Student of the Week - Alesana

Alesana has been producing some outstanding pieces of writing lately.  We have been particularly impressed by the exciting vocabulary choices that he is making.  It certainly makes his writing a delight to read!

Here's a little taster of Alesana's work....

"Do I have to go Mum?" I whinged, as we walked into the doctor's waiting room.  Mum was too busy reading a magazine.  We were there for 13 minutes.  Then a person came out.  

"Can I please have Alesana".  I sank.  But I got up and limped.  We got into the doctor's room and I could see sharp tools.  "Please hop on the bed".  I could hear my heart pounding and I grimaced in pain.  She picked up a pointy tool.  It got closer and closer.  Scarier and scarier.  Then POP!  A one second flash of blood splattered everywhere, like an open sea.   

"Ahhhhh" I yelled.  But it did not really hurt.

"Here's a lollipop" said the doctor.

Student of the Week - Paris

Paris is our well-deserving Student of the Week this week.  We have been impressed with how she settles quickly and quietly to her reading activity tasks.  Top job Paris!

Student of the Week - Rubie

Super well done to Rubie for the greatest progress for the class during our latest Statistics maths unit.  This is what we LOVE to see Rubie - it doesn't matter where you begin your learning journey, it's how much progress you make along the way.  Top job!

Evelyn and Millie visit

It was great to have our drama friend Evelyn back at Lawrence Area School this week.  She brought with her a young girl 'Millie' who had been to several different schools and was looking for a new school to attend. Millie was not very keen to be starting at yet another new school as in the past she had got into trouble at school.  All she really wanted to do was to go and live with her Nana but she wasn't allowed.   Millie was wanting to know if Lawrence Area School would be a good school for her and why.  The junior school came up with lots of good reasons why our school would be a good place for Millie, including:

• friendly kids who don't bully
• nice teachers
• we play lots of different sports
• girls can play rugby (which Millie was really pleased to hear about)
• cool camps and trips

The day after Evelyn and Millie's visit, Room 4 explored what life was like for Millie.  We produced some frozen images in of what Millie looked like and then created spoken thoughts - where we said aloud what Millie was thinking.  After that we got into small groups and came up with a situation that may have caused Millie to be feeling like this in her old school.  Once again, spoken thoughts were used to convey Millie and the other students' feelings in these situations.

See if you can spot Millie in these group frozen images and think about what might have happened to cause this situation...

Interestingly, we discovered that sometimes other children were just being plain mean and picking on Millie, some times Millie totally caused the problem, while other times Millie had good reasons for behaving the way that she did.  

For example, in Jenaya, Connie and Emma's group, who were eating lunch when Millie (Paris) came along and stole a sandwich, we found out by talking to Millie that she was actually starving, didn't have any lunch and also hadn't had breakfast.  We helped Millie to try to change her behaviour by asking the girls if she could have something to eat.  By simply changing one behaviour, the rest of the group changed theirs in response to this.    

Thursday 24th October

We re-visited Millie, creating a 'Role on the Wall' where we explored all of Millie's feelings, writing these inside the outline of her body. We had fantastic discussions about why she was feeling like thisat certain times. Around her body we wrote everything else that we knew about Millie. There was much debate about Millie's age, but eventually the majority of us agreed that she was most likely to be the same age as Room 4 students - 8-9 years old.

Friday 25th October

The students 'became' Millie and wrote a five minute quick-write diary entry.  These were a mixture of feelings about Millie's first day at Lawrence Area School - it was pleasing to note that they weren't all negative experiences.  Here are a select few for your reading pleasure...

Dear Nana,

I’m not sure if I want to go to this school.  I’ve already been to lots of schools and I really hope that this is the right one for me.  I know that they play lots of rugby.  Why can’t I come and live with you?

Love Millie (Blake)

Dear Nana,

Mum MADE me come to a new school.  I’m not sure if they will like me.  Children said that some teachers let you away with things and there are lots of boys that like rugby. 

From Millie

P.S.  Hope I see you soon  (Rubie)

Dear Nana,

I haven’t made any friends yet but I hope I will because they have all been quite nice to me.  I’ll have to remember though it is only my second day so I might still want to live with you.

Love from Millie  (Alyssa)

Dear Nana,

I went to a new school today.  It was called Lawrence Area School.  I actually quite liked it.  It was a good school with nice people.  I think I might go to this school and maybe stay with you for a holiday.

Love Millie xoxoxoxoxo   (Josie)

Dear Nana,

I don’t think I am ever going to find the right school.  I didn’t make any friends today.  Maybe school just isn’t the right thing for me.  I want to go and live with you but Mum won’t let me.  Everyone was laughing at me today.  Mum said I had to talk to them in their assembly.  I hate school.  I think I’ll never see you again.

