New writing prompts in Room 10

Miss Suze went on a teacher learning course last term and is sharing with us cool new ideas to add more "detail" into our writing.

The 5 senses we already use in our writing to create a mental picture in our readers minds are..

• things we see around us
• things we hear (noises, sounds)
• things we smell
• things we feel
• things we taste

We have been learning about these throughout the  year and now we are adding even more detail including

• things we are thinking at the time
• what we were doing (actions, body language)
• what we were feelding inside
• what we were saying and how we said it

We practiced using the prompts when we were writing a moment in time about Tee Ball.

We are crafting our writing and watch this space to read some of new and improved writing with EXTRA detail.

Miss Suze now draws little pictures like the symbols on the chart in our books to give us good ideas if we need them.

We have highlighter goals at the top of our books we can see every time we write. At the end of writing time we look at our goal and think about how we did with that goal today. This is called a reflection (like in a mirror, we look and think about what we've done)

First it is crafting time when we use green pen to cross words out and choose better words or when we add more detail.

When it is editing time we collect dictionaries to check our spelling. We use green pen to make changes. We read our work out loud to ourselves to check it makes sense.

After we have crafted our work (made it better) and 

edited our work (checked it makes sense and you can read the words) we share it with a buddy to get feedback.

Feedback is reading your work aloud and talking about what makes it a good piece of writing. It is positive and kind.

Feedback is 2 Stars and a Wish

2 Stars are 2 things that the author has done well in their writing and you can tell by looking at the learning goals, WALTs, Success Criteria and the writing prompts to see if they have all the things they need.

A Wish is something the author could work on next time they are writing.

Welcome back to Term 4 - PMI of the first week

We have 9 weeks and 1 day in Term 4. 
There are a lot of things happening this term for example -

Week 1-4 - Testing, Testing, Testing for reports like PAT maths, e-asTTle reading, Probe reading, Burt, Gloss maths, IKAN maths, Schonell spelling
Week 2 - Cricket and Touch team start
Week 3 - Labour Day (another day off)
Week 5 - Tee Ball tournament
Week 8 - Whanau sports (athletics) and Prizegiving


Positive +
We get to play tee-ball every morning.
The pressure of the Operetta is now over.
We get to do an activity about our holidays.
We are going on a class trip this term.

Minus -
It sometimes gets SO hot.
Miss Suze forgot about our cricket skills that we were supposed to do.
We did a thing for reading and it was called speed dating which was kind of weird.

Interesting ? !
Miss Suze started reading us a book (Hatchet by Gary Paulsen) and it started with a lot of action but some other books build up to it. Then We got really hooked in.
Some of the people that were doing tee-ball for the first time were actually pretty good.
We do a PMI chart after every week.

Act 4 Lost Property Box by Room 10

Operetta Fever has hit Hamilton East School!!

How did we feel before the show?

"I felt excited when I was getting ready and then nervous when it came to performing!"

"Before the dance I thought I would muck up and my braces would come loose but they didn't so I was amazed!"

"When I got on stage I was chilled!"

"I had butterflies in my stomach before the show!"

"I was nervousxcited!!" (Nervous + excited)

"Before the show I felt hypo and nervous. I giggled a lot and squeeled. "

"I felt nervous and excited and I had lots of energy!"

What did we think about our make up?

"I was so excited I kept wiggling around while they were applying my makeup."

"When I was getting my face painted it tickled and it was cold."

"When they put the mascara on my eyes were watering."

"I was feeling excited that I was getting my makeup on, there was glitter and it's sparkly under the lights."

"It was scary getting the lip gloss on because it might go in your mouth, yuck!!!"

"I felt scared when someone put glitter on my eyelids, it might go in my eye, ouch!!"

"The dollar signs on my cheeks were making me itch!"

"When I got the makeup on it felt really funny and all the girls looked really pretty and some of the boys got makeup on too."

After the show we felt.....

"I was happy because I didn't forget my lines."

"I was proud of myself becaue I sang loud in front of lots of people."

"I like the stage because I like to sing and I wanted to stay on the stage."

"I felt proud because I performed well as the giant clothing."

"I felt really proud of myself when I was doing the Operetta and I couldn't wait to do it again!"

"When the show finished I felt free because all the butterflies in my stomach went out."

"After the Operetta I felt really proud to get all my nerves out of my body."

"I felt proud and happy because I got the actions right so I can get it right next time."

