Reflecting on our learning

Hi all - It was great to see many of you at the goal setting conferences.  Your involvement really is key to in helping the children achieve these.  My goal is to get children reflecting on what they have been learning and recording their stories on photo booth.  These two did this independently.  Well done Jaime and Hollie!

Writing

We have all been practising being more independent with our writing.  There are a number of ability levels in the class.  Some children are working on recording the starting sound of words (as they become familiar with these sounds) others are working on recording all of the dominant sounds.  Have a look at these videos!

Water Wonderland

Today we looked at the blog as a class.  Room 9 loved looking at the comments you have made.  Today we also had our water day.  Miss Groome learnt a valuable lesson about water balloons - don't try to fill them.  I was very wet before our water day event began.  Thanks to Elisa's Mum for coming to my rescue (she is  water balloon expert if ever you need one) and the other parents that helped out today.  I was really impressed with how quickly children got changed and managed themselves.  Fantastic!

Warming up with Miss Harland

Run Kyrus! Kyrus steals one of the eagles eggs.

Dylan retrieve one of the balls 'eggs' from under the sprinkler.  Below Brooke and Jayden run.

William and Jaime brave the sprinkler

A wet Hollie

Below:Sprinkler Fun

A wet Katy

Mrs Gregory and bubble fun.

Non Stop Cricket

 Sophie gets ready for a big hit

This afternoon we had a game of non -stop cricket.  This was organised and run by the senior classes.  They did a great job.  Here are some of the pictures form this fun event.  The fielding effort was rather funny to watch.  Room 9 spent quite a bit of time 'working out' who would take/throw the ball in from the field.  The understanding of working as a team is not quite there yet.



Below a little discussion about who will return the ball......



                             

Katy braces herself.

Jaime gets a helping hand

A good run from Dylan gets a pat on the head.

Use two hands Jayden!

An intense moment in the field.

"No help thanks! I can do this on my own."
Great effort Brooke.

Writing....

We have been looking at uses we have for water.  The purpose of this writing being 'to inform'.



We use water to swim in.  I like to kick and splash.      By Katy


We use water to clean my hands. I like to take care of my hands.    By Elisa


We use water for washing our hands.  We have to clean them because they get dirty. 
 By Samantha


We use water for cleaning our hands and cleaning our clothes and getting clean ourselves.  After we have cleaned our clothes they go on the line and dry by flapping in the wind. By Hollie


We use water to make our plants grow.    By Ethan (Below Ethan watering his plants)

We use water to drink.  We need water to survive.  By William

Here William's picture plan shows an animal drinking water, someone keeping cool under a sprinkler and someone having a shower.  Great work William!

Here are some other stories that have really appealed to me this week.  I love to encourage a sense of audience in young writers.  Writing is not easy for beginning writers and because of this, to find enjoyment from it, they need to believe they are serving a purpose with there writing - whether that be to entertain, persuade, inform.   Great writing Room 9!!!

I think coke is the best drink because it fizzes up in the glass.  By Sophie

My bed came alive.  "I am alive Jackson." said my bed. By Jackson 

(writing on a time he was scared)

We were making mud pies. The mud flew up in my face.  By Jaime

Jaime making mud pies with her friend.

Writing Stars!

I had good intentions of typing up writing from today.  I even took photos of the picture plans then..... I forgot to bring the books home with me.  Here are the ones I can read form my pictures or or remember. Will publish some more tomorrow.  Well done to William and Brooke for some good detail in their picture plans.

I was scared of the spider.  It was hanging down from the roof.  By William

I was scared.  I heard a knock on my window.  My legs were shaking.

By Brooke

          

Writing

Wow! I am really excited.  There are four people following this blog already.

  We have had a great first few days in Room 9.  Writing is something I am very passionate about and I am thrilled to see some of the great ideas Room 9 people are coming up with already. I encourage you to come in and look at their writing books each day.  They need to be aware that whenever they write - they write for an audience!

In this first early stage of writing we really put a lot of emphasis on making a good picture plan - this is something that will prompt children as to what their next idea will be to record.

Here is a beautiful picture plan that Brooke did this morning (wish Miss Groome could draw this well - look at the caravan and the wave about to splash over Brooke's head!)

The focus after the plan is completed is, at the very early stages to write about one picture from the plan. As children progress they are encouraged to write about 2-3 of the pictures they have drawn.  Key to this is building on words they know just by sight - so they can use these in their writing. The other key to success is  building up confidence to sound out words they do not know.  At the start we just look for starting letters and as their confidence and knowledge grows we ask them to record more sounds from the word (the dominant sounds). If you have any questions please feel free to ask and look forward to some super stories being published in the near future!