Wednesday 26 April 2017

The world's deadliest animals - by Room 1

Here are Room 1's explanation texts. We have written about deadly imaginary animals. See what text features you can spot...

Room 1's dangerous animal explanation texts

Friday 7 April 2017

Making Huts- Hut Writing

In Room 2 we have been exploring personal experiences in writing and how we can use these in our writing.

So we looked at a piece of writing by Gavin Bishop about hut building he did as a child.

Then we made our our huts in class: See the pictures!!!

From here we wrote our experiences about hut building. I'll add examples of these as I finish marking them.


I will know I’ve been successful when I have:
Write to describe a time when we have built a hut
Include the words spoken/shouted
Included speech marks
Started each speaker on a new line

Making Huts
Most of all though, we liked making huts. We made huts in the shed at home; we made huts in the willows along the creek; we made huts under the pine trees at school. There, we heaped up the needles into low walls. Each day the huts got bigger. We worked in groups of three or four adding more and more rooms - vast roofless mansions spreading in every direction under the trees, until someone would shout,
“Our hut’s bigger than yours!”
“No it’s not!”
“Yes it is!”
“No it’s not!”
“Yes it is!”
This would go on and on until someone ran forward and booted a hole in the wall of one of the huts. That would shut us all up. Then, quietly, the builders of the damaged hut would set about rebuilding the broken wall until Mr McLeod called us inside for afternoon school.
from “Piano Rock” by Gavin Bishop




Camp writing based on James K Baxter's 'Our Town"

In writing we explored James K Baxter's 'Our Town'

We looked at listing sentences and the patterns we noticed in his writing.

Using his example we created our own writing based on our Camp at Mountain Valley.


I will know I’ve been successful when I have:
  • Begun with The…...was usual enough…
  • Listed at least 5 nouns related to the place
  • Listed at least 5 actions using strong verbs
  • Included did what boy/girls do…
  • Concluded with doing nothing important.

OUR TOWN

The town was usual enough; it had

A creek, a bridge, a beach a sky

Over it, and even a small tin church

I never went to. My brother, my cousins and I

Did what boys do- dozed in the hot

Schoolroom, made bows and arrows, dodged the mad

Boat builder, crept like rabbits through the black

Under-runners with a weak torch,

Burnt dry rushes, wrestled or swam

Doing nothing important.


By James K Baxter



The camp was usual enough; it had
A playground , a river , a bridge and even a mud course which I found hard.
Me, Evie, Mac, Allegra and Phebot did things that girls do-spilled water on each other, told jokes to each other like clowns, made silly noises, chatted all night, be silly, did talent contests.
Doing nothing important

By Poppy

Mountain Valley camp was usual enough;
It had cabins, trees, a little waterfall, dogs and a very big river we went rafting on. Evie and I did what girls do- chat, play in the mud, run around on the grass, swim in the river and ride the horses. Everyone was shining their torches in the tents, getting scratched by the blackberry bush and eating marshmallows.
Doing nothing important.

By Allegra

Mountain Valley camp was unusual enough;
It had horses, white water rafting archery, a massive 2KM!!!!!!! Mud run, shooting and morning runs.
We did what boys do- annoy each other, run around kicking balls and throwing frisbees.
Doing nothing important.

By Austin

Camp was usual enough;
It had horses, a river, cabins, smelly mud, dogs, slides, tents, swamps,
fires, it even had blackberries and a playground. Forgot to mention the toilets!
Blake and I were doing what boys do- falling in mud, hiding from people and splashing people. Tyler, Salvador, Ben, Blake and I stayed up in the tents and the cabins.
Doing nothing important.

By Sam B

Room 2 Investigates- Tuning into out new inquiry

As we begin tuning into our new inquiry: Forces, structures and energy linked to technology enable us to solve problems. Room 2 have been investigating types construction, forces and how force can act on our constructions.

Here are some pictures of what we have been doing.





We have used School Journals to help us make connections with what we already know and what we have learnt from the reading and the creating activity attached to the reading.
 Here Sophie has investigated geodesic domes through an article about 'Rebuilding Christchurch with Amazing Ideas'
 Grace, Rosie and Emma read an article about constructing bridges and problem solving to make it longer, but still retaining strength.