Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Derek Comes To Stay


Another friend of Allanah's, Barry, has written a book called Derek Comes to Stay. It is the story of a pukeko who comes to stay with Pa and Nanna. Listen to the enjoyment in the children's voices as I read the story.














It will be fun to make our own story next term.

Caitlin's tidy up


Caitlin had a big tidy up for her homework. Which photo do you like best????

Connecting through our emotions

Today Tammy made us another Voicethread. We will add our thoughts to it at school. All over the world there are lots of things that are the same- no matter where we are from.

Tuesday, March 30, 2010

A Connection with United Arab Emirates

Allanah's friend Jocelyn is teaching ICT in the Al Ain in United Arab Emirates.
Here she is in traditional abya that women wear.
She went for a camel trek through the desert.
This her view from her apartment.
She teaches in a number of schools. This is one of the classes in a girls' school.

Jocelyn asked us if we would record ourselves talking about some New Zealand icons so her students could learn about New Zealand and hear New Zealand voices as they learn English.

I will add more to this post as we finish them. Here are the ones we have done so far...

Daniel talks about rugby.














Conor talks about the Black Caps cricket team.













Grace tells us about pukeko.














Harriet tells us about geckos.














Jack tells us all about sheep.













Summer tells us about tuatara.














Tarn tells us about the All Whites Soccer Team.











Basic Facts

In response to a need to have more of a structured way to help children learn their basic facts I made up this programme of finely leveled basic facts practice sheets. Parents wanted to have copies of the sheets for home practice so I made this wiki up that has all of the leveled sheets for download and web links that support that knowledge learning. The link will always be at the top on the right hand side of the blog when you need it.

I am asking other teachers who follow our blog to add their resources to it so it becomes a good place for us all to practice our basic facts.


The wiki is open and needs no password. Just click edit and add your website.

Thank you

Friday, March 26, 2010

Koraunui School



Today Mini-Dylan and I are at Koraunui School in Wellington for the Champions Interactive Whiteboard Conference. I am going to give a couple of presentations to teachers all over New Zealand. I will be talking about using wikis to promote learning in Science.

They put a powhiri on for us as we arrived. It was excellent. We should try and have a kapa haka group like that. What do you think.

Nevada

On Thursday we made another connection with a class in Nevada, USA. This time it wasn't a class of children, it was a class of teachers- learning all about how to make connections across the world. We sung our National Anthem for them and they asked us questions about our school and the things we like to do. This photo is of us- how we looked from their end of the connection.
After we had had a bit of a chat I took the laptop outside for a bit of a tour. The teachers loved our playground and our trees to play in.
It was an excellent connection. Their teacher, Brian, was the teacher who introduced us to our phones. We like using our phones when we read.

Allanah

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Sum Dog Idol

Do you want to get better at knowing about maths?

Do you want to see if you succeed against the Idol judges?

Then give Sum Dog Idol a try out!

I played as a guest but if you want to sign up ask your parents if you can and then it will remember your scores and your levels.

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Fun and Games

Today we played netball games like Octopus and Dots.
We had lots of fun at these wicked games.
We raced each other. We had to skip five times with a skipping rope, go over the ladder and hurdles and shoot two goals.
The Dots game is when you turn over a dot to a flat side or a bumpy side.

My Dream- A Podcast Poem



Today we finished the recording of this week's poem, 'My Dream'. We had to have quite a few practices to be able to speak reasonable slowly and clearly with strong voices and speak all together at the same time as the rest of our group. Quite a lot to remember. Most children have now got the idea of what they need to do to put a podcast together. I look forward to them doing it independently of me next term.

Remember to search in iTunes for Allanah to find our other podcasts.

Monday, March 22, 2010

Simon Game

Why pay lots of money for the Simon Game when you can get it on line for free. Network 9 blog in Palmerston North had this on their blog so I borrowed the game for you. The best I could do is 15. Let me know in the comments if you can beat me!

