Before Athletics!

Marissa - wiggle and giggle as we start
Josaiah - battle big chat!
Olivia - exciting education.
Max M - shaking legs, chattering teeth, everyone's getting ready to run
Millie S- nervous children reverberating
Leticia - colourful colours
Harvey - everyone is bursting with excitement
Nate - I'm exciting about sprinting
Matilda - everyone's got the nervous bug
Will - butterflies bounce in jittery tummies
Millie H-C- awesome athletics at last!
Sophie - nervous children chatter
Max A - everyone is butterfly powered
William M - everybody's ready to sprint
Lola - excited about shot put
Charlie S - children chatter
Ava - excitement bursts through all the children
William F - mighty muscles are pumping
Tahnul - super slicing scissor jumps
Violet - nervous children chattering
Cameron - focussed children ready to run!

Be Selective!

The secret of a good poster is to select only the most interesting information and then to write it in the most interesting way.

For example: 

She was born in 1932 

or 

She is 83 years old

Which one gives you the quickest picture about the person?

It's the same information!

Fruit Leather

Reading about making paper from flax reminded me about how fun it is to make fruit leather.
How to Make Fruit Leather
 You will need:

• a tin of fruit (or a jar of preserved fruit)
• a tin opener
• a food processor
• a dehydrator
• a spoon

What to do:

1. Open the tin.
2. Tip the fruit into the food processor ( don't put in all the juice).
3. Mix it to a pulp or puree.
4. Spread the pulp evenly over a tray from the dehydrator.
5. Stack the trays on the dehydrator.
6. Turn on the dehydrator for 10-12 hours.
7. Turn off the dehydrator.
8. Peel the leather off the tray.
9. Enjoy a sweet treat!

We made some interesting discoveries when we made the fruit leather.

• We used baking paper and it fused with the fruit leather so it was very hard (almost impossible) to peel the paper off. Next time we won't use baking paper.
• We made some pineapple chips by drying thin slices of pineapple using a mesh tray, not a solid one. They were delicious!
• Now we've seen dehydrated fruit - it's shrivelled and shrunken - we know why it's important to drink plenty of water. We don't want our brains to shrivel or shrink!
• We'd like to try making some green and red leather for Christmas time.

Why don't you do some exploring about making fruit leather? 

This website tells you how to make it if you don't have a dehydrator.

Explanations

Today we learnt about how to write explanations. They are a form of transactional writing.

An explanation begins with a title which is a question. 

The next part is the introduction which tells the reader the main answer to the question.

After the introduction come some details. These give the reader a fuller answer to the question.

Finally we need to write a summary. This gives the main answer again but written in a different way. It might include some information from the details section of the writing.

Room 17 in 2012 created a pneumonic for remembering this ~ TIDES

Title - this is a question

Introduction - this is the main answer

Details - these explain or show the answer to the reader

Extra - you can add an extraordinary or surprising detail to fascinate the reader

Summary - this is the main answer written again in a different way, possibly including some information from the details.

Please go to the writing page above to find our explanations about colours.

Calendar Art

Soon notices will be coming home to enable you to order calendars, diaries, notebooks and cards that are illustrated with art made by YOU! This is a fundraiser for the school.
We created our art works in the style of the author and illustrator Lauren Child. You can find her website by clicking HERE. I love having a poke around this website, there is so much to learn from it.

This page is one of my favourites. You finding it by clicking the Liberty bird.

After we had created the art works we wrote a short story that explained what was happening in that moment in time in our illustration. Jules helped us record these stories with our picture.

Make sure you look out for the order form coming your way soon!

Sewing Sensation

Today we made the base of our costumes. We all had a turn of coming up to Ms Ashby and Jules to make our base. Then we got to choose the fabric and the  finishing edge for our design. The edging options were:

1. scoops

2. spikes

3. scallops

Once everyone had had a turn Ms Ashby pulled out her sewing machine. She took all of our costumes and sewed them all up. Here are a couple of time lapse photos and fun videos.

Written by Ava and Olivia Filming by Olivia

Letters to Spring

I have split your letters into 4 posts.

Dear Spring... Part 1: Andrea, Cameron, Josaiah, Max A, Max M

Dear Spring...Part 2: Ava, Matilda, Millie, Olivia, Will, William F

Dear Spring...Part 3: Charlie R, Charlie S, Marissa, Nate, Violet, William M

Dear Spring...Part 4: Harvey, Leticia, Lola, Sophie, Tahnul, Tane

Spring has Sprung

Well it's been a long time since the last blog post! End of Winter and start of Spring can be a bad time for sickness and it seems it has been for Room 17 this year. Anyway it's good to be back on deck and to have most people at school most days again.
You will have noticed our new background and header photo. On Tuesday we all felt a little bit disappointed that it seemed more like Winter than Spring so we wrote letters to Spring to welcome and encourage her.

Here is Jack typing up your stories last night. Today you will have to give them a final edit and then we'll publish them here.

Fabulous Futsal Fun

At St Albans School this week the year 3, 4, 5 and 6 children are doing Futsal lessons with Sam from Mainland Football. Each class goes out to the astroturf for half an hour at a time.  Over two weeks each class will have 5 sessions.

During the first session the main skills that the children learnt were to do with dribbling the futsal ball. This ball is a bit smaller and heavier than a soccer ball and not as bouncy. The ball is stuffed with cotton.

