The Port!

BEFORE: Soon Nile Room is going on a special bus trip to the Port. We are leaving at 9:30 am and coming back at 11:30 am. All kids are required to stay inside the bus at all times. We think that is because it is very dangerous. Cranes will be picking up the containers and moving them around.
Also if we stay on the bus we won't get lost.

Drew found the "expected arrivals" from the weather page of the newspaper. Otis read out a ship name -The Spirit of Endurance which weighs 7464 tonnes! It is loading and unloading containers. We might see it when we are there!

AFTER:  We are back from the port. At the end of the trip we all got a squishy ball of the world.

We saw lots of cranes - Sophie

It was really sunny so we could see everything really well - Joran

We had  a sheet of things to spot during the trip - Alex

We hope we get to do it again - Saphire

We got really nervous when the bus drove close to the edge of the wharf - Jaladhi

We saw thousands of containers - Brearna

The 40 foot container fridges can take 130 000 apples - Sahria

The pictures of the wharf in a timeline was fascinating - Otis

SchoolTV

Hey Nile Room! Check out this Auckland School's website.
They are a primary school like we are and make their own tv school news show that anyone in the world can watch.
They started making it in 2001. Below is a clip from one of their 2012 episodes.



To check out other episodes of their show check out this website  Pt England's schooltv

Perhaps Nile Room's film crew will learn to make clips like this with Dave!

Problem facts!

We have trouble remembering one or two of our basic facts each time we do our basic facts ten by ten grid.
Today some people used equipment to model the fact they often have a brain block about.

Ricky has an odd one out... which one is it and why?

In 60 Seconds

This pictures shows some facts about things that happen online in 60 seconds (how many minutes is that?)

Friday aka Bike Day

Today we went on the road for Bike Safety. We split into groups of about five people with two instructors.

We went out of school, across the road, passed the Trafalgar Centre and across the bridge to the cycle track.

We learned to push off from the kerb. Before you push off from the kerb you have to do your hand signals.
I like the bit when we went around two parked cars.

by Brearna

Why Does Popcorn Pop?

Today in Nile Room we were investigating why popcorn pops. After we had thought about it we each came up with our own hypothesis.

Here are some of our ideas:

“...the pressure of the heat builds up until it bursts with a crunchy edible shell...”

“...the heat and pressure causes the kernel to expand and explode. When the inside expands, the kernel splits.”

“I think that when popcorn heats up the popcorn starts over expanding and inside it starts exploding and turns it into popcorn.”

“...warm air starts to get bigger and bigger in the inside of the kernel. The hotter it gets the bigger it gets then it splits and pop! There’s your popcorn.”

After we had shared some of our ideas we watched this video that explains what actually makes popcorn pop:

Most of our hypotheses were pretty close to being correct. 

The key point we learnt from the video was that a kernel of popcorn contains 14% water. It is the water in the kernel the causes it to pop. When then kernel is heated up, the water turns to steam and eventually the pressure from the steam causes the kernel to pop. 

After we learnt about what makes popcorn pop we got to see the process in action. We made a big batch of popcorn and then tasted it!

ANZAC Poppies!

Right now Nile Room are doing some pastel ANZAC art with Mrs Hockley!