Narrative Writing: The Ngarara

Here is Toby's narrative about the Ngarara, based on the School Journal story. Can you see if he has an orientation which explains the setting, problem and resolution? If so, leave him a comment!

Once upon a time there was a Ngarara trapped in the wallpaper of an old house. The house was owned by a man names Bob. He was 39. He had brown hair and green eyes.

One day he took down some of the wallpaper. Then suddenly the Ngarara sneezed his way through the hole in the wallpaper! Bob was terrified. He ran to the phone and called 111 as quickly as he could.

When Bob turned around again, he couldn't see the Ngarara. He sat down on his chair and suddenly realised that he was sitting on the Ngarara. The Ngarara said, "I will eat you." Bob was very upset.

Then the police arrived. When they saw the Ngarara, they ran away because he was so scary. Bob tried to run away with them, but as he was running, he tripped over some paint. It splattered everywhere, all over the carpet, all over the walls and all over the Ngarara. "Ahhhhhhh," cried the Ngarara. "It's burning me!" Then the Ngarara turned to dust and everything was ok again.

Spring Tapestries

Here are some of our finished spring tapestries. Once the border had been sewn, we went stick hunting and found a stick to thread through the material at the top of our tapestry. Then we plaited wool, using colours that would compliment our work, and tied it to the stick to give us something to hang our tapestries with. Next we took them outside and placed them in natural surroundings. We took photos of our tapestries in three different locations and then chose the best photo. Watch the clip to see the results!

Term 4 Goals

Last week we reflected on our learning and set ourselves some new goals in reading, writing and maths so that we can continue to get even better at these things. Then we picked one goal to share with you!

Term 4!

Welcome to Term 4 in Room 8! We are back for the last term of the year and are very excited about all the things we are going to learn this term. Check out the movie to see what we will be learning.

What I learned in Term 3

We have been reflecting on Term 3 this week, especially on our learning. We made a list of ALL the things we have learned this term, and then we went away and wrote about the one that we felt was the most important to us. Here are some of the answers - the rest will be up as soon as they are recorded!

Measurement: Taller and Shorter

For maths, we have been drawing Kid Pix pictures showing at least two things, one tall and one short. We could choose to draw anything we wanted. Some people chose to draw shapes, others drew flags, and Toby even drew dinosaurs! Watch the movie to see our amazing pictures, and don't forget to leave us a comment if you think we got it right!

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!

Measurement - Tallest to Shortest

In Room 8, we are learning to order things from tallest to shortest at the moment. This week our topic activity for maths was to use a camera to take a photo of our maths group standing in order of tallest to shortest. To do this, we made signs that said "tallest" and "shortest" and gave them to the tallest person and the shortest person to hold. So Mrs Hamilton would know who ordered the group and took the photo, we got the middle person to hold a sign saying who the photo was by.

Have a look at our photos and see if we got it right!

Term 3 Goal Setting

Welcome to Term 3 in Room 8! There are lots of exciting things happening this term, not just in Room 8 but all around Grey Lynn School. We are getting ready for our centennial celebration, which includes our production as well as lots of other special events, but we will also be doing really fantastic reading, writing and maths!

To make sure we know what we are aiming for, we have been looking at our Term 2 goals and setting new goals for Term 3. Watch the movie to hear some of our writing and reading goals so far!

Term 2 PMI: Toby

It is now the holidays and Room 8 has two whole weeks off. However, before we left, we reflected on our learning by doing a P(Plus) M(Minus) I(Interesting). Every holiday day, there will be a new PMI for our overseas audience to see. We hope you enjoy them!

Reflecting on Term 2 - What we have learned

Today we have been reflecting our our Term 2 learning. We brainstormed ideas of all the different topics we have learned about, and all the different things we learned in those topics. Then we went away and wrote about our favourite thing that we have learned this term. Here are the first half of Room 8 to share their learning, look out for the second half tomorrow!

A Dramatic Rendition of the Popcorn Procedure

Queenie, Toby, Charlotte and Isobel chose to use the flip video camera to film themselves reenacting the popcorn procedure.

First we chose our videographer, Isobel, and our narrator, Queenie. Then we decided what Toby and Charlotte, the actors, would do. Next we filmed it, and then Queenie did the voiceovers. For our music we chose Cotton Eyed Joe because we thought that it would match what was happening in our footage since it's a fast song. We hope you enjoy watching it.

Science: How can we change eggs?

Yesterday during science, we looked at eggs and how they can be changed.  Syris cracked an egg open for us, and we looked at the shell, the egg yolk and the egg white.  We talked about whether the egg could be put back together again and decided that it couldn't.  We even remembered the old poem, "Humpty Dumpty!"

We also talked about what changes we could make to the parts of the egg.  First we crushed an egg, then we mixed an egg yolk and white together, and then we beat the egg yolk and egg white separately.  We worked out that each part of the egg changes differently depending on what you do to it.  

Next we looked at heating eggs and all the different ways an egg could change when it was heated - soft boiled, hard boiled, poached, scrambled and baked into cakes and muffins!  Once again, we realised that these changes couldn't be reversed - once the egg has been changed, it would be very hard to change it back again!

Photos by Toby and Isobel.

Descriptive Writing: I am Toby

We have been working hard on Descriptive Writing this week. Our goal is to remember all the parts of a description and use them in our writing. A piece of descriptive writing must have an introduction, list some characteristics and finish with an evaluation. Check out Toby's recount all about himself and see if you can identify all the parts of a description!