One of my favourites.

 

The kids liked this one too and the following school day we wrote this poem (they wrote it I just acted as scribe!)

Funky Junk Man

I'm a funky Junk man
sitting in a tree
singing "I'm a funky junk man- look at me!"
When I walk my legs go clunk
Because they're made from on old steel bunk!
My heads a pot
which gets very hot
I've got bowling pin arms
which is good for playing drums!
I like to play cricket
and sit in a tree
singing "I'm a funky junk man- look at me!"

OK, so it's not a technically correct poem but it is cool!

Macca's any one?

 

One of the funky junk displays. This is all made from recycled materials, mostly heavy duty plastic containers like the packs oil comes in...

 

BINGO

 

We made our own bingo game from recycled calander pages...the kids have had lots of fun playing!

Jacob's mail plane

 

This is the pic that should also be below! You can see the missing Fokeer f27s photo if you 'beam up' the poster in the other photo.

 

This photo should be below where blogger has put a little x instead of a photo!

Beautiful Japanese girls!

 

Some of our creations

 

We couldn't hang the MILLIONS of Japanese origami "secret folders" that Pearl made!

Tui's colouring the paper for her Empress doll

 

 

We decided to learn a bit about Japan, we've been learning a lot about other countries lately! We made some origami creations (here's 2 of our visiting Flat Travellers as well) and the girls dressed up as beautiful Japanese woman- complete with chopsticks in their hair! Arn't they GEORGOUS!

You've got Mail!

 

Here's what we did for school today!
We looked at a world map to find NZ, England and America and got an idea of how far our mail had to go. The kids were suprised that NZ is so small and I was suprised out how many cities are in America! We were going to colour in each city or town as we 'visit' but ended up deciding to colour in each state. Both Tui and Pearl are going to California but to different parts of California and it was getting pretty complicated trying to show it on our map!

Then we stated our MAIL EXPERIMENT....some of you will be getting mail soon! We are trying to find out how long it takes for mail sent at the same time on the same day at the same postal rate will take to get to different parts of NZ and America. We want to know if it the further the mail has to go actually has an affect on how long it takes to get there.

We looked at ways our mail moves (some great info on the NZ post website) and looked at the type of transport used.
Jacob was pleased to be able to use his lego and make a Fokker F27s like the plane NZ post uses- he really loves his lego :) There is a lot of fuel used getting mail around the world.(According to NZ Post it's over 3 million litres of diesel per yr just for the trucks)

We found out some interesing facts....
* The big Truck and Trailer that NZ post uses can carry 20 tonne of mail.
* They deliver 10,000 truck and tralier loads of mail a year, 40 loads per day. (10,000 x 20 tonne!)
* A standard letter weighs 50g...IF all mail was a standard letter that would equal 40,000,000 letters a year!
* NZ post has over 2000 posties, over 80 trucks, over 110 vans and 8 planes.
* One of the planes used by NZ post is a Fokker F27s, which can carry 5.5 tonnes of mail.
* The busiest time of day if NZ post is actually at night when mail is transported to larger centres for sorting.

So...there's a whole lot of info for one day!

A lot of the numbers were to big for the kids to comprehend but they are definatley a lot more aware of what happens before our mail reaches our box. Even for bills!

Flat Kids:)

 

Here's Flat Tui, Flat Pearl and Flat Jake. They'll be off on their OE on Tuesday:)

Pearl and Tui are going to DISNEYLAND!

 

OK, well Flat Pearl and Flat Tui are! Flat Jacob's going to the Grand Canyon!

States of America

 

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I found a world map online so the kids could see how far they flat travelers will be going (it only costs $2 to travel!!) and I found this map of America so we could look at the states they will be going too. I'll find one for England and Scotland as well. We have a line version of America so we will be able to colour in each state as we visit and when our flat travelers arrive home again we will be able to put them all in a book together with relevant information about each state that we have visited!

 

Meet Sparkle the flat Kaimanawa pony

 

This is Sparkle...she's Tui's Kaimanawa pony :) Sparkle was drawn by Pearl and is a flat traveler, she's going to stay with a homeschooling family in Sacramento....they will take our flat with them and collect souvenirs of their life in their part of the U.S.A! We will host a FT for them too :) Jewell our flat Kiwi is going to England and possibly Scotland!
So far Flat Jacob is going to Chicago and may visit the Grand Canyon, Flat Tui is going to stay with her pen pal in Utah and Flat Pearl is going to Disneyland!!! We think it;s a great way for the kids to learn about other countries and how other famillies live. I'll post pics of our flat kids when they are finished:)

Stamp collecting

 

We did geography today with stamps and flat travellers....
I got the stamps from Trade Me, they are mostly NZ and Australia but we also got some cool English stamps, American stamps, 1 from Italy and 1 German stamp...Jacob wanted the superbike stamp (no surprise there!)from Australia and the girls chose these other 2....

And BABIES!!!

 

Less than a week later we have teeny-tiny baby caterpillars :)

Eggs!!

 

A flying visit....