Websites – Kids' Blog

Come on a time travelling adventure!

debbie20 January, 2017

If you could travel back in time to any point in history, where would you go?

Right back to the Stone age being chased by a saber tooth tiger. Maybe in Ancient Egypt helping build the great pyramids or how about being a Viking sailing on one of their great ships.

What about going the other way – into the future. What do you think our world will be like? Maybe we could be living on Mars!

How do you feel about time travel? Do you think that one day we might be able to travel to any point in time or do you think that’s just weird.

Either way it is fun to read books on time travel and we have heaps of choice for you.

Become an inventor!

debbie18 January, 2017

If you could design and make something, what would it be? Something so amazing and fantastic that your friends are going to be sooooo jealous.

What about a robot that cleans your room or hover shoes that you could zoom around on. Maybe a small pill that has all your vegetables hidden inside (even broccoli) and when you swallow it, it tastes like chocolate or strawberries and cream.

This website has some great inventions that kids have designed and they have been turned into real products. I really like the scooter.

So get your thinking caps on and start creating. You might like to check out some of these great books to get you started.

Oh I do like to be beside the seaside!

debbie16 January, 2017

Yay – Summer is here and there is nothing better than going to the beach. Swimming in the surf, picking up driftwood, finding pretty shells and looking in rock pools.

We are so lucky in New Zealand because nine out of ten New Zealanders live within 40 km of the coast. We have a very long coastline. When you put our three main islands together there is over 18,000 km of coast in total length. If you decided to walk along our coast it would take you about 6 months and that’s if you could keep walking day and night non-stop! I don’t think I will try that!

Have you thought about becoming a seaside scientist? Why not study some rock pools. You might find some sea anemones or maybe a starfish. Perhaps you might like to hunt for crabs. Watch out that they don’t bite your toes though. Or maybe you like to look at all the different types of seaweed that may have washed ashore.

Whatever you like doing there is always plenty to see and do at the beach.

And don’t forget to build your sandcastle or create your own artwork in the sand. Draw a face and then use shells, pebbles and seaweed to decorate it.

Have fun!

Children’s Christmas Fun

debbie19 December, 2016

Santa Photograph School is almost finished and Christmas is just about here. Its time to think of all that Christmas stuff you need to do before the man in the big red suit arrives.

First of all, have you sent your Christmas letter to Santa? I’m sure you have plenty of things on your wish list.

Next you have to think about what gifts you can make for your family and friends.

Don’t forget that you can do some Christmas baking. Everyone loves baking! I think the Not-so Frosty the Snowman would be a big hit!

After that you could spend some time playing fun Christmas games.

And last but not least make sure you come along to The 12 Storytimes of Christmas at your local library.

Ho, ho, ho! Merry Christmas everyone!

Equestrian Events at the Olympic Games

debbie10 August, 2016

Equestrian is the sport of horse riding. It is one of the few Olympic sports in which men and women can compete against each other and is the only Olympic sport that involves animals.

It is a unique sport in that both horse and rider are considered to be a team, and both are declared medal winners. This is to recognise that it takes many years of training by horse and rider to develop the special skills required for these events.

Equestrian has three different disciplines. They are jumping, dressage and eventing. For each of the three disciplines, there is an individual and a team event.

Equestrian events date back to the Olympic Games in ancient Greece. The Greeks would train their horses to be useful during times of war. In 680BC, chariot races and horseraces were both contested at the Greek Games.

Jumping was the first equestrian event to be included in the modern Games. It was introduced in 1900. Dressage and eventing were added in 1912.

New Zealand has 8 member in the 2016 Equestrian team. They include riders such as Sir Mark Todd, Jonathan Paget and Jonelle Price. You can find lots of information about each team member here.

You can also find out lots of information relating to equestrian and other sports here at Rio 2016 Olympics.

Go New Zealand!!!!!!

Who are New Zealand’s cultural icons?

admin22 March, 2016

Here’s a great website to tuck away in your favourites for future homework. It’s called Cultural Icons.

Go here to watch recordings of interviews sharing the histories, stories and experiences of some of New Zealand’s most significant arts and culture contributors.

You may not have heard of many of the New Zealanders features on this site, but they are all fascinating people – artists, mountaineers, activists, environmentalists, writers, poets, musicians, film-makers, dancers and more! Next time you need to do and assignment on a famous New Zealander, why not choose one from here?