Are you ready to vote?

Room 10 have been talking about the different political parties our parents/whanau/caregivers 

can vote for in the 2014 Election. 

Everyone can vote for who they like 

and the party with the most votes wins the election. This party is the Government and the Leader becomes the Prime Minister.

We think every vote is important and you can't moan about things if you don't vote!

You can vote this Saturday the 20th September.

Check out the website link 

Election website to get enrolled and find out about the Election

We have also been thinking about our own parties we would have.....

It's show time!!

Room 10 are writing reviews of our Operetta - "Money Doesn't Grow on Trees" here is a taste of what they had to say about the full dress rehearsal today.......

Bright lights red, orange and blue. The dancers walk on stage (really fast) the blue light shien at hte dancers to make it look like they are glowing. The music starts suddensly, their heads snap up in unison.

I rate the Operetta * * * * * (5 stars) a 5/5. 

The spot light grows bigger and brighter as the dancers grooved around the stage. I liked Elizabeth, Pengshen and Tylah- Dawn because they had beautiful expression in their voices and also they had really good body movement.

Now who was my favourite actor? Well that's a hard decision because everyone was very good, no they were great, not great ..perfect. So I'm going to have to say Pengshen because he stood out wherever he was, he has good expressions and he somehow always had just the right tone for the scene. Now my favourite act, this is even harder, wait no it's not (for me) it's easy Room 12 because it was really thought through and just a groovey song and all the acting was great. It had a good message which was there's many ways to earn money. It was just the perfect act for the Operetta.

Room 9 did an awesome thing, they pretended to sell loom bands but they have no money. Their song is S.A.V.E I think that's cool.

Come and see the show for youself! 
Buy tickets at the office - don't miss out.

Show times are -
Tuesday, 16 October @  9.45am and 7pm
Wednesday 17 October @ 1pm and 7pm
Thursday 18 October @ 7pm

Posting Quality Comments

Dear Parents/Whanau from Miss Suze and Room 10 children

Thank you very much for those wonderful parents who have been commenting on Room 10's blog and sharing and talking about our learning at home. We love reading your comments in the morning and publishing them on our blog. The winner of this weeks parent blog post iTunes voucher is Nathan - congratulations!!!

Things to think about before posting quality comments:

• Correct punctuation is used for example the comment starts with a capital letter, names have capital letters and the sentence ends with a full stop.
• Re-read the comment out loud to yourself and check it sounds right & makes sense.
• Is your comment is positive, thoughtful, helpful and Room 10 have added a new idea - ENCOURAGING?
• It could be a thoughtful comment by asking a question or giving advice.
• It could be a helpful comment by sharing an idea or something from your own experience/life.
• Be cybersafe and don't identify people in photos or videos or give out personal details like your age, phone number or address.

How to choose a best-fit book???

We have been learning how to choose a best-fit book. We looked at the library books we got out yesterday in a small group to check if our books fitted the purpose for reading. The purpose this time was for enjoyment and when they get Read For Fun time in class. 

• Did the book interest us? Was it something that we like to read? 
• Did we understand what the book was about? Did it make sense? 
• Did they know the words they were reading, if there were 5 hard words we didn't know then the book was too hard to read for fun because we wouldn't enjoy stopping and figuring out the words all the time.

P- purpose. What is the purpose of the book for learning or fun?
I- interest. Are you interested in the book? Does the book fit your interests?
C- comprehend (understand what the book is about)
K - know. Do you know the words you are reading, are they the best-fit words for you?

Blog comments competition

Today's writing by Nathan

There's a competition in Room 10 and that is an iTunes gift card with $5 or $10 but every prize has a competition and that competition is to have a quality comment on our blog (at home), but this is for your parents to type their opinion about our blog posts.

You must tell your Mum/Dad/Whanau that their blog post must be positive, helpful and thoughtful not nasty and have swear words in it. 

First you need to teach your Mum/Dad/Whanau how to do it (unless they already know how to do it and they have already done it before). 

You click on the box that says:Anonymous (Google). Once they have checked the blog and have seen what learning we are doing in class then you can do homework and go ahead and do what you are supposed to do for next week. You can talk about our learning and share our photos, videos, movies, writing They can type up about the stuff that they did at our age e.g.cross country and tell us about what it was like for you. They can also ask questions we can answer during Orchard time.

