Mrs Laird's Class of 2008

Middle Ages

The class spent time this year learning about life in the middle ages - certainly considerably different from life at Papakowhai School in 2008.  Learning the roles of different people, the impact of wealth on lifestyle and differences in what is considered a crime and how punished were among the facts the children found interesting.

Using todays technology combined with the history they had learned the children made up small movies using puppets they made.  Unfortunately these cannot be downloaded here but if you are interested ask Mrs Laird to show you.

Discovering games still enjoyed by children today were around way back in the middle ages was amzing to the children.  Among the games they learned about and ejoyed playing were:

Chess	Jacks	Draughts
Pick up Sticks	Marbles	Blind Mans Bluff

Gravity

As part of a science topic the children learned about the force of gravity - what it is, how it works, how it impacts on us, and how it operates with other forces such as friction was a topic the children worked on.  To make it even more interesting the topic gravity was combine with a technology experiment with the children designing and building a marble roll track.  The children were very enthused about this and there were some wonderful models made. 

The Estuary Ecosystem

The class, along with others in their syndicate, studied the Estuary ecosystem.  In todays environment the children also looked at the impact of factors such as pollution has.  A visit to Battle Hill and the Pauatahanui foreshore was a highlight of studying the topic.

Using this theme the class also undertook some art using different textures to give impact.