You can find a complete list of the cultural icons that have been interviewed so far and watch their videos, and there are some great links to other informative NZ websites.

Bamboozle your mind with optical illusion books!

debbie15 March, 2016

I love optical illusions – I love the way they trick your eyes and amaze your brain.

There are images that seem to jump right out of the page or patterns that seem to move by themselves.

How can colours appear different when they are actually the same or objects that appear to be different sizes but are really equal in size.

There are some great optical illusions on this website. I love the rotating pink dots that change to green and then disappear and see how fast it takes you to find the man in the coffee beans.

Don’t forget there are heaps of great books on illusions in the library so make sure you check them out and get ready to be bamboozled.

Have you voted for the ‘Bird of the Year’ yet?

admin12 October, 2015

Each year Forest and Bird gives the nation the chance to vote for their favourite New Zealand Bird. The winning bird becomes the ‘Bird of the Year’

The 5 previous winners have been the Fairy Tern (Tara Iti), Mohua, Karearea, Pukeko, and Karariki. Who will win the 2015 title?

New Zealand’s native birds are unique. Did you know that more than half the birds in New Zealand are not found in any other countries? Unfortunately due to predators and habitat loss, many of our birds are endangered and threatened with extinction.

At the Bird of the Year website you can find out about a wide variety of our birds, and vote for your favourite.

Will the 2015 bird be the Hihi? Kākā? Bar-Tailed Godwit? Kererū? Kōkako?

Voting closes on October 25th.

Explore ANZAC day and WW1 with these great websites

admin23 April, 2015

Are you looking for reliable online info about World War One? We have created a lit of great websites that you can go to for info on the causes of the war, the treaty that ended that war, ANZAC Day and Gallipoli, New Zealand’s involvement, and websites that provide info on casualties and gravesites.

Websites about the causes of World War One

The BBC has a great site dedicated to WWI including a section on the causes of the conflict: http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/0/ww1/25365441
BBC’s Bitesize section (tailored to the English school curriculum) has a section on the causes and interactive tests: http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/history/mwh/ir1/
Closer to home, the New Zealand History site has a page dedicated to the origins of the war: http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/war/first-world-war-overview/origins
Te Ara – The Encyclopedia of New Zealand also has a war origins page: http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/first-world-war/page-1
The Imperial War Museum, one of the best war museums, has a page on their website about the ‘path to war’: http://www.iwm.org.uk/history-terms/first-world-war/path-to-war
FirstWorldWar.com has a comprehensive page on how the war began: http://www.firstworldwar.com/origins/index.htm (this site hasn’t been updated since 2009 so we suggest checking any information you find against other websites).

Websites about the Treaty of Versailles

Good for answering ‘what is..?’ questions, Wisegeek has a section on the treaty: http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-the-treaty-of-versailles.htm
The Museum of Australian Democracy has images of the treaty with information about its significance: http://www.foundingdocs.gov.au/item-did-23.html
FirstWorldWar.com has a primary documents page that focuses on the treaty, and includes a breakdown of the treaty’s articles: http://www.firstworldwar.com/source/versailles.htm
Omni Atlas contains an interactive map of Europe that illustrates the impact of the treaty on the boarders and alliances: http://maps.omniatlas.com/europe/19190628/
BBC history has a page about the treaty that’s pitched at a secondary school level: http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/wwone/versailles_01.shtml

Websites about ANZAC Day

New Zealand History provides information about the history of the day, the ceremony, and modern ANZAC day: http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/war/anzac-day/introduction
The government’s site for Gallipoli2015 (100 year anniversary) has information on the 2015 commemoration: http://www.gallipoli2015.govt.nz
The government also runs an official site for ANZAC day with lots of good information: http://anzac.govt.nz
The returned Services Association (RSA) has some brief information on ANZAC Day, and is good for finding out about what happens at an ANZAC Day service and where they are happening: http://www.rsa.org.nz/anzac-day-%E2%80%93-25-april
For the Australian perspective, the Australian Army has a page with information: http://www.army.gov.au/Our-history/Traditions/ANZAC-Day and the Australian War Memorial has a site that includes speeches, photographs and historical facts: http://www.awm.gov.au/commemoration/anzac-day/
Information about the red poppy can be found on the New Zealand History site: http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/war/anzac-day/poppies, the RSA site: http://www.rsa.org.nz/poppy and the British RSL site: http://www.britishlegion.org.uk/remembrance/how-the-nation-remembers/the-story-of-the-poppy

