Well, well they have arrived again. Congratulations to everyone one in Room L for a great term. We have worked tremendously hard to use our time the best we could to get the best learning opportunities. So I looked through my library of treats and I thought that I would post this a little early. I was planning to introduce it when we got back to school, but if some are looking for something to do then this is it. Some may be familiar with the game "Sing Star" on the PlayStation. Well this is a free internet version of it called Karaoke Party. If you want to use then click here and waalaa you will appear there. If you want to save your scores then sign in using our blogger username and password. Have a good break everyone and thank you for another wonderful term.
On Google Documents I found that you could have a form that allowed you ask questions in various ways. I have used this format to get the children to do their self assessment of the Fabric and Fibre Unit that we did. I have posted this on their individual blogs so that you can see the results of their self assessment. I will evaluate this tool to see if it meets the children's learning needs.
All the children have completed their self assessments of the 'Fabric and Fibre Unit'. I have posted a link here, so that you can see what the results look like for a teacher. I think that there are still some improvements that I need to make to be able to use this tool more effectively. I think that this is a good step for the children moving on from circling smiley faces to a more formal type of form.
This young man was diagnosed with a type of autism, which was a fear of people. However he developed a passion for singing and from that he has channeled all his power to follow his dream. His dream is to sing in front of large audiences.
Today the most amazing thing happened. Not one but TWO bands from Feilding Intermediate came to our school to perform. They were brought over by Mr and Mrs Samuela who just happened to be their tutors as well.
I was very impressed from the outset as they looked very sharp with their outfits and the equipment that they had. From the first chord you could hear how hard they had worked and how much effort had been put into making an awesome band. They opened with a classic from the Doobie Brothers "Long train running". There were some groovy rifts and extra sweat melodies going on with the keyboard and bass. The lead guitarist showed he could rock it out with a kiwi classic and the drummer summed up enough attitude to keep everyone in rhythm. The closing song ended with an extra large smile on the face of the kids as it was a song written by the 'King of Pop' Michael Jackson. His song 'Billie Jean' was a great hit and massive success.
Another delight for the Staff at Manchester Street School was seeing the former Manchester Street Students who had graduated from the school were going on and spreading their wings into the music world. They all looked so confident and truly enjoyed performing to a crowd.
I was amazed at how the group was able to be so good in such a short amount of time. It is not an easy task putting together so many people with so many instruments into one single sound that was so great.
I was spell-bound and I think the rest of the school were too and therefore take a bow Mr and Mrs Samuela you have truly done a magnificent job!
On Friday I went home with Thomas and we climbed the tree,played on the trampoline and rode on the motor bike. on Saturday Thomas went to Jamie's birthday and then we watched the All Black's beat Astralia 33-6!!!!!!!!!.On Sunday we went to pamlmy and had mcdee's with tom's cousin Portia when we got home we jumped off the bunk's and played fetch with Jessie the dog I had fun.
We all got to have another Enviro Day this term. We wanted to spread our wings this term and go outside of the school grounds to help the community. The middle team got the opportunity to go down to the Uenuku Walkway (which is the part of the Makino stream between Manchester Street and Warwick Street) to paint a very tatty old fence. We knew that if we painted the fence it would lift the environment down there and make the walkway a lot more pleasant for people to walk down.
The Feilding council helped us out by donating the paint and a whole lot of paint brushes. When the children saw all the new gear they were revving to go. We saw that we needed to do a little preparation so we weeded out the greenery that was growing around the fence and lay out some drop sheets to stop the paint from spilling. Then our excellent parent helpers poured the paint into little containers for everyone to get started on their work.
As soon as the first brush touched the corrugated fence it made a difference. We could see how the fresh colour would make the fence look like new. No one wanted to stand and watch and therefore there was a hive of activity as the children hummed away painting and laughing and enjoying caring for their community.
Although the children do not confess to being professional painters they worked hard and did a fine job with a pleasing result. Apart from the occasional drop of paint that went astray we thought that we didn't do too bad at keeping the paint on the fence.
All in all 'Kia mau te wehi nga tauira' awesome job on the fence and we can't wait until the next Enviro action day.
