Week 2 - Creative Character Writing

Hi fellow bloggers,

Last week Room 8 were working on character descriptions.  On Monday we went to the site build your wild self and we got to create a character that was half human, half animal (or whatever we chose).  Then we created a y-chart each, that had our character and the main features of their looks, actions and personalities.  I have included this below for you to have a look at.  This is the creature that we created with Mr Riceman our teacher.  If you would like to find out about more of our characters please check out our individual blogs on the side of the page.

Here is the character description I created from this...

Mix-up (Room 8's shared writing)

Mix up has two green arms that stick out from the top of his body.  The four sucker fingers pads are extremely useful for him. Unusually, he has brown hair that is similar to a normal human.  Eight legs cover the bottom half of his body.  They are purple tentacles perfect for slithering up trees.  His buffalo snout is grey and brown, covered in coarse hair that helps him sniff his prey.  All in all, he is a very weird looking character!

The sticky finger pads help him with his favourite pass-time, climbing up walls and washing windows for a living.  The eight tentacles means he can manages 4 buckets and 4 brushes at the same time, while holding onto any smooth surface.  Once it hits 10:30, his snout twitches in search of the nearest long black coffee, he must get his fix!

Mix up is generous, he often donates his time to wash the windows of his local school, free of charge. There is a cheeky side to him.  Amongst his friends, he loves a practical joke and often plays tricks.  His friends also describe him as bookish, when not learning or causing trouble, his nose is buried firmly in the latest and most interesting work of Non fiction freshwater reading!

Tuhi Mai, Tuhi Atu introductions

Kia Ora,

This term we are looking more at blogging and we plan to share lots of learning as we get our individual blogs up and running.  We are part of the Tuhi Mai, Tuhi Atu blogging group where we will be working closely with three other classes around New Zealand to share and comment on the interesting learning that is happening.  As a start we have shared some google drawings of ourselves, some share what we like, others are developing skills so just show our names.

If you would like to find out more about us please check out our individual blogs on the side of the page.

Ready, Set, Design Week 1 and 2

Our overall theme for the year this year is "Responsibility". This term we are going to be looking at designing and creating responsibly.  To start off the term we have been having a go at some "Ready, Set, Design" challenges.  These challenges involve creating something to solve a problem in a small group in a short time (if you would like more information please check out the you tube video below).

 

So far we have had three challenges in class.  Our first was something to protect an animal, our second was shelter for a class mate and our third was a virtual challenge using tinkercad to create something to keep Mr Riceman dry as he moves to his car with an armload of books and his precious laptop.  Check out the photos below for highlights from our designs.  If you would like further information please have a look at our individual blogs for some of our reflections.  These will be up later in the week.  We would love a positive, thoughtful and helpful comment below too.

A fitting end to Term One

At the end of Term One, Waikowhai Primary School held a special assembly to acknowledge ANZAC day. This is because it will happen while we are away from school on our school holiday break.

As you can see, the school hall was set up beautifully by Ms Sands.  A poppy garden was created at the front of the hall.  Children from each class came up to lay poppies in remembrance.  We displayed the crosses honouring fallen soldiers from our ANZAC centenary presentations two years ago at the front of the class.

A group of our Senior students helped by sharing a little bit of information about ANZAC day with younger members of our school community.  We also listened to the last post, observed a minute's silence and used our fabulous singing voices together as a special way to finish of the term.  We then finished the assembly as a syndicate while Ms Sands read us an ANZAC related picture book. You will be able to find this in the sophisticated picture book section of the library.

Room 8 focused on some ANZAC activities during the week.  One of the highlights was the creation of acrostic poems.  Below you can see the shared writing that Room 8 did before we went to create our own from the word bank below.

We would love to hear how you acknowledged ANZAC day.  Please leave us a positive, thoughtful or helpful comment in the comments section below.

Wheels Day

Finally the wet weather that we have been experiencing cleared enough for Waikowhai Primary to have their wheels day fundraiser. This is one of the many planned events we have been working on as we lead up to the senior camp later in the year.  The senior syndicate joined the middle syndicate lock of the day.  We enjoyed all of the different types of wheels we had around the school playground and across the school field.  Check out some of the photos of Room 8 kids in action below.