All children should wear sunhats and sunblock to school.

Room 8 researched, discussed and wrote a persuasive argument about the statement above.

I strongly agree that all children should wear sun hats and sunblock for the following reasons...

Firstly, the most important reason is that a lot of people have got burnt because they haven't been putting on sun block. Sun burn can lead to melanoma (skin cancer). Even if it's a cloudy day, there's still a high chance of you getting sun burn.

Secondly, it's really good to have a wide brimmed hat and also sunblock; especially in New Zealand because there are more people who have melanoma in New Zealand than Australia. There are more people who die from melanoma than in car crashes. In fact the statistics are twice as much. Sunblock as well as sun hats are not the only blocks of UV rays. There's also long sleeve tops and the shade.

On the other hand, some people are allergic to different types of sunblock, but that doesn't mean that you shouldn't wear it at all. So if you are, then try to bring some from home. I say, "there's no point in damaging your skin, if you know how to stop sun burn."

These are my reasons why I believe that children should wear sunblock and sunhats. "It's for your safety."

Written by Caoimhe

  

Map your fire escape plan

Well done to all who did athletics today

Well done to all the children who participated today. Pictured are the overall boy and girl champions for each age group.

Geometry

Room 8 have been busy drawing either the classroom or adding Room 8, 9, 10 and shifting the playground on the school plan.

We have worked in with the scale 1:25 for the classroom and 1:750 for the school plan. When we draw to scale we have to make the real-life size smaller in order for it to fit on the page.

Some super writing this week.

Check out James' memoir.

Home

Our lives in Queensberry are dependent on the wind. In the summer, it is dry, hot and overrun with rabbits. In the winter, it is wet and icy with low lying fog, preventing me from seeing the hill.

In the summer, the main place that I spend my time is outside digging up rabbits and finding bird nests until it’s tea time. When we are digging up the rabbits, it is just Patch (my dog) and I. Patch is only a fox terrier so he isn’t the quickest digging dog, but he has a good nose. When the hole gets caved in by my digging with a spade, Patch clears out the hole. I reach down the holes and pull the rabbits out and feed them to Patch. He is the killer. 

I have never had any sympathy for rabbits, but every now and then we keep one as a pet. But usually, to cut a long story short, they die.  

Kate's awesome writing

My Holidays

On the way to Christchurch Mum, Anna, Pip and I got a weird text from Jason (my Uncle) who was checking up on Ruby my pregnant dog. The text that he sent said I’ll check up on her in 10 minutes. We started to get suspicious, so we called Dad, who was at work. He said Ruby (my dog) had already had 2 golden labradors.

20 minutes later Jason texted saying she had four more black puppies, then saying she had another golden puppy. The final number was 7.

I started to ask Mum all these questions like how long until they open their eyes, when can they walk. At the time we didn’t know there was a runt. Mum said to “stop talking” and that it is giving her a headache.

She said “have a sleep.” I could not get to sleep at a time like this.

When We got to Christchurch, the traffic was so busy, we went straight to the apartment. Time flew by and soon enough we were in a taxi going to the Horncastle Arena, but I could not take my mind off the puppies.

We were waiting outside of the consent for ages, I was starting to get cold and annoyed, finally they let us in. I thought the consent was going to take the puppies off my mind, but it did not. I wish I was at home with the puppies, I guess I'll just have to wait.

 

Please help our decision making...

The new way to pop balloons

Orange peels kill balloons.  The moment the balloon had one or two drops of limonene (the juice from the orange peel), the balloon popped, almost straight away.

This happened because the chemical (limonene) causes the rubber on the balloon to dissolve. So when you squeeze the limonene onto the balloon it will pop. The  limonene is in the darker part of orange skins; it is the part that gives the smell of oranges. 

Written by Caoimhe and Kobi

Carniorous plants

We read an article about carnivorous plants. Some of the plants don't have a sucker and some of them do.

The Venus fly trap- It has hairs that trap the fly in their leaves. When the fly tries to escape the hairs sense the moving and squeeze tighter.


The Pitcher plant- It uses water (liquid) to drown the insects. The plant is bright and smells of nectar. The insects like to go near the plant and they get trapped when they fall over the edge.

Bladderwortz-  These are underwater plants which are native to New Zealand. They suck in the prey very quickly (in one-thirtieth of a second).

Written by James, Ezekiel, Gabe, Daniel, Seb and Jack.

Our busy holidays

Room 8 have had a busy holidays. Play our 2 truths and a lie game to see what we did.