(We copied the whole story and put it into wordle and this is what it created)
It was the most exciting day ever. Today was the day that we were going to go to the hall for a fabric and fibre surprise. As soon as we all walked we were amazed with all the interesting displays of fabric and fibres. We saw red stitching, cross stitching, weaving, knitting, felt rolling, spinning and teddy bear making.We stood at the door and we didn't know where to go first. Some people went left, some people went right, and some people went straight ahead. But me I was standing still because I was soooo confused. I felt a little tug on my sleave it was my friend saying "com'on lets go!" My friend Stevie has light blue eyes and shiny brown hair that reaches down to her shoulders. She is quite tall for her age she's almost as tall as our teacher and she is really pretty. We started heading for the Teddy Bear making stall. When we got there we saw lots and lots of cute teddy bears. They had some patterns and cut out material that they were going to use to make a teddy bear. That reminded me about how Q Bear was made. Our next stop was the Needlework by Mrs Monteith. She had pretty little baby booties and a creamy coloured baby dress. I thought how it would be nice one day to have a baby sister of my own.We walked over to where everyone was standing and saw that people we making felt balls. To make a felt ball you need hot soapy water, felt, and little bit of magic (magic fingers). First we dipped a bit of felt into the hot soapy water and then rolled it in our hands so that it became a little ball. When we finished we saw that you could thread them together to make a necklace.We headed over to the patch work section and saw a lady with amazing work. She had a blanket that had a picture of Santa flying over some houses, it could have been Feilding? The sack with thepresents were 3 Dimensional, which means theystood out of the picture.Another lady had a weaving machine. She spoke to us about how you make a jersey and the process you need to go through to make it. It was actually quite easy. We could go on and on but there is so much to tell and so little time. We will be back to update you on the rest of it.
Here is an update on the Youtube front. We have a teacher in the UK showing how talented teachers are. Have a listen and see how he could be an inspiration to the children in his classroom. It is one thing to show kids the path on which they should walk, but it is another thing for you to walk it first and led others along the way. For all those budding singers out there his name is Daryl Johnson.
On Friday I went to Thomas's house. Thomas and I packed our bages and started to head off to Hawkes Bay for Go- Karting. We stoped to get Mc Donlds in Dannevirke yumm! By the time we got to Hawkes Bay it was dark so we brushed our teeth and went to bed. On Saturday Thomas was practicing for racing for Sunday. On Sunday we got up and went to the Go Karting track. Thomas got ready for the first race. Thomas crashed so he ended up finishing fourth. In the second race Thomas got third, he was happy about that. In the third race Thomas got second he was really happy about that. In the fourth race YAHOO second again. Then in the Gran Prix Thomas was winning but Tray passed him so in the end Thomas came second. Thomas and I came back to Feilding and went to bed.
At the moment we have looking at the various types of fibres and fabrics. We have been inspired by reading the story "Roimata's Cloak" to make our own cloak. Mr Lowe brought in two korowai (cloak) that belong to his family. One korowai is a traditional cloak that was made by his great grandmother. It is composed of kiwi feathers and have a traditional Te Arawa pattern on it. He also brought a korowai his wife made that she wore on her wedding day. It is a more modern type of korowai that was made of organza and feathers. Now we are working hard to make our own korowai. We made material from paper, crayon, dye, paint and recycled material. We hope that through this experience we will appreciate the significance of the garment and its meaning, as well as the effort that goes into making one.
well I would like to thank the parents for coming to the children's learning conferences this week. Although the evening got a little chilly it was still wonderful that parents braved the cold with their children to come.
One of the things of that came up was 'Recommended Reading' for middle school children. I have found that the National Library have a fantastic blog where they host book reviews about novels they have read. If you visit their site you will see that there are a whole range of books, in all types of genres that will suit a wide range of ages. So I just encourage you if you are looking for a gift for birthdays or Christmas, to go to this site and find a good book. Click here to go to the National Library Blog.
In regards to homework I have written an earlier post. It contains all the spelling words that the children need to learn and what is expected of the children. Every night the children are expected to read either a browser book from school or a book from home. If there is a book that the children are interested in, but the reading level is too high, then it is acceptable that the parents can read to their children. I am now encouraging children to write stories at home on their blog. However I ask if parents could review what their children have written, and help them to fix up bits and pieces, so that their writing reads smoothly. This will aid the children's interest in writing and show them that this is not an exercise confined to school.
Also some parents were impressed with our work we did with our comics. If you would like to download 'Comic life' and use it on your home computer to make your own comics you can download the file from here. Just look in the box below and click on comic life. When it asks you if you want to save it click 'ok'. It should start downloading straight away. All these programs are hosted by me so they are completely safe and virus free. You will have to pay for a subscription to comic life but you do have a 30 day trial period. If you would like to change your digital photos into a comic 'look', you can go to this site 'Befunky'. Your children know the logon and passwords so that you can use our account. You can upload your pictures there and change them and then download them onto your hard drive. Then import them into comic life. Waalaa! You have a comic!
If you would like to use 'Tux Paint', which is a painting type of program you can download it as well. It is a free program and you do not need to pay a subscription fee.
Last but not least. If you would like to have a free typing program available on your home computer you can download 'Tux Type'. It is the same program that the kids are using on our school computers.
the day that we were going to go to the hall for a fabric and fibre surprise. As soon as we all walked we were amazed with all the interesting displays of fabric and fibres. We saw red stitching, cross stitching, weaving, knitting, felt rolling, spinning and teddy bear making.We stood at the door and we didn't know where to go first. Some people went left, some people went right, and some people went straight ahead. But me I was standing still because I was soooo confused. I felt a little tug on my sleave it was my friend saying "com'on lets go!"
