JUNK FREE JUNE

Next month in the Pōhutukawa Whānau we are encouraging children to take part in Junk Free June. This is a campaign run by the Cancer Society to help raise funds and awareness for their worthy cause. Not only will the children have an opportunity to ​support the Cancer Society, they will also be able to show how they love challenge and make a difference by choosing some 'junk' and giving it up for the month of June. Last year children chose from a huge range including; lollies, ice cream, fizzy drink and even video games!

​The children will be tracking their progress in their hubs and you can follow our journey on the Junk Free June website. We hope to inspire other children at Beckenham School to join us in this challenge and would love to hear from any families who decide to tackle the Junk Free June challenge together. For more information head to the Junk Free June website and check out our Pōhutukawa profile below.

https://nz.junkfreejune.org/participants-and-groups/beckenham-school-team-pohutukawa​

Human Skeleton

Today some of the children had another action packed afternoon learning about biology. Todays lesson focused on the human skeleton. Children got create their own skeletons and will be learning about all the different bones. We were very lucky that one of our parents brought in REAL HUMAN BONES! Here are the children checking them out.

Eyeball Dissection

We have all been very busy preparing for the upcoming science fair. Both hubs have been exploring different scientific concepts and will soon have to make the difficult decision of what they will focus their science projects on for the fair. One of the sciences being studied is biology and this week on Wednesday a group of children got down and dirty and dissected their first eyeball.

Santiago

"First we cut off the sclera, the fatty tissue, from around the eyeball. We did this so that it was easier to make the first incision. Then Caitlyn made the first incision for us using a scalpel. When she did this some of the aqueous humour was released. We then used scissors to cut around the eye. As we were cutting heaps more aqueous humour spilled out. 

When we had finally finished cutting the eyeball in half a mysterious marble-shaped object spilled out. It was called the lens. When you look through the lens the object on the other side is seen upside down. This is because our brains correct the image so that we see it the correct way up. This information is delivered to the rain through the optical nerve. The optical is located at the back of the eye and looks like a small tube. It was very disgusting but amazing!"