After you have typed up your blog comment you have to do this thing to check that you are not a robot and it changes every time you type a comment.

Miss Suze will check all the comments before publishing them up on the blog.

What do you think Room 10?

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Cross Country opinion writing booklet

We have been practicing for the cross country for the last 6 weeks and we had plenty of inspiration to write about what we think of cross country (our opinion). Check out our youblisher booklet, it's like you are actually turning pages in a book. 

HES Cross country day 2014

Congratulations to EVERYONE who set their goals for cross country, participated and tried their best. It was a gorgeous sunny day and it was great to see so many friends and whanau supporting our runners.

Well done to all those children from Room 10 who came in the top 8 - you will begin training for inter-school cross country which is on Friday 12 September at Porrit Stadium.

Year 4 boys race - Isikeli, Suleman, Hamish, Max, Kevin and Wynter
Year 4 girls race - Scania
Year 5 boys race - Karasharn
Year 5 girls race - Iyete, Lara
Year 6 girls - Elizabeth, Sapana and Brooke

Daffodil Day - raising money for the Cancer Society

We are learning about what Daffodil Day means and why we are raising money for the Cancer Society. We looked at the cancer society website link  http://www.cancernz.org.nz/


Please read our comments below to see what we have learnt and share your story if you have someone special you know that has been affected by cancer.

Miss Suze shared a story about her good friend in Wellington who has breast cancer and has had the cancer cut out and is having chemotherapy every month to fight against the nasty cancer in her body. Miss Suze's friend doesn't feel very good right now and all her hair has fallen out and she wears a wig.

Retelling the story of RAP-unzel by Gursimran

Why Gursimran is a good writer - "My writing is good because it has details and I remembered heaps of stuff from my brainstorm. I usually write just a tiny bit but this time I wrote five and a quarter pages."

Title: RAP-unzel (retelling the story of the show RAP-unzel)

Today on X factor Idol there is a talent show and some of the characters were Aladdin, Jack and the Beanstalk, Jake and Jill and RAP-unzel and Simon Cow is the judge and this is the final talent show. He kept on saying to the talent "I don't mean to be ruuuude" but the last talent was very very great and RAP-unzel had the voice of a giant angel. 

RAP-unzel's Dad wanted her to sign the contract to have $300, 000 but Rapunzel did not want to sing a silly song "Oh baby I'm beautiful, Oh baby your'e beautiful, Oh baby we're beautiful, Oh baby!". 

Rapunzel has one thing left and it is the garden window in her home and the government took the window away and Rapunzel and her Dad are very very very poor. Rapunzel's fake sister was doing a trick on Rapunzel and she said to go to the studio at the castle and Rapunzel was pranked by her fake sister and Rapunzel got locked in the castle. Simon Cow told her to sing in the microphone and it was one more trick and Simon Cow stole Rapunzels voice of singing but she can talk.

Prince Rupert was riding his horse away from the palace so he can rap. His father the King came to his son and he told Prince Rupert to sing but Prince Rupert can't sing but he can rap. The King said to the horsey "make yourself comfy". Prince Rupert saw Rapunzel up in the castle and it is locked and Prince Rupert gave his clock to Rapunzel so she knows when it is 7 o'clock to meet Prince Rupert again. 

Rapunzel saw the beanstalk grow and she escaped from the castle. Simon Cow said the sister of Rapunzel sang the silly song to have $300,000. Rapunzel ruined her voice and said "She is not Rapunzel and I am really the real Rapunel. Simon Cow said "You are not the real Rapunzel"
"But I am the real Rapunzel and you are lying", so the real Rapunzel took off the fake hair. Then Prince Rupert and Simon Cow said if you want to have your voice back yo have to kiss Prince Rupert and she had her singing voice back and she can sing again (but really the voice came from the radio).

Operetta costume making

We are busy practicing our item for the 2014 Operetta - 

"Money Doesn't Grow on Trees"

Check out the costumes that our fabulous Teacher Aide and Parent Volunteer are

helping us make - giant clothing from the Lost Property Box.

Another thank you to Jake's Mum for helping with the singing practice on a Thursday.

We couldn't do it without you!!!

