Awesome Adverbs

We are so clever using adverbs.  We understand that they help to describe how something does an action.  We chose our favourite adverb sentence that we had written, illustrated it, and then coloured in the adverbs ourselves.

PE Fun

This term for PE we have been focusing on skills and strategies needed to play Net and Wall Games.

We had to think about finding space and moving into space, hitting or throwing into space, predicting where a ball might go and also work on our aiming and hand-eye and ball coordination!

We learned these skills with and without using rackets.

Imagination Station

Today Team Arawai went to Imagination Station!

Check out our photos from the day below...

The trip was aimed to motivate us to write exciting stories with a character, setting, problem and solution.

We were each given a lego character.  They were the main character in our story.  We had to describe what they looked like.  Then we had to decide what they were feeling and why, where they lived, who was in their family, and what they liked to do.

Next we had to build a setting for our story to take place in.  It could be a dungeon, a castle, in space, a school, the beach, in the forest or anywhere else our imaginations would take us.

With a buddy we shared a problem and a solution that might happen to our character.

Then we worked with a buddy to create a new story together using the characters or settings we had already made.  Some people even shared their finished stories to the group. 
At the end we got half an hour free time in the lego pit to build whatever and with whoever we wanted!

It was so much fun using our imaginations to create stories!

Thanks very much to the parent helpers who came with, and all the others who offered.  Your support is greatly appreciated!

Adverbs

This week in Writing we were learning how to use adverbs.

 We know adverbs describe the verb. Most of the time they end with 'ly' so we have only been practising these ones at the moment.

We use some charts to help us. The first few times we had to write simple sentences.  Then we had to add joining words with an adverb. Lastly, we moved on to writing full stories including our new skills.

They make our writing sound so exciting!

Koru Art

 We made cool Koru Art last week.  We had to gently blend the korus from red to orange to yellow. 

The koru (Māori for "loop") is a spiral shape based on the shape of a new unfurling silver fern frond and symbolising new life, growth, strength and peace. It is an important symbol in Māori art, carving and tattoos.

Cross Country

Last week Cross Country winners were presented with their trophies and certificates in the whole school assembly.  (Oakley was absent from assembly and placed third in his race too).  Well done, Room 11 runners!

'Show not Tell' Writing

Our focus in writing at the moment is to show not tell.  We have to give clues that tell us how we are feeling without saying that feeling!  It is fun being the detective trying to find the clues people have written.  We also look for the clues in our own reading books.  See if you can do this at home too!

   

Bully Free NZ

For the first part of this term we have been looking at Bullying which ties in with Bully Free NZ Week this week. We have discussed what bullying is and how it makes us feel.

We learned that bullying can be hurting someone on the inside as well as on the outside.  To demonstrate this we read a story called Chrysanthemum written by Kevin Henkes.  It is about a mouse called Chrysanthemum who gets teased because of her different name. Every time she got teased we had to crumple up our paper hearts that we had made.  At the end of the story we opened our hearts up and could see the damage it made and how we couldn't make them perfect again.

Before you speak... 

Think and be smart! 

You cannot fix a crumpled heart!

Writing Challenge #6

Your challenge this week is to use 'show not tell' writing to explain a time you were angry (made up or real).

 Remember you need to choose sentences and words which show me you are angry, without using the word angry! 

For example, you might say that you stomped your feet, or you slammed the door. 

Artwork

This week Mrs Robertson was teaching us about warm and cool colours. We each chose a sea creature and used a ruler and vivid to create different shapes over the picture. We then chose whether we wanted a warm or cool background and coloured each individual shape in. Then we used the contrasting set of colours to colour in the sea creature. These were so easy and look fantastic. They were so much fun to do!

Cross Country Photos

Some terrific action shots of the Russley School Cross Country!! For more photos click here

Reading Activities

During Reading we have a wide range of activities we can do to help our learning.  One of the literacy games we enjoy is called 'Silly Sentences.'  Here are some examples of the silly sentences we created last week.
 

Easter Bunny Descriptions

We wrote these great Easter Bunny descriptions a couple of weeks ago.  Mrs Robertson typed up our stories and we illustrated our own writing.

We had to use adjectives to describe what the Easter Bunny looks like.  We also had to use joining words (such as 'so', 'and', 'because', 'which', 'but')  to help add details


Come and read the rest of our Easter Bunny descriptions up on the wall in our classroom! 

PLANTS

We watched an episode of the Magic School Bus which was all about what plants need to survive, the different functions of the parts of plants, and how plants make their own food. We made this poster afterwards which show all of the amazing facts that we learned.

Leaf Art- Positive & Negative Images

We made these leaf art pictures.  We drew half of a leaf and cut it out.  We flipped it over to form the other half.  We glued them onto another piece of paper.



Autumn Trees
Mrs Garden has been taking us for some very cool art when she has been relieving in the classroom.  First we had to dye the background using three different colours in a circular motion.  Then we had to draw some branches and blow blobs of black dye with a straw to make the extra leaves.   We haven't all  finished these yet....we can't wait until Mrs Garden is back in the class to finish them off and get them on the wall with some Autumn writing.

Writing Challenge #5

Your challenge is to write a story about this Easter Bunny.

 You can describe the bunny using adjectives and use joining words to help add details. 

What will your bunny do? 

Where will your bunny go?