Dinosaurs

We are learning about dinosaurs that lived in Aotearoa. This week, we have been writing reports and painting pictures of them.

So far, we have watched YouTube clips about them and found some written facts. Did you know pterosaurs aren't actually dinosaurs? They are flying reptiles!

Here's Lincoln's report...

Pterosaurs

Pterosaurs are not dinosaurs. They are, in fact, flying reptiles. 

Did you know they were as big as a fighter jet and their wingspan was 10.6 metres? They had hollow bones and super, sharp teeth. Pterosaurs had hooked claws. That is weird but useful for not dropping prey in flight.

They lived from the late Triassic period to the end of the Cretaceous period.

Did you know that a young pterosaur is called a flapling?

Pterosaurs liked to eat fish and smaller things.

I think dinosaurs are cool.

Do you know which dinosaurs lived in Aotearoa?

Mr Wolf is Guilty!

At the end of last week, we read Mrs Naden's persuasive text on Goldilocks is Guilty! She thinks Goldilocks is a criminal and should be charged with breaking and entering (Goldilocks entered the bears cottage without permission when they were not home), theft (she ate their porridge) and criminal damage to property (she broke Baby Bear's chair).

This week we had to come up with reasons why and why not Mr Wolf is guilty of first degree murder. After that, we chose which side we were on and wrote persuasive texts. We are learning to structure and had to think carefully about our paragraphs. We are getting ready for our speech competition next week.

Here's Leyla's speech on why Mr Wolf is NOT guilty.

Is Mr Wolf Guilty of First Degree Murder?

I firmly believe that Mr Wolf is not guilty of first degree murder. Throughout this piece of writing, I will outline three reasons why I think that.

Firstly, he did not actually kill grandma- the wood-cutter chopped her out fully intact and alive. She was not harmed in any way, and neither was Little Red Riding Hood. They were both un-marked and just a little shocked. 

Secondly, he is a wolf. It is their nature to attack enemies, and hunt for their food. There is no way that he would have been able to survive without food. All of the other animals had known by then that he was hunting, and so the only way he could sustain his hunger would be to hunt the little girl and her grandmother. 

Thirdly, there are no animals in jail, because they cannot commit humane crimes, and only attack if threatened, or hungry. Mr Wolf was actually killed by the wood-cutter, so he cannot be sent to jail and accused of murder. 

In the reasons outlined above, I have explained why I think Mr Wolf is not guilty of murder. In fact, the wood-cutter should be sent to jail, because he murdered the wolf. Thank you for listening to my speech.

Here's Camille's speech on why Mr Wolf IS guilty.

I firmly believe that Mr Wolf is guilty of 1st degree murder. Throughout this piece of writing, I will outline four arguments on why I think Mr Wolf is guilty.

Firstly, Mr Wolf broke into Grandma’s house without her consent and permission. This is classified as breaking and entering. This should give him a sentence in prison up to 1 year.

Secondly, he was holding against grandma’s will. He had locked grandma up in a closet. This is known as kidnapping, and this should serve him a sentence in prison for up to 20 years.

Thirdly, he impersonated grandma by putting on her nightgown, her wig and her glasses. He tried to kill red by impersonating grandma. Impersonating a person would serve up to 1 year in prison.

Lastly, I believe Mr Wolf is guilty because he attempted murder. He ate grandma and after that he attempted to eat red next. Attempting murder should serve Mr Wolf up to 10 years in prison.

For all the reasons I have outlined above, I strongly believe Mr Wolf is guilty of first degree murder!

Who do you think is right? Why do you think that?

Explanation Writing

 We have continued learning about what makes a good explanation. Some people were learning how to use a diagram that had labels and an explanation. This helps the reader to understand what we are explaining. Other people were working on complex sentences. A complex sentence is when you put a phrase in a sentence, but you can move the phrase. You need to make sure it still makes sense though. Here is an example: 

After I finished baking, I shared the cookies with my family.

I shared the cookies with my family, after I finished baking. 

This makes our writing more interesting for the reader because we are using a variety of sentence types.

Here's a snapshot of some interesting explanantions. Did they achieve their learning intention and success criteria?

What Do Beavers Smell Like?

Why don't spiders stick to their web?

How do snakes open their jaws so wide?

Why do bears Hibernate?

How Does Bees Balling work?

Our Favourite Toy

This week in Writing, we have been learning how to describe. Some people were learning how to use specific nouns, adjectives and juicy verbs, and others were learning how to use metaphors. Metaphors are similar to similes but instead of 'like' or 'as' we replaced them with 'is'. 

We first read a story from a person called Yasmin, then we used her template and wrote about our own favourite toy that we had when we were in kindy or preschool. In the first paragraph, we described what our toy looked like, and the second paragraph was about what happened to it.

We used Canva to publish our stories.

What is your favourite toy? Is it a teddy? Perhaps a toy car or doll? What did you do with your toy when you were little? 

Here's Camille's final piece...

Matariki

This week for Reading and Writing, we have been reading and learning about Matariki. We've watched videos, read articles and discussed opinions. We compared it to other celebrations we have in New Zealand as well as celebrations around the world. 

Matariki is the Māori New Year and yet it is not a public holiday. We celebrate the European New Year. We thought about why this was so, and then formed our own opinions about this question: Should Matariki be a Public Holiday? Then we used Flipgrid to collate out opinions. We will be sharing our ideas our on our idividual blogs.

Did you know that in Taranaki they don't celebrate Matariki? They celebrate Puanga because they can't see Matariki in their night sky.

Here's Ciara's:

NZ Get Writing

We have signed up for NZ Get Writing through Schoolkit. They send you lots of activities to do and when we are finished, we send some of them to a buddy school. We have been buddied up with West Harbour School in Auckland.

Our first task was to write a short, punchy poem similar to William Carlos Williams. Our poem had to include something we had got into trouble for in the past. 

We published these using Canva and made a Screencastify of us reading our peom aloud. We had a lot of fun recalling some of the naughty things we did in the past. You can read and listen to our poems on our individual blogs. Here's William Carlos Williams' one we used to format our own ones.

Making Huts

Making memories is a lot of fun. Today, we made huts in class. Everybody organised themselves into groups and decided where they were going to build their hut. We used blankets, sheets, desks, chairs - practically anything we could get our hands on! Pegs clipped sheets together, Bibles anchored the blankets to the tops of desks, chairs guarded entrance ways and the meditation bell acted as a doorbell. 
The students played board games inside their huts, wrote their spelling lists and tried to do their Maths and Reading activities. And then the fights started! 
Read our individual blogs to find out more.