Year 6 visit to Peachgrove Intermediate

Today our Year 6's from HES have explored Peachgrove intermediate starting off with the hall, Mr Bromell giving s a little speech about Peachgrove and then off to cooking tech to maks some delicious smoothies (some people didn't like them).  Now lets go boogy (dancing) we get led to the dancing room and we take off our shoes and then everyone starts to say "I can't dance". The instructor says "Can you move your body?" "Yes" "Then you can dance!".  By Josh.

I'm walking in the gate thinking hmmm "I'm not sure about it". We played the drums in the music room. We started off by copying the teacher then he got us to play 2 different beats at once. It was super fun, after a while my hands got really really sore but it was worth it. By Kelly.

I saw most of my friends from last year and some family friends at Peachgrove Intermediate. We got a warm welcome from the student council. The best thing was technology because we got to work on the computer and I love technology. The thing that I am looking forward to is EVERYTHING because what I saw today gave me a taste of what I will be doing but the thing I am most looking forward to is drama. By Alaa.

There were like 2000 student. In the library there were really, really cool books and hard books. I am looking forward to learning more at Peachgrove. By Sapana.
Walking on the cold hard floor of the hall. A space of chairs for Hamilton East kids. Rows of maroon coloured chairs. The tall principal walking up ont he stage waiting for people to stop talking. SO MANY CLASSES!! SO MANY NEW BELLS AHH WHAT AM I GETTING INTO??!! All the teachers are so kind and friendly. Can't wait until next year because the wimming pool is heated and they swim for two seasons. By Elizabeth.

Olympic medalist, Commonwealth Games medalist and World Champion Cyclist Alison Shanks visits Kauri Team

The NED show!!

The NED show

The show we saw today was about how to be a champion in school and in life and achieve our goals by not giving up. Kylie was the host of the show and she is an expert yoyo trick artist from America. We could tell she was American by her accent.

Ned is a cartoon character and there was a life size cut out cardboard picture of him. Ned woke up this morning with a bad attitude and didn't want to come to the show. Some aliens were chasing Ned and he couldn't be here on time. Ned changed his attitude and remembered he needed to have a positive attitude so he made sure he was back at Hamilton East School on time.

NED stands for
N - never give up even if it's hard!!
E - encourage others. Be supportive and have good sportsmanship in learning and games.
D - do your best!! Keep trying no matter how many mistakes you make. Learn from you mistakes. Keep on going!!

We saw different types of yoyo's. Some of them glow in the dark which is pretty cool. 

We saw lots of cool tricks and we can't wait to buy a yoyo. 
Favourite tricks are
- around the world (the yoyo spins around in a yoyo circle, you can't do this one at school you can at home and need permission and lots of space!)
- Eiffel tower in Paris France
- walking the dog
- boomerang


We had to say nice things to the teachers these are called compliments. You feel good about yourself and warm inside when someone says something nice to you. 

Fitness training with Coach

Cross Country training - what is your PB?

We are in training for our school cross country competition which will be on Wednesday 27 August in Week 6.  We will be setting our goals and trying to beat our PB's (personal best time) on the day.

The circuit for the cross country is around Putikitiki, up past Totara classes and middle playground, up the hill past the swimming pool and past Pippa's office and the bike rack, along Dawson road on the footpath, down Grey Street footpath and back onto Putikitiki. The distance of one circuit of this course is approximately 769m according to google maps so we need to run this 3 times to get to the 2000m mark which is the distance you run at inter-school cross country.

Student voice:

What did Room 10 think when asked - why do we run the cross country?

• Commonwealth games inspiration – aiming to be a runner.
• It gives sporty people a chance to shine and do the best they can.
• To get people into running. To get fit. Keeps you healthy. 
• Good for your health, good for your heart.
• Getting your brain working.
• Kinesthetic learners LOVE running and moving and running some more! 
• Some people have a lot of energy to burn off before they can focus in class. 

Great to be back! Term 3, Week 1 reflection

It has been a very busy start back to school.
We have the Operetta this term and Year 5 & 6 have been auditioning for the lead parts. Congratulations to Elizabeth who is one of the lead characters in the show!

There is a Movie Making festival going on this term and we were motivated to 
get making after seeing a movie about moving to NZ from South Africa.

We are looking forward to making iMovies this term. We have already made one about
the Lost Property and how much money is sitting in the lost property box.

This week was Maori Language Week and we listened to
and love the new Stan Walker song "Aotearoa"

We have pegged up some new publishing this week.
We have all sorts of writing - procedures, recounts, explanations,
narratives and opinion writing. Come and have a read!

