You saw us cutting them out on a previous post, now you can see the finished products! Here are some of our Simile Monsters. You can see the rest hanging up in our classroom. We worked on our fine motor skills as we cut out our creatures. Afterwards we talked about how language features make our writing interesting for our readers. For this activity we looked at similes, which are when the writer compares two things. For example, "The boy ran as fast as a cheetah", or "Mrs T is as cuddly as a koala", or "The show was like watching the grass grow". Similes use the words "as...as" or "like" to make the comparison. Our challenge was to describe our monsters using at least one simile. What do you think? Can you tell us a simile to describe one of our monsters?
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For our Inquiry this term, we have been looking at toys. We're loving this unit! We are exploring modern toys and toys from the past. We're inquiring into:
- how toys have changed or remained the same over time - the reasons why modern toys and toys from the past may be the same or different - why toys are important to people and how toys reflect what people value We're also looking at the different materials toys are made of (this links in with the technology unit we're doing with Mrs Nair). Today some of us shared some of our special or favourite toys. We identified what it is we love about our toys and how they make us feel. We started to notice some things we had in common. Lots of us have teddies or cuddly toys that are special to us because they make us feel safe and happy. We often cuddle them at night and they can stop us from feeling scared. We also had lots of toys that make us think of special people or memories. There were also toys that we play with family and friends, and these are important because they give us time with the people we love. After we'd shared our toys, we sorted them into groups. We had to give reasons for why we put our toys into the groups we chose. At first we grouped our toys into cuddly toys, toys from movies, and toys that have memories attached. Then we regrouped them differently. It didn't matter how we grouped them, as long as we could give a reason and justify our decision. Some of the other categories we had were: - toys we snuggle in bed - animals that like water - toys that are best played with others - toys from books - toys that like bananas - toys that were given to us by someone special - metal toys - toys that could be used for other things, not just playing Today we decorated biscuits! We did it during learning time, but in case you hadn't noticed, we can find the learning in LOTS of different activities! This activity had a focus on imperatives - or as we called them, BOSSY VERBS. We know verbs are doing words or action words, and imperatives are bossy verbs that tell you what to do. They are often used in recipes and instructions. For example:
We know there are a few things that have to be in place in order for us to have neat handwriting that is easily read. We need to ensure we have correct posture and we're sitting on our seats correctly. We also need to make sure we hold our pencil correctly. (You can see some of our previous blog posts about pencil grip and handwriting here.)
We also know that working on our fine motor skills will help us improve our handwriting too. This week we completed some mazes. Sound like fun? It was! But we also know that we were:
We also used scissors to cut out monsters or aliens from coloured paper (we're using these in writing so keep an eye out for a post about our simile descriptions). Using scissors also works on our fine motor skills and helps strengthen our fingers. Handwriting practise doesn't always have to be in our workbooks! We are making GREAT progress with our writing. Recently we have been looking at using different language features to add interest and description to our writing. Here are some small descriptions we wrote about a little ladybird sitting on a feather. The challenge was to use at least one example of alliteration - can you spot this language feature in our writing? Not sure what it is? Ask us - we're experts! This week we've been working on a piece of writing about a little chimpanzee in the rain. We got our inspiration from the picture below. The photo was taken by Photographer Andrew Suryono.
We wanted our writing to be interesting for our readers, so we had to think about quite a few things: - Hooking our readers with an interesting beginning - Using WOW words - Including language features like similes, onomatopoeia or alliteration - Writing super sentences - Making sure our sentences start with different beginnings - Including the senses Not to mention all the work we put into proofreading and recrafting our writing once our draft is finished! You can read our stories here. Come back and tell us what you think! Today we had Room 7 come and visit us after lunch. We buddied up and read our reading books to each other. We love getting to know other children around the school. This was a great opportunity to be role models and leaders with some younger tamariki, and it was also a fun way to practise reading with fluency and expression!
Kia ora koutou! Welcome to our Room 12 page on the new Whanake blog. You can see what we're doing and school and follow our learning journey. We love to read your positive comments about our work so feel free to get commenting. We'd also love for you to send our blog address to family and friends - sharing is caring!
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