Keeping Ourselves Safe Animation



Last week we looked at a video about Keeping Ourselves Safe when we get home from school and our parents aren't in the house with us. A few years ago Pete M and his class of Year Six children made this animation about Keeping Ourselves Safe. I podcasted it at the time so was able to bring it back to life to share now as it was on the internet and not on one computer.

It is a pretty excellent video don't you think.


Sunday, March 21, 2010

Speech Marks

We are learning how to correctly place speech marks. On Friday we looked at the quizillion words that you can say instead of said. This web site will help.

Friday, March 19, 2010

When Mum Says- a podcast

This podcast can also be found on iTunes- to find it search iTunes for Allanah.

When Mum says,
"I'll be there in a minute."
She really means,
I'll be at least another half-hour."

But when Mum says
"I want this room tidied NOW, or there'll be trouble."
She really, really means it!

A poem by Margaret Schroder

New Zealand School Journal

Part 1 No 5 2000


Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Making a Connection

Tammy is a beginning teacher learning at the University in Regina, Canada. I made a connection with her professor, Mr Shareski, on Twitter and through his blog. He asked us to help the learners in his university class make connections with classes around the world. Tammy chose us.

She is keen to help us learn more about the way we make connections with others. I told her about our theme this term, 'Connections'. She volunteered to make us a Voicethread asking us about the way we prefer to make a connection with others.

We are going to answer the questions on her Voicethread. What a great way to make a connection. We are thinking about speaking in clear, string voices so it will be good practice for us.

Here is a link to the full screen version.

St Patrick's Day Stories

Today we wrote some stories for St Patrick's Day. Our goal was to write a story with some speech in it and make sure that we got the punctuation right. Here are Sean and Grace's books. Click on the title pages to read the stories.

Sean's St Patrick's Day Story


Grace's St Patrick's Day Story

Kiss Me- I'm Irish

Conor's Mum comes from Ireland. Today she and Conor got all dressed up to celebrate St Patrick's Day. At school we took a photo of Conor and his Mum, we sung an Irish song and played the four leafed clover game. We wrote an Irish story in writing time.

Monday, March 15, 2010

Conor meets our Prime Minister

Last Friday I saw the Prime Minister, John Key. He was at the Ellersie Flower Show in Christchurch. He walked past my brother and I. We just stood there. The Prime Minister said, "Why are you not at school?" I said that I was on a long weekend.

He asked me what school I went to. I said Appleby School. He seemed like a nice man.

Sunday, March 14, 2010

Wellington

On Friday I worked with another group of teachers, this time in Palmerston North. They were very keen to learn and caught on to how to add sound and pictures to their class blogs.
I spent the weekend discovering Wellington. On Saturday Mini-Dylan and I went to Te Papa to see the Pompeii Exhibition. What do you know about Pompeii?
On Sunday we visited the Karori Sanctuary where I saw my first wild tuatara and a few magnificent kaka.

Summer's Tidy Up

It looked pretty tidy to me, Summer! Good job.

Friday, March 12, 2010

Crazy Hair Day

Last Friday we had Crazy Hair Day when Allanah was away. So Jodie taught us. Jodie took a photo of all of us and emailed this photo to us to put on the blog. We raised money for the Relay for Life.

Thursday, March 11, 2010

Teachers Learning in the Wairarapa

Today I spent the day in Masterton sharing our blog, audio and learning with teachers all keen to learn and do some of the same things that we are doing. Mini-Dylan sat happily on my computer and helped people when they put their hand up.

Tomorrow we are off to talk to another group in Palmerston North.

What have you been up to. Did you all remember to bring your homework back? Are you having fun with Jodie as your teacher?

Allanah

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Allanah's Long Weekend

After school today Allanah left to spend two days in the North Island leading groups of teachers to show them how we do the things that we do on our blog. Allanah hadn't been to the Nelson airport in while and liked the new sculpture on the wall there.
She flew and Mini-Dylan flew over the Marlborough Sounds on the way to Wellington. It was a beautiful day for flying and Allanah was happy that Mini-Dylan decided to come too to keep her company.

