NZ FALCON WRITING

The New Zealand falcon is a bird of prey. They are known as the the bravest bird in New Zealand . THEY ARE A TRUE WARBIRD.

PHYSICAL FEATURES
The New Zealand (NZ) Falcon is a very lean looking bird of prey. They have brown pointed wings and they have a streaked cream breast. They also have a hooked beak and above the beak is golden yellow which is also the colour of their eye ring. It uses its golden talons (claws) for grabbing its prey.

Habitat
They live in the South and the North Islands, however they are rare on Stewart Island. They mostly live in beech forests, tussocklands, roughly grazed hill country and pine forests. However in the Chatham Islands, NZ Falcons are found in bushy areas around mountains.

Feeding Behaviour

They hunt live prey. They can catch prey larger than themselves, such as black shags. The New Zealand Falcon flies really fast and attacks with a strike or grasp to grab the prey with their talons. Once they have their prey they brutally kill it with a quick powerful bite to the neck. They eat a range of animals, including mammals such as rabbits and hares. They also will eat lizards but NZ falcons mainly eat other birds. Juvenile falcons will eat insects.

Reproduction
Falcons do not make nests but make a scrape on the ground, under a rocky outcrop or in an epiphyte (a plant that grows on another plant) in an emergent forest tree into which it lays its eggs. It lays two to four eggs which take about 33 days to hatch. The juveniles are fed by both parents, the male does most of the hunting with the female guarding close to the nest. Fledgling occurs between 31 and 45 days after hatching.

Social Behaviour
NZ Falcons are really aggressive especially when guarding their nest. They can dig their talons into you ( as my dad found out ) and are one of the bravest birds because they can hunt prey bigger than them.

Threats
The main animal threats to falcon include: cats, stoats, ferrets and hedgehogs. Also they can be electrocuted on power poles containing uninsulated transformer boxes. Can you believe that people still shoot falcons, they seem to do this because people that have chickens and racing pigeons think that the falcon are a hassle because sometimes they eat their chickens and racing pigeons.
Sadly falcons are losing their habitat due to logging and pastures being converted. Finally, some falcons even crash into the turbine blades on wind farms, which can kill them.

Conclusion
The New Zealand falcon is a bird of prey. They are known as the the bravest bird in New Zealand . THEY ARE A TRUE

WARBIRD.

BY DAN

Volume and Capacity

WE ARE REDUCING OUR PLASTIC WASTE

For the past two weeks my class made bees wax wrap and reusable fabric bags We have all  made two beeswax lunch wraps each. I hope they help the environment. I enjoyed melting the beeswax. We made it by getting some baking paper on a tray. We then put our fabric on the top of the baking paper. After that we had to put grated bees wax on the fabric. Then we put another layer of baking paper on then melted the bees wax. For the fabric bags we had to chose our fabric, cut it out and then we had to sew it together. I enjoyed doing this very much.

Where To Next

Where To Next?  Connected, Level 4

Turning Old into New

Literacy

Science/Social Science learning goals

We are learning to understand about the environments around us and the negative of positive impact our actions can have on these environments.

Success criteria;

• identify and explain some of the issues facing our environment today 
• identify some of the negative impacts humans are having on the environment 
• identify some positive actions people are taking both here and around the world to try and 
• help look after our environment. 
• identify some positive actions we can take at school and in our own lives to help our environment. 
• learn about our local bush track and creek and identify some ways in which we can help to look after (kaitiakitanga) these areas. 

Reading Learning Goals

• I am learning to use sub-headings to guide me to the main ideas in text.
• I am learning to use illustrations, text boxes, charts and graphs to help me make inferences so I get more information from the text.
• I am learning to use more than one text, in print or electronic formats, to gather and check the accuracy of information.
• I am learning to read a wide range of texts (e.g. encyclopaedias, websites, newspapers) to gather and check information on a topic.
• I am learning to explain why the author has written a text.
• I am learning to read and understand text that contains academic and topic-specific vocabulary.

Read the text, ‘Turning Old Into New’ and then complete the following activities.

• Why is recycling a good idea? Recycling is a good idea because it gets reused and we don't have to throw it out . 
• How many tons of rubbish do New Zealanders send to landfills every year? 2.5 million tonnes of rubbish go to dumps. 
• When rubbish breaks down what gas does it produce? What environmental problem does this contribute to? It makes Co2 and methane it contributes to global warming.
• Complete this sentence: Everything we use is made from Earths__________ Natuarl 

____________ Resources # _____________


Explain where these resources come from;

• Wood: trees or plants 
• Metal: rocks 
• Plastic: oil 

6) How does oil form? 

From the remains of plants or animals that lived millions years ago.

7) What are some of the things glass can be recycled into? 

My mums car windows. Beer bottles wine bottles my glasses.

8) What are some of the things cardboard can be recycled into? 

Books and more cardboard.

9) What can plastic with the number 1 be recycled into?

carpet c.ds and more plastic.

10) Attach a google drawing here that explains how number 1 plastics can be turned into clothing. 

By being burnt down and remade.

11) What are microfibres and what is the problem with them?
They are poisoning our sea life and wrecking the food chain# Can you explain what they are?

12) What is Earth Overshoot day? 

The day we reach limit of resources that the Earth can remake

Glossary - Write what these words mean

• Atoms: the tiny particle of a substance 
• Carded: fibres 
• Global Warming: Too much gas going into the atmosphere such as greenhouse gasses. 
• Malt: barley or other grain that has been used for brewing beer. 
• Natural resources: things made natrualy from our earth. 
• Synthetic: made by humans that is the result of combining different chemicals 

In class we will be working on projects looking at issues around rubbish and what we can do to help reduce this problem.

Video Links
NZ Recycling Crises
Diver Filming Swimming Through Plastic
The Pacific Garbage Patch

A Plastic Free Lunch

We are learning to understand about the environments around us and the negative of positive
impact our actions can have on these environments.

Success criteria;

• identify some positive actions we can take at school and in our own lives to help our
• environment.

Literacy

Task: Create an infographic showing people how they can reduce their waste
in their lunchbox.   

Our co-constructed success criteria:

-Have a strong title/hook

-Use convincing language and images

-Have simple things people can do

-Use images (free to use)

-Use bullet points/ short sharp information

-Use correct punctuation and spelling.

DESIGNING A GOOGLE LOGO

I made my own google logo I made the letters spin  around and change colour. At the start we watched a video on how to make our own google logo we then went on to a starter project.then we had to share them to get the embed code to put it on the blog post that ya reading right now.

Space Learning Writing