Writing - Personal voice

Today, we looked again at how to add personal voice by "showing" our feelings in our writing.

Here are some examples:

The party was in full swing. All of a sudden the door flew open. In the doorway was a chimpanzee holding an ice cream. My eyes grew wide and I dropped my present. I suddenly shouted out loud, "Oh my gosh, where's a banana."

Cate

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The party was in full swing. All of a sudden the door flew open. In the doorway was Benny Tipene. "Oh my gosh! Mum, you're the best getting Benny Tipene here.This is the best birthday ever." I exclaimed

Paityn

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The party was in full swing. All of a sudden the door flew open. In the doorway was Mr Davidson in a batman suit. Omg, it is Mr D at my party. I screamed like a baby. This is the best birthday. I threw my hands in the air.

Luukas

Inquiry - Face the music

We are learning the cup song in our class as part of our inquiry. Some of the children in our class already know the song  and actions well so they have become the teachers and have taught the other class members how to do it.

Here is a video of the cup song.

Instructions for The Cup Song

For this technique you need a plastic cup (red solo cups work well but any plastic cup will do).  It sounds the best if you do it on a surface with fabric on it.

• Start with the cup sitting upside down on the table.
• Clap your hands 2 times.
• Hit the bottom of the cup 3 times (Right, Left, Right).
• Clap your hands 1 time.
• Pick up the cup and set it down.
• Clap your hands 1 time.
• Turn your left hand over to pick the cup up.
• Hit the top of the cup with your right hand.
• Hit the bottom edge of the cup onto the table.
• Switch the cup from your left hand to your right hand.
• Tap the table with your free left hand.
• Place the cup down with your right hand.

Repeat until the song is over.

Writing - Adding feeling to our writing

For writing, we are looking at adding feeling to give stronger personal voice. We are learning to "show" the feeling rather than "tell" the feeling.
There are different ways we could show feeling in our writing:
- Simply state it
- Use an action
- Use a description
- Use dialogue.

We watched a video about Verruckt, the worlds highest water slide. We were given the starter sentence and then had to show how we felt using an action, description or dialogue.

Here are a few examples from our class:

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We got to the top of Verruckt. I looked down. My heart sank as I started breathing heavily. "I'm not going down". I started to be sick as I looked down again. I didn't believe in myself. "I can't do it," I told myself.

Anna

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We got to the top of Verruckt. I looked down. The moment I got to the edge of the water slide, I felt like fainting. My heart started pounding really fast. I felt like I was going to spew.

Annalena

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We got to the top of Verruckt. I looked down. My heart was beating. I couldn't breathe. I froze. It looked like it was over the sky. I couldn't believe my eyes.

I hopped on. Woosh! I went off. I was shaking to death. I'm going down. Ahhh! My face went pale.

Sam

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We got to the top of Verruckt. I looked down. "Awesome, I can't wait," I shouted.

Jordan

Show and tell

Term 2

Hi everyone! Welcome back to term 2, 2014. We have a fantastic term organised. 

Our inquiry topic is, "Face the music," with our big question, "What makes music?" I f you know any one who can help us with this inquiry, please let me know. 

We are looking at explanation writing for the start of the term. Look out for some of our interesting ways we are going to present our writing

We are beginning to train for cross country and build our fitness.

For the first 3 weeks, we are looking at time for Maths.

Please leave comments to the children for the work that is posted on here. Please remember that your post will not show up until it has been moderated by me.

Thank you,

John Davidson

Addition Bingo

For our maths today, we played addition bingo. We had to add the number Mr Davidson called out and if we had the number we put a counter on our board. It was very entertaining.

Betty Botter

For homework and reading, we were given the tongue twister, "Betty Botter". Here are a few examples  with some quick times.

SPORT MANAWATU PRIMARY SCHOOLS SPORTS FESTIVAL

We had a fantastic time at the Sport Manawatu primary school sports festival. We participated in a range of sports such as badminton, rugby, basketball and squash. Everyone was in great spirits and gave everything a go.

The country we represented was Spain. Our Lady of Lourdes won the best overall school for our total score of the following criteria: fair play, sportsmanship, behaviour and best dressed. We received a huge trophy and a voucher to spend on sports equipment.

Thank you Sport Manawatu for organising a well run sporting event.

NZ Sign Language Alphabet

Betty Botter

One of the homework tasks is seeing how fast you can say the tongue twister "Betty Botter".

Here is the tongue twister.

Betty Botter

Betty Botter
bought some butter.
"But," she said,
"the butter's bitter.
If I put it
in my batter,
it will make
my batter bitter.
But a bit
of better butter--
that would make
my batter better."

So she bought
a bit of butter,
better than
her bitter butter.
And she put it
in her batter,
and the batter
was not bitter.
So 'twas better
Betty Botter
bought a bit
of better butter!

--By Anonymous

40 seconds and over:
Too slow. Your grandparents could say the poem faster.
30 to 40 seconds:
Not bad. You're probably a faster talker than the Prime minister.
20 to 30 seconds:
Pretty good. You've been gifted with a fast pair of lips.
15 to 20 seconds:
Excellent. You can out talk anyone around.
14 seconds or less:
You are a tongue tying champion!

Homework Week 10 Term 1

Week ten – Due Friday 11 April

Spelling	Reading for at least 10   minutes a night.	Basic facts practice.
Play a board game with your family or friends	Draw a picture of what your dream bedroom would look like	Build something out of cardboard
Make a paper plane. We will have an in class competition.	Learn the alphabet in NZ sign language	How fast can you say the tongue twister, Betty Botter? Time yourself.

Connect 4 Championship

As part of our All fours day, we had a connect four championship. We had 2 championship rounds. 

In the first championship, Luukas knocked out Carlos in the preliminary final to face Wyatt. It was a close battle but Luukas took out  the final with a fantastic connect 4.

In the second championship, all the finalists from the first championship were knocked out early. Kahu and Gemma faced each other in the preliminary final with Gemma taking it out with some slick moves. Boston and Gemma went toe to toe in the final with Gemma providing the final blow to win the championship.

All fours day

Friday was 4.4.14. In Active8, we decided to have a day called "ALL FOURS DAY." All our school work was based of the number 4 such as 4 minutes to work out maths problems involving 4, 4 minutes to do our handwriting and writing stories involving the number 4. We got into groups of four and chose to get into costumes. Here are a few pictures from our day.

Play performance

Today, The Blues reading group performed a play called, "A Closer Look." 

The play is about a group of aliens  who arrive on Earth in search of precious minerals - Gold, Silver and diamonds. When they find a lake, they think it might be one of the minerals they are searching for. However, they are perplexed by the properties of water. They head off with some samples, saying they plan to return for more. 


The group had practiced reading with fluency and with good pace.

Onomatopoeia

During writing, we are learning to use onomatopoeia in our poetry. Onomatopoeia are words that sound like the objects they name or the sound these objects make.

Here are some youtube clips with examples of onomatopoeia.

Homework - Week 9 Term 1

Week nine – Due Friday 4th April

Spelling	Reading for at least 10   minutes a night.	Basic facts practice.
Take a trip to the public library and get some books. Not a member – sign up.	Take responsibility to look after a pet	Create a mosaic from coloured pieces of paper. Share with the class.
Summarise a t.v. programme you have watched.	Plan and make a meal.	Do some research for our inquiry.