Tuesday 19 May 2015

Writing in Room 9 today

Today we focused on #10 of the Sentence Starter Menu.

Here are some examples that we wrote.

10 The ‘-ing’ starter


‘-ing’ starter
main clause
sitting on the couch,

Smiley ate bananas
sitting comfortably,


lying on the ground, Cormac passed the ruler to Oscar
Sitting the mat, Alissa put her hand up.
Sitting at her desk, Leah used a ruler to make a grid.
Exploding with mirth, the class laughed at the joke
Writing in her diary, Jessica sat on the plane thinking about France
While reading a book, Rishab fell off the playground.
Sitting on the mat, Louise copied out the words.
Running up at Ladder, Tripple H landed his finisher pile driver.
Lying on the ground, the dog slobbered on Mr Forman’s shoes.
Relaxing on his uncomfortable bed, Rishab scoffed his daily KFC.
Sighing, Mr Forman sat on his chair.

Tuesday 12 May 2015

Airforce Museum visit

Today we went to the Airforce Museum. We left at 9:15am and arrived just after 9:30am. We were met by Chris, our guide and chief instructor.
Our first activity was learning about the principles of flight - thrust, drag, lift and weight. We learned this through putting together a model airplane with Chris explaining (and then checking our understanding) the functions of the different parts of an airplane.

After a little snack we then did a scavenger hunt throughout the museum, searching for answers to 12 questions.

Here are some photos of our trip.












Wednesday 6 May 2015

Writing hotspot #1 Sentences that tell us 'when'

As part of our plan to improve our writing we are focusing on sentence starters. We have a 'menu' of ways we can make our writing more readable and interesting.
Today we focused on #1 on the menu  - sentences that tell us when.


A few years ago, I broke my toe three times.
On Tuesday, we get our uniform at school.
Last Saturday, I played football at ASB football park.
Yesterday, my dog ate my head.


WALT start sentences that tell you 'when'

Yesterday,
On Saturday at 8:30am,
A few years ago,
After school on Thursday,
On Friday 15th April 2832,
When I was at swimming,
At soccer practice on Thursday,
In 2010 on the first of April, before lunchtime,
Yesterday, just after 5:00pm,

Writing Hotspot #7 - Sentences with 3 actions

Today for our writing hotspot, from our Sentence Starter menu, we focused on hotspot #7.

This is forming sentences with 3 actions. 

Simple sentences: 
Amelia skipped into the classroom. She biffed her bag on the floor. She ran out the door.

We can combine these 3 sentences into 1, using the "1, 2 and 3" method.

Our sentence is now much more readable.

Amelia skipped into the classroom, biffed her bag on the floor and ran out the door.

1 , 2 and 3


Here are a couple of other examples

Smiley stumbled over the start line, shouted at his mum and started to cry.

Cormac sprinted towards the ball, lobbed it over everyone and skipped off.