Hannah's awesome birthday party!!!

Hi I'm Hannah and I would like to tell you about my awesome birthday party so here it goes.

On Saturday Keighley, Marina and Caylee came to my house and we had a movie night and watched New Moon, Marley And Me & Seventeen Again, but the best part was that we didnt have a bedtime so we just stayed up all night. The next day, we woke up to bright and sunny morning and went ten pin bowling. It was so much fun I won the first round and Keighley won the next round. It was a real shame when the day came to an end, especially when I got home because I had to deal with all the mess GRRRRRRR!!!

But over all I think we all had a great time together. It was soooo much fun!!!!!!!!!!!

WALT Measure the Length of our Body Parts by Group 6

Have you ever wondered why we measure parts of our body?

Well,let me tell you all about it. We are learning about measurement in mathematics this term... We started off learning about why we measure certain things. Census NZ sent schools around New Zealand a survey to complete on measurement. The information they ask us to complete will help several businesses and manufacturers when designing clothing or building furniture for students.

Some of the tasks we have to measure are: How long our arms are, how tall we are, the size of our right foot, our index finger along with our ring finger, our wrist and neck and our popliteal length as well.

I bet you don't know what your popliteal length is!! Let's have a look at your popliteal length...When measuring your popliteal length, you need to sit in a chair and make sure your feet are flat on the floor, then measure from underneath your knee (at the right angle part) to the bottom of your heel where it meets the floor. The reason why we measure this is for people to know what the average length of children's popliteal length is, so that manufacturers know what height to create chairs and tables to suit students.

During morning tea time we asked a few teachers if they knew what their popliteal length was...none of them knew, only our teacher.

We hope you have learnt something new, we sure have. Try asking someone about their popliteal length and question them as to why Census NZ would need that information. We thought it was a pretty clever initiative for Census NZ to send our this survey to all the primary schools around NZ to find information for designers and manufacturers.

The Bees Knees by Elsie

Whats up? Im Elsie and right now Im going to tell you about my Dad, well,his job really. Anyway,we cant stand about gossiping all day, so full speed ahead I jolly well say!!!

My Dad's a bee keeper. That's someone who looks after bees. He gets up at 5:45am every morning to go to his work out at Arataki. There is a lot of work involved, such as feeding the bees in winter, extracting honey from the hives and the list goes on to the moon.

We also have hives on our front lawn. The question that my teacher asked me yesterday was this: How do you stop the bees going into your neighbours' homes and backyards, especially when you live in a neighbourhood in town and not out in the country? The answer is simple. Are you ready? And the answer is... Drum roll please... You dont!!!There is NO way whatsoever to keep the bees on our property. None! Lots of bees fly off looking for flowers and are never seen again, but that doesn't matter because the queen lays eggs almost every day. ELSIE, DO YOUR NEIGHBOURS COMPLAIN ABOUT BEES BEING IN THEIR BACKYARD AT ALL? DO THEY NOT GO INTO THEIR YARDS?

Having Dad as a bee keeper is awesome in capital letters. Of course it has its avantages and disadvantages. One avantage is that we haven't bought our own honey for two or three years. Another is that Ive learnt truck loads. Did you know that a good hive should have at least 40 thousand bees? What else? Oh yeah,all the females gang up on the males in the winter and kick them out to die just so they can have the food for themselves. Buzzy old world isnt it? A disadvantage is that when you have bee hives at your home, you tend to get stung a fair bit,which is a problem for me because I have a slight allergy to bee stings. The worst one Ive had was when I was stung on my eye.Ouch!!!

The honey our bees make is multi fluoro or mixed honey. We dont do anything to it so its sraight from the hives. The honey is really sweet, and then as it slides towards the back of your throat,you get that intense thickness that makes your eyes water...Delishimo!!!Thanks for reading.

Oh yeah,I nearly forgot. Dad sells his honey so if you want some,please blog back and place an order with Elsie. It's $10.00 for a large jar of honey and $5.00 for a small jar.

History of Anzac Day By Britten

Anzac Day is celebrated in Australia and New Zealand on the 25th of April every year, to remember those who fought for their country. Anzac Day is also celebrated in the Cook Islands, Niue, Samoa and Tonga. Reference http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anzac_Day

When soldiers fought in the war, they were given small portions of food. They only got what was available. Soldiers would call their lunch a Ration Pack. It would contain bully beef [a type of canned meat],some dried fruit,a slice of cheese,1 olive,a potatoe,a piece of bread,a drink of water [if they were lucky they would get tea],some bacon and an Anzac biscuit. Thats how the Anzac biscuit became popular. Reference http://www.skwirk.com.au

The acronym ANZAC stands for Australian New Zealand Army Corps. RNZA stands for Royal New Zealand Army. RNZAF stands for Royal New Zealand Airforce and RSA stands for Returned Servicemen Association. Reference http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anzac_Day

At the end of the war over 8,000 Australian and 2,700 New Zealand soldiers died. Reference http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anzac_Day

Volcano Trouble In Europe by Sophie M

At the moment there is a volcano erupting in Iceland. There is a big cloud of ash flowing across Europe. The ash cloud is causing most of the airports to shut until the volcano has stopped spewing ash into the air. The planes cannot fly because they are afraid that the ash will cause the engines to stop. The airports are losing about 250 million dollars per day due to the delays.

My sister is over in Europe at the moment. She is on an overseas trip for 3 and a half weeks with her school mates from JPC. Shes travelling all around Europe. So far she has been to the Eiffel Tower, some castles and many different cities.

One of the men on the trip sent us some photos. Some of them they were taken on the Eiffel tower. There were also different sorts of food they eat in France such as snails, lamb brains and a BIG plate of strawberrys, YUM!

She was meant to return to New Zealand on Saturday, but she will now have to travel 7hours by bus to catch a flight in Rome because that airport is operating.

The airports are hoping that the volcano will stop soon so that they dont lose any more money.