Saturday, September 29, 2012

Production-Air group

We all loved being up on stage and being part of our whole school production Colour Our World. Working with Room 12 and 6 as well meant we had to be good role models for the juniors and look after them getting them to follow us in the cars and for singing in the rain. Being the air group we started in a world of smog with Mary Poppins finding it difficult to get down to the Banks family, driving around in our cardboard cars. Then as the rain came down we 'sang in the rain' with ponchos that we made and added raindrops to the front of, complete with umbrellas to stand under. Then as the rain cleared we could see the stars again.

Watch our video which has a few snapshots of our item and some reflections of what we enjoyed.

Thursday, September 27, 2012

Quadblogging

Yay! We have started our quadblogging journey. To find out more about quadblogging check out this video.



We are all super excited to be part of it with schools from Canada, Scotland and the United States of America. We are excited because it means that we will get to comment on other people's blogs on the other side of the world and it also means that we will get some comments back on our blog from them when it is our turn.
Everyone's schools look so different! Maybe because we are so spread out around the world?



Wednesday, September 26, 2012

New Zealand's Shake Out

Today people all around New Zealand took part in the great New Zealand Shake Out to make sure we all know what to do if we are in an earthquake.
We are very fortunate not to be experiencing what poor Christchurch are constantly being rattled around but we jumped on board and had a practice at dropping, covering and holding this morning. Here are a few photos once the drill was over and it was safe for Mrs Head to come out from her table.
We also learnt a poem about how to keep ourselves self in an earthquake.

Friday, September 14, 2012

Happy Birthday Roald Dahl!

Yesterday was Roald Dahl's birthday and we also celebrated 30 years of the BFG. The BFG blows dreams into little children as they sleep and so we came up with our dreams for the future.


We had also just finished reading James and the Giant Peach so we had a quiz. The Mean Aunt Spiker group and James Great Adventure groups won getting seven out of 10 correct. The Mean Aunt Spiker group was made up of Amelia, Paarth and Faye. James' Great Adventure group was made up of Shaynie-Lee, Oliver and Saphyre.
Test out how well you can do with the quiz below.
1) Until what age did James have a happy life?
2) How did James' parents die?
3) What are James' aunts' names?
4) Which of the creatures in the Giant Peach does James tie shoelaces for?
5) How many feet does this creature have?
6) Which of the creatures is described as a 'lady firefly without wings?'
7) Which of the creatures lived happily ever after with the Head of the Fire Department?
8) What do the Cloud-Men make in summer to practice for the winter?
9) How old was Roald Dahl when James and the Giant Peach was published?
10) In an early version of the story, James found a different kind of giant fruit. What was it?

Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Production

Well the day has finally arrived and today we get up on stage to a real live audience. We have spent many afternoons of this term piecing our whole school production together and we will perform it today at 11am for our matinee with another show tonight and the final show tomorrow night. We are all excited to finally be doing it for real and with all of our costumes that we have been busy making.
Our production is called Colour My World and it looks at how we need to care for our environment all parts of it (including the air, sun, forest, garden and ocean). We are part of the air group with juniors from Room 6 and seniors from Room 12. We have loved working with these other classes.
Here's a sneak peak with photos from our dress rehearsal and the behind the scenes work that went into putting the production together. We hope to see you at the show!

Tuesday, September 4, 2012

Writing- Describing characters

WALT:  Describe characters for a narrative.
Think about what they look like, what they are wearing, who their friends are, what they do.


These boys have been stuck in the woods for six years. They live in the forest and are extremely poor, they have no money and no food so they have to kill animals with their bow and arrows. Then toast the meat on the fire to eat with fire made from sparking stones and bamboo rubbed together. They sharpen sticks to peel the skin of the animals bodies and cut the animals up to cook over the fire.
The boys use bamboo cut in half to make little bowls and giant leaves for plates to eat from.
They build treehouses out of sticks, bamboo and leaves with secret tunnels and trap doors made from the tree trunk hollowed out. They have secret hide-outs with slides to kept themselves safe from all the animals that are angry the boys have killed their friends to eat and make mats from the animal skin and destroy their forest to make their own treehouses.
They use bamboo to make tubes and use the teeth from the animals and rope to tie the teeth onto the bamboo to use for their arrows. Their guns are made from bamboo filled with animal teeth and when they blow, the teeth attack firing out of the bamboo.

THIS IS OUR DRAFT PIECE OF WRITING. TO CHECK OUT MORE LOOK AT OUR INDIVIDUAL BLOGS FOR OUR OWN CHARACTER DESCRIPTIONS.

Writing about a setting

WALT: Describe a setting for a narrative story.
Thinking about who might live here and what its surroundings might be like.


This house has a large pole that looks like a tree trunk that has grown out of the ground with a regular looking letterbox house perched on top. A rich man owns the house because the house is customised with lots of rooms. The rich man is a very tall man who needed a big house to fit inside. He lives on a farm with fences that look like spiderwebs next to the huge house. The house reaches up towards the clouds like a rocket pointing to space.

THIS IS OUR DRAFT PIECE OF WRITING THAT WE HAVE QUICKLY COME UP WITH AS A CLASS. PLEASE CHECK OUT OUR INDIVIDUAL BLOGS FOR A SIMILAR EXAMPLE OF OUR WRITING.