Writing to explain: Why is Barack Obama important?

Why is Barack Obama important?

Barack Obama is important because he is the president of the United States.

Barack Hussein Obama is the President of the United States of America. He is a man who was named after his father and in 1992 he married a Lady called Michelle. They had two kids called Malia and Sasha who lived their whole lives in Chicago until they moved to the white house.

First Barack Obama was a lawyer and then he became State Senator for the state of Illonois. On February 11 2007, he said he would run for president of the United States. Then lots of people all over the country voted for Obama and after they counted the votes they knew who won: it was Barack Obama.

Barack Obama is important because he is the first African American President that the United States has ever had. He is the 44th president.

Barack Obama is important because he is the first African American President.

By Jack, Elijah and Matalena.

Can you see the identifying statement, the explanation sequence and the summary statement? If you can, leave this group a comment and tell them they met the success criteria!

Writing to explain: Who was Michael Jackson?

Who was Michael Jackson?

Michael Jackson was a very famous singer.

Michael Joseph Jackson was the King of Pop, a dad, a recording artist, a father, a man, a great singer and a fantastic dancer and also the best moon walker so he was very famous.

Michael Jackson was a singer and a dancer. He also gave money away. He was a part of the Jackson Five. He wrote lots of songs and he had a monkey called Bubbles. He owned a theme park because he had so much money. He made music videos.

When he died on June 25th 2009 a billion people watched his funeral on T.V. He died because something was happening with his heart. He took drugs and he had a heart attack. He died at home when he was sleeping. His home was called Neverland.

Michael Jackson was a very famous singer because of all the music he wrote. He died in 2009 but is still famous now.

By Syris, Benjamin and Nathan.

Can you see the text connectives (that means words like "so" and "because") that this group has used? If you can, they have been successful in their learning! Leave them a comment and tell them so!

Writing to explain: How do kids learn?

How do kids learn?

Kids learn by going to school and by asking questions.

One way to learn is to go to school and your teacher will teach you some things. You could also ask your friends a question. Then they might tell you the answer. At school you can learn lots of things like reading, writing and maths.

Another way to learn is to go on the internet and go to google. You can put in what you want to find the answer to and press search. Then you can click on different websites to find information.

Parents also know lots of things so you could ask your parents a question and they could tell you. They could also show you how to do something because they are clever.

Kids learn by going to school, finding out things on the internet or by asking their parents for help.

By Maya, James and Zara.

This group brainstormed all the ways that they thought they learned things. Then they chose the ones they thought were the most important and wrote about them. What do you think? Are there other ways that you learn? Tell us in the comments!

Writing to explain: The first female Prime Minister elected in New Zealand

This is the next explanation in our series explaining important changes in the 2000's. Can you see the identifying statement, explanation sequence and summary statement the group have used? If you can, leave them a comment!

Who was the first female PM elected in NZ?

Helen Clark was the first woman to be elected as Prime Minister.

Helen Clark was born on 26th February in 1950. Her mum is called Margaret and was a teacher. Her dad is called George and was a farmer. Helen Clark has a husband called Peter Davis. When she was young, she went to Epsom Girls Grammar School.

Helen Clark was the first woman to have won at an election for Prime Minister. Clark was Prime Minister from 1999 to 2008. She was also the Minister for Art and Culture. Her party was the Labour Party.

Helen Clark is now in Washington DC. On April 17, 2009, she became the Administrator of the United Nations and she is the first woman to have this job.

Helen Clark was the Prime Minister for New Zealand. She is now the first female Administrator for the United Nations.

By Queenie, Charlotte and Inaise.

Google Earth Tour - Where we went in the holidays

Today we were lucky enough to have Mrs Burt come in to show Room 8 and Room 4 some really cool things using Google. She is New Zealand's only Google Certified Teacher, and since we are learning all about Google we thought she'd be perfect to teach us!

First she showed us how Mr Google knew all about what we had done in the holidays. We went on a tour of all the places us kids had gone! Then she showed us ways of using google for our basic facts and spelling. Did you know Google can do some of your homework for you?!

