Should we be allowed gum at school?

Dear Wendy,

I think we should be allowed gum at school.

firstly, I think we should be allowed gum at school because we won’t talk while we work because we would be too busy chewing gum.

SECONDLY, I think we should be allowed gum at school because it is good for you and is low in sugar, plus it’s just like brushing your teeth.

Thirdly,  I think we should be allowed gum at school because it will keep people entertained.

finally, I think that gum should be allowed at school because you would never need to use blu-tac again because gum is just as sticky to use as blu-tac.

Therefore, I think that gum should be allowed to be at school.

I hope you agree with me, Wendy.

by Breanna Thurston Room 16.  

Dear Breanna

You have presented some very convincing arguments for having gum at school.  I like to occasionally chew gum as i enjoy its flavour and its is less fattening to chew on gum than chocolate and other sugary foods.

I agree gum is better for your teeth but your other arguments are easily disputed.

I can talk and chew gum and i am sure you could too.  gum is sticky and because people tend to carelessly dispose of their gum it can end up on your clothes, in your hair and on the soles of your shoes to be trodden into your home carpet.  it is yucky to find gum stuck under your desk or seat.

gum makes a mess of our pathways and is a real issue when it is just tossed to the ground when people have finished with it.

Also people chewing gum can be off putting - especially when the chewing comes with those awful sound effects.  

EVEN THOUGH I ENJOY CHEWING GUM OCCASIONALLY I DO NOT THINK GUM SHOULD BE ALLOWED AT SCHOOL AS IT CAUSES MORE PROBLEMS THAT BENEFITS.

THANKS FOR SHARING YOUR IDEAS BUT I AM NOT CONVINCED!

SMILES,

WENDY B

Should we have gum at school ?

Dear Wendy

I think we should have gum at school because it will keep the children

entertained and it stops you from talking in class while you are working.

Secondly, it makes your breath smell nice instead of your breath smell bad.

Thirdly ,it tastes nice and you don’t get bored because you are too busy chewing.

Fourthly ,you don’t need to brush your teeth. However ,it is disgusting when people put it under the desks and stick it behind their ears.

Finally ,the noise of chewing can be annoying.

But I think we should have GUM AT SCHOOL.!

By Georgie

Hi Georgie,

I can see that you have good reasons behind your argument however I am not convinced.  

I think it is awful seeing someone chewing gum like a cow chewing it’s cud, even though it might make your breath smell nice.

In Singapore they have banned gum and so their footpaths and roads are gum free.  After seeing how clean their paths etc were and coming back to New Zealand I was shocked at all the gum remains that have stained our foothpaths and roads.

I have had gum stuck in my hair and on my clothes as people tend to dispose of their gum in a very careless manner, so I don’t believe gum should be allowed at school.

Thanks for sharing your argument with me - your points are convincing but not convincing enough.

Smiles and hugs,

Wendy B

Soil Layers

Today R14 came to visit Annie and learn all about soil.  We  completed a pretest about soil and found that we did not know very much about the wonderful resource, SOIL!  We stand on it everyday and grow our food in it but don't know as much about it as we should.  R16 have finished their inquiry about soil and their knowledge was great when we did our pretest.   Well done R16.  What a lot they learned.
Today though it was R14's chance to learn and inquire. We then completed a T chart about what we knew and questions we have a bout soils .  There were some rich questions asked.  We also watched videos about soil, focusing on what it is, what types of soil there are and the soil layers.  We sketched a cross section of soil and labelled the different layers.  See the diagram below to learn the layers.  Also see R16's fun photos below when they made edible soils in layers just like this.  It certainly helped them remember the order of the layers from the bottom to the top or vice versa.

Milly's Matariki Presentation for Homefun

Shared Reading Activity: Koalas & Wallabies

Koalas & wallabies from annie.mccambridge

Matariki

Edible Soil!

I was asked today for the recipe as some of the children wanted to make this again at home.  Here is a screenshot of the layering we used.  Enjoy but beware lots of calories!

Edible Soil!

We made edible soil  so we could show the soil layers.  We made this in a clear plastic cup.  We used an an oreo cookie to show this bottom layer which is  called the bedrock.  Next we added cocopops and M&Ms to show the parent material or substratum layer.  We made chocolate mousse and then added that to show the next layer which is subsoil.  We crushed digestive biscuits (showing how weathering and pressure work to break up rocks) and added this to represent the top soil. We add organic matter (humus) last of all.  For this we used chocolate chips.  After we completed our assessments we ate it!  YUM YUM.

Charlie's Homefun - The Seven Stars of Matariki

Seven Stars of Matariki

Niamh's Homefun - The Seven Stars of Matariki

Observing Soil

  

We found lots things in the soil from our school garden, that it contained things like water,dead and decaying leaves, roots and bark, stones, pebbles, clay, sand, compost, sand, loam and someone found a tiny seedling and a dead bug.  Can you see how closely we are looking. We couldn't see the air though!  To see the smaller things we used a magnifying glass. What we really needed was a more powerful microscope so we could see all the microscopic fungi, bacteria, bugs and particles.  We noticed, made notes and used our observations to explain and justify our thinking.  Here is the soil sample and some of the things we found.

Volume in Maths

The 'Hearts' math's group task was to make a 3 D shape from 27 cubes.  They photographed their models.