Classroom Transition

For the last four weeks of our intervention the accelerated literacy group was integrated back into the classroom. This has meant we have been working on specific genre writing (persuasive writing). The main focus has been on becoming independent writers within the class.

To achieve this we have:

Always started our writing together. As a group we discuss our topic, plan, discuss again and then write our first few sentences together. We have then gone off on our own to finish our writing. This means that we have all our ideas clear in our heads and also in our plans before we write.

We have also been learning to proof read and edit our writing on our own before seeing the teacher. This has involved us learning to reread our writing, confirm our sentences, check for punctuation and spelling mistakes, and also to add in more interesting words.

This has created a routine within class that can be maintained even now the group has finished.

Below is our editing card that we use in class to work through our writing independently.

Coming Soon: Some of our fabulous persuasive writing!!

Transition

After 11 weeks of teaching this group of students we are now planning to transition them back into the classroom.
Tracy the classroom teacher is going to continue to focus on getting one quality sentence that is expressed orally with her first.
They are also to use a bubble plan to plan their writing as in the small group teaching we had been doing shared word brainstorms and students would select from that word group to construct the sentence.

Tracy will see them every day and they will trial writing stations following the writing time and the direct acts of teaching.

My Dad - Connor

My Dad has big oval brown eyes.

My Dad has ginormous steps when he is in a hurry.

My Dad has hair that is brown as a Bear and it is short.

My Dad likes to throw a ball with me and my brothers.

My Dad let me go on the motorbike when we went to the swimming pool.

My Dad wears his favourite t-shirt it is his Rock Star one, it is blue.

He wears it when he goes to work.

Love

Connor

My Dad - Kane

My Dad has brown short spiky hair.

My Dad has humongous blue eyes.

My Dad has spiky skin on his face.

He play fights me at home.

My Dad wins the fights.

My Dad is hilarious because he says funny jokes.

Dads favourite cars are the model ones that open up.

Jacob and I are not allowed to play with them, some of them have motors sticking out.

They are really colourful.

Love Kane

My Dad - Sophie

My Dad has black & white salt & pepper hair.

My Dad smells like a rose in Spring.

My Dad is a tickle monster when I hop

Into his bed.

He likes doing Art with me at home.

He is an artist.

My Dad is like a Jungle Gym

We swing on his arms like monkeys.

Hayley and I are his favourite thing

In the whole world.

He would do anything to have us.

Love Sophie

Character Description

The students have worked over a 2 week time frame to produce some stunning character descriptions! We used the unit plan outline in our favourite resource by Gail Loane.
In this she outlines how we start with a sentence about the character that is a physical description. One thing about how your character looks. This must be very specific and also use rich describing vocabulary.
We all closed our eyes and visualised our character, we discussed things they did, said, what made them the personality and influence in our lives.
Then we wrote a sentence about a behaviour of our character, how they walk, laugh, speak.. What makes them unique?
Then we wrote about one thing they love to do , are passionate about or successful at.
This was to build on making our character come alive!
Lastly was crafting the writing to publishing stage.
Some of the group had to start again a few times, reworking our sentences was hard.
Some of the students found this hard but I think you will agree all have experienced success! All will be revealed tomorrow! Watch this space!

My Puppy Punched Me In The Eye

This weeks Poetry Winner!!!

This week Miss Sophie took out the chocolate bar prize for memorising and beautifully reciting our Mashed Potatoes on the Ceiling poem!
Congratulations Sophie! Persistance and self management were the secret to your success, we are very excited for you!

Reworking Text

Today we tried something new! First we all chatted about our weekend... valuing the oral language opportunity to share our experiences.
Kane had some exciting language retelling his motorbike excursion at Oreti Beach.
Each child had something fun to share about their weekend adventures.
We revisited our poem Mashed Potatoes on the Ceiling from last week, due to illness we did not manage to memorise this poem so we are continuing on with this challenge this week! 
Who will the winner be?
Then...
We shared our pet descriptions from last week, we wrote William's up and together we selected parts that had rich descriptive language and we edited some little joining words.
This made Williams description of Cooper more interesting for our audience!
Then we all re worked our beginning sentences about our pets.
This was hard for everyone!
But we persisted and all agreed that we had each improved our writing quality!
We discussed that real published authors get feedback all the time which means they have to rework their writing!
This was a great learning curve and one we will revisit as we go along our pathway to being real authors!

Bluff Photos

Bluff Adventure Continued...

Woof! Woof! Went Jess while we were coming up the driveway. 

Jess quickly ran to the gate.  We had to guess who’s house we were at and we were at Miss Sherlock’s house!

Then we went to Bluff School and William went on the flying fox.  Shaana pushed William, he went up in the air and into the garden.  Everybody laughed and we went to the shop and got some ice cream.  I had banana ice cream with chocolate chips and it tasted yum.

Then we went back to school and we went to the classroom and we went into the cloak bay.  All ten of us sat down on the chairs and put our hands on the table.

We had lots of fun! 

By Casey

When we went out of the drop off zone, Miss Campbell went TOOT! TOOT! TOOT!  The window wipers went swish when we wanted the blinkers on.  At the Police Station we saw the taser and we got to see the pistol.  But he didn’t shoot it. 

Zoom, I went so fast on the flying fox and I was scared but it was awesome.  Kane fell off and William and Kane did a double.

On the way back we got an ice cream.

By Connor

Jess, Miss Sherlock’s dog ran to Miss Sherlock and we got to pat the dog. 

We went to the Bluff Police Station and we saw a rifle and we got to see a pistol and a taser.  The taser makes you paralysed. 

Weow, Weow went the police car and after that we went to Bluff School.  Some of the kids went on the flying fox.  William went really fast on the flying fox.  He was so wild that he got muddy and after that we to the fish and chip shop and got some ice cream.

Then we went to Marlene’s house and got to see her dog and then we went to school.

By Tim

Swish went the window wipers.  I got some delicious ice cream.  My flavour was chocolate and lime ice cream.

Wizz went William on the flying fox.  Then William went off it.  Miss Campbell and Miss Sherlock bought fish and chips.

We went to Bluff School and Bluff Police Station.  Jordon showed us a police car.  We heard the siren and the speaker. 

We went up Bluff Hill.  It was freaky!

By Tyler

Toot went the van.  Swish went the window wipers.  We saw Mary with the boat radios. 

We went to the Police Station and Jordon showed us a rifle, a taser and a glock!

Wizz, I went flying in the air and I fell off the flying fox.  WEEEEEEEE I went off and I went ZOOM.

My ice cream was green and brown and we went to the wharf and we couldn’t get out because it was too windy.  It nearly pulled the van off the wharf.