If you want to see our tour, then here are the instructions (You will need Google Earth version 5 or higher on your computer to play the tour. If you don't have it, click here to download it):

Click on this image to download the Google Earth tour of our holidays.

• Click on the Google Earth image
• Your computer will begin to download a file called a .kmz (it might ask your permission to do so first) If you have a flash computer it might ask you right now if it can open Google Earth. If not, go on to the next step....
• It will save the file somewhere eg on your desktop or in a downloads folder
• Look for the file. This one is called "Grey Lynn School.kmz"
• When you find it, double click it and Google Earth should start up for you - it will probably look quite like the image you see here to begin with.
• Now you can explore our tour on Google Earth
• Don't forget to tell us what you think!

Writing to explain: What is an air guitar

What is an air guitar?

An air guitar is an invisible guitar.

An air guitar is something like a real guitar but invisible and makes no sound. With an air guitar you can do lots of stuff like impressing your friends.

This is how to play an air guitar: Hold your left hand out as far as you can like you’re holding a guitar and use your right hand for strumming. If you want sound get a stereo and put music on in the background so it sound like you’re playing to the music.

The air guitar was first invented in the late 1970’s. People used to do lots of competitions by acting with air guitars. Lots of good guitarists are good because they have had lots of practice with a real guitar.

An air guitar is a guitar that is invisible and makes no sound.

By Oli and Arlo.

Did they explain to you exactly what an air guitar is? If they did, leave them a comment telling them that they met their success criteria!

Writing to explain: New World Records at the 2008 Olympics

How did athletes get to be so quick?

Athletes get to be quick by keeping fit and healthy.

To become an Olympic medalist, training is important. You have to train ever day. You still have to train when you are sick or tired. You need to train hard because that’s how you win.

Athletes wear special clothes to make them faster. Swimmers wear tight fitting togs to swim faster because then the water can’t slow them down runners wear light clothes to run faster. Cyclists wear light and tight clothes to go faster. Basketballers wear clothes that are loose and have little holes so that they don’t get too hot.

One way athletes get faster is by eating the right food. Athletes eat the right food to get more energy because otherwise they would be tired in the middle of the competition. For example eating fruit and vegetables is good to keep you healthy. Athletes don’t eat Junk food or else in the competition they might get a tummy ache.

Athletes become quick by eating healthy food, wearing the right clothes and training every day.

By Juanita, Toby and Josie.

Can you see their identifying statement, explanation sequence and summary statement? If you can, they reached their goal!

Writing to Explain: Technological Changes

What came before CD’s and Phones?

Before CD’s and phones, people used records to listen to music and letters to talk to people.

Before CD’s, people used records to listen to music. They also listened to radios which played music, commercials and had stories to listen to. Another thing people used were tapes. They put them in tape players to listen to music.

Before phones were invented, people used the home post to share their thoughts with other people. They also sent telegraphs. Most things were written down and sent because people couldn’t talk to each other unless they were in the same place.

CD’s and phones won’t be around forever. In the future we might use a thing that sits on your head instead of a phone.

Before CD’s and phones there were lots of different things people used. In the future, we might not use CD’s and phones and might have different cool technology instead.

By Kate, Ernie and Anetema.

Writing to explain: Who was the first space tourist?

Who was the first tourist in space?

Dennis Tito was the first tourist to go to space.

Dennis Tito was a billionaire businessman from California. He became the first paying person to go to outer space. Dennis Tito was born on the 8th of August, 1940 in Queens, New York.

On the 28th of April 2001 Dennis Tito paid $2,000,000,000 to go to space. He set of from Kasakhstan at 1.38pm.

Before Dennis Tito could go to space the United States would not let him because they thought it wasn’t right. Russia thought he should be allowed to go because he paid $2,000,000,000 so they fought over him going or not. In the end Russia won and he was allowed to go to space.

Dennis Tito was the first tourist to go to space but only after the United States and Russia let him go.

By Maddy, Nina and Isobel.

This is the answer to one of the questions we came up with when inquiring about big events that happened in our decade. We have been learning to write explanations and have worked in groups to write one as the answer to our research. Look for more great explanations this week and next week!