Allanah

Santana's Homework

Even though I am now in the Wairarapa Santana got her homework photos to me to put on the blog. Look how tidy her homework is now. Well done Santana.

Keeping Ourselves Safe

As part of our Keep Ourselves Safe learning Constable McKitrick came to talk to us about different kinds of touching.

Touch that I like.

Touch that hurts and which I want to stop.

Touch which is confusing and which I want to stop.

Constable McKitrick told stories from his childhood that helped us understand these different kind of touching.

You can tell your stories in the comments.

Home Work

For our homework this week as well as reading and spelling you had to do some useful work around the home. Isaac took our camera home and took a before and after photo of his bedroom. The before photo shows how it was and the after photo shows how it is now it is all nice and tidy.

Tuesday, March 09, 2010

Brigatine Skype Call






This morning we had the pleasure of making a connection with Brigatine School in New Jersey. They had lots of fabulous questions to ask us about New Zealand and we learnt interesting things about Brigatine as well. I was able to take my laptop outside and show them a little of our school. They were particularly impressed with the swimming pool and our favourite climbing tree.

Here is a direct link to the video in QuietTube- like YouTube but without all the related videos.

We followed up by answering some more of their questions on their blog.

I think we did very well as we lost our internet connection six times during the call. Would anyone like to buy us a new server- we are very deserving!

Monday, March 08, 2010

Skype with Brigantine School In New Jersey

Today we are going to make a connection with Brigantine School in New Jersey. New Jersey is on the east coast of America. It is a school close to the sea just like Nelson.
We were going to find out more about where they are but our internet was playing up yesterday so we couldn't look at Google Earth or their website. We will just have to do our best and see how it goes.

It is fun to make these kind of connections with other children in different places.

Sunday, March 07, 2010

Self Assessment

I asked children to think about their feelings about some of the different things we do at school in preparation for Student Led Conferences this week. Some of the comments are well worth sharing...

I like topic because I like to learn about the world. ZS

I do heaps of maths because I love it. DR

I love art because you get to express yourself. GB

I like to read because it makes you smart. SS

Handwriting is perfecto! SS-C

I don't enjoy homework because I would rather be doing something else. HK

I love sharing ideas in all sorts of places. CC

I prefer writing quickly to writing neatly. LW

I am good at listening because I don't talk so much. JM

Thursday, March 04, 2010

Reading Homework

The Zoe's must have been on a roll with the homework. Zoe G did a great effort with the homework book as well as her spelling. This is what a good effort with homework might look like. Well done Zoe.

Spelling Homework

This is how our spelling notebook should look after it has been home and the spelling words have been learnt. Zoe S did really well to learn all of her words and get them 100% correct.

Tuesday, March 02, 2010

World Maths Day

You might find this surprising but I have never participated in World Maths Day before now as I have never worked out how but this year I reckon we can do it. First of all here is a little advertisement about it.
The idea is that each child gets a username and password which I have already organised. Then you log into the site and play other eight year olds from all over the world at basic facts.

Last year 432 million maths sums were answered and 38,000 schools participated. This year Moturoa will be one of them.

I hear that it's lots of fun. Click on the screengrab to go to the site, then click the yellow sign in button and you are there.

I have downloaded an app for my iPod Touch so we can even play on that as well.

P.S. If I had known it was going to be this popular I would have done it ages ago. A whole heap of kids wanted to play on through playtime and lunchtime. Raewyn told us that the senior class at Upper Moutere are staying late at school and going to play until midnight tonight. Not many maths books will motivate kids to do that!!!

You can see how happy Tarn is to beat some other child in some other country.

Monday, March 01, 2010

Read Together

Today we are starting independent reading activities. This website called Reading Together, is an interactive reading one where you can change parts of the text to suit you and you get to change the characters in the story as well.

Tell us how you found it in the comments.