Parihaka and Science in the Sea

Morning Group:

"Remember, remember, the 5th of November." That rhyme is said by children in many countries on this day as they celebrate Guy Fawkes. It does seem strange to celebrate a failed attempt to blow up parliament in another country many years ago, so today was a day for us to learn about something else that happened on this day in New Zealand.

To help learn about Parihaka, we went down to the beach straight away and build a sandcastle village. We imagined that we lived many years ago with a mountain behind us and the sea nearby. This place was the home of our parents and grandparents as well. We built beautiful houses and planted gardens - in fact, it was hard to stop the building to tell more of the story!

What would we do if someone wanted to kick us out of the village? How would we feel?

A real village like this existed in the 1800s. Parihaka was known as a place of peace, even though there had been a lot of fighting for land in New Zealand at that time. The chiefs of the village wore white feathers as a sign of peace and everyone was welcome there.

Sadly, the government wanted to take their land. The people of Parihaka didn't want to sell it or give it away, but they also didn't want to fight. 

We read the book, 'Remember That November' by Jennifer Beck and Lindy Fisher, which explained more of what happened. Instead of fighting, the leaders went to prison and people were given many troubles.

Today, people remember Parihaka and the way that the people there believed in peace. Isn't that a more special thing to remember on the 5th of November than Guy Fawkes?

Of course there was time to play afterwards - you can see we had fun at the beach!

Ideas for home:

- Why not do some research to find out more about Parihaka?

- White feathers were worn as symbols of peace. Do you know of any other symbols that have been used for peace?

Afternoon Group:

In continuing our exploration of floating and sinking, we recapped what we understood so far about what makes things float. Remember that an object's weight will always be displaced by the water it is in - how much space it covers makes a big difference. Think of one person holding a big weight versus many people sharing the load.

We went with some fresh water in bottles down to the beach, where we looked for a number of small items to test for buoyancy. We predicted what each item would do before testing it out and had some interesting conversations about how scientists are always open to new possibilities and learning.

Then it was time to replace the fresh water with salt water to test the hypothesis that salt in water increases buoyancy. Sure enough, one leaf that had sunk in the fresh water now floated. Magic? Then why?

One of the group was ready to test out their raft - success! Now to think about how to stay a bit more dry on it!

We also had a challenge to find the largest possible natural object we could that floated. A huge branch won.

The tide came in so we went back to base to look at another group member's raft so far - some great ideas are happening here!

Ideas for home:

- Keep working on those rafts. I already have some extra bamboo poles in my car for next week.

- Look into why salt helps things float. Look up the Dead Sea - the floatiest place there is! 

- You might want to watch this video by Bill Nye, the Science Guy. It's a bit old but might help with your understanding of floating and sinking.