2014/09/30

The Year 1 Visit

On Friday, the Year 1’s came to our classroom so that the  student council representatives of our class could get some great ideas from two different perspectives.When they first came in with their teacher we all sat on the carpet while Mr William explained our task. 

Everyone got split up into pairswith our Year 1 partners and we all got started.  We all had to think up a couple of ideas that we think would improve learning at our school.  Everyone had thought up lots of great ideas. 

Once we had finished thinking of ideas we wrote them down in a shared Google document.  After we had finished writing down all of our ideas, we all gathered on the carpet to discuss which ideas we all thought would be good ways to improve learning in the school. 

We all looked through the ideas to decide which ideas the school council would talk about in their next meeting.  Then we all took a vote on all of the ideas.  Unfortunately,  the year 1’s had to go, so the rest of us filled in most of the questions on behalf of our partners.

It was a really good idea for all of us to get together and answer all of the suggestions together and to learn about empathy.


The Year 6s scribed for the Year 1's

Sometimes, it was hard putting ideas into words!
Thanks for this Isabella!

2014/09/28

Hooks


On Tuesday 23rd of September, Class 6B did a fun activity. They studied “hooks” and how to “hook” readers. Hooks are basically things that you add to your writing to make it more interesting to readers. You have 6 hooks to use, and you can use any of these hooks in your writing to make what you are writing more interesting for your readers. These 6 hooks are;

    •    description 

    •    opinion 

    •    statistic

    •    question 

    •    interesting fact 

    •    quote


Year 6 learners were asked to cut and glue lots of paper slips, that had sentences printed on them. These sentences were taken from reading books. The slips were sorted into one of the  6 types of hooks and pasted into their English books.


It was challenging and fun but in the end, they all got it.

Thanks Maya.

2014/09/27

Language Arts - Recounts of Events

During this term we have been learning about recounts. We have learned the important things that we need to add to a recount. Like the orientation (who, what, when, where, why). All the verbs have to be past tense. We have to include sensory detail to make the reader feel like he/she was actually there. We also have to include our feelings about what happened. 


Making a poster showing the key features of a recount.


In a recount, what is the most important feature to you?

2014/09/26

The RECIPE for friendship


At our school assembly last week, we were all learning about following a recipe. Mr Beach chose  teachers who then chose students, to come up and make chocolate cake. 
Two of the three teams didn't follow the recipe correctly so their cake didn't turn out as well as the other cake.  Our school recipe is something that makes the school a safe and more fun environment. Each letter in the word RECIPE stands for a special word: Respect, Excellence, Compassion, Integrity, Passion, and Enjoyment. 



That day was also International Talk Like A Pirate Day! 

What would a good recipe for friendship be?

By Hannah

2014/09/25

Recounts

Over the last little while, Year 6 has been looking at Recounts on a wide range of events and topics. Some of us have been watching CNN Student News and creating recounts based on the reports we've watched, others have written recounts about family events and others have written recounts based on school events they have participated in.  We've practiced creating "hooks" to draw our readers in and using interesting descriptive vocabulary to give a clear description of events as they happened.

It has been a lot of work!



Sharing our learning in a poster.
Thinking about your learning, can you explain some of the main features of a recount? What things make a recount different from other forms of writing?

2014/09/24

Year 5 & 6 Assembly

All six classes in Years 5 & 6 presented their learning for the rest of the Upper Primary school today. It was a fantastic display of learning and new understnading as well as ideas of how we can take action to resolve conflict. We then concluded with a great song "I Had the Strangest Dream."

Below, you will find a group photo of all of us and below that our welcome video for the audience which was played at the start of the assembly.

Enjoy!



Miss Helen's Cottage Garden

Miss Helen's CCA (Co-Curricular Activity) group has started building a cottage garden near the Year 5 and 6 classrooms. They were hard at work last week getting the area ready for use and it looks ready to develop into our newest garden! By all accounts it was loud and busy and a great time was had by all.


Thinking about your learning, have you ever grown a garden? What things are important to keep in mind when creating a garden like Miss Helen's group are doing?