Reading

On Monday the weather was so nice that we did our reading outside on top grass. We talked about our stories, read our books in our reading groups and then did some buddy reading. Some of us looked very relaxed when we were reading!

Flynn's Poem- When you are sleeping...

Today in Tautoru, for our reading some of us read Flynn's poem, "When you are Sleeping". We liked it because he chose the best words for the purpose. It also paints a picture in our mind. During Independent writing, some of us decided to write our own scary poems. Thank you for the inspiration Flynn!

When you are sleeping...

When you are sleeping, sneaking through streets,

Snatching, eating, gobbling, slithering, he whispers,

In Parseltongue “kill, kill, kill, KILL!”

                          

Cats meow, dogs bark, wind flows, rain flies,

Trees drip, no one sees the monsters,

Roaming feet thudding, houses crushing,

Water rising, trees falling, ground ripping.

People growing, ideas flowing, time spinning,

Coming, going in and out, blackness falling over,

Mountains growing, trucks towing,

Rivers Flowing,

Things Roaming.

By Flynn, WBS,  (Year 4)

More Dot Day Art...

Today was International Dot Day. We wore dots to mark the occasion. 

By Lily V

By Ruby

By Lachlan

This is Charlotte reading "The Dot" by Peter H Reynolds: 

The Dot- Planning for Writing

Drawing by Eloi

On Thursday, it is International Dot Day. International Dot Day is named for the classic Peter H. Reynolds storybook The Dot. Today we read the story and retold the story in pictures. What character strengths does Vashti have?

Auntie Dot Poem

Some of us read a poem called, "Auntie Dot" today. We have been learning to read poetry in different ways. 

Quadblogging: Favourite Books

We are very excited to be involved in a project called "Quadblogging". We have connected with schools in Luxembourg, England and Canada and will be commenting on each other's blog posts and working on different projects together.

Week 1: 

We will be focusing on Holly Blog from St. Augustines School in Nottingham, UK: http://holly2016-17.sasblogs.net

They have asked us...

"Hello to all our quadblogging friends. We hope that you enjoy looking at everything we have been up to over the past week and what we get up to this week.

We are reading a book called FUNNYBONES by Janet and Allan Ahlberg. Have you read it?

What is your classes favourite book?" 

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If Poems

Art by Yoshi

We read a poem called "IF" and as a reading response we wrote our own poems:

If the sea was purple and the clouds were pink and yummy,
if the sun was green would everything be green too?
If trees were chocolate would it taste like chocolate too?
What if the birds were rainbow and cats were Orange?
By Violeta and Georgina


If skies were Black
How wood we see?
What if the grass was pink?
It would change the world.
If the trees were gold?
By Greta

If cheetahs chirped

It would be berserk

If blue were red

Then bookbags would be dead

Choclate gold

Hairy bold

By Jupiter


If sun sets were white
And skies were green,
What colour would trees seem?

If dolphins were orange
And sea turtles were red
Would they have to change their name?
To red turtles?

What about watermelons?
If they were purple?
What would happen?

If coconuts were pink
And bananas were grey,
Would everything be the same?

I’ve known orangy pinky sunsets,
Grey dolphins and more
So if the colours were bored and switched around,

I wonder what the world would be?
By Charlotte and Leola

If clouds were blue
And crabs were yellow
Turtles were purple
The trees were plastic
that will not be fantastic
Caves were orange
Floors were caravans
And pigs called inky
We call them stinky.
Maybe ghosts were not invisible.
Flies were gold.
Paper was a cape-flying paper.
By Will J

Glurp, the purple alien

We are learning to read aloud with fluency and expression. Today we read Glurp, the purple alien. Here we are reading the poem...

I’m Glurp, the purple alien.

I come from outer space.

I have a purple body.

I have a purple face.

I use my purple tentacles

to dine on purple food.

The treats I find the tastiest

are purely purple-hued.

I’ll eat a purple burger.

I’ll slurp a purple shake.

I’ll feast on purple pickles and

partake of purple cake.

I’ll nosh on purple noodles.

I’ll feast on purple fries.

I’ll munch on purple macaroons

and purple pizza pies.

I haven’t seen your planet,

but, if I ever do,

you’d better not wear purple.

I might just dine on you.

--Kenn Nesbitt

Remember Poems

Artwork by Matilda

We wrote poems based on this poem...

Summer by Marci Ridlon

Have you ever smelled summer?

Sure you have.

Remember that time

when you were tired of running

or doing nothing much

and you were hot

and you flopped right down on the ground?

Remember how the warm sun smelled and the

grass?

That was summer.

Remember that time

when you were trying to climb

higher in the tree

and you didn’t know how

and your foot was hurting in the fork

but you were holding tight to the branch?

Remember how the bark smelled then

- all dusty dry, but nice?

That was summer.

Remember that time

when the storm blew up quick

and you stood under a ledge

and watched the rain till it stopped

and when it stopped

you walked out again to the sidewalk?

Remember how the pavement smelled

- all steamy warm and wet?

That was summer.

If you try very hard

can you remember that time

when you played outside all day

and you came home for dinner

and had to take a bath right away,

right away?

It took you a long time to pull

your shirt over your head.

Do you remember smelling the sunshine?

That was summer.

Here are some of our poems...

Helping Circle: Student Voice

Today we asked our students about the "Helping Circle"... 

This is what they said...

Kate: In the helping circle, you help each other. I find it helpful because someone is helping me.

Edward: The helping circle is cool because everyone lets everyone in the circle (everyone is included).

Leola: The helping circle is very good. By helping each other we put more detail in our writing. I ended up writing lots more.

Dylan: The helping circle is good as it helps you to learn new stuff and listen to other people’s ideas.

Adam: The helping circle gives me ideas. For example, if we had to write about fishing, other people might know more about fishing and they can share their ideas. Today I asked Ollie if I could piggy back ideas for my writing. He said, “yes”.

Hunter T: The helping circle helps me to spell words. I added more adjectives today.

Griffin: In the helping circle, I know that I can get a pencil and start adding onto my story. I gave Ridley advice to make his writing shorter. (The task was to retell a story in 4 sentences).

Izar: The helping circle helps me to write and helps me to concentrate.

Charlotte: The helping circle helps me to know what I’ve done and I can give ideas to people who don’t have ideas.

Liam: In a helping circle, you get to connect with different people and it’s interesting to see what they do in their writing. We can make changes or cross stuff out.

Jupiter: The helping circle is a good activity for people. It is a good way to learn new words that people use.

Kirsty: The helping circle helps me to listen to other people’s descriptive words . I can use them in my writing. It helps me to spell the whole of the word. Raffy helped with spelling today. I could help her too. She showed me how to skip lines.

Rim: In the helping circle, some people give me inspiration. They tell me their stories. While we are reading, we are correcting.

Ridley: The helping circle helps us to spell words we get stuck on.

The Helping Circle

We have been reading a poem called, "Our Town" by James K Baxter. This week we will be writing our own version of the poem. As a group, we brainstormed places that we could write about and then we went off to work on our own brainstorms for our poem about our chosen place. 



At the end of our writing session we worked in a sharing circle. We read our brainstorm to a buddy and they read theirs to us. This is a great opportunity to edit and improve what we have written.  




Students have been helping each other to brainstorm what they can see, smell, touch, feel and taste in their chosen place. 

This links with our school focus about being connected. 

This is the poem that our students have been reading:

OUR TOWN

By James K Baxter

The town was usual enough; it had

A creek, a bridge, a beach, a sky

Over it, and even a small tin church

I never went to. My brother, my cousins and I

Did what boys do- dozed in the hot

Schoolroom, made bows and arrows, dodged the mad

Boat builder, crept like rabbits through the black

Under-runners with a weak torch,

Burnt dry rushes, wrestled or swam

Doing nothing important.

If You Learned Here: Our book trailers

Yesterday some of us made trailers about books that we like. These are for our project, "If you learned here." Enjoy...

Tautoru Reading Workshop

Thanks to all those who came along to our workshop on reading today. We shared some decoding and comprehension strategies. Remember to show your child that you enjoy reading, and that you do it often. 

Have a look at the WBS Library Website website for some ideas for books to read with or to your child. We're going to put together a list of books with the students that they enjoy and will share it on the blog shortly.

Read the News, ask questions and talk about what is happening in the world. A great site for kids is Kiwi Kids News Site

Here is the presentation that we shared:

If You Learned Here. Theme 4: Our Reading

Theme 4 of "If You Learn Here" focuses on reading. We have made a short movie about books that we like to add to the project. We have also started book reviews (watch this space)...
Find out more: http://ifyoulearnedhere.weebly.com/

 

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Created with Padlet

Created with Padlet

Created with Padlet

Created with Padlet

Created with Padlet

Our Punctuation Orchestra

When we have been talking about reading goals with our students, some of them said that they wanted to learn more about punctuation. This is the punctuation pyramid. It has 5 levels of punctuation. We have made an action and a sound for each one.

This is us having a go at the punctuation orchestra.

See it for yourselves at assembly on Friday!

Shona & Chrissy's reading groups

If your child is in Shona or Chrissy's reading groups this term then reading this week is going to be a shared reading big book. This might be a level above or below where they are working so please ensure that you support your child during this reading each night. Any questions please feel free to see Shona or Chrissy before or after school. Thanks.

Magic Box Poems

This week some of us have been reading the poem, The Magic Box by Kit Wright. We have been inspired to create our own Magic Box poems and Magic Box art...

The Magic Box

By Violeta

I will put in the box...

A dragon as red as the fire.

A mouse jumping  over the moon.

A rabbit swimming.

I will put in the box,

A little angel as gold as the sun ,

A purple sun,

and a blue beach.

I will put in the box,

A rainbow flower with a ladybug and yellow spots,

I will put in the box,

A very long snail

a GIANT  MOUSE and a tiny elephant,

A very long snail  with a very short snake.

My box is fashioned from gold and silver and iron,

with spots on the lid and wishes in the corners.

Its hinges are as black as the dark and as gold sun.

The Magic Box 

By Leola

I will put in the box

lunchboxes flying and lemonade walking.

a mouse chasing a cat and a cat chasing a dog.

a frog flying and a fly jumping.

I will put in the box

a giraffe that is small and a and a mouse that is tall.

a giant that is angry and a jaguar giggling.

Hayley hoop runs a loop

I will put in the box

dark is light and light is dark.

a part of body and a part of head.

people making milk and cows collect.

I will put in the box

a carrot eating people

a frog floating and a boat jumping.

a fly eating a frog.

My box is fashioned from stars and gold and ice

with storms on the lid and  love in the corners

its hinges are love and wishes.