Wolf Report

Thank you Ola for your answers about grey wolves around you.

We have been learning to take notes from video clips and online text. Our aim was to find out more about the grey wolves of Yellowstone National Park, having read the novel Wolf in the Wardrobe, a NZ novel by Susan Brocker. We have also been thinking about how to describe precisely using the right scientific vocabulary. This led to us learning how to use a colon to introduce a list. Can you find the colons in Jack's wolf report?

Wolves 12/10/16

Wolves are canines like dogs, they look similar to a german shepard but are a lot bigger.

Diet

Wolves eat many different ungulates: caribou, elk, bison and deer. They also eat much smaller prey too, such as rabbit, beaver and otter. They will eat the sick, old or young ones because they are easier to catch.

Hunting

When hunting, wolves will split up and chase their prey from many angles so they can trap it. The wolves will bite the legs of their prey and hold on until another wolf comes and strikes it in the throat. They can run for a long amount of time to catch their prey (at least 1 hour). Wolves are capable of running through water and snow.

Pups

The alpha male and female are the only wolves that breed in the pack. There are usually about 4-6 pups in a litter. When the pups are born, all the wolves in the pack will help to look after them. To feed the pups, the wolves will regurgitate some meat from their stomach for them.  

Communication

Wolves communicate in a few different ways: howling, barking, growling and whining. A wolf from a pack will howl to give the other wolves a warning, or to bring the pack together. Lone wolves will very rarely howl.

Annual fund raising horse trek

Hi Ola

This last weekend has been a long weekend here in New Zealand, as Monday was what we call Labour Day. Each year we run a three day horse trek, to raise funds to support our school buses. It is a lot of hard work but many people from the community help us out. The children sang a few songs on the Sunday evening to thank the trekkers for spending their long weekend in the beautiful Kaitieke Valley. Here we all are performing.




This is what some of the children wrote about the experience:

As I stood on the stage, I could see people staring at me. They looked at me unblinkingly. I felt little butterflies in my stomach. I never wanted to get up on the stage, even to sing just 4 songs. I felt nervous before I had even walked up on the stage. When I was on the stage I was so nervous I wanted to go home, but I had to do it. 

At the end, I felt like the nerves were for nothing.    Blake

As I stood on the stage I could see, old people staring at me. They were looking serious. "This better be good," I thought in my head. I could hear people talking but I could not hear the conversations because they blended together. Every noise that was made echoed in the room.When we started singing, I heard Jonny's cow boy boots tapping on the ground to join us. I never wanted to get on stage but I had to so that I could ride the bus to school and home.  At the end I felt like I earned something. Bryce

As I stood on the stage, I took a deep breath, sat down and started singing. As I looked around, I tried not to laugh,  and I realized it wasn't that bad . Well ...until my solo. The butterflies came back.
It was silent. I sung. The other girls sang after me, then the clapping echoed around the room.On to our next song- Down to the Country. The music started, so did the nerves. All of us started singing. I felt this was easier than by myself. After the song I felt way better The butterflies were gone. I wasn't the tiniest bit nervous, just relieved. Ria

My Summer Adventure

I took a hamster named Dorito, and during the summer I did 4-H with him. 4-H is where you learn about agriculture and animals. Our 4-H group is called the Ola Roughriders. I did all of the book work with him and around the first week of August, I had to show him in front of all the judges at the fair.  Dorito was very nervous because they had just got done showing the cats. I brought him up to the showing table and he crawled inside my shirt. He had started nibbling on my hands before this but it didn't hurt that much. After I got him out, he took one big chomp on my finger. I was so surprised that I flung him across the table accidentally. After I got him back the judge was right by me. She asked, "Please show me how you would check your hamster." With my fingers trembling, I had to hold him by his fur, and then lift him up on his back, without him biting me. As I was told from my friends afterward, my face was bright red. After I had put Dorito back in his cage, I washed all the blood off my fingers, and counted how many times he bit me, just counting the times he chewed through my skin, and it was 12 times! 

A few hours afterward, I was watching the sheep showing, and one of the moms came over to me. She said that she had just saved Doritos life. I went back to our canopy, and Dorito's fur was dark and wet. She said she had to pour water on him because he was in the sun for almost half an hour and was melting in his plastic cage! Now I know not to take Dorito for granted! Next time I will tell you about my chicken, Fluffy. 

Do you have anything like 4-H? Do you have pets at your house?
-Hailey

Girl band

And here is the girls band.

Music

Here is the latest boy band to come out of the Kaitieke Valley! Not bad when you think the oldest child is 10 years old.

Apples

  In first and second grade we are studying apples.  We learned what made apples turn brown.  We are doing an experiment.  We put 5 pieces of apple in a cup with water, a cup with oil, a cup with vinegar, and a cup with nothing.We made a prediction in our journal.  Which one do you predict will keep the apples white?
We will find out on Monday.

Questions about wolves

This week we are writing a scientific report about Grey Wolves. We have been doing lots of reading about them but thought it would be great to ask you some questions, as you have wolves near you. We don't get wolves in New Zealand at all.

Firstly, you mentioned in one of your posts about ranchers. What are ranchers?

Have any of you been to Yellowstone National Park? What is it like?

Have any of you actually seen a wolf? Can you describe it for us?

Have you seen wolves attacking your animals? What do you do about this? Are you allowed to shoot them?

What are your thoughts about wolves being reintroduced to Yellowstone Park? Are you for or against this? What are your reasons?

If you see wolves, where do you normally see them?

We will send some of our reports when they are finished, so that you can give us some feedback.
The Seniors

Chrome Books

    Hello! My name is Abby. Last month the 5th and 6th graders got Chrome books. Chrome books are like mini-laptops.We use them for many things such as  research, writing, Moby Max, and testing.

10 Apples up on Top!

In first and second grade, we have been doing several activities with apples.
First, we read the book by Theo. LeSieg called Ten Apples up on Top!
We checked to see how many apples we could stack on our table. Our predictions were not very close.  We tried different strategies and wrote in our journals. Then we tried to stack them on our heads.  Here are the pictures:

                   

The next day we had to design and build an apple carrier out of just a few materials, like pipe cleaners, cards, popsicle sticks, paper and straws.  We had to be able to carry at least three apples for ten steps.  It was fun. Tomorrow we are experimenting with rotting apples.