Wednesday 17 September 2014

Art Inquiry

Check out Kaylana's AWESOME art that she finished today as part of her inquiry into Fiji.  Kaylana is the first to be finished, 30 more to go!!  Watch this space for more to come next week.


Thursday 11 September 2014

Writing: WALT Add Detail

In Nic's writing group we have been learning to add detail in our stories. Adding detail is when writers use their 5 senses (sight, touch, smell, taste, hear) along with action senses (such as feel, do, say, think).

 I try to explain it like this: a paragraph is like a puzzle; every sentence is a different piece of the puzzle. When you have a range of 'detailed' sentences, you complete the puzzle. If you repeat using the same puzzle pieces, it gets boring for the reader.  Make sense?

We did an activity today so we could see if we had a range of puzzle pieces in our paragraphs.  We used this colour key:
Then I went through my first paragraph to see if I have a range of "puzzle pieces". 


Some of us realised that we only had 1 or 2 different colours.  So our goal is to add at least 3 more.  Try to have 5 per paragraph.  Here is a before and after photo of Jade's writing after we re-crafted it using the detail scaffold. It's awesome!

Monday 8 September 2014

Ki-o-Rahi Tournament


What a special day to be a part of. Kia Ora Pa Ray and Rangitaane for organising this event and providing us with more depth of this awesome game and the legend.  Thank you to all the parents who came down and supported us too!

Nga Mihi Nui

Sunday 7 September 2014

Fighting Vs Collaborative

I couldn't help but share with you this wonderful animation. It's about people trying to eat a bowl of food with long spoons.  They can't do it and begin fighting with each other.  Watch what happens when they "work together" and support each other: it's truly magic!

So what happens when we work together? How can we help and support each others learning?



We watched this movie and talked about what was happening in the beginning.  We said people were: fighting, bickering, arguing, being nasty, hitting.

We talked about how it made people feel.  We said it makes people feel: sad, unhappy, horrible, distressed.  DO WE HAVE THE RIGHT TO TREAT PEOPLE LIKE THIS? 

If you had the choice to make someone feel happy or sad, I bet all of you would choose happy. Right?

Let's all work on "lifting others up" around us. Support positive leaders and ignore the negative. 

Kia kaha, kia toa, kia manawanui.

Winter Tournament

Well done to all of our Winter Tournament players! We had amazing results with our Rugby players coming a close 5th, Hockey, Soccer and Netball coming in 2nd. And then our Basketball team who came in 1st! We are very proud of you all!