When you are dribbling a futsal ball you use six different parts of your foot:

• laces
• inside
• outside
• heel
• toe
• sole

Sam explained that in Futsal the sole is the most important part of your foot. He called it the brake because you use it to stop the ball. As you know exactly where the ball is when your foot is on it, you are able to spend time looking around to see where spaces and other players are.

The children played a number of mini games that made them use different ways to control the ball. After they were able to control it effectively Sam introduced a new challenge. The children had to move from space to space and coloured dot to dot. Some children found it a real challenge NOT to use their hands!

One day perhaps, if everyone keeps practising they will be able to play in a futsal team like Sam.

News From Timaru

It was a lovely surprise to get a letter from Jonty last week.
















We wrote him replies and made cards to let him know what we've been up to.

Matariki Kites

After creating and flying kites for Matariki we wrote about flying them. We used our senses to make the writing interesting and to help the readers make a picture of it in their minds.

Tau kē!

What Did We Do in Term Two?

This week we're writing our Remembering Term Two poems bases on the poem Remembering Summer by Sharon Holt.

We made this list of activities we could write about.

No wonder we're all a bit pooped!

Support Staff Day

Today we had Support Staff Day. We were celebrating and thanking the wonderful members of our staff who are not teachers.
We chose a way to write about the day from this list:

• List of things the Support Staff do
• Explanation of Support Staff Day
• Explanation of who the Support Staff are
• Description of a Support Staff person
• Recount of a time a Support Staff person has help you
• Labelled diagram of a Support Staff person and the equipment they use
• Acrostic poem
• Senses poem
• Report about Support Staff Day
• Letter to a Support Staff person
• letter about a Support Staff person to someone else

We try to appreciate everything the Support Staff - especially Jules - do every day and thank them for it.

Spelling Words Will Be Out Tomorrow

The sound we are working on this week is the y at the end of words.
It sounds very different at the end of a word than it does at the beginning. Even at the end of different words it sounds different - crazy isn't it?
Think of: yellow and family and try
The y on the end of a one-syllable word like: cry, my and try, sounds like a long i.
The y on the end of a two-syllable (or longer) words like: family, really and happy, usually sounds like a long e.

Do you have any words that end with y in your reading book tonight?

Room 17 and Room 2 Go Wombling!

Today was a very chilly day to go Wombling with Room 2. We have written a plan of how we could write about this rather disappointing experience.

• met with buddies in Room 17
• plan of attack
• sorted into groups with a plastic bags

• cold and strong wind
• rubbish of all shapes and varieties

1. chippie packets
2. milk straws, cartons, and the plastic from the straws
3. lost items like drink bottles
4. Glad wrap
5. paper
6. muesli bar packets
7. fruit peelings
8. plastic bags
9. paper planes

• in gardens and against the edges of the school
• just outside school in gardens - reaching through the fence

• came back to Room 17
• gathered the rubbish together
• took a photo with the rubbish pile
• felt disgusted and disappointed

• a new plan of attack
• share our findings with the school and challenge them to do better

You can see that the plan is sorted into paragraphs already. Maybe tonight you could write the story and send it or bring it along to school tomorrow.

Farewell Jonty!

Today was Jonty's last day at our school. We have made a book to introduce him to his new school and class.

We're looking forward to hearing how you get on at Gleniti School.

Cross Country Poems

Click here to read our poems.

Observational Writing

We have done several sessions of observational drawing when we draw what we can see. Today we went out and had an autumnal walk and wrote about things we saw, felt, heard and smelt.

I can't wait for you to use your notes to create an Autumn Poem.

Fantail

Our poem this week is written by Margaret Mahy. She uses precise language to help us get a picture of a fantail in our heads. We are focusing on this as we write our colour poems.

Peter Pan Comes Back to St Albans

The air was sizzling with excitement last Thursday as we waited for two o'clock when Ben was due arrive at St Albans School. Mrs Ross found the photo of Ben with his year three class so we looked at that and some photos of him as a baby and a toddler.
Finally two o'clock arrived and so did Ben in his Peter Pan vest!

Ben told us about how they created the Peter Pan play. They had to read the story Peter Pan and watch some movies of it. After they had done that all the actors came together and talked about the story. They had to decide which bits of the story and which characters they wanted in their play. Ben said it was important that they all shared their ideas and listened carefully to other people's opinions and ideas. Once they had agreed about what needed to be in the play they came up with a story and actions to go with that.

The actors worked for four weeks practising their parts and learning skills like flying and sword fighting. They had to learn to help the audience imagine they really were flying and talking to fairies. Ben said sometimes he felt nervous, but mostly he was excited. Once he nearly lost his voice so he had to change the way he acted that day. It was a struggle to manage his time once school started and he had to go to school each day and then perform at night.

Ben let some children wear his vest and hold his dagger. He told us that often actors who play Peter Pan are girls. He explained that it is the actor's job to help the audience imagine they are the character.

All the children enjoyed hearing about Ben's time at St Albans School. He had some interesting ideas for things you can do at lunch time! 

It was wonderful to talk to Ben about his amazing experiences. Ben also loved coming to talk to his fans. 

I know he'll love those cards you've made him! You can see them on the writing page up above.