1. korowai
2. The korowai “is a particular type of kākahu (cloak). It is usually decorated with feathers and/or tassels and has a border along the bottom, although this can vary according to tribal custom.”

We made Korowai's or maori cloaks.
First we had to choose the colour from our native birds - Pukeko, Tui, Kea etc
Then we had to make a template for the feather and make lots of them!
Layering the feathers took time.

Last term we reflected on our Term 2 targets. 

Did we meet our goals?
What are our oral language goals?
What are our life goals after listening to Tim Hamiltion the CEO of Magic Netball
Next week we are going to be making our new targets with our Term 3 goals on them.

We will reflect on our targets/goals again at the end of the term
.

A visit from a famous Mum

Last term we were lucky to have a NZ representative from the Black Ferms 

come and put us through our paces for fitness.

Lost Property Box Take II

Can you spot the difference from our last movie?

Lost Property Box Take I

Last term we presented our social action for our Financial Literacy inquiry learning
to the school at Positive Assembly and at the Parent Information Evening. 

We also recorded our script and made an imovie of our findings.

This is our first attempt at recording our findings. We watched it as a class and reflected on the quality of the movie. These are the things we thought we could do better next time

• hold the iPad still when filming by leaning on a table to keep it steady
• make sure we don't cut off the heads of people when they are talking
• make sure the people behind the iPad aren't giggling, talking or moving their hands on the iPad because it records all of those background sounds
• when you are speaking you are looking at the camera and make eye contact (we are going to try putting the words on the back of the iPad to read off so it looks  like you are looking straight at the camera)
• we think a song at the start would make it more interesting
• stand still when you are talking so you don't look nervous
• use a loud clear voice and/or a microphone (we need to ask Whaea Sheryl)

Autumn has arrived at HES....temperatures are dropping coming up to Winter

Thank you to all the wonderful knitters at Knit World who kindly made all 

these scarves for our school. Everyone has a cosy warm scarf to wear at break times!

Inquiry Unit - Money Doesn't Grow on Trees

WALT: be curious and ask investigative questions 

Our Inquiry unit is all about money. We have a lots of questions we want answered and here is our question brainstorm. We will be researching and writing explanations.

The Sensational Strike percussionists

Friday 23 May 2014

Today me and my friend Ryal and the rest of the class were excited to go to the strike show. The names of the three percussionists were Biscuits, Timbo and Mufasa and they were amazing with the drums. They travel all over New Zealand. They have hundred of drums they can beat. They are very funny and silly.

Ms O ‘Neil and Whaea Eve were having a drumming competition…. Ms O’Neil won the drum competition she was the best and the drums were loud but some of the  kowhai kids were a bit scared because the drums were too loud!!

  

Gursimran, me and Ryal are friends too. Gursimran was lucky to go on the stage to play the forest log. The logs were so loud that it shook the hall.

By Kevin and Gursimran

Making Anzac biscuits

We had a great time baking Anzac biscuits to celebrate Anzac Day which was in the school holidays. We learnt that the soldiers were sent anzac biscuits because they lasted longer because there were no eggs in them. The biscuits were also cheap to make because there were no eggs in them and eggs were very expensive during the war.

There was only one batch of biscuits that didn't work out very well because instead of 1 tsp of salt one group put in 1 cup of salt!!! The biscuits didn't taste very good at all.....

Next time we cook/bake we will need to read the recipe very carefully to get the right measurements correct.

Ingredients

• 1 cup flour
• 1 cup caster sugar
• 1 cups rolled oats
• 125g butter
• 2 tbsp golden syrup
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp of salt

1. Heat oven to 180C. Line baking tray with nonstick baking paper. Place flour, caster sugar and oats in a bowl and stir to combine. 

2. Place butter and golden syrup in the microwave in a bowl to melt. Dissolve baking soda in the melted butter. Add melted ingredients and dissolved baking soda to dry ingredients and mix to combine.

3. Roll spoonfuls into balls and press with a fork onto prepared baking trays, allowing space for biscuits to spread while cooking.

4. Bake for 15 minutes or until firm and golden brown. Remove to a wire rack to cool, and enjoy!

Melted butter

Mixing(combining) dry and wet ingredients

The final product - a little bit too close together.

Butter melted to combine with the dry ingredients

Dry ingredients measured out

Biscuits on the tray ready for the oven

Anzac biscuit dough