Tim - Science experiment and England talk

Tim came into our classroom and talked about science.  We even did a science experiment with him. 

To begin with we had to put our hands into some jelly stuff on a petrie dish.  Then we closed the lid and closed them up. We put our names on the bottom so we could tell which was which.

Some people washed their hands and repeated the experiment to see if there was a difference. Four people also used hand sanitiser after they washed their hands to see if it killed the bacteria.

One person didn’t wash their hand, but used sanitiser on its own.

Tim put the petrie dishes into a black bag and put them into his hot water cupboard at his house.  A few weeks after, he came back with the results.  They were pretty yucky.  They had mould all over the petrie dishes.  Everyone went, “Ewww”and “yuck”. 

The results showed that handwashing is very important. If you use hand sanitiser after washing your hands it kills most of the bacteria.

Using sanitiser on its own wasn’t very good.

Once he had finished he talked about England and that was pretty interesting. He told us about what he did in England.  Tim is Alex, Cormac, Lucy and Campbell’s dad.      

Veronica - Chile

Veronica is Coni’s Mum and she is from Chile. Chile has 16,746,491 people living there. Chile is part of South America. Veronica comes from the middle of Chile.

70% of people in Chile are Catholic.

A popular dish is to eat is empanadas (it is a dish with mince and boiled eggs).

National Day is a very important day in Chile.

On all Saints Day people go to the cemetery to remember their loved ones who have died. There are lots of markets outside too. They also go to Mass.

In Chile, children only stay at family’s houses. They don’t sleep over at friend’s houses.

Bharathan - Sri Lanka and South Africa

On Wednesday Bharathan came to talk to us about Sri Lanka and South Africa. It was awesome.

In Sri Lanka he spoke Tamil. He didn’t celebrate Christmas because they belonged to the Hindu religion.

Bharathan moved to South Africa when he was twelve. He and his brother went to an “All white school”. Bharathan found that very strange because he and his brother were the only dark skinned students.

In Sri Lanka and South Africa, they don’t have friends sleeping over at their houses for birthdays. They only stay at close relative’s houses.

We asked lots of questions about the animals. Bharathan is a doctor and told us lots about medicine and how he would like to see us train in medicine too.

Father Job - India

Father Job came to our class to talk about India.  In his home region, Kerala they had a festival called Onam.  At Onam people put down a big banana leaf and put some curries and rice on it.  For dessert they had Payasam.   They also sprinkle flowers everywhere.  They made decorations using flowers and put them everywhere.  People buy new clothes - women wear cream coloured saris.

Even though Onam is a Hindu festival, everyone in the Kerala region celebrates. It is a week long celebration.

Silvia - Spain

Silvia came into Room 4 and talked to us about Spain.  She told us about the running of the bulls and she showed us the Spanish flag.   She told us about the tomato throwing festival and the story about how she got to New Zealand from Spain.  

Silvia is Siana’s Mum and they came to live in New Zealand from Barcelona when Siana was four.

Celebrations around the World

Room 4 have had lots of visitors in to talk to us about celebrations. We have asked them questions about their birthday and Christmas and found out about lots of different festivals that we didn't even know about.

It has been great asking people questions and hearing their stories. :)