Love from Millie  (Jessica)

Dear Nana,

You are the only one that I could trust.  You are the only friend I have and I really want to come and live with you.  I don’t want to go to school.  I do not like school.

Love Millie   (Jenaya)

To Nana,

My first day in Room 4 was very cool because I made some new friends.  The teachers were cool but I did not like the work.  I feel much better at this school because there are good people

Love from Millie   (Lanie)

Dear Nana,

I am not sure about this new school.  I’m nervous.  It just doesn’t feel right for me.  I feel lonely.

From Millie   (Alesana)

Holidays Challenge

 Room 4 students love a challenge, and what better time to sink their teeth into something fun than in the school holidays. These holidays they were given a number of options to choose from, and they could do as many of them as they chose, or they could choose not to do any of them.

 Toby chose to create a fantastic board game called 'Lawrence Cup'. It was based on the America's Cup racing. If you rolled the dice and landed on a picture you had to pick up a card and do what the card said. Some of the examples were, 'You have capsized, go back 4 spaces.' 'Racing is cancelled, everyone must go back to the start'. 'Great racing, go forward 2 spaces.' It is a terrific game with easy rules and everyone enjoyed playing it today when it was raining at lunch time.

 Jessica completed two of the challenges. She created a board game called 'Question Climbing.' You had to correctly answer a question based on TV programmes to progress to the next sqaure. The person who answered the questions the fastest and climbed to the top was the winner. This was a cool game. Jessica also completed the matchbox challenge, and she had filled her match box to bursting point. Her match box was filled with things starting with the letter P. It contained - passport photo, plaster, postage stamp, paprika, pepper, putty, purple order stamp, picture, purple lollie, pink hairclip, picture hook, pie wrapper, paper tape measure, plastic bread tie, panadol, pink eartag, peg, pink pom-pom, purple nail polish, purple mini drop, peppermint, purple plastic, pink highlighter, pumpkin seed, penny, plastic fuse, pink paper clip, pink magnet, plumbers wire, purple pansy, pea, pink bead, plastic aeroplane, purple hair tie, pencil, pen, purple DNA sampler, potatoes picture, pink sticker, purple ribbon, plastic sleeve, polish, purple glitter, pin, pink piece of lego, pink paper, pasta, pink nail polish, picture, purple bandage, purple key, purple earring, pipe cleaner, pop timer, plastic tie.  

 Abby completed the Matchbox challenge, she chose to fill hers with things beginning with the letter C. It contained - cracker, card, cup, lolly crumb, candle, crown, cotton, coin, copper, clasp, clip, paperclip, charm, clutch purse, corn, chewing gum, chocolate chip.

 Lucie completed the Matchbox challenge, she chose the letter M. It contained - magnet, movie ticket, money, match. Lucie also completed the blogging challenge, commenting on our class blog and others as well.

 Alesana completed the Matchbox challenge, he chose the letter P. It contained - pea, person, pencil, playdough, paperclip, pear stalk, pin, purple playdough, pip, piece pf paper.

He also made a fabulous musical instrument. He created a drum out of a plastic baby wipes container. He filled it with letters from 'Letto-gram', so it rattles when you drum on it. It can also be used as a shaker. Great job Alesana!

Josie completed the Matchbox challenge, she chose the letter P. It contained a post stamp, pasta, pink popcorn, pip, paper, paper clip, pink paper, pin

Josies also created a drum set for the musical instrument challenge, and she completed the blogging challenge, commenting on our blog and other blogs too!! Great work Josie, glad to see that blue cast didn't stop you from doing lots of homework!!!!

 Lanie completed the Matchbox challenge, she chose the letter L It contained - Lollipop, lolly, lettuce, ladybirds, letter, leaf.

Lanie also made a set of musical shakers. She made these instruments using drink botlles and rice. Well done Lanie!!!

Samara created a fabulous wordfind about dinosaurs. She had hidden the name of 12 dinosaurs in a massive grid of letters for others to solve. Terrific effort Samara!!

 Lucy completed the Matchbox challenge, she chose the letter P - her matchbox contained -

pipi, peel (mandarin), pin, pencil, petal, pip, plastic, pea, pasta, paper, pink and purple

Lucy also made a musical instrument - It was a shaker, made from juice bottle and rice.

Alyssa completed the Matchbox challenge, she chose the letter P - her matchbox contained - pencil, pink paper, letter p, pink paper clip, pin, pink pyjama button, pebble

 

Rubie also completed the blogging challenge, leaving comments on our blog and other blogs as well.

 

This was such a terrific effort and we really enjoyed seeing all of your presentation this morning. Great work everyone, and good luck to Mrs O as she chooses who gets the prizes!!!!!