acting in your ad.
• Make/use a jingle in your ad.
• Visual elements- screencasifying, props, etc.
• Location for filming
• Your audience- who are you selling to?

This is what Lenard, Taig and Alex S have come up with. We think it is pretty clever with a big dash of humour - what do you think?

Literacy - our digital modelling book

Now that our class is digital, we have been innovative about the way we do things.  Our reading group shares a slideshow that goes for the whole term.  This is where Mrs Bellis puts the WALT and all the things we learn about in a lesson.  Often she has things there before our lesson so we can be prepared.  During our lesson we add as we are learning - we use text and photos of our whiteboards mainly.  After our lesson we usually have follow up, this goes on our slideshow too.  We have a whole terms worth of learning in one slideshow.  Each group has one of these.  This is Kapa Rua's Literacy for term one.  We are currently reading and writing narratives.  This week we described the character we are writing about and then we drew the character.  This slideshow will continue updating ans changing until the end of the term.  This means we can look back at what we have learned, check up on things, and make sure we are up to date.

Des Hunt visits Saint Patrick's Greymouth

We were so lucky to have NZ author, Des Hunt visit our school today. He gave an amazing presentation using chemistry and physics as a metaphor to explain writing a good book to us.
 We are all excited to begin using these ideas in our writing and to read some more of his awesome books.  We are currently reading The Tooth and Steel Pelicans in our year groups.