Websites about New Zealand’s involvement

Te Ara – The Encyclopedia of New Zealand has a comprehensive section on the war from the New Zealand perspective: http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/first-world-war
Similarly, New Zealand History has lots of information about our involvement in the war, including media such has campaign maps: http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/war/nz-goes-to-war
The National Army Museum website has stories about individual New Zealand Soldiers: http://www.armymuseum.co.nz/kiwis-at-war/voices-from-the-past/

Websites with ANZAC Poetry

Australia’s ANZAC day site has a list of poetry with an ANZAC theme: http://www.anzacday.org.au/anzacservices/poetry/poetry01.htm
The Australian War memorial site has 2 poems about the ANZACs: http://www.awm.gov.au/commemoration/customs/poems/
New Zealand’s ANZAC Day site has an order of ceremony for ANZAC day: http://www.anzac.govt.nz/today/orderofceremony.html

Websites with casualties, wounded, and graves information

FirstWorldWar.com has a list of the dead, wounded and missing from each country involved in the war: http://firstworldwar.com/features/casualties.htm
New Zealand History provide a month-by-month breakdown of New Zealand casualties for the war: http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/media/photo/first-world-war-casualties-month
New Zealand History also have a memorials register: http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/culture/memorials
A UK site dedicated the World War One has information about records of the dead and war graves. Also contains links through to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission: http://www.greatwar.co.uk/research/military-records/ww1-war-dead-records.htm#recordsbritishcwealthdead
Commonwealth War Graves Commission has information about burial grounds and memorials: http://www.cwgc.org/
Auckland War Memorial Museum have a online cenotaph register: http://muse.aucklandmuseum.com/databases/cenotaph/locations.aspx

Websites with primary sources

DigitalNZ is an online resource for images and other media: http://www.digitalnz.org/ Use their search box to find World War One (or Great War) media.
Papers past is a digital archive of New Zealand Newspapers: http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast Search for World War One, Great War, or individual battles and campaigns. You can limit the results by date, region and title of publication.
Christchurch City Libraries has a online digital archive of primary resources: http://christchurchcitylibraries.com/DigitalCollection/WarsandConflicts/WorldWarI/

General World War One sites

BBC: http://www.bbc.com/ww1
BBC Schools page: http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/0/ww1/
Te Ara – The Encyclopedia of New Zealand: http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/first-world-war
New Zealand History: http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/war/first-world-war
WW100: http://ww100.govt.nz/
Imperial War Museum: http://www.iwm.org.uk/
FirstWorldWar.com: http://www.firstworldwar.com/
Archives New Zealand: http://archives.govt.nz/world-war-one
The British Library: http://www.bl.uk/world-war-one
National Library New Zealand: http://natlib.govt.nz/ww100

You are also welcome to chat live with an online librarian, who will help you with your research and finding online resources. AnyQuestions is a government-funded homework help service for New Zealand School Students. It’s open 1pm – 6pm Monday to Friday. Go to the site, type in your question, and chat to a librarian who will help you with your question and finding online information sources. It’s fun and free!

Back to school – here’s a website to bookmark

admin20 April, 2015

So long holidays, hello school. We hope you enjoyed your April School Holidays (despite the weather) and managed to read heaps of awesome books and do cool stuff. Did you get along to any our the Libraries’ awesome holiday activities?

But now that you’re back to school, you’ll need to know about where to go for homework help. Here’s two great starting places:

AnyQuestions.co.nz and ManyAnswers.co.nz

These two NZ websites are designed to help school students find online information for their school work. AnyQuestions is a live service – which means you chat live with a librarian who will help you find helpful websites with the information you need. AnyQuestions in open Monday – Friday from 1pm to 6pm. All you need to do is visit the website, type in your question, and you’ll be chatting live with a librarian very soon. The librarian will talk to you about your question and the information you need, and then will help you to search for helpful and trustworthy websites.

ManyAnswers is open 24/7 and has lots of great tips about where to find online info for heaps of topics. Use the search box or topic cloud to find advice on how to search for your topic. this is a great place to visit when AnyQuestions is not open for a live chat.

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