WRITING

In room 4 we are learning to be great writers. Great writers try to make their writing as interesting as possible. There are many tricks to making your writing great! Here are some of the tricks:

• Language Features - inlcuding similes, onomatopoeia, metaphors and alliteration
• Using interesting words to begin sentences instead of using: The, I, We, She, He, When, 
• Don't waffle - get to the point, record you ideas clearly and be honest and sincere with your thoughts, feelings and ideas
• Organise your ideas into some kind of order
• Use a thesaurus to get WOW words
• Use different sentence lengths (simple, compound, complex)
• Your writing must make sense!
• Try to use a little humour (if it's appropriate)
• Not too much speech
• Focus on one idea and add detail to it
• We often write better about things we know a little about, but we also like to use our imagination

We'd like to share some of our great writing.

Meet Zara 

Zara’s the name of my four legged friend and she’s full of mischief.  She’s very mischievous when she nibbles on my fingers.  Zara used to be a white Arab, but now she’s grey and as fluffy as a fluff ball, because she’s got her winter coat.  She’s got a wiry mane that droops down her speckled neck.  Zara has thumping strong legs that help her gallop like the wind.  She’s got a warm cuddly feeling.  I know because a shiver of love runs down my spine and heats me up when I cuddle her.  When I give Zara a hug her mischievous nature encourages her to nibble on my hair.  Zara loves to sleep stand in the blackness of the night sky.  She also loves to play a game called runaway - when I go to get her she gallops off.  Zara loves to eat up apples and carrots.  If I had one she’d gobble it up.   By Sophie

Meet Sting

Meet Sting, Dad’s furry, friendly, lazy, four legged, slit eyed cat.  Even though he’s friendly he hunts hares, frogs, and other twitching things.  Now, let’s get on with where he lives.  Sting lives in a two-story house.  His favourite place is the sun room sofa.  That is where he snoozes all day.  Sting’s fur is black.  He’s sixteen cat years old.  He sits in the rain when it’s pouring cats and dogs.  I call it a cat wash.  I have to dry him afterwards, which is the downside.  He’s a happy cat.  Sting’s claws are as sharp as steak knives.  I suppose most of his character comes from being a farm cat.  We have a farm you know.  All five of us love him, but especially Dad.  We still have him and he’s going to live for a few more years yet!   By Cooper

OLD SCHOOL DAYS AND WAYS

Last week Room 4 visited TeManawa. We learnt a lot about the olden days. Here are some of the things we found interesting:

In the olden days they hadn’t invented pop up toasters yet. We cooked our toast in a very old toaster and our bread was easily burnt.

We had to be very polite. Good manners were always very important in the olden days.

In the olden days the dinner table was always set and everyone had jobs to do to help get prepared before and after meal times. You never put the jam or margarine container on the table; it was put onto saucer before going to the table. We had to wear napkins at the table.

The olden days’ washing machine was very different to the one we have now. All clothes had to go through a wringer to get out the excess water and they came out very flat. Now our washing machines just spin all of the extra water out.

The clothes were very different in the olden days. The children looked quite posh. The boys wore shorts, jackets and boots and the girls wore pinafores.

In the Old School House

The teacher was very strict and mean. The teacher did a nail check and some of us got told to get out a scrubbing bush, because our nails were too dirty.

In the olden days, children were to be seen and not heard. We had to write this for our handwriting.

You had to stand up when you were answering a question and when you’d finished answering you had to say Miss – “10 Miss”.

We practiced good breathing techniques.

We had to use ink pens and they made lots of blobs on our paper. They also made lots of blobs on our hands and our clothes.

We had to link our letters and it was very hard to do. We had to concentrate and do our very best.

There were not any left handers in the olden days, because they had to write with their right hand or get ‘6 of the best’.

Here are our photos:

Thanks to all the parents who provided transport.

ROOM 10 WAIRAKEI SCHOOL

Our 'cyber' friends have received their t-shirts and they thought they were "very cool."

They made us this "very cool" video to say thanks. We think you are very clever Room 10 and you look very smart in your fancy new t-shirts.

BASKETBALL BOUNCERS

We have been learning to add impact to our writing and today was a great opportunity to put our new learning into practice.

After a visit from some very tall, talented basketball bouncers today, we wrote a story and have published it using PhotoStory.

Enjoy reading and watching 'Basketball Bouncers' -

WHAT MAKES NZ UNIQUE?

Our T-Shirt Designs

Earlier this year we began following with interest another class blog - Room 10, Wairakei School, Christchurch. This is a class of year 1 students and their teacher is Miss O'Neill. The children from Room 10 were 'SUPERKIDS' on February 22nd, getting themselves to their safe place when the Christchurch Earthquake struck. With the help of Odyssey T-Shirts and one of our generous parents we designed and had printed a set of T-Shirts for our special 'cyber' friends. We added our own colour to the T-shirts and that was quite tricky. Now they're all ready for sending to our friends. We hope they enjoy them and that they brighten their day.

LEARNING FROM THE PAST - HOW AND WHY DO THINGS CHANGE

During the next two weeks we will be learning about the 'Old School Days and Ways'.

The 'big idea' is that this will help instil the value of respect in the children. We will make connections to the key competency 'Managing Self' and having self control - something that was definately needed in the 'Old School Days'. Children will be successful with this learning when they:

- choose right from wrong
- consider the consequences of their actions
- follow the rules
- own up and be truthful
- think before they speak and act

I'm sure some room 4 students have grandparents out there with a few stories to share. We'd love to hear the stories. Please either leave a comment or better still ring the school and ask for Mrs Hunter to make a time to come and visit the children to share your stories.

EMAIL FROM MISS CROASDALE

Hello Mrs Hunter and Room 4 Lovelies!

I hope you all had nice holidays and are excited to be back at school. Have you all managed yourselves well and brought all the equipment that you need for school? I'm sure you have! :) It was my first day back at University today, so I had to make sure I was organised as well!

I'm going to be a student teacher at another school in two weeks time. I'll be at Hokowhitu School in Palmerston North, in a class with New Entrant/Year 1 students. I had a look on their school website and found that they have a class blog as well. I've put a link in this email in case you are interested and would like to have a look :)

Speaking of blogs, I tried to leave a comment on yours about your sharing evening, but I think I might have done it wrong - whoops! Anyway, I wanted to congratulate you all; from the pictures it looks like you did a great job and I'm sorry I couldn't make it to see your presentation. I'm sure you would have made me very proud.

All the best for this school term! I will keep checking your blog to see what learning you have been doing :)

Arohanui

Miss Croasdale

A link to Room 1's blog at Hokowhitu School:

http://misstsblog.edublogs.org/