Home learning

Eloise read a story and then drew this wonderful map about the book.  

Fantastic home learning Eloise!

Maui and the Sun

We built our knowledge by reading Maui and the Sun.  

Next, we made meaning by summarising the story.  After that, we applied our understanding by creating our pastel and dye of the sun.  We collaborated by deciding what colours to use, and where to draw our koru.  

We are great artists!

Cardboard cars

We read a book called 'Jack and Billy'.  

We read how Jack and Billy made their own cars out of cardboard boxes.  We decided to give it a go ourselves and make our own cars.  We made connections with our cardboard cars to the cars in the book.

reading provocation -'Max Saves a Frog' and how can we be friendly to frogs.

We have to keep the frogs safe, because they are very special animal. No other animals can be like a frog and they are the most beautiful animal and they are funny frogs. Divesh

We are making a picture for where the frogs need to live. If we don't do this then the frogs won't be able to live here in our school. Emma

We read a book and we want the frogs to be safe with us. We need water shade and soil. We are doing a picture plan and design to help keep the frogs safe at Stonefields school. Alvyn 

We need to try and save our frogs. Frogs are special because they can eat flies and mosquitoes, bugs and they  live under the ground. We are trying to make our ideas to be a pond for frogs in the school. Harrison

We are learning, how to take care of frogs, because we need to put them in a pond. They need water to lay their eggs in. They are special animals because they eat bugs. Eden

Reading and learning to keep safe crossing the road

Reading the story STOP!

Sharing stories we are reading

The learners in Hub 5 & 6 have been enjoying some stories over the last few weeks.

We have been looking at  how books work and exploring words and the  punctuation marks.

Here is a link to  the book 'T-Shirts'.  We have   been talking about the rhyming words in it this week (he, she, me etc).  Here's the video for you to enjoy together.

Thinking critically in reading (and justifying too!)

Today in reading one of our groups thought about a character who liked to make up stories.  He did lots of imagining and didn't quite tell the truth about what happened.

We had to decide if what he did was right or not and placed ourselves on this continuum.  We also had to justify our thinking (which we all did a fabulous job of!)

(Click the image below to enlarge it and read our thinking)

We decided together that it's great that Eddy made up imaginative stories but he should have told the teacher that they were his ideas from his mind, rather than really what happened.

I wonder...

I wonder...

Charlie H.

• "What the white thing is... is it the clouds that they just came out of or is it the smoke coming out the back?
• "Is it just the clouds or is it the world we can see?  Or is it both?"
• "Are the people wearing safety clothes or just normal clothes?"
• "Does it have a little see-through roof or is it just their head poking out in the fresh air?"

Micah

• "Why do airplanes have wings?"
• "Why do they have the little thing that points out like a little spinner (needle)?"
• "Do they have things like when they're driving a car (steering wheel)?"
• "If they have boosters to go fast?"

Thomas

• "Why they have a little wing on the back?"
• "Why they they go so high?"
• "If they have a parachute if they bump and fall out?"

Our Poem about the Environment

listen to ‘bella and mina’ on Audioboo

A video for the learners in LH1!

Today some of us have been learning how to make an animation using a website called GoAnimate.  Here's a video Miss Holland made as an example for us...

Stonefields School by sarahholland on GoAnimate

Daniel H during reading time

During our reading lesson, Daniel had to draw the things he had to pack in his bag for school.

Here's one of the blue reading groups sharing their questioning - Miss Holland started them off but then they shared their ideas independently.  How do you think they went?

listen to ‘L10 questioning’ on Audioboo

Inventors in LH1!

Having read about different ways that scientists 'spy' on animals, we decided we'd like to create our own inventions to keep an eye on animals in the wild...

Using the Glossary and Contents page

We've been learning how (and where) to look for definitions in the non-fictin texts that we read.  We've learnt that the glossary is often in the back of non-fiction books and helps us understand the meanings of challenging words.

Today we were set the challenge of reading the book using the contents page - we flicked backwards and forwards to the contents page and read the pages that interested us the most first.  We also used the glossary to help us understand difficult words.

We're non-fiction superstars!

WALHT: Think Critically about Ideas in our Books

Some of the learners have been reading a book called Spying on Animals and have been learning to think critically about the book - that means that they question to make their own minds up about what they're reading.

Pictures like this got us thinking...

We discussed the question is it fair to spy on animals?  Here's what we thought...

listen to ‘Spying on animals’ on Audioboo

WALHT: Ask Questions about our Stories

Today in writing one of our groups focused on asking questions about the book.

 Here's Daniel to read the story, Chug the Tractor to you:

listen to ‘Daniel and Chug’ on Audioboo

Can you answer the questions they came up with?

listen to ‘Blue questions’ on Audioboo

Comparing settings in reading

The Turquoise reading group has been doing lot of collaborating today!  They've been making meaning of their settings, by comparing the settings from the two different books they've been reading.  They needed to first share the setting in their own book and then try to find the similarities and differences between them.

They were certainly in the pit at times but thanks to their determination and awesome thinking, they got out!

WALHT: Find key words to summarise

"Today we learnt how to find keywords and then how to summarise.  Key words are something important.  You only put in big words.  We used our key words to re-tell the story."

Time to reflect:

"We think we did good because we only used big words and they were all important ones.  It was sort of tricky because we couldn't really find them easily.  We had to be determined and we collaborated.  We think that helped a lot"

By Ashikka and Isabelle

WALHT: Ask Questions about Books

"Ayami, Krisha, Loeki, Daniel and Miss Holland, we were reading the book about Eggs and Dandelions.  We liked the book.  We learnt how to ask questions about the book in Stonefields School" - Krisha, Daniel and Loeki

"How comes there's half of my name in the title? [Dandelions]" - Daniel

 

Amazing Learning in Reading!

In reading some of us have been learning to add detail to our re-telling and predicting. Today Krishna and Daniel were predicting superstars!

Alvyn and Aurelia tried using DoodleCast on the iPad for the first time today.  Here's their recording.  What feedback might you give to them?  

"I really liked how you two were collaborating to make the programme" - Bella

"They did a good job.  They collaborated" - Harrison

"I like how they made it more interesting.  At the beginning they didn't do much much talking" - Mina

Didn't they improve as their video went on - it's a bit tricky using it to start with but by the end they were able to draw and tell a story too.  Can you hear them collaborating to make the video?  Ka pai!

Here's Loeki practicing his fluency.  He doesn't sound at all like a robot - just like he's normally talking!  What feedback could you give him?

listen to ‘Loeki's Reading’ on Audioboo