Jump Jam Inside: Blame it on the boogie

Guess what? Today Room 8 did Jump Jam inside! It was amazing. I couldn't even believe we were doing it. It was the best thing that happened since Term 3 started. It was so fun I even thought I'd burst. That's how fun it was. It was raining outside so we stayed in the warm, dry classroom. We did the Coconut song and Blame it on the boogie. Watch the video if you want to know how we do it.

By Jack

The Finished Timeline

After our second painting session, our timeline on the windows is finished! We think it looks pretty cool. What do you think?

Important events in the 2000's

Our learning this term is centered around the upcoming school production. For the production, our class and Room 4 are presenting the 2000's. We're really excited since all of us (except for our teachers) were born in the 2000's.

So far, we have created a timeline of the important events of the 2000's. We got into groups and we are busy researching our events. We decided to draw our timeline too, and now we are painting it on our windows! This has the added bonus of blocking the sun so that it isn't in our eyes when we're trying to work.

We are halfway through painting the windows. Take a look and see if you can recognise what the major events we picked are. If you can't, GOOGLE IT!!!

Sneeze Safe - The Final Recount

On Friday Room 8 learned how to sneeze safely. First Mrs Hamilton sprayed us with water so we could see how fast and far germs travel. Soon a lady called Sally came in from Sneeze Safe to watch us. Secondly we had a little talk about how to sneeze safely. Soon after our talk, we went on the internet and used google to look up sneeze safe. We found out it had a website. There were some very gross facts on the website about snot rockets! After that we watched a short clip about how to sneeze safely. It was quite gross. There were four sayings: "do trap it, bin it, wash it and don't eat it." Then Sally took photos of us pretending to sneeze. She said some of us might be in the newspaper. Soon she had to leave. I felt glad that we learned how to sneeze safely.

By Isobel.

Recounting the Sneeze Safe Experience

On Friday Sally from Sneeze Safe came to watch us learn how to be Sneeze Safe. First Mrs Hamilton taught us how far sneezes can go and how fast they go too. Then we went on the Sneeze Safe Website. It had lots of exciting things on it. Next we watched a sneezing movie It was a little bit funny. There were four rules that the man in the movie told us. One was "do trap it," two was "do bin it," three was "don't eat it" and the fourth one was " do wash it." After the movie Sally took photos of us. She said we might be in the newspaper. After that she had to go. I felt great because I learned how to sneeze safely.

By Syris

Sneeze Safe! Recount Writing

Here is a fantastic recount of our Sneeze Safe adventure on Friday. Check out the blog for the rest of the week to read more of them!

ACHOOO!!! On Friday Room 8 learned how to sneeze safe and we did it in Room 8 of course!

First Mrs Hamilton told us how far sneezes can go and that's pretty far. Then Sally from Sneeze Safe came to our class to watch. She was a bit late but that's OK.

After that, 8 people stood up in a line. Mrs Hamilton put baby powder on the end people's hands. Next Josie shook hands with Nathan, then Nathan shook hands with someone else and then that person shook hands with someone else. That's what they did on the other end of the line too. All of them got baby powder on their hands. The baby powder represented germs, so that's why you need to wash your hands after you sneeze in them.

Then Room 8 and Sally watched a movie clip on sneezing. It told you four things to do: "Trap it, bin it, wash it and don't eat it." It was pretty funny.

Next we talked about three ways to trap a sneeze. We pretended to sneeze into a tissue, in our hands and in our arm. While we did that, Sally took photos.

The photos might be in the newspaper. I'm so excited! It was a fun lesson.

By Maddy.

More Measurement

Here are the maths groups to show you again how clever they are at putting their group mates in order from tallest to shortest. As with last week, the person who took the photo had to arrange the group so that they were in the right order. You can tell who took the photo by looking at the sign that someone is holding, saying "by ____ ." We hope you like the photos!

Word Recognition: the iPad

This week Matalena has been learning new nouns using the iPad. She has been playing a game called Flashcards. In this game, she gets to spell words, hear how each letter sounds, or hear how the word sounds. Check out the clip or the link for more information!

I like playing Flashcards because it is fun and it teaches me new words and spelling.

By Matalena.