Room 5 Week 3 video report

Thank you to Lucy and Yami for this week's video report.  Photos below also of latest work on Trash to Fashion.

All good things must come to an end

That's it!  We have finished The One and Only Ivan.  What a lovely discussion we had about the book today too.

Lots of reviews have been written about the book.  Below are some examples.  Now that you've read the book, write your own short review (no more than 3 sentences) summing up what you think of this book.

"How Ivan confronts his harrowing past yet stays true to his nature exemplifies everything youngsters need to know about courage. … Utterly believable, this bittersweet story, complete with an author's note identifying the real Ivan, will inspire a new generation of advocates."

- Kirkus Reviews

"Applegate makes a powerful statement about the treatment of animals–especially those living in captivity–and reminds readers that all creatures deserve a safe place to call home. (...) the characters will capture readers' hearts and never let go. A must-have."

- School Library Journal

"This book will break your heart—and then, against all odds, mend it again. Such a gentle fantasy is rare; such an evocation of our need to grow, to be free, to become our best selves, is rarer still. In cheering for Ivan and his friends, we cheer for our own humanity and our own possibilities. Read this."

- Gary D. Schmidt, National Book Award finalist, Okay for Now

"A beautifully written, intelligent, and brave book. You will never look at the relationship of humans and animals in the same way again. Quite simply, this story is life-changing."

- Patricia MacLachlan, Newbery Medalist for Sarah, Plain and Tall

Week 2 video report - Finn & Louis

Bella gives sewing lessons

Contemplating their story and design

Seeking inspiration in cultural images on the internet

Refining their design

Working on the story for their costume

Freshly back from gathering materials

Ivan's billboard

Ivan has created a giant billboard picture of Ruby in a zoo as part of his plan to save Ruby.  What do you think of his plan?  What do you think it might achieve?

Poetic devices

Today in Room 5 we explored the definitions and examples of eight different poetic devices - tools to help us with reading and writing poetry.  We discovered:

Alliteration - Repetition of words all with the same beginning sounds, e.g. 'Polly planted plenty of pretty pansies.'
Personification - A figure of speech in which objects are given human qualities e.g. 'The sun played peek-a-boo with the clouds.'
Metaphor - A figure of speech in which things are compared by stating one thing is another, e.g. 'The clouds are cotton balls in the sky.'
Simile - A figure of speech in which things are compared using the words 'like' or 'as', e.g. 'The surface of the water looked as smooth as glass.'
Rhyme - Words that have the same ending sounds, e.g. 'The tiny bird in the tree, was singing songs just for me.'
Onomatopoeia - Words that sound like the objects or actions they refer to, e.g. 'A pesky mosquito buzzed around my head.'
Exaggeration (Hyperbole) - Where we make things sound like they are bigger or better than they really are, e.g. 'The firefly's light was as bright as the sun.'
Repetition - Emphasising a word by repeating it over and over again, e.g. 'The waves pounded and pounded and pounded against the shore.'

Then we wrote our own examples of some of these:

"I jumped off the Sky Tower and I survived.", an exaggeration by Brayden, Joseph, Lina and Letele

"Louis, Devesh and Caitlin are so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so epicly awesome.", a repetition (or is it an exaggeration?) by Louis, Devesh and Caitlin

"Miss Molly Moon made me a mandarin macaroon.", a rhyming alliteration by Lucy, Nicole and Reuben

"The volcano's lava was as hot as the sun.", a simile with exaggeration by Navjot, Isaac and Serkan

"Johnson joyfully juggled jiggling jellies.", an alliteration by Johnson, Bella and Rosie

"I saw a tiger driving a lamborghini.", an exaggeration by Sophia, Turou and Yami

"The boy ran as fast as Ussain Bolt.", a simile with exaggeration by Tiloni, Maelys and Yang Yang.

"The chair groaned as someone sat on it.", a personification by Tiloni, Maelys and Yang Yang.

"The man was as fat as Kim.Com.", a simile by Siniva, Caitlyn, Finn and Charlie.

Now your challenge for this evening's home learning, Room 5: Have a go at coming up with your own example of one of these poetic devices.  Submit it as a comment, but don't tell us what sort of device it is.  We'll identify them together later.

Domain or Cage?

I feel something tighten in my chest, something dark and hot. "And it's not a domain," I add.  I pause, and then I say it.  "It's a cage."

From 'The One and Only Ivan' by K. Appleton

Domain or cage - they're just words.  But what is the difference between the words?  Why do you think Ivan has made this statement?

Have your say in House Singing, everyone!

Which songs do you want to keep?
Which songs do you want to ditch?
Which songs would you like to see added?

Have your say in House Singing, Balmoral!  Go to the short survey here by the end of Tuesday 13 May:
https://docs.google.com/a/balmoral.school.nz/forms/d/1YRWYaJJEy7N6S9Ll_Y_2hBb9wV41gxcLUHbCZsOC3j0/viewform

(You'll need to be logged in to your Balmoral School account to be able to access the survey.)

Nominations for our Term 2 tidy up song

Here they are.  Any that have been left off are ones that have inappropriate content or words in the lyrics, sorry.  Have a listen to any you don't know, so you are ready to vote for your top 3 tomorrow:

Everything is Awesome, by De Vito
Like a Drum, Guy Sebastian
On Top of the World, One Republic/Imagine Dragons
Party Rock Anthem - LMFAO
Rien Est Parfait - Tal
God Only Knows - MKTO
Roar - Katy Perry
Portal Turret Anthem
Feel Inside and Stuff Like That - Flight of the Conchords
Classic - MKTO
Rolling in the Deep - Adele

Nine Thousand Eight Hundred and Seventy-Six Days

Ivan worked out how many days he had spent living with humans - 9876.  He marked them all with crosses.

How many crosses would you need to mark on your wall if you counted all the days you have been alive (as a human)?  Write your number in words, not numbers (like the title of this blog post).  How did you work it out?

Mine would be eleven thousand eight hundred and seventy-nine.
I worked it out as follows:
32 years = 365x32 = 11680, but there were 8 leap years (32/4=8) which have one less day each, so 11680-8=11672

My birthday is 10th October, so I then also need to add all the days since then.  That means the number of days in the rest of October (21), November (30), December (31), January (31), February (28), March (31), April (30) and May so far (5).

11672 + 21 + 30 + 31 + 31 + 28 + 31 + 30 + 5 = 11879

I used a calculator, of course!

Give it a go.