Room 5 students take ownership of their classroom!

Well gang, I have to say I was mightily impressed with your engagement, motivation and ownership of learning today.  Maelys shared her expertise in French, we practised factors in maths (with a bit of musical fun thrown in), fabulous deep thinking about the rules for our philosophical discussions, and some lovely descriptions and abstract thinking in our 'Sounds Around Us' writing session.  Then all wrapped up with our class meeting.

I caught just a bit of it on video today - check it out:

Room 5 Report - Week 5 and 6

Getting to know Ivan

The more we read of 'The One and Only Ivan', the better we are getting to know him.

From what you know of Ivan so far, describe him in three words.

Girl and Robot, est. 1892

On Monday we watched a short animated movie about a girl and her steam-powered robot.  Tomorrow (Wednesday), you will be responding to that movie in some form:

• Write a narrative of the story (from the girl’s, the robot’s or the audience’s (third person) perspective).
• Write a narrative of what happens next.
• Create a script for the story to be acted out.
• Design your own steam-powered robot; label each element of the robot with detail.

For whichever one you choose, you're going to need lots of juicy adjectives, powerful verbs and other descriptive language.  So let's start a collection of great descriptive language that you might be able to use in your Girl and Robot work tomorrow.

Here are some of the adjectives and verbs that spring to mind when I watch the film: hissing, frustrated, the eyes glimmer.  What have you got?

You can rewatch the movie here if you like: http://www.literacyshed.com/the-inventors-shed.html

(Scroll down to 'Girl and Robot, est. 1892)

Camp Recovery

Wow, what an incredible camp experience we had!

What was your personal highlight?  Did you take any great photos?  What's a favourite picture you have that you took (or would have taken if you had a camera) at camp?

Student Leader Elections - VOTE NOW!

Time to have your say, Room 5: Vote for your 2014 student leaders.

Log in to your school Google account, then go to this link:
https://docs.google.com/a/balmoral.school.nz/forms/d/1XBkeMiB_tEKcEu71Oifw5KXeJ94cmKlNQkDXGVJ6ZSc/viewform

And vote!

A descriptive paragraph

Today you all helped me write a descriptive paragraph about my glacier hike on Fox Glacier.  You had so many great ideas!  The whole time we were writing, I was thinking about what I could hear, see and feel while on the glacier, to try and take you all on the journey back to that short moment in time with me.

Here's our draft.  I still need to edit it to improve it even more, but I think we did a really good job of finding powerful verbs and juicy adjectives, and varying the sentence starters.

As far as the eye could see, the blues, whites and silvers of the sculptured ice contrasted against the lush greens of the surrounding New Zealand bush.  The early morning sun glistened on the frozen layers of the glacier.  Below my feet the melt water raged and roared its way into the depths, while my crampons crunched into the slippery surface.  I couldn’t believe I was back in this amazing ancient place.

Tomorrow it will be your turn to write.  I can't wait to read about your moment in time!

Comment below: What are you thinking of writing yours about?
Remember, pick just a very short snapshot of something you experienced during the holidays or some other time.  If you have a photo bring it tomorrow, otherwise imagine the moment and